I couldn’t decide which one was my favourite. I may need to flip a coin. Heads, for the headless rainbow-striped girl with a gun… tails, for the piece of tail grocery shopping in her underwear.

I found Tracciamenti’s work on Pikaland, a fantastic illustration blog, (by way of a printmaker/illustrator friend of mine, Lori Dean Dyment) but I can’t find any other info on this artist except for her flickr stream. It’s totally worth checking out though because she has so much great work up there. Get your coin ready, you’ll need it.

{Aug 18, 2009: I just got an email from Tracciamenti and she gave me her new website, so go check it out!}

Some of my favourite posts are a few months back and a few pages deep. In the event that you’re not reading every single post I’ve ever made (I don’t know why you wouldn’t!) I thought I’d bring one of them up to the front again. Amanda Marie was one of my first posts and I still can’t stop thinking about her work. Strange, dreamlike, vintage storybook imagery created with spray paint and screen prints. Gotta love it.

WHY HAVE I NEVER LEARNED TO EMBROIDER?!

Tim Moore is a British-born artist now living in Australia. These two pieces are from his solo show, Sew Natural, at the Helen Gory Gallery. What do I love about these? It’s a fine blend of the nude, gun-toting grandmother, the bunny hats/flip flops/saggy boobs of the ladies in the second piece, and of course, the skillful sewing that could put any Nana to shame.

A cheap plastic bag from a dollar store? Nope, it’s bridal organza & embroidery that’s been made to look exactly like a cheap plastic bag from a dollar store. Re-explaining this seemed silly so I’ve taken this quote directly from Lauren DiCioccio herself: “[This] is a response to the current movement to eliminate plastic bags from consumer use due to their negative environmental impact… [They are] delicate ghosts of the original bags, mass-produced plastic replaced with soft, tediously worked fabric.”  There you go. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I love it when artists think outside of the box… or, in this case, outside of the puzzle box.

“Flowers and skies were taken out of over 40 store bought puzzles and combined to form a series of spectacular landscapes. Although puzzle pieces are unique and can only fit into one place within a puzzle they are interchangeable within a brand.”

Who knew? Well, Kent Rogowski I guess. So clever – wish I thought of it.

Oooh, that’s cold.

These are from Kotama Bouabane’s text-based photography series titled, Melting Words. I love these because everyone’s been there. Whether you’re the one saying it or hearing it, no matter how smooth you are, it never comes out warm and fuzzy. I’ve been dumped once or twice, but luckily never via an ice cube on my end table. Now that would be cold.

Are you kidding me? This is exactly why I started The Jealous Curator… uplifting inspiration and soul-crushing jealousy all at the same time. So many artists use vintage story book imagery, to a point where it doesn’t look unique or special at all, but Jennifer Khoshbin has taken it to a whole new level.

{I found Jennifer’s work because she was part of Jen11 show that I wrote about in my last post.}

Damn I wish I thought of that. What a fantastic idea – And I know at least 12 Jen’s that I could have rounded up. Damn.

This show is made up of artwork by 11 artists named Jennifer. The idea for this show came from the fact that in a span of 15 years more than one million Jennifer’s came into the world. Now adults that are part of Generation X, these women have even been put into their own highly sought after demographic known as “The Jennifer Demographic” or “Jen-eration”. This show explores the question, “Have members of this Jen-eration unknowingly grown into a common artistic sensibility?” You can decide for yourself by viewing the show or buying the book from Uppercase Gallery.

I am suddenly in the mood for a road trip, a burger and a tiny frappuccino. Karla Wozniak is not only making me hungry for diner pie, she’s also feeding my love of everyday subject matter. She has a very simple, easy, and unpolished style which somehow makes her imagery feel even more ‘small town’. And I should know – I grew up in a town that still doesn’t have a Starbucks. Yes, those places do exist.

{I found Karla’s work on the fantastic art/design/craft blog, Poppytalk}

I’m extra jealous today.

I’m jealous of Sidney Pink and his lovely/weird watercolour illustrations of Japanese school girls, but I’m also pretty frickin’ jealous of the art + design blog that I found him on… Design for Mankind. Hm. That’s a bit too much jealousy for one person to handle on a Tuesday afternoon. Don’t worry though, I should be fine by tomorrow.

{If you like Sidney Pink’s work you might also like the posts I made about Alyson Fox and Nicole Kita.}