I am super impressed by the beautiful and technically amazing oil paintings of Emily Burns who seems to garner a share of inspiration for the chaos created through making a mess. You can view her work via two websites, her illustration site and her home art website. She has little to say about herself but her paintings say it all.
The random experimentation happening at Data Driven Decision Making just keeps getting more random and more experimental. I didn’t really know if it was possible but I have been proven wrong as the psychedelic rabbit hole seems to just keep stretching out even further every time I check back. Wild but oh so good.
Dutch portrait painter Katinka Lampe uses strong blocks of bold color to create a harmony between subject and composition. Her technique is subtle but offset by the sometimes aggressive stare of her sitters.
Artist Eric Yahnker has updated with some new and oh-so-very strange psychedelic charcoal drawings. I just kind of got caught up in staring at the above image just trying to decipher what I was seeing in my mind. Yahnker possesses a not only an impressive talent but a truly unique imagination.
Feral Kid is the art work of João Ruas who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. After a stint in London from 2004 to 2007 he is now home again in São Paulo but has been exhibiting internationally. You can view his feminine form inspired surrealism at both his website and in his Flickr-folio.
Australian graffiti artist Numskull has continued updating his site with more examples of his sarcastic pop culture clash artwork that mixes typography, comic and cartoon imagery we all love and fear. If you are unfamiliar with his work you can read an interview with him at Side Street Sydney that gets into his process and the psychology behind his imagery. You can also purchase posters of his Wooden Toy Publishing and Stupid Krap.
I am a big fan of his work. His use of typography is of particular interest to me but the mixing of ‘pop/comic type’ with comic book and cartoon figures is just brilliant.
Stanford educated artist Tauba Auerbach has stayed busy updating with more interesting work. She continues to reexamine her mediums producing 2 dimensional trompe l’oeil paintings that although completely flat look as though they are created with raised folds in paper. Personally, I was particularly interested in the visuals she has achieved using acrylic and glass on panel.
Arkitip and Incase take you behind the scenes to get a look at Evan Hecox’s creative process in his Denver based art studio. Super awesome video.
The song playing is “Yerba Buena Bump” by Tommy Guerrero.
Via my brothers in arms (keep your pants on boys): Joyengine.
Dominic Wilcox was born in Sunderland and educated at Edinburgh College of Art. After obtaining a degree in Visual Communication he spent time in Japan before returning to England to undertake an MA at the Royal College of Art in the renowned Design Product course led by Ron Arad. He is a ‘thinking’ artist whose work is always highly conceptual blending pop culture, satire and politics seamlessly into new art forms.
Steve Seeley struck a special cord with me considering my longstanding fetish for all things He-Man. I actually have my original Castle Greyskull sitting on my new desk in our studio. So when I dropped in on Seeley’s work at The Delicate Matter I was immediately made a fan when I saw the above image and the addition of the bear’s head only managed to up the volume level on the awesome dial. Seeley paints in acrylic and it doesn’t stop at He-Man and bear heads. Might I also recommend looking into his Creature Project as well. Ok, I guess I just did recommend it. So there.
It’s been a really long time since I dropped in on the work fo Travis Millard at Fudge Factory Comics. I met him a really long time ago at a show in Denver and was impressed by how nice of a guy he was. He just keeps on rolling with some of the funnest, funniest and smartest doodles around and there are few things better than one of his zines. I just punched in his URL today out of curiosity and was once again impressed by his unique work.
Founder and Creative Director of Staple Design & Reed Space, Jeff Staple sits down and talks, no BS with internationally known graffiti artist Futura.
Anecdotal story: Futura’s studio is really close to Lifelongfriendshipsociety and last time I was there I stopped into his store and picked up a shirt and a crewneck sweatshirt for something like 20 bucks. Both are still two of the coolest shirts I own. Totally made my day at the time.
Artist and illustrator Alex Lukas has a fascinating portfolio that mixes all kinds of strange things like apocalyptic art collages and comic book style art and illustration. Just when you think you might have figured him out you click on something else and voila, more talent is exposed. You can also purchase some of his prints at Cantab Publishing.
Born in Concrete is the artwork of Vancouver based Derek Stenning. His focus is on astronauts, flight and sci-fi and he puts an enormous amount of work into crafting his highly detailed visions of an alternate reality.
Moonassi artist statement:
“I draw something I’d like to draw and I can draw well. I draw people because that’s what I’d like to talk about. I prefer to draw in a small scale as I wish to capture my everyday thoughts and feelings during a limited time of the day. If I think I want to touch you my drawing reflects that thought. I draw an act that I’m upsetting you if
I think I want to distress you.
The reason why these ephemeral and scattered thoughts are so significant for me is that I can see myself as a tiny fraction like those thoughts, and also I’m the collection of those fractions. I’m the mundane being, a sort of dust everywhere. I’m anyone or anything in anywhere. I want to sweep and gather all those tiny little fractions on paper so as not to be scattered.”
The drawings of Moonassi are absolutely divine. I could only imagine how a large series of them would look hanging in a gallery. Beautifully contemplative work.
“From the Latin “venter” meaning belly.
Ventral is fifty percent of the visual cortex, associated with object recognition and form representation. Connected to the brains’ limbic system, it elicits emotive stimulation throughout the body.
For all the times you get that feeling of warm, golden uncertainty in your belly.”
Ventral is an artist currently based in Leeds. You can view work via the Ventral website, Flickr or the blog.
Sex, art, surrealism, trompe l’oeil, violence and consumerism all slam together in the pop realist meets surrealist paintings of Swiss artist Till Rabus and there are moments of sheer brilliance happening in the mixto-art-soup that looks absolutely delicious. It’s rare that the word fabulous is apropos but alas here we are.
My friend and local Denver designer/illustrator Anthony Cozzi has recently refreshed his online store with a new hand drawn screen printed poster featuring an oldie but goodie skate trick. Anthony invests a lot in his prints and uses high quality materials so you can be assured this will look sharp on your wall and if you into skeleton sport tricks you could always pair it with his Dead Wheelie print from the San Francisco Art Crank exhibition.
