Archive for December, 2008

michelle stitzlein sculpture

whoa! found object artist extraordinaire paula tipped me off to these supercool moth series of wall sculptures, made from repurposed objects by ohio artist michelle stitzlein. these pieces are cobbled together in the most pristine way from old piano keys, tin cans, license plates and bicycle tires, among other things.

michelle_stitzlein_recycled_moth_butterfly_sculpture

see more on michelle’s website and also right here.

brevity jewelry by anna corpron

loving this white and gold collection of acrylic jewelry from anna corpron for brevity. for those of you who are not aware, anna also happens to pen a brilliantly inspiring little blog known as sub-studio. i admire her simple, stylish and modern aesthetic.

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find these pieces and see much more at the brevity website, and while you’re clicking around get your paper fix on at the sub-studio shop. and don’t forget her blog either!

snapshot sunday

seen while waiting in line in a fast food drive thru in the city!

always look up.

and always carry your camera with you.

there is beauty everywhere.

adam ekberg photography

interesting, mysterious pieces in this photography collection by chicago photographer adam ekberg. adam enjoys the juxtaposition of the banal with the phenomenal. fleeting events are recorded to initiate a setting or an environment, as well as to create implied self portraits (in which he is conspicuously missing). it feels very earnest to me and i appreciate the chronicling of everyday life as he sees it.

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see more on adam’s website.

evadne james glass art

uk artist evadne james has a passion for printmaking and discovered that it takes on a whole different feeling when applied in a glass medium. she’s created a splendid collection of glass art pieces that touch on the loss and understanding of past and current cultural identities and how we are affected by it.

evadne_james_art_glass

she calls her work intimate, and truly it is.

see more beauty here.

maeera mougin ceramics

fabulous looking handbuilt functional porcelain work from maeera mougin. i love how she draws inspiration from her world travels and incorporates multiethnic cultural styles into her collection. and of course i love that cheese platter with molded detailing from actual cheese labels.

Â maeera_mougin_porcelain_tableware

see more and find out where to purchase her work on her website.

tilman faeker illustrations: miniview

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i derive great thrill and pleasure when i discover handmade collections, in any type of media, where i can find emotion or humor interwoven with that beauty and cleverness i yearn for. don’t you think when those elements combine, a certain alchemy is created which serves as a throughway to the personality of the hand behind the work? i do. and i like that connection. that’s why i am really enjoying these illustrations from stuttgart-based artist tilman faeker. the restrained color selections compliment the delicate line work and subtlety in the subjects he chooses, and it all flows, one piece into another into another. when i finish looking i want to look again because i don’t want to miss anything. as it turns out, tilman provided me with some illuminating thoughts on the subject of handmade work too…

Â tilman_faeker_illustrations_memory

q: have you always been drawing, even as a child?

a: truth is, i hadn’t done any proper drawings for about 15 years when i went out of art school/university. while studying i was doing a lot of film and interactive media-related stuff (3d animation, sound design, sound art, etc.). everything was very artsy with a lot of theoretical issues involved, and illustration was never a subject.

after i finished my studies, i realized that i was always missing something in my work, which in fact was some kind of manual labour. i couldn’t imagine spending the next 30 years in front of a computer screen pushing around pixels the whole day or becoming some kind of new media artist who does stuff that only other artists can relate to, because they read the same books. i then remembered how it felt to draw, the combination of rational decisions and subconsciousness (there is this saying that drawing is seeing), working with materials and with your own hands, not having to operate a computer and its software all the time… so i started to draw again, put together a portfolio and started shopping it around.

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q: can you tell us a little about your process?

a: i draw everything by hand first, then scan it and then put the different pieces together digitally and colorize them. i’m not so happy about this part, but it is very economical.

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q: what appeals to you most about illustration?

a: the best part of this work is that everyone can relate to it. you can look at an illustration and just like the colors or the quality of the lines – regardless of the visual conceptÂ – or you can approach it in an intellectual way, when you try to “read” it.

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