Oh Matt LeFleur, you roped me in with your rickety, little, snow-covered town… hm, actually, maybe it was those tree stumps connected by colourful pinstriped paths… ooh, or it might have been that fancy geometric-rainbowish-smoke? Ok, who cares how you did it?! You did it. I’m jealous of all of these drawings. All of them!

Victoria Smith {aka, blogger extraordinaire, sfgirlbybay} is taking a well-deserved staycation in her home town of San Francisco for the next two weeks… and I could not be more excited! Why? Am I going with her? Nope. I get to fill in for her today! So, while she is off sipping lattes in cute little coffee shops, riding her bike {up lots of big hills!}, and taking gorgeous photographs all over the Bay area*, I will be adding my own little touch of jealousy to her beautiful blog. Come on over!

*{These lovely photographs are the latest images from Victoria’s Sunday in the City series, which I was jealous of last year. If you can believe it, she didn’t use an old Polaroid to get these shots, she used ShakeIt on her iPhone. Jealousy… there’s an app for that.}

I’ve said this before {many, many, many times actually}, and I’ll say it again… I love pretty much anything that gets rescued from a thrift shop, and is then repurposed into something amazing, and in this case, something absolutely hilarious! After British artist Barnaby Barford finds these lonely ceramics, he cuts them up, exchanges pieces, repaints, and then arranges them into some of the funniest, laugh out loud, narratives I’ve seen in a long time. But you know what made me stop laughing? He’s younger than me… ooh, I just hate it when that happens.

{via junkculture}

Well, part of me is very jealous of Melbourne based artist Louise Weaver… I will easily admit that I wish I was the one behind the concept, vivid colour choices, and meticulous execution of these fabulous sculptures. However, the other part of me is really happy that I wasn’t the one who had to touch these taxidermied birds* while dressing them in their hand-crocheted outfits!

*Yes. There are real birds under all of those pom-poms and sequins!

Ah yes, awkward bears in loud knitwear, love from a distance, and what I can only assume to be a polar bear with a crush on a boy named Keith Nash. I am jealous of these illustrations, and I’m jealous of this very sweet, award winning, animation titled My First Crush {fyi: the polar bear that loves Keith Nash is a rough from this film}. And really, can you blame me? The work of London based illustrator / animator Julia Pott makes everyone jealous! I have seen her work on just about every art blog that exists… including this one! {In 2009, I included her beautiful sketchbook in my very first ‘Jealously Curated’ show, Peep Show}.

This job is starting to get really easy… look what landed in my in-box yesterday while I was sipping my morning coffee! Stunning, glowing-from-within, realist oil paintings of tattoo covered boys. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to start their day like that? Now, I should probably clarify that the insanely talented artist behind these paintings, Australian Deidre But-Husaim, also paints beautiful girls covered in floral tattoos, but when I was going through her portfolio, I just kept coming back to the boys. There is something incredibly special about them. Sadness? Vulnerability? I’m not quite sure, but I like it… whatever it is! Anyway, here’s the explanation of how these young men ended up on canvas:

‘An early studio overlooked a tattoo parlour, and [Deidre] watched the passing trade with its casual acquisition of permanent body markings on young and old. In Lonesome Doves (2009) she found her models through the posting of images and personal details of wannabe models on the internet, another public forum for display of personal identity and the immediacy of fashion. The resulting realist paintings of young faces and tattooed patterns capture the tension of the gaze that is simultaneously repulsed and fascinated.’

So, here’s a little tidbit about me… I’m currently working on a children’s book with a dynamo writer friend of mine. I was quite happy with my illustrations, that is until I came across the work of Italian author/illustrator Beatrice Alemagna and this lovely book titled Un Lion à Paris. I absolutely love how she has seamlessly combined line drawings, with found imagery, with something magical that I can’t quite put my finger on. Damn. Back to the drawing board. Sorry dynamo writing friend… it might be awhile before you see any new pages!

{And if these illustrations aren’t enough to be jealous of, ‘in 1998 she started publishing with “editions du Seuil” and began a collaboration as poster artist for the Centre Pompidou in Paris. A collaboration that continues to this day.’ FYI: I have great dreams of working with the Pompidou someday… ooh, I’m so jealous!}

Do you live in New York? Did you buy something today? Do you want Kate Bingaman-Burt to draw it for you? If you answered yes, yes, and YES, then you need to get yourself down to the Jen Bekman Gallery tomorrow, Thursday June 17th. Kate will be there, with a bunch of new pens {some fine point, and some brush}, waiting to draw your most recent purchase… oh, and she’ll also be using those new pens to sign copies of her fabulous book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? What are you waiting for? Get out there and buy something… anything! Even a pen will do.

{I wrote about Kate a few months ago. Yep… still jealous.}

It was the combination of tiny pebbles and floral patterns that brought on the first pang of jealousy… and then I found those soft, gray, drippy rain clouds. Sigh. These mixed media drawings are a combination of conté, marker, ink, watercolour, and collage all lovingly applied to paper by Crystal Liu, a Canadian artist now based in San Francisco. She has so much work to choose from in her vast portfolio, but I managed to control myself and only show these four images. Those sad, washy clouds that I love so much are from a series titled remember when we used to dream, and the pebbles/pattern are part of a collection called the ground shook for him. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m suddenly in the mood for a long walk in the rain.

{via Kate Armstrong}

How’s the water today? ~ Oh, a little bit ‘concrete floorish’ but other than that, quite lovely thanks.

I found this stunning work through a blog called I Heart Wood. Yes, that’s right, these unbelievable sculptures, by Italian artist Willy Verginer, are carved out of wood! His undeniable talent as a craftsman would be enough to make just about anyone jealous, but then you throw in these clever compositions/use of gallery space, not to mention his bold application of colour, and I don’t think you could find any artist who wouldn’t say ‘Damn, I wish I thought of that’… or maybe more likely, ‘Damn, I wish I could do that.’ {… that’s what I’m thinking right at this very moment!}