Hitler and Britney Spears as children… and these were only two out of dozens on Annie Kevans‘ site. She has two main series, Boys and Girls. The Boys series focuses on dictators when they were children, and the Girls series is about ‘the commodification of female child stars from Shirley Temple to Britney Spears.’ There’s something very innocent, and a bit haunting, that you can’t help but be affected by. It really is strange to stop and think about Hitler being a little boy.

These drawings are the wonderful work of UK artist Olivia Jeffries. Every drawing that she does is on a scrap of something (paper, cardboard, old book jackets) that she’s found somewhere (floors? the street? cafes?). I love the pieces that are not only on found paper, but also contain found drawings left behind by children… ie., the tanks above. Her images breathe new life into something that’s been forgotten, and magically turn a tattered old book cover into art. Very inspiring.

Jealous is a bit of an understatement. I’m totally in awe of Kate Bingaman-Burt. She is a hugely talented designer, illustrator, crafter (if that’s even a word), Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University, and what I can totally relate to, a detailed list maker. Since I can’t possibly cover all of that in one or two paragraphs, I’ve chosen to write about this:

Obsessive Consumption, a project she began in 2002 in which she meticulously documents all of her purchases. She started out by photographing everything she bought, cataloged with the receipt. Then she moved on to drawing not only all of her purchases, but all of her credit card statements too. Obsessive? Yep. Awesome? You betcha! Now Kate has her own zine called What Did You Buy Today? that you can pick up for only $4/issue on Etsy. Get a pencil… you might want to do a quick sketch of your purchase.

As if the weird sasquatch wasn’t enough, Mary Kate McDevitt had to add a few ‘little winged potatoes’ just to make me really wish I’d come up with this. Ok, so now I’m totally inspired to do my next painting on an old chunk of tree… where’d I put that saw…

{Oh, and I also really love this little chair.}

I was just clicking around on YouTube today, as you do on a lazy Sunday morning, and I came across this video of Margaret Kilgallen talking about her work. I have been a fan of Margaret’s work for years and wrote about her last February. Sadly, Margaret died in 2001 at the very young age of 33, and until today’s video I had only seen the odd photo of her. It was fantastic to see her painting, and talking about her process. Her philosophies around work done by hand are so inspiring. I’m not going to beat myself up for an imperfect line ever again! Thanks Margaret… wherever you are.

Oh, I love a good storybook gone wrong… I’m jealous, and a tiny bit scared, of this painting by Brazilian artist Kael Kasabian. Strangely enough, I’m not too worried about that blue wolf, but I’m more than a little freaked out by those three pigs. They look like they might do a lot more than ‘huff & puff’.

More portraits. Hm, I smell a new show brewing…

I love these two ladies by Ariel Aberg-Riger. I’m not sure if it’s the lovely colour choices, the loose pencil lines, or the snazzy hair-do’s but they actually remind me of the kind of watercolour portraits that my mother, a very talented artist herself, used to do back in the 70’s… although, I don’t remember anyone in a Zoro mask.

Weird, hilarious and kinda cute… the triple threat that gets me every time.

These strange little creatures are called ‘mooks’. I found one of them on Pikaland, and then followed the trail back to an etsy shop called My Grey Sky, run by an artist who uses the name I love grey skies. Well you know what Ms. Grey Skies, I love your mooks! Especially the ones wearing knitted hats. I’ve had a thing for knitted head gear lately… must be the cool September weather. Brr.

The first thing I noticed about these beautifully layered landscapes by UK artist Eleanor Lines, was the bright blue painted sky. It’s such a great combo with the photos that are layered on top. There’s no inside scoop on her site as to what these are about… I’m guessing it was a weird dream involving a road trip across the mid-western United States? Eleanor, if you’re out there, let me know how far off I am!

{Once again I have to thank Design for Mankind for this find!}

What?!

Josh McKible came up with this very cool project while living in Japan. ‘Nani’ means ‘what’ in Japanese and apparently he asked that a lot while living there, so much so that he did 100 paintings of little birds asking that question. So, here’s where the nanibirds come in… he created this paper bird template and put it out there to see how other artists would answer ‘what?’, in birdese of course.  I’ve posted three of them here but there are lots more at nanibird.com

The artists shown above are {1} Josh McKible {2} Anna Antoniades {3} Azbeen