If being the author of her own fabulous art blog {Art Hound} isn’t quite enough to make you jealous of Kate Singleton, then her personal art collection should definitely do the trick! Kate is a blogger/art consultant who puts her money where her mouth is. She is slowly building an amazing collection of work for her lovely apartment in Brooklyn… which, by the way, was recently featured on Apartment Therapy. Yep. I’m officially jealous. And so is Kate:

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I’m jealous of Sarah Rutherford

I’m jealous of artist/illustrator Sarah Rutherford whose old-timey line drawings grace the pages of the newly released “Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual”. The cookbook, like its eponymous Brooklyn restaurant, Frankies 457, is hot among Brooklyn’s back-to-basics gastronomic circle, and Sarah’s illustrations epitomize the aesthetic and culinary sensibilities of this crowd.

Although I’m not an artist myself, I’m jealous of Rutherford’s participation in such a cool, culturally-significant project. And I bet she spent quite a bit of time sampling the food she illustrated, which also makes me jealous. Regardless, when I buy my copy, I plan to put it to good use!

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Ok, that’s it, I’m coming over. A fabulous apartment filled with art, and delicious food? I want to be your weekend guest! {Thanks for visiting Kate!}

Oh. My. Word. London based artist Abigail Reynolds is completely responsible for my poor little crushed soul today. I love these paper pieces, from her series Interiors, so much! Apparently she layers the pages of old books, makes a few cuts here and there, does some sort of fancy geometric folding thing, and voilà! Yeah, I know… I have no idea how she does it either.

{If you want to see her work in person [I know I do!] click here for current and upcoming shows…}

{via junkculture}

I’ll be honest, American artist Amy Casey has me a little worried. Does she know something we don’t!? She’s been having a recurring dream for the past eight years about the world coming to an end… which has obviously influenced her work. The paintings above are in chronological order from 2006 ~ 2010. Are you picking up on a theme? I have to say though, it does make me feel a bit better to see that the 2010 painting includes a safety net. That’s gotta be a good sign… right?!

{Thanks Brian!}

Obviously, I’m going to have to get myself to Venice… for several reasons. However, today’s reason is because of these two beautiful, side-by-side installations that were part of the Venice Biennial in 2009. {A few weeks back, I wrote about a piece called ‘Falling Garden‘ that was part of the Venice Biennial 2003… see, I have to go!}

American artist Spencer Finch created Moon Dust, by hanging hundreds incandescent bulbs from the ceiling of this old stone building, and Moonlight, the title of the stained glass window, by placing coloured filters over the existing windows. Sigh. I cannot even begin to imagine how magical this must have been in person. Ok, that’s it… hey Venice, I’ll see you in 2011!

{via Apartment Therapy}

Mom… please send me to Phoot Camp! All of the cool kids are going!!! Pleeeeaaaasssse! Sigh. Sadly I’m not a photographer, nor have I been invited, so I guess there will be no Phoot Camp for me this summer. Here’s what was happening in the hills just outside of LA, during the first weekend of August:

Phoot Camp is an invite-only camping trip and photography workshop hosted by Laura Brunow Miner, former editor in chief of JPG Magazine. Picture forty-eight hours of photo walks, scavenger hunts, portrait challenges, s’more making, and other creative collaboration.

Ok, who isn’t jealous?! Yep, that’s what I thought.

{all images above can be found on Flickr… 1) danielslee 2) aqui-ali 3) aqui-ali 4) sgoralnick}

Talk about jealous! I could not be more jealous of Victoria Smith. Why you ask? Well, it all started when I found her photography series, Sunday in the City, featured on Poppytalk. I just figured she was an amazing photographer, until of course I followed the images back to her blog. Ahh, her blog. sfgirlbybay quickly became one of my daily reads. With a background in interior design, she writes inspirational posts on design, style, art, food… everything you need for a fabulous life really. Victoria, and her lovely home, {which I’m also jealous of by the way} have been featured in several design magazines. But wait, there’s more! She is a huge part of the blogging community… speaking at conferences, creating projects like blog it forward, and hosting various guest bloggers every week {including me, which I could not be more thrilled about!}. Anyway, it turns out I’m not the only one who’s jealous… Victoria is jealous of someone too:

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I’m jealous of Maira Kalman

I can never get enough of Ms. Kalman, an American illustrator, author, artist, and designer, originally born in Tel Aviv and transplanted to New York at the age of four. I get a sense that Ms. Kalman embraces her New York home whole-heartily…she walks the city streets and documents her travels consistently. She’s been known to say, “the best way to see the country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot.”  It is that which I greedily envy. Her prolific illustrations poke mild fun at the absurd people she meets along her journeys, never mean-spirited, just with a keen eye and wry observation that I thoroughly enjoy.

She’s illustrated numerous New Yorker covers, and is the author of like over a dozen children’s books, including Stay Up Late (from the song by David Byrne – another person I’m very jealous of, but we’ll save that for another day), and Swami on Rye (see, just there, you can tell she has a silly sense of humor). She’s also written and illustrated two of my very, very favorite ‘grown-up’s’ books, The Elements of Style (and her little film of the same name), and her very charming and moving book, The Principles of Uncertainty, in which she asks the deep, existential questions such as ‘What is Happiness?”. But mostly, I’m just really jealous of her pictures. ; )

Maira Kalman is currently showing her work at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, should you be out for a stroll this way.

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I’m putting on my shoes right now! Thanks for spending the weekend Victoria! Come back any time : )

I have always had a thing for suburban houses, but these little gems are taking my love to a whole new level. In fact, I’m tempted to pack my bags and head for Palm Springs with nothing more than a bikini, a garden gnome, and a fresh can of paint for the front lawn. I’ll have to be sure to invite American photographer Jeffrey Milstein over for a cocktail in the driveway.

{via Working Class Magazine}

Ah, the circle of life ~ infant, child, teenager, respectable member of society {with a TV head, that shoots out rainbows}. I’m sure that at least a few of you can relate to these collages, not because you  have a TV head, but because you were ‘Raised on Hi-Fi‘… which just so happens to be the title of Netherland‘s solo show that opens tomorrow night at Gallery 1988, San Francisco. {It runs from August 13th ~ 28th}

So, here’s some big news… I’ve just been asked to write a guest curator post on Etsy’s blog, The Storque. Yay! Clearly I said, Uh, YES! I think I gave myself about two seconds to bask in the excitement of it all before I started searching. Key word ~ Art > Painting > Original Painting > scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll… and there she was. Bette, a pink-cheeked brunette, with rose bud lips by Israeli artist Tali Yalonetzki. Oh yes, she’s going in the post for sure! Hm, or maybe I should show that fabulous cocktail party… or the sad lady in a green room… ooh, or maybe that black and white print! Sigh. Too much excitement for one day. I’ll start searching again tomorrow… key word ~ Mixed Media.

I have a huge collection of boxes in the closet under my stairs. You know, the leftovers from birthdays, Christmas, and, of course, lots & lots of shoes. Anywho, I throw them in there without a second thought… until today. Today was the day that I saw these striking illustrations by Kotryna Zukauskaite titled ‘Diary of a Box 1 ~ 4’… Quick! Someone send me a DIY craft project that requires several old cardboard boxes, so that I have a chance to undo all of the loneliness and pain that I’ve caused over the years! {In my defense, had the boxes in my closet been these shades of aqua and deep red, they probably wouldn’t have stayed in there… I’m just sayin’}