January to March 2010

January to March 2010, originally uploaded by wil_freeborn.

Great work from Wil Freeborn - take a look at the detail and colour full size. Well worth a look through the rest of his Flickr stream.

Natsko Seki

Public Bath, 250 x 250mm, 2008

I went to see the Pick Me Up show at Somerset House yesterday and was really overwhelmed by the amount of great work on show. One artist that really did stand out to me that I'd never seen before was Natsko Seki. Her work is amazingly detailed (which is difficult to get across here) and really fascinating. It's joyful and happy but also quite subtle, and the range of techniques she uses in the pieces she showed seemed to blend together seamlessly, and gave an energetic feeling of depth. Really beautiful stuff. I wish I could of afforded one of her larger pieces, but I did manage to pick up an (unlimited edition I think) print of the gorgeous 'Kite' from the shop for a meagre £20.

It was amazing to see Rob Ryan in action, carefully and determinedly drawing away with an automatic pencil, while one of his glamorous assistants sat cutting away with a scalpel. The room was packed and actually kind of claustrophobic. I would of loved to talk to him, but he was so engrossed I didn't want to disturb him. Also, what am I going to say?! "Hi I'm a huge fan. it's really great for me to be able to meet you. And I'm definitely more important than the other 100 megafans also in here. I can't afford to buy any of your work though." YAWN.

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/itsnice

enormouschampion

Not a hugely stocked Etsy shop but some interesting bits and bobs, enormouschampion are a duo with some lovely printy stuff.

does anyone know who painted these?

does anyone know who painted these?, originally uploaded by kweezy mcG.

Mystery solved! It's the talented Graham Carter, and limited edition prints are available online here.

My New Favourite Blog

Bakerella might just be the best thing ever (besides actually eating cake). Concerned not only with making A LOT of very yummy cakes and other sweet lovely things, the posts are as much about imagination, decoration, colour, styling and photography. A feast for the eyes. eh? eh?! (sorry, had to...).

Joshua Covarrubias

I saw the fantastic flowchart below from the Pipeline, designed by Joshua Covarrubias (through a tweet from @yellowgoatetsy) and it made me smile. I'm glad I Googled him and found his website (bit mean of them not to link to it I thought?) as it has some lovely pieces, particularly the image above (for Kalina Magazine).




The Sartorialist

Joanna Rutter

Gorgeous jewellery from Joanna Rutter, soon to be stocked by Soma Gallery in Bristol or you can buy direct.

You can also keep up with Joanna's new work on her blog and Flickr stream, currently featuring some lovely surface pattern designs and pretty leaf cut-outs too!

The Nature of Things

A lovely bit of surface pattern by the very talented Helen Dardik. I noticed this whilst catching up on my blog reading after my holiday. Helen often posts brand new ideas and patterns on her blog but this one really stood out to me. I love how it doesn't over-sentimentalise our connection to the natural world, but celebrates it in a positive way.

Helen's blog.

Shopping

Some shops are just really nice to be in aren't they? Take Uniqlo - their clothes are, well, ok. I don't buy them often because they never seem to fit me very well. But I still love to be in there, which means even though I know their clothes aren't normally the best for me, I still find something good occasionally. Whereas most shops I I have that experience with may as well not exist to me - they're just not on my radar. A lot of shops in my price range turn into something very very depressing not unlike a jumble sale at this time of year, and Uniqlo feels even more like an oasis. A very organised, colourful oasis. I wish more of them paid this much attention to the actual experience of shopping, rather than swinging manically between TRENDY and CHEAP. And yes, they do shout.

That is all.

Callie Shell: Obama

© Callie Shell / Aurora for Time

Callie Shell first encountered Barack Obama when she was producing what turned out to be an award winning photo essay about John Kerry's presidential campaign. According to digitaljournalist.org, she ended up turning in more photographs of Obama than Kerry, saying "I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road."

The full photo essay.

Time Magazine's selection for Barack Obama: Portrait of a Candidate.

Today's The Day

Celebrate Change limited edition print by AngeliArndt


I'm not going to say a lot about the whole design + Obama thing, as plenty of other people have already posted much more eloquent points than I think I could squeeze into the last bit of my lunch hour (see below). But it has really struck me how everyone seems to be getting involved. Maybe it's more of an indicator of the design trends in general and the surge of designer/makers and craftspeople facilitated by things like etsy, folksy, dawanda. Whatever it is, it has to be good in terms of people actually getting out and voting, whoever they decide to vote for.



Hand printed lino cut by Jason Krekel at HandcrankedUSA
Wooden inlay pin at Obamastuff



Hope silkscreen by mmsuperstuff
Photograph © Marisa Allegra Williams



American Presidential Wrestling letterpress poster from YeeHaw


Just a couple of many more eloquent posts I mentioned;
Michael Johnson's Design Week/Thought For The Week article
Steven Heller

Paul Catherall

I saw some of Paul Catherall's work, and an interesting short film about his linocut process, at the London Transport Museum this weekend. He has a really distinctive style and uses colours in an unusually poetic way that grabbed my attention - I remember seeing these out and around on the tube.
This particular series, Four Seasons, is available to buy at the Transport Museum Shop.

Marian Bantjes - Love Stories

Marian Bantjes has just published a set of fantastic personal work in the latest Monograph (available to Creative Review subscribers only). Luckily the Creative Review blog also has a bit of information about it, and you can see lovely big images of all the work on Marian's website. Each of the beautiful pieces is the story of someone she loves, and you really get a sense of the people behind these.

Ray Fenwick - Magic Tricks

Magic Tricks, originally uploaded by Ray Fenwick.

More lovely stuff. I recommend a good look through his Flickr, it's all fantastic.

Casey O'Connell

There's a great interview with Casey O'Connell over on Josh Spear at the moment. An interesting read and some beautiful work.

Douglas Wilson

All You Need Is Love, originally uploaded by onpaperwings.

Sometimes this internet thing just really works, doesn't it? onpaperwings added me as a contact on Flickr, so I had a look at his lovely letterpress work, and found his gallery, website and blog. All worth a look.

Rob Ryan. Yes, again.

I'm sure there are a few people who might be getting a bit sick of me going on and on about Rob Ryan but I thought the other, saner people out there might like to know that he's opening a SHOP! YAY! It's at 126 Columbia Road London. It will be open every Sunday 8am til 4pm from June 29th onwards.

American Photography 1900-1960

Walker Evans, Subway Passengers, New York, 1938.

I went to a really interesting lecture last night at The British Museum. It drew largely on the incredible, and very accessible, FSA archive. It highlighted how influential a few photographers in particular have been to contemporary photography and photojournalism, including Dorothea Lange, Helen Levitt, Alfred Stieglitz and of course Walker Evans. They're all worth a good look.


Walker Evans, Hale County, Alabama 1936.


Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907.


Helen Levitt, New York, 1940.


Dorothea Lange, Woman of the High Plains “If You Die, You’re Dead–That’s All.” Texas Panhandle, 1938.

Laura Cooperman

Researching something totally unrelated for work, I just came across this great blog. Lots of interesting thing, including Laura Cooperman's incredible work. Painstakingly perfect paper-cuts. Her portfolio's really interesting, well worth a look.