A touch of typography, a hint vintage wallpaper and a deer head silhouette too? I’m sold!  These lovely paintings are by Charlottesville, VA based artist Kazaan Viveiros.

My ♥ skipped a little beat when I saw these collages by James Gallagher. I truly respect anyone who can do something so simple yet so interesting… believe me, it ain’t as easy as it looks people.

{I found this artist on BOOOOOOOM!}

Where should I start… The stunning color? The crazy fabulous art direction? The super-cool vintage feel? Hmm… or maybe I should kick things off with the fact the 10% of the sales price of these fine art prints goes to ‘a health program designed to promote early detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast and cervical cancer, with special emphasis on the under-served, to prevent and reduce the devastating effects of cancer.’  Oh Star Foreman, so many reasons to be jealous of you.

{Visit her portfolio site, or go directly to her etsy shop and pick up a technicolor print right this very minute.}

I have always been a huge fan of Pop Art, probably because it combines the two things I love most… art & design. This work by Heath Yenna has definitely got my jealousy juices flowing on this fine Friday morning. They are a little vintage, a little Pop, a touch of modern graphic design and just a hint of street graffiti. Mmmm, a perfect mix.

Red and aqua. Pouty red lips.  The detail in the face, and lack there of in the body. Love. Love. Love.

These drawings/paintings are by Toronto based artist Kelly Grace, not to be confused with Grace Kelly, American film legend and Princess of Monaco. It does get a bit confusing because a lot of Kelly’s images do feature pretty ladies from the 50s and 60s, some of which I’m pretty sure are Grace Kelly. Check out her drawing section and let me know.

He likes pets, hot chocolate muffins, and techno music.

I like his art.

Super sculpy, a  hot oven, and London native Wilfrid Wood are responsible for these fantastic sculptural portraits. First he draws, then sculpts & bakes, and finally sands & paints these unique characters. I want one… and I also want one of those hot chocolate muffins please.

Just follow the directions:

Get apple, peel sticker off, apply sticker to very cool letterpress poster, eat apple. Repeat daily.

I am now totally inspired to eat an apple a day, and totally jealous of the letterpress poster that will help me do it. Beautiful design and a way to be healthy… doesn’t get much better than that. Thank you Vik Design.

It’s been two years since I saw the documentary, My Kid Could Paint That, about then 4 year old Marla Olmstead. When I wrote my original post about Marla last winter I said that I was on the fence when it came to knowing if Marla did all of the work herself, but either way I still loved the paintings. I watched it again last night, and I am now firmly on one side of the fence. I decided to see it again just as a refresher for myself, since the post that I wrote close to a year ago still gets a huge number of very ‘passionate’ comments every day. I can safely say I’m no longer jealous of her. I am still jealous of her work, but not of her. I just feel sad for Marla. I’m sure some of you will call me a fool, but after seeing the movie again I absolutely believe that these are her paintings. I’m actually a little upset with myself that I ever doubted it. I think some fancy editing and a father who really, really, really loved the fame and attention that Marla brought, skewed my original view… but I don’t think they defrauded the art world. They never said she was a prodigy, the art world put that on her. And at the end of the day, I really do think her paintings are beautiful. If collectors want to spend $20,000 per painting then by all means go ahead. After all, when it comes to modern art, 9 times out of 10 you’re paying for the story behind the art,or in many cases, the story behind the artist… And let’s face it, this is a really good story.

Another amazing night of button trading at the 6th annual Hot One Inch Action show hosted by Jim Hoehnle and Chris Bentzen. A little too amazing actually. I was so distracted by the hunt for my favourites that I totally forgot to write down the names of the artists whose buttons I was hoarding. Damn. I even had a little note pad with me and everything! Oh well, next year. There were a few extra hot buttons that everyone seemed to be in pursuit of… I got most of them eventually,  except for the elusive ‘Cupcake Zombie’… you’ll just have to imagine what that one looked like. Speaking of cupcakes, one of the best titles of the night was the button shown on the top right – Immaculate Confection. Awesome!

Today I am a Polar Bear is a limited edition run of 225 handmade books by London based artist Hannah Waldron. There are seven different illustrated animal masks that you can cut out to disguise yourself with… and clearly, today I am an owl. It’s a book filled with goodies. Not only do you get the animal masks, but there’s also a hidden poster and a unique handmade finger puppet inside. Saying that though, I don’t think I could bring my scissors near this beautiful book! If for some reason I really need a disguise I’ll just pencil on a faux moustache… that should do the trick.