So, when I say I’m jealous of INSPIRED, what I actually mean is that I’m jealous of curator Brian Downey, of The Arts Company in Nashville, for coming up with the concept of this brilliant show! Oh sure, it  just looks like a regular two-man show, but as we speak there are two special pieces covered in black paper waiting to be unveiled this Saturday night. Illustrator Julianna Swaney {Portland} and printmaker John Welles Bartlett {New York} will be showing their work side-by-side, but under that black paper are pieces created by each of them, completely inspired by the other… hence the name of the show! Sigh. So smart. I wish I could be in Nashville for the big reveal… someone take photos and send ’em my way, ok? Thank you!

{INSPIRED ~ The Arts Company, Nashville, September 4 ~ September 25}

ps. not all of the images above will be in the show… they just happened to be a few of my favourites!

This book is amazing… well, exquisite actually. Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski,  and Matt Lamothe of Also, a small American design company, are the creators of The Exquisite Book {which, fyi, just became available for purchase two days ago}. The book features 100 contemporary fine artists, illustrators, designers and comic artists, each of whom were “given the page that precedes theirs to connect their own image to. They needed to extend the horizon line of the last page onto their page.” Such a great collaborative idea, with absolutely gorgeous results! Oh boy, that Christmas list of mine is just getting longer and longer by the second.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m in the middle of decorating my very own imaginary dream house {filled with fabulous art} over on sfgirlbybay, in a series titled The House that Jealousy Built. Well, it turns out that Canadian writer & artist Douglas Coupland is doing exactly the same thing… oh, except for one tiny difference… he actually lives in his dream house {filled with fabulous art}! Giant detergent bottles, spools of coloured thread on the wall, and white Lego around the support beams. Hm… I wonder if he’s looking for a roommate? No? Oh, ok.

{via The New York Times}

Unfortunately I don’t know very much about Greek born artist Phillip Estlund… other than the fact that a lot of his subjects are houses {often blue houses} that have seen better days. I really want to know how they ended up like this? Tornados, hurricanes… tangerines? Phillip, if you see this, please let us know. Until then, I’ll be keeping an eye out for any citrus fruits that might be rolling at an unsafe pace toward my little blue house!

Junk? I don’t think so. Gorgeous, eclectic, vintage, upcycled… yeah, that’s a better description of the amazing work that can be found daily on Junkculture, a fabulous blog that inspires me on a regular basis. When I asked him, ie., “the Junkculture guy” {I have no idea what his real name is – but hey, who am I to judge!}, to be one of my jealous weekend guests, I didn’t know how he’d be able to choose from all of the great artists on his site. Well, he narrowed it down and came back with a really, really good one!

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I’m jealous of Richard Slee {and I think you’ll be too!}.

Richard Slee is one of Britain’s most important contemporary ceramic artists. His work attempts to challenge every conventional notion of that genre by messing with the cultural and historic possibilities of the ceramic object, using puns, humour and his vast array of craft skills to transform the ordinary into the surprising.

Find out more about Richard’s work here.

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Ooh, you were right… I am totally jealous! So jealous in fact that i can’t control myself… here are a few of my favourite pieces:

So good! Thanks for stopping by “Junkculture guy”… Come back any time! ; )

Inhale…… aaaand, exhale. Ahhh. These gorgeous installations, by Denmark-based Japanese artist Yuko Takada Keller, make me want to stop for a moment and take a deep cleansing breath. They also make me wish that I knew how to create such beautiful, airy installations using small, triangular, hand-colored pieces of tracing paper. Hmm, perhaps I should take another deep breath.

{via Squid Blog}

I have to admit, when the editor of Etsy’s blog {who also happens to be the blogger known as teenangster} asked me to do a guest post, I was absolutely thrilled, but sort of stunned. “Just throw out a theme to get the ball rolling” she said. Um, have you seen Etsy? Do you know how many thousands of amazing things are on there every single day?! Oh the possibilities! Anyway, after writing back to casually say, “Sure, no problem, this will be fun”, I had a zillion ideas racing through my head, so I decided to sleep on it… and had some very weird dreams by the way. Luckily I woke up with an idea that I was really happy with! A gallery soiree, complete with champagne {well, kinda}. Turns out it was no problem, and a whole lotta fun ; )

{The lead image in the post, seen above, is a collage by Hollie Chastain.}

‘Now isn’t that lovely’… yes indeed! Oh, and that also happens to be the title of this series by London based artist Stephen Johnson. I’m sure my grandmother had at least half of these little figurines on her living room shelf… why on earth did it never occur to me to stick them all together, delicately balanced on the nose of a brass deer? Damn it.

{via junkculture}

Hm. This is the exact opposite of yesterday’s post… well, either way, American artist Megan Charland has found the way to my heart. A little fresh cut grass, perfect blue skies, and a bunch of suburban houses… well, a bunch of holes where suburban houses used to be. Here is her description of this recent series titled, Land (ab)Use:

“Native grasses form the backdrop or canvas to my work. By literally cutting away from the landscape I create a void in composition which questions the very issue of land use. These pseudo silhouettes formed act as both an avoidance of the subject while also interrupting the overall viewing experience. The viewer is then forced to leave the work experiencing a sense of loss and discontent.”

Ok, I need a magnifying glass… ooh, or better yet, I need to get myself to a show featuring the work of Brooklyn based artist Matthew Northridge. He carefully cuts, and then relocates, architecture from aerial photographs, onto blank pieces of 11″x14″  paper in order to create these beautiful landscape-free landscapes. Very tiny, and oh so brilliant.

{The images above : 1) Arctic Settlement, North West Territories  2) Potato Farm, Maine  3) Ice Houses, Lake Champlain  4) Lakeside Town, Maine}

{Thanks Megan… you’re up tomorrow!}