I was so excited to see that Katie Licht’s creative mini zine IDEAS was out and had to snap one up right away. I’ve been dying to get my mitts on one ever since she first mentioned working on a zine.
and then look at the mess her zine caused.
You can get your very own IDEAS zine in her etsy shop along with some fabulous paper packs.
I saw this post at Art Cake where Christi shared her experience going to see Beauty is Embarrassing: The Wayne White Story, and hear him speak afterward as well. I’ve been wanting to see it, but figured it was going to be one of those movies that I would have to wait a year or more before it was finally on DVD. Turns out, even though it is still touring, you can download it for $7.99 and watch it at home! Awesome. I bought it immediately, downloaded it and streamed it to our TV.
If you aren’t familiar, Wayne White is an artist most known for his work on shows like PeeWee’s Playhouse, Beakman’s World (both shows I loved), music videos like Peter Gabriel’s Big time and Smashing Pumpkin’s Tonight, Tonight, and most recently his type-based pieces painted over thrift store artwork, like the ones pictured above.
I’d really recommend you buy the movie. At $7.99 that’s close to a movie theater ticket, and way cheaper than buying a brand new movie on DVD. And unless I missed something I think when you buy it, you are really buying it, it’s not like a $24 hour rental, and we were able to move the file to our server to stream to the nice, big TV.
I watched the movie with my sketchbook on my lap and remote control nearby so that I could pause it and write down quotes to remember later. Yes, it was that good. One of the things I love about Wayne and his artwork is that it is all over the place. He allows the creativity to just come out everyday and in every part of his life. He plays instruments, makes puppets, comics, illustrates and paints, he does it all. He said “I want to try everything” and that sentiment is so familiar to the way I work. I pretty much say a variation of that everyday and that is “I want to do everything“.
FYI, the movie has a lot of language, so you want to make sure that the kiddies are in bed.
Also, for all my teacher friends out there, there is a really touching teacher story in the movie. I got teary.
Another mosaic of my most recent instagrams. Other mosaics from instagram can be seen here.
My instagram obsession has been going on now for two years in December. It really kicked into full force a little over one year ago and NOW I can proudly say that I have posted daily on instagram for over a year! Yes, I have finally finished a 365 project, but note that I never committed to it, because if I did, it would have gone the way of my 365 little book pages, my 365 self portrait, and my 365 mailart project. That is to say, it would have been abandoned. After posting about all the great people she was following, I started “hounding” Anika (from aisforanika) about composing a post about creative people she follows on instagram. I’m always looking for new talented folks. Then I realized I too could create my very own post about instagrammers to follow.
Instagram has really taken place of the social network image sharing site that flickr once held. I begrudgingly renewed my prime account a few days ago because I’m locked in after hosting my blog images there for years. People still use it to house their images, but no one really comments or interacts there anymore and it’s sad. That was a HUGE part of the appeal of flickr and now it’s gone. I stand by the idea that if they could just get a REALLY swanky free app people would be using it again. People don’t want to be limited to square format and have to see vintage filtered pics forever. The truth is, not everyone is at their computer 24/7, but they do have their ipods and phones with them all the time and they want to be able to upload pictures on a whim. What is flickr waiting for? End rant.
Okay, so here are 10 great instagrammers. I’m a big fan of all of these fabulous ladies.
Andrea (HulaSeventy)
Heidi Kenny (mypapercrane)
Barbara (bbphotogirl)
Anika (AisforAnika)
Tiel Seivl-Keevers (Tielsk)
Marta Mendes (martapoeiras)
Ashley Goldberg
edit: Katie’s comment reminded me of a way I’ve tracked down artists on instagram. Although instagram allows you to find contacts via facebook and your email, and they allow you to upload pictures directly from instagram to flickr and facebook, they don’t allow you to search for contacts via flickr. A way I found to get around this was by going to flickr, signing in and typing in “instagram” in the search field. When you do that a drop down window pops up and asks if you’d like to search “everyone’s photos” or “other search options”. If you select other search options one of those options is “your contacts’ photos”. When people upload pictures to flickr via instagram it automatically tags them with the word “instagram”. This way you can find pictures that your flickr contacts have uploaded from instagram and it will help you track down other artists.
Ever since I’ve worked in an office I’ve always had plenty of scratch paper around. Paper that would normally get recycled or thrown out I collect and then cut down into quarters for scratch paper. I have a thing for this paper. Even though I pretty much carry a sketchbook or cahier with me everywhere, I still find myself hoarding this scrap paper like it’s some hot commodity. On any given day you can probably find several of these pieces of paper randomly in my purse. I write notes to myself and compose to-do lists on scraps. I also like making little staple books and fill the pages with drawings, sketches and doodles and random quick artwork. I realized I haven’t done that in a while so a few weeks ago I figured if I drew one page every day I’d have a nice little book when it was done.
The little book is finally complete and so I thought it would be fun to create a little animated gif leafing through it.
P.S. I think this completes my goal for 5 animated gifs.
Below are some of the still frames so you can see more detail
Meanwhile, when I was doing a page everyday in my little staple book I started noticing other people sketching, doodles and drawing as well.
During August Anika (from aisforanika) started posting a doodle a day on instagram. This month she is doing a pattern everyday. Follower her on instagram (aisforanika)
While doodling I started thinking about Danny Gregory and how he advocates drawing every day. I hadn’t thought about it for a while, but there’s a long list of things to draw everyday, inspired by his book Everyday matters. You can see the list here, and #1 is to draw a shoe. Naturally one of the pages in my little scratchbook is my shoe.
Blair Stocker is participating in a group blog with her family where they upload their sketchbook pages everyday.
Summer Pierre decided to do one of her One Page Stories everyday for 100 days. Yes. ONE HUNDRED DAYS! She’s on day 11 and I’m enjoying them so much.
Then, inspired by Summer’s commitment and (I suspect) not to be shown up by Summer ;) dear friend Rosa Murillo is now doing a drawing everyday for 100 days as well! I’m in heaven.
Then earlier this week Silvia Chenault posted this BEAUTIFUL and COLORFUL drawing from her sketchbook using prisma markers. It was perfect because I too had just splurged and bought prisma markers in a variety of colors. I had been using the gray markers on the first few pages and then wanted to add color. I’m always inspired by Silvia.
This last weekend was the 10th annual Renegade craft fair in Chicago. I think my sister and I went to their second year and have gone to every one after that. We’ve seen it all, from rain, crazy winds, to intense heat, but I think I can safely say the weather this weekend was PERFECT. There were clear skies, and it was in the comfortable 70s.
Now, onto my loot.
1. My favorite piece I purchased has to be this terrarium necklace by Heron & Lamb.
2. Floppy disc notebook, and slide notebooks (I’ve purchased these before in previous years) by Reuse First
3. Vintage cancellation stamp pinback buttons by Letter Writing Alliance
4. White, black and yellow disc rings by Cat Eats Coyote Jewelry
5. Peanut knife necklace (I’ve been wanting one of these forever) by Little Pancakes
6. Roundy pinback button by Laura Berger
7. Lasercut globe keychain (which I think I will turn into a necklace) by Neogranny
8. Playing card notebooks by Kelso Doesn’t Dance
9. Porcelain envelope by Red Raven
10. Molar town stickers by Skelecore
11. Vintage flashcards and photobooth friend card by The Found
Here’s an instagram of my terrarium necklace. It isn’t a real terrarium and just contains hobby moss, but it’s still beautiful. The comments on instagram reminded me of when I was a freshman in college I bought some miniature bottles from American Science Surplus and I had an aquarium that was being taken over by snails. I had the brilliant idea to fill a little bottle with aquarium water and a tiny baby snail and wear the bottle on a necklace. By the time I got to school the snail seemed to have died from the heat of my body, and by the time I got home for the day the water was murky and gross. I had unintentionally cooked that little guy :(
haha, Friday Favorites re-run (from just last week) because somehow this post got deleted.
I purchased this painting by Emily Rickard and it arrived this week. I’m in love, it just makes me so happy to look at.
Check out this public art installation where little sculptural bronze hands were posted all over central Wellington, offering little gifts to whomever sees them. I really wish the makers of this would start selling those little hands. I’d buy a bunch and put them up all over DeKalb. Check out the link for more pictures and a video.
I made this little gnome from a free paper gnome template, designed by 3EyedBear, via howaboutorange
Homemade Wendy’s Frosty, this needs to be made soon.
I have a few books on color (including the Color Index) but sometimes when I’m working on a project and need some color inspiration I turn to my flickr favorites. This poster by andrea_daquino was the color inspiration for my beaded necklaces.
How great are these architural stamps by The Steam Whistle Press? via design sponge
Yesterday we drove out to Kishwaukee Community College to buy some artwork! Yes, I purchased 3 original pieces from the artomat machine, outside of the library and it was a stacked pack with work from (L-R) John Gall, Circe Dunnell, and Pascale Hulin. If you haven’t visited the machine, it is treasure for this area, and I’d encourage you to check it out.
I love this picture from Chau’s Houston hand drawn windows. My nephew has some crayons or markers that are meant for coloring on windows and I thought it would be fun to get some. But after seeing this white only picture, I HAVE to find some window markers, STAT!
In February of this year I bookmarked a post on Poppytalk about New York artist Holton Rower, who makes big art installations made from poured paint. Last week Booooooom posted about him as well and reminded me of his work.
Both links feature a really cool video of his work being produced.
Then, last week I came upon this post at Anthology Magazine about artist Pernille Snedker Hansen of Snedker°Studio who creates these beautiful marbled wood floors. What caught my eye though, were the preliminary “sketches” she creates to work up to the wood floor panels, seen below.
The wood panels and sketches are done in a combination of suminagashi as well as western marbling techniques, where pigments are floated on the surface of water. There is another great video here of her working as well.
work by Pernille Snedker Hansen
I did some paper marbling for a book arts class I took in college, but after seeing these images I REALLY want to do it again.
At any rate, I was really inspired by the super thin lines of concentric circles as well as the color combinations of both Rower and Hansen’s works. I’m finally, finally, finally at a place this year where I am not overwhelmed with other work and can create some artwork that I want to do, just for fun. Right now that means getting back to my third Artomat series I started earlier this year. I just finished creating three pieces that were inspired by these artists to add to my series. Since my paintings are just that, I wanted to add that they are painted in the style of poured paint and marbling, and not actually poured paint or marbling. I don’t think I will be creating any more in this style, but it was fun to get out that inspiration.
and just a reminder, these are actual miniature canvases that I built that will be sold in Artomat machines. You can click on any of the pictures in this post to take you to the original sources.
Please check out, and enjoy, these lovely links
After seeing this DIY arrow mobile by Rachel at Smile and Wave I immediately hopped on making my own and have had a handful of compliments on it. It hangs on the front of our house by our front door.
Here’s a heads up for those of you who loved and miss Picnik, photo editing. There is now a great replacement for jazzing up your photos and it’s called Picmonkey. High Five to Smallest Forest for tipping me off on this.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, I love Heidi Kenney. Recently I scored one of these awesome gnome necklaces, pictured above.
I’ve been wanting to run a 5K for only about a bajillion years, okay, maybe only since 2007. Check out this video for the Color Run. It would have been such an amazing experience for a first run. I hope they decide to do it every year.
I HIGHLY recommend checking out the new podcast After the Jump, by Grace of Design Sponge. The first episode is an interview with Todd Oldham, and there have been 5 episodes so far.
I’ve really been enjoying everyone’s coverage of the National Stationery Show, but by far the most complete I’ve seen is with Oh So Beautiful Paper with 12 posts. If you follow this link it will take you to all of them.
After seeing this image on flickr and then googling “washi tape keyboard” I had to take my own go at it (seen below).
I decorated my keyboard at work.
Now, if only I had a cuter keyboard at home to decorate. My keyboard at home has black keys and the washi tape is semi transparent so it wouldn’t work out as well.
Here are some links for decorating your keyboard 1, 2, 3
I liked the image that I first linked to at the top of the post with fewer taped keys and rough shapes, rather than trying to perfect each key. I have been wanting to get my own washi tapes for a while. For my birthday my sister got me a few that look like old newspaper and I bought a couple on etsy, BUT Heidi Kenney just posted that Target has a small line of tapes, 4 for $5. This is a huge savings, since you could probably spend that much on just one small roll online. I just more than quadrupled my collection. I’ve been wondering when American markets would catch onto this mostly Japanese trend and start offering their own lines.
Also, check out pinterest for a plethora of boards devoted to all the cute things you can do with these paper tapes.
edit: Amanda Kavanagh shared with me this link of another inexpensive source for decorated paper tapes.
We made it to Friday and the weekend is just about here. I’ve got a bunch of great links I wanted to share, so here I go:
After seeing this on Happiness Is… I bought one of these butterfly jars from ThinkGeek (with a monarch) and it is awesome. I bought it to take to work and make me happy, but it actually has ended up entertaining our cat and so it hasn’t made it to work yet.
For all the mailart peeps out there, have you seen this tutorial by Hanna for making a book binder to house all your collected mailart?Why didn’t I think of that? The majority of my mailart was just hanging out in a card catalog and I had to file through it to enjoy, but now I can put it in a book to properly display. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the mailart postcard swap over on her site. You have until TODAY (Friday) to get in. The deadline was extended because her site was unexpectedly down for a few days.
This sample embroidery piece by TheSmallestForest makes me want to join in the Take A Stitch Tuesday project.
I love these little enameled ladybug pins by Diana Eng (remember her from Project Runway). I love them as a collection, but unfortunately my budget wouldn’t allow for that, each bug is $75.
How Tuesday on Etsy showed us how to make our own leggings, pretty cool huh?
Spring is so close and that makes me want to break out my bike early. This post hasn’t helped.
Warmer weather also means garage sale and estate sale season. I loved this Thrifting Guide series ( 1, 2, 3) by Frecklewonder.
I loved this post by Pam Garrison about her painting class with Jennifer Mercede. So much beautiful art.
Originally watching the TV show Pushing Daisies made me want to take up bee keeping. BUT, watching this beautiful mini documentary Made By Hand about bee keeping made me want to start watching Pushing Daisies again.
The other day I was stopped in my tracks while at Target when I thought I saw a pair of converse shoes that were black and white striped. Turns out it was just the lining that was striped on a solid gray pair of shoes. BUT, this tutorial on converting converse into slip ons has also caught my attention if only because they used striped elastic. Can you tell I’ve had striped shoes on the brain?
Lastly, don’t forget that next Tuesday is the second Tuesday of the month and that means FOUND ART TUESDAY! It’s a perfect weekend to make art and then stealthily leave it behind and brighten someone’s day.
Hello, my name is Robyn and I hatched from a Kinder Surprise Egg. Print Designer by day, Inspiration Junkie by night.www.flickr.com
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