If you have a few minutes

  Via Kickcan and Conkers.

Kinda Christmasy

Via Animalarium

Bizarre Bazaar

Bizarre Bazaar 2010

Joseph Beckman

I just wish it would snow again....and snow for real. 
For now I am nursing a severely spastic shoulder/neck....thank god for the arsenal of muscle relaxants and painkillers to get me through the third and final prep week for this last holiday craft show of which I am also the co-host.  
This week it is pinwheels, and if I have the stamina I will share the process with you.
These stark and somehow nostalgic images from Joseph Beckman were found here....seems like a great source for photo inspiration.

Kate Kretz

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Kate Kretz
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(that embroidery piece is human hair, by the way, and if you've ever tried to stitch with human hair {which I have} it is very very difficult...it breaks a lot.)

Dana Noelle de Ano

 

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Dana Noelle de Ano

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Britt Browne and Julianna Swaney

Making paper look as good as a box of chocolates here

Julianna Swaney
because it is predicted we will get our first snow tomorrow.

Rosalie Gascoigne

Thank you to Two Thirds Sky for this link to such a rich artist.  I'm hooked on this palette, though there  are some really great vibrant pieces on her site as well in the strong yellows and oranges of the road signs that are the original materials.  Her materials also include corrugated tin, plywood and masonite.  I've loved perusing the pages.  The fact that Rosalie Gascoigne would be just about my grandmother's age (if she had not already passed) and made much of this work in her 70's is a great piece of inspiration as well.
Roasalie Gascoigne 

*would love to provide link to Two Thirds Sky but could not get the blogger link to work.  My apologies, and would love to have that link if to correct that if possible.

Fabio Zanino

Deconstructed and then reconstructed road signs by Fabio Zanino.
This fits right in with my thought that there is so much great stuff out there just waiting to be reinvented and I really love the way these are done.

Mobile Homes, Peter Garfield

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No tricks, no computers, just some actual house flinging.  Peter Garfield.

Laurel Bustamante

For those who haven't already you must get your selves down to Davis and Cline Gallery to see the mad skills of Laurel Bustamante.  I love this show of her bird paintings.  They are exquisite and curious and maddeningly precise!
I'm serious....there is a magnifying glass provided to admire the details.
GO!

Dan Gluibizzi

Oh, it has been a dry spell for me, with the blogging, that is.....I'm breaking the lull with these.  I really like these.  From artist Dan Gluibizzi.

Christien Meindertsma

What a fabulous chunk of textile!  See more at Flock.

Squash Blossoms off the Vine and onto the Plate

What's even more lovely than the idea of eating flowers?
Eating them....fried!
 
This is the recipe that got me inspired.

Kristen Hassenfeld

Turns out I have my  laptop for just a day or two more and so as I stumbled upon this beautiful work over at My Love For You I had to include it here. 
This is the work of Kristen Hassenfeld, installations of discarded objects brought together in a most delicious way.  (more images here)
In her words:
"I have begun to look towards unwanted, existing objects as a raw material, thus yoking my interest in our impact on the natural world with my focus on the decorative. The resulting sculptures are built from small ornamental and utilitarian objects, found in thrift stores, gutters and junk drawers, literally piled one atop the other, to reveal complex symmetrical forms, reminiscent of historic turned wood and ivory tabletop ornaments. The bits of matter I employ have outlived their useful lives, and so have been repurposed. Old buttons, bottle caps, old crockery, and the like combine, their past lives in conversation. They exist in remarkable harmony, their individual identities blurred, restless objects now at rest."

Paul Chiappe

the tiniest pencil drawings by Paul Chiappe.

summer=swim

Another beautiful day on
The Illinois

Took a little break from the noise and clutter of the house renovation to enjoy the thing that I love best about summer.  Summer has been slow to start here, weather-wise, and this was my first real leap into the water yet.  Though it was late, it was a beautiful beginning to the season.

Tracey Milton

 Tracey Milton of focuslineart

I thought I had posted this before but now I can't find it.

Here is a student animation project set to Joanna Newsom.
A high school student!



via Animalarium.

Distracted

I've been distracted all week.
I found these beautiful pieces over at at Wild Horses and I'm smitten.
And inspired.
And a little concerned
because I'm so inspired to take out a needle and thread and attack the vintage wool blankets that I've been collecting for years.....
 but I'm experiencing some of the worst tendinitis ever.  Even typing this post is somewhat painful.

I've been searching for the thing which won't kill my hands and arms but everything I love involves using them and any use at all seems to be more than these poor limbs can handle.
I have to admit I've already started in with the stitching
and am really loving it.

These images are from the Sri website and blog, both which are gorgeous with stitches and indigo.

The collection I'm in love with are the Boro (rags), which are mended items of the home.  At one time they were looked upon shamefully as evidence of poverty, but their unselfconscious beauty is becoming fully appreciated now.  I love that they arose out of function and utility and are now resurrected as objects of art and beauty.  They so richly meld so much; layers of mark making and texture, history and human condition.

It is time to give acupuncture a shot....or a poke...or whatever.

Moving Pictures

Thanks to Laura over at Animalarium, who always shares such beautiful work on her blog, for sharing this animation Vogens de vogels (according to birds) from Dutch artist Linde Faas.  Turn up the volume and listen in a quiet space to experience the subtlty of sound and image.

Margareta Kern

Margareta Kern has documented women in Croatioa, Bosnia and Herzgovina who have been making clothes in which they want to be buried.  This is not an established custom or tradition, she heard of it while in her mother's dress shop.  Just a small population of women are doing this, but she traveled around the area and managed to photograph and interview many of them.   
This is such a beautiful project to consider, and the images are no less amazing to me.

Found Photo

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SX70 circa 1976

This is part of a collection that I found which we will be seeing in the future in the form of a small road-trip book.  They are a odd mixture of the amazing and the mundane all from one of my most nostalgic eras: that of my earliest years, which make me feel a certain ownership over these. (That, and the fact that someone gave these coveted moments up)  I can almost swear I've witnessed the bits and pieces that make up these images, but in a different time and place.

An Odd Bestiary

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"There were people who ventured out and glimpsed what life was like beyond the stone walls surrounding the medieval community, and when those travelers returned home they brought word of an earth so large, so full of splendor, so remote from the experience of those at home, that their tales altered people's dreams."
Laurie Block,
from the introduction to The Odd Beastiary compiled and illustrated by Alan James Robinson.

This is my happy thrift store find today. 
 
I love that the descriptions sound like something Edward Gorey might have dreamed up, particularly with the sloth which reads:" His looks, his gestures and his cries all conspire to entreat you to take pity on him"  - Charles Waterson

I Breathe a New Song

I Breathe a New Song, Poems of the Eskimos edited by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Oonark.

 My latest happy thrift store find is this circa 1970 book of Eskimo poetry illustrated by Oonark, whom I just guessing is a inuit himself.
It's generous with the playful illustrations.....a quality I admire in a book.