I absolutely love this project! Ok, let’s start with the jealous part. Canadian artists {and brothers} Jeff and Andrew Topham did what most of us would love to do – they got to relive their childhoods… kinda. In the late 1970’s they lived in beautiful, war-free Liberia. They played on the beach, ran around the jungle, and even had a pet chimp named Evelyn. Their dad, John, documented all of it through his own amazing photographs {also part of the series}, labeling his negatives, and ultimately giving this project it’s title… Liberia ’77.

So this is where it gets inspiring/scary. Thirty years later Jeff, a film maker, and Andrew, a photographer, decided to go back to the location of their idyllic childhood and document the changes. As you can imagine, they were drastic {note the two “gas stations” above… yes, those are jars of siphoned gas in 2010}. Jeff and Andrew have created a series of photographs, and are currently working on a documentary. So far I’ve only seen the photos, and the stories behind them made me tear up almost instantly. I imagine I’ll need a full box of tissues for the film.

Ahhh, you know that autumn has finally arrived when the leaves start turning orange, the air gets crisp, and people start popping up around town wearing their trendy “angry bear muzzle” hats again.

Yep. More mixed media. I love it, and so does Emma Dajska. Did you think she was from Greenland? Me too, but no, she’s from Poland. I guess a map of Poland didn’t poke out of a waistline quite as nicely!

As if you need another reason to go to Paris, but I’ll give you one anyway… well, two actually… Leo & Pipo. They are the artists behind these beautiful, and kinda ghostly,  life-sized portraits that can be found on lonely concrete walls all over Paris. Maybe it’s because Hallowe’en is just around the corner, but I have to say, that boy on the roof scares me a little bit… not enough to stop me from buying a ticket to Paris mind you, but enough to freak me out in a “sixth-sense/I see dead people” kind of way.

Yes, yes, a million times YES! I am going to need all of these fabulous, vintagey {not a word, but still applicable}, ceramic animal lamps by UK designer Abigail Ahern. Ok, I may not currently have a room that would suit them, but I’m willing to completely redecorate in order to make that poodle work! You can visit her beautiful atelier for all of your pelican, greyhound, poodle lamp needs… oh, and don’t even get me started on her wallpaper!

{via sfgirlbybay}

Um, can you say every little girl’s dream?! Yes, it’s a real-life dollhouse. I really, really, really want to live in this amazing on-site installation by Canadian artist Heather Benning. Granted, that huge plexiglass wall might leave me a little exposed to the local farmers and the odd cow, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for art! Below are images of the transformation… from an old abandoned farmhouse in Manitoba, into, well, my new home:

Sigh… amazing. And, it even comes with a rainbow! Throw in a unicorn grazing on the grass and you’re lookin’ at my childhood dream!

I found Dolan Geiman, or rather he found me, via Twitter last winter. I checked out his online portfolio and it was love at first site… get it? Web site! Ok, moving on. Anyway, I totally fell in love with Dolan’s folksy/urban work. Salvaged wood, found objects, and quite a few birds {painted ones, not real ones} all lovingly combined to create mixed media pieces that were true soul-crushers! I’ve written about him at least three times, and I’m sure I will again. I was thrilled when he agreed to pop in for the weekend, but was quite surprised by the work he chose to write about. It’s fantastic, but so completely different than his own… hmm, perhaps that’s why he’s jealous:

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I am jealous of Leo Charre

Leo Charre stepped into my life draped in black, smoking a cigarette with his skinny grinning (then) bride at his side, and masquerading as the puppeteer looking for his puppets. I was selling art on the street and, three days later, the couple moved into my abandoned warehouse with me and taught me how to smoke used cigarettes and how to paint (how to really paint) and also the importance of drinking a glass of wine while watching the moon relax into a nest of tree limbs.  Leo was the first painter I met who made me feel awkward and foolish and downright unlearned.  He would quiz me on various artists I should know, and he would watch as I fumbled through oil paint, finally giving up and retreating back to my acrylics to let the master take over. He worked tirelessly for months on one painting while I knocked out hundreds. One day he dragged in a piece of plywood and sanded it down and left it sitting like a new born baby in the middle of the warehouse.  I couldn’t resist, so I dove in and created my first real painting on wood.  He was irate at the time that I had stolen his wood, but it was the break I needed and two days later I sold the painting and we used to money to by some really nice wine.  We lived and worked for months for the sake of art. We rarely ate, smoked a lot, drank a little, but mostly made art all day and then dragged ourselves out to the street to hawk our wares. When Leo’s marriage was on the fritz, we parted ways. Those were sad days. I didn’t know how to move forward.  I moved to Chicago in search of something new and found it. Leo weaved in and out of my life for a few years then disappeared.  As an artist, I have always been jealous of his abilities. He is a master of paint, nothing less.  I can only hope that in time I will get to be in his midst once more and that some of the genius might rub off on me.  And this time maybe it will stick.

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I think it stuck the first time around… it just happened to stick to a piece of wood instead of to canvas! Thanks so much for sharing this Dolan. Keep us posted on what happens next, please! This is a great story… and I want to know how it ends ; )

So, on the last day of my ode to magazines week, I’ve decided not to feature a magazine. I know… crazy! Instead I’m going to make day 5 all about the art that exists because of magazines. A little snip-snip of the scissors, a bit of glue, maybe a splash of paint, and voilà… these old LIFE magazines, sexy/glossy fashion magazines, and good old National Geographics are transformed into something entirely new. From one kind of art form, into another. Sigh. So, so inspiring. In fact, maybe I’ll go and grab my scissors right now! Oh, but I promise I won’t cut up any of the publications I featured this week… well, not yet anyway.

{1. One of the forefathers of pop culture collage, Richard Hamilton 2. Ciara Phelan 3. Chad Kouri 4. Natalie Perkins 5. Stina Persson 6. Joe Ryckebosch 7. Jesse Draxler 8. Abigail Reynolds… ok well, this final piece actually uses book pages, not magazine pages… but, hey, it’s my blog, so I’m putting it in anyway!}

I’m not sure how many Brooklynites I’ve written about {I’m gonna guess 53}, but if you want the real skinny on the art community there, then I suggest you pick up a copy of Working Class Magazine. Why? Well, I’ll let them tell you in their own words:

“Working Class represents a community of local artists in New York… writers, photographers, poets, illustrators, models, small business owners, actors, musicians. We all work and live in this big city, and know the struggles of things like bad tippers, overpriced rents, and disagreeable weather. Working Class taps the pulse of the underground art world, and discusses why we all stick around.”

Sigh. So cool. Ok, it’s official, I’m jealous... and thinking about moving to New York, despite the overpriced rent.

{Working Class is a quarterly zine available in print or online, so pick up a copy, or grab your laptop, and get yourself down to a hip little coffee shop… oh, and don’t forget to tip!}

Ode to magazines week: day three…

Oooh, this is a good one! So, I know that more and more magazines are taking their articles and layouts online, which is great, but there is also something really nice about holding a printed piece in your hands… especially when it looks like this! Anthology is a gorgeous new quarterly lifestyle magazine that hits the shelves this fall. And if their beautifully illustrated cover, gorgeous layouts of inspirational interiors, and conversations with some very interesting people {ie blogger extraordinaire, Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge} is not enough to make you jealous, they’ve also created a lovely two minute stop-motion video, titled Print Is Not Dead, to go along with the launch, and here’s why:

“I wanted there to be a dual message: one announcing our magazine and another showing how print and paper are important in our lives. I drafted the concept of a woman going through her day and how paper (specifically a magazine) is a big, but subtle part of her daily experience. Even though I knew it was going to be a ton of work, I also wanted much of the set and the props to be made from paper.” ~ Meg Mateo Ilasco, Creative Director

{… oh, and thanks to Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind, I can send you off to read her exclusive  interview with Anthology’s Creative Director Meg Mateo Ilasco… enjoy!}

*psst… if the video isn’t showing up, click here to see it.

Day two of magazine week…

I’ve been following the launch of rue magazine on twitter all summer, and as of last week, it’s finally on the stands… well, the virtual stands. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I felt about a magazine that existed entirely online {I do love ink on paper}, but last Thursday I sipped my coffee and “flipped” through the first issue of rue, and it was good. Very good! I suppose it only makes sense that it’s an online publication, seeing how the co-founders {Crystal Gentilello, and Anne Sage} met each other through blogging. Their love for interior design and writing connected them, and logically led here… lovely  layouts, great design advice, and interviews with interesting people from the coolest cities in the world. Good luck team rue! I can’t wait to “flip” through the next issue!

{…the pages shown above are from an article featuring the San Francisco home of the super stylish Victoria Smith. I’ve been writing guest posts on her blog, sfgirlbybay, about an imaginary home that I’m decorating with beautiful things… hmm, turns out that it’s not so imaginary! I think Victoria might actually live in “the house that jealousy built“!}