I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but I’ve never had the guts to do it… this might be my work-around! These vintage gloves, covered in elaborate painted tattoos, are kinda crazy… and I kinda love them! Chicago based artist Ellen Greene is clearly inspired by objects, and symbols from another time. Here’s a little snippet, in her words, about this series. It is titled, quite appropriately, Gloves:

… traditional American tattoo is a symbol of masculine adventure, rebellion and sexual exploits. At the same time gloves were a staple of “good” American women, tattoos were only for sailors bikers and criminals. No proper woman also had tattoos – especially not on her hands.

Yep, I’m going to need a pair of these. Gorgeous tattoos, no pain… and I can still keep my “good” girl reputation! Maybe.

I literally don’t even know where to begin… well, at the beginning I guess! The first of eight Girl Crush workshop + tea parties happened this past Saturday in San Francisco, at the lovely studio of artist/illustrator Lisa Congdon. She welcomed 14 of us {12 attendees, me, and my amazing intern Taylor} into her creative, inspiring, art-filled studio for the entire day:

She shared her story {from 1st grade teacher, to full time artist… ok, there were a few other stops along the way!}, and the behind-the-scenes of her process. So much beautiful work in one place! The other thing there was an abundance of {besides neon pink}… lovely, warm, inspiring, open women. Really, their reasons for attending the workshop were amazing, and their willingness to share their experiences truly blew me away. We spent  the morning talking inspiration, artist blocks, and the mean things we might like to say to our inner art critic {which I won’t repeat here!} {*”Amazing Things Will Happen” ~ hand lettering by Mary Kate McDevitt}

… and then of course there was the tea party! The food was amazing, and did not stop coming! {Thanks so much to Batter Bakery, Square Meals, and Coffee Bar …mmmmm!}

Of course after five or six chocolate ganache cookies, what better activity than a gallery walk! Lisa had arranged to take us to three galleries around the Mission. We popped into Guerrero Gallery, Southern Exposure, and Gallery Hijinks:

Gallery Hijinks is the gallery that reps Lisa’s work in San Francisco. Jillian, {on the right} the owner/director was amazing! She gave us the low-down on how she got started {just fueling the whole ‘insanely inspiring day’ theme}, and then back to the studio for a few more cookies, and a raffle {Lisa gave away two of her Collection-A-Day books, and two large panels… not to mention a zillion things in the gift bags! See, is it any surprise that I have a girl crush on her?}

Thank you so much to everyone that came… I am so honored that you trusted me, and I’m so thrilled with the lovely, inspiring day we had. It was a dream come true for me! And of course, thank you to Lisa for inviting us into her creative space – we loved every single minute of it! xo

*Most of the photos were taken by Taylor, my heaven-sent intern! Also thanks to Maggie, and Tiffanie who took a few of the shots as well.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Ok, I’m not usually a ‘testimonials’ kind o’ girl, but I just had to share some of these email snippets from the women who attended! {If you weren’t at this one, I hope you can make it to one of the other 7 cities – there’s a list of cities & dates in the right side bar}

The experience on Saturday was such an amazing one and to think I was so super nervous about the whole thing. Everyone was so interesting and beautiful and I wish I had miniature versions of all of you to keep in my pocket. On my drive home, I thought a lot about the things that were talked about and I felt a shift in my thinking and just now writing about it, I’m getting teary eyed because Saturday was exactly what I needed to get me over the rather significant hump of ennui that I was using as an excuse for not moving forward with my creative work. ~ Catie

I had such a blast yesterday.  What a great group of inspiring women!  Thanks everyone for being so supportive and encouraging. ~ Kelli

Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your space.  I don’t know if it’s the light, or the nooks and crannies of art and collections, or if it’s all the creativity that you’ve already oozed all over the place, but that room does make one feel like all kinds of amazing things can come spiraling out of one’s head at any time. And to all of you, thank you for being so gosh darned neat-o yourselves. Surrounded by so many interesting stories and pursuits, it would have been easy (for me) to feel overwhelmed and somehow lesser.  Instead, you all left me feeling like I was riding a rocket of supersonic awesome. ~ Maggie

A day later and I am still beaming about yesterday. What a fantastic time being with like-minded women and having the chance to hear Danielle and Lisa’s stories, and ask all those questions. I came home a changed person.~ Tiffanie

As most of you probably know, I spent the weekend in San Francisco! I was there for Lisa Congdon’s Girl Crush workshop & tea party {which was ah-mazing, and I’ll tell you about as soon as I have photos}. One of the ah-mazing things we did as part of the workshop was visit Gallery Hijinks in the Mission… and that’s where I saw these. I loved them immediately and almost felt panicked to find out, as fast as I possibly could, who made them. Jillian, the director/owner of the gallery informed me that it was the mixed media work {pencil and collage on found paper} of New York based artist Matthew Craven… um hello, boy crush.

I just landed in San Francisco! Yep, tomorrow is the very first Girl Crush workshop + tea party, and it’s happening at Lisa Congdon’s lovely studio in the Mission. The fancy sandwiches & stacks of sweets are almost ready, the gift bags will be stuffed this afternoon, the neighborhood galleries are waiting for us to pop by, and the inspiration/artist block bashing starts tomorrow at 9am! I’ll report back with photos and details next week… have a lovely weekend! xo

{1.Hello Halo 2. Victoria Smith ~ Sunday in the City series 3. CJ Prints 4. Victoria Smith ~ Sunday in the City series 5. Ork Posters

Oh my! Fairy dust, fireflies, and maybe just a little bit of magic. There is something almost celestial about this lovely found image series, titled Dare alla Luce by Canadian artist/photographer Amy Friend. Here’s how, and why, she did them:

“Through small deliberate interventions, I altered these vintage images, allowing light to pass through them. (After all, photographs are made possible with light.) In a literal and somewhat playful manner, I aimed to give the photographs back to the light, hence the title of the series, Daré alla Lucé, an Italian phrase used to describe the moment of birth.”

{via curate1k}

I have always been terrified of rock climbing, but New York based artist Claire Sherman, and her lovely coral-colored boulders, have me thinking about it… ok, let’s be honest, that will never happen! Maybe I’ll just stay on the beach and admire the rocks from down here. Yes. That seems like a much safer idea.

{via Booooooom}

As soon as I saw this work, I knew I was adding it to my ‘I ♥ PORTRAITS‘ collection. The eyes in that first piece… stunning! These engaging, yet simple, paintings are from the bizarrely beautiful portfolio of Hungarian artist Agnes Gazdag {check out the ‘Greenwood’ series on her site! Creepy/lovely.}

{Thanks so much to Judit for sending me a link to this work.}

Yes, this is an announcement for Girl Crush No.8, and I am beyond thrilled to tell you that it’s going to be hosted by a major girl crush of mine! In fact, she was one of the very first artists that I ever wrote about, AND I just did a post about her last summer on sfgirlbybay…

Jennifer Davis! Oh my word, I love everything in Jennifer’s bizarre/beautiful portfolio, so when I received an email from a gallery in Minneapolis saying that they’d like to host a Girl Crush workshop/tea party with me & Jennifer, well, I jumped on it! Luckily Jennifer did too, and so we’ve booked it for Saturday June 23rd! We’ll spend the morning talking artist blocks and inspirations, have a delicious tea party style lunch, followed by an afternoon of making art a la Jennifer Davis! I know… so fun, right!? Now, where are we going to do all of this? At the lovely gallery that emailed me out of nowhere, of course! The Soo Visual Arts Center:

So. Much. Fun.

I hope you can come… you can sign up right here!

Whoa. I am completely in awe of this fantastic installation work by American artist Anne Lindberg. Thousands and thousands of strands of thread, anchored from one wall to another, that seem to glow from within… I said whoa already, right? I wish I could see this work in person… well, if I lived in Omaha Nebraska I could! This work is part of a group show, titled Placemakers, currently on at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts from January 13 – March 31, 2012. Please go, and report back! Count how many times you say, whoa. Thank you!

Nicola Sheahan! Congratulations Nicola, you have a $75 gift certificate at 20×200 coming your way {I’ll send you an email with details!}… I wish you all could have won, but hold on a second, 20×200 just sent me this message:

As a thanks to your readers for participating, we’d like to offer them an exclusive deal – $10 off a purchase of $50+. They just need to enter the code JEALOUS during checkout. This is valid now through midnight ET tomorrow {March 2, 2012}. Please note: each customer/email address is limited to one use of this code only.

YAY! Thanks to all of you that entered, and thanks so much to 20×200 for this super fun giveaway!