heavy metal and tanuki bears

had a strange night last night. instead of being outraged at the mediocre awards made by the academy at the oscars we watched a documentary on the band metallica. it was really long but quite entertaining. they ended up hiring (for $40,000/mth) a therapist to work with the ego clashing band.

the best part about the movie was the drummer lars ulrich's private art collection. it was truly stunning stuff. at one point in the movie he decides to sell it all. here is the basquiat piece he owned which is about 7 x 13 feet and sold for 5 MILLION dollars!!! who would ever have thought a drummer in a metal band would have such great taste in art.



it made me think what would i have in my collection if money (and space!) weren't an option. here's my list.

cy twombly
robert rauschenberg
joseph cornell
jasper johns
agnes martin
robert ryman

over the weekend my friend howie mentioned tanuki bears, a japanese raccoon. i had never heard of them and on my surfing actually bumped into this picture of a stuffed one taken by derrick hodgson.



they're so crazy cute, they really look like anime.

new additions

changed my sections a bit --------------------------------------->

put in an illustration/collage section with some fabulous stuff to check out.
added lillian piri to the lovely section as well.

i've also stumbled upon a link to a store called excellent virtu where you can buy prints of some of these artsits. tinman alley also has work for sale from some great folks.

ligers? ligers!

ok, all you napolean dynamite fans may be suprised to find out that Ligers do exist!
jp found them online and they are massive beasts!


crazy!!

weewonderful's posted the most lovely japanese book...it nearly killed me with its cuteness.
goes well with this fabric i found...

something to see...

watched i heart huckabees last night, it was a really fun watch. i have to admit though i have a soft spot for marky mark - heehee! the music is by the same guy who did eternal sunshine and was great the whole way through. i definitely want to see it again sometime.

i've just revisted the paper source...oh how i love that store, i wish we had one in ottawa!

oooooooo

went on to velocity's site to see if they had any more work of amy's up and look at them all! they are just so lovely!!
here are a few favourites:



i have such a soft spot for birds. velocity also has these lovely tomas paul plates. i especially like this one:


so many pretty things!!!!

poor things

here's a picture from a piano magic cd that i have. its a response to tania's entry today.
i loved the packaging and these strange scenarios made with tiny dead animals.
its so cute but so morbid!

they remind me of the cat my lab partners and myself had to dissect in first year "anatomy for the arts" class. we called the cat "our poor thing"

speaking of unfortunate beings here are a couple of sketches for my new series...



not sure yet if the final pieces will be primaliry paintings/drawings or collages...but i guess we'll see!

giggles

here is a nook of my studio

look at these adorable knitted dolls, and these gorgeous handmade dolls from a lady named rosa

i'd love to get one for my neice!

here is a funny animation called swami jeff i saw on zed. thanks to jp for remembering its name so i could watch it again. it makes me giggle sooo much!

enjoy!

white on white

lazy day today
didn't end up making it to the studio
but will spend a full day there tomorrow
and will buy a bunch of boards to experiment on YAY!
very exciting
will try to make some white on white work...
something i have wanted to do for ages now
(i've been talking about it since i started this blog)
they seem like work i really should be doing while there's snow on the ground!

while i was back there i was admiring again jp's little muji speakers.
they came packed flat in the cutest little ziplock bag.
muji is so cool, i've only ever seen a few things at the moma gift shop in nyc
but jp said he would take me to a muji store if we ever go to britain (or japan HA!)
but for now i can admire their logo-free items online.

we work for them

first news is anne is ok, she didn't break her wrist, i guess its sprained. still no fun but at least she won't have to wear a nasty cast!

there are so many great books at you work for them, i'm totally in love with
klaus hapanami book. here are a few pics...



and two pics from a book called romantik which look like paintings...



but there are so many others...

broken wrist projects

well it sounds like anne broke her wrist today snowboarding. i can't believe it, the poor thing! jp went to wait with her at the hospital. i hope they don't have to wait too long.

last night my power adapter pooped out. well, it actually got fried. goddammit, its an expense i wasn't expecting to have to deal with at the moment.

i am considering applying to mags and fags for a part time job. haven't decided for sure if i will do this or not...its been so long since i've done retail...and i've tried to stay away from it for soo long but the sad fact is i need a job.

today during brunch (mmmm french toast made with cinnamon raisin bread and fruit) i thought of some new ideas for artwork. i'll have to go in this week and see if i can get any of them to pan out. but i'm excited to try them out.

here is a neat little wv ad, i quite liked.

and this is an artist featured in the latest issue of tokion named ashley macomber. she too combines animals with people as well as other animals. i think these are older work which i quite like.


she did the packaging for the cd that came with this issue of tokion. the cd is put out by tylenol. i can't believe tylenol has deemed this a demographic they want to go for, i guess its the extreme sports folks they are going after, crazy. they even have an ouch website which is actually kind of interesting. what is the world coming to???

funnily enough she's involved in this project called the broken wrist project. it was/is a collective of artists based out of LA. its worth poking around on. ooh, i found work by a guy named ryan wallace off it, its great! here are a couple pieces off his site...

yay fun friday!

wow, i feel so much better than i did earlier! i went to the gym (homer simpson pronounces it gime) and did a longer workout than i had been doing just to try and get me out of this slumpy mood. thankfully it worked!!

when i came back i had two presents waiting for me!
shary boyle's book witness my shame

and
dave cooper's book under belly
woo hoo!!!

and the other exciting news is i won an old mail order catalogue from ebay today. i'm hoping this will bring me some inspiration for some new artwork! here are a few shots from the listing of the cat...



yay!!!

tonight is aaron's bday so we're heading to the shanghai for kareoke. i wonder if i will have the guts to get up and torture a whole crowd of people...guess that depends on how much i've had to drink!!!

things things things

photomontage.com this artist has a bunch of sites and does so much work it boggles the mind, i wish i produced half as much as she does!

i found this neat art swap site called 20 things. i've signed up but who knows if anything will ever come of it, sounds like they're a bit overwhelmed with the response from people wanting to participate. i still haven't received a piece back from the swap i did in lethbridge. i wonder if the show is over yet.

oh no, 2K finally put their shop online, my tshirt habit is in trouble!

here's a shot of the commission i was working on,

ways of working

finally got a chance to watch rivers and tides.
it was neat to get to see what andy goldsworthy's personality is like.
i think it still suprised me somewhat HOW connected to nature he is...it seems so foreign to todays world.
in the film he describes how words are sufficient but he can say so much more in the work that he does.
his work speaks volumes! i think my dad would have really enjoyed the documentary. jp was definitely pretty blown away by it!

so i figured out the other day how i work best. i think my work is best when i respond to my materials as oppose to force my will onto them.
i guess this sounds obvious but it was a bit of a revelation for me.
figuring this out means i understand that i have to find things to respond to,
which takes a lot of looking and a lot of time

i think the first piece i made this way was in florence.
it was a piece of wood that stood on its own with a nail sticking out
i put a key on the nail
and some sweet old scuffed blue leather kid's shoes in front of it.
simple. it worked.

i still have the little shoes in my studio, and now they'll remind me to work this way.

other stuff:
music video: you can find a joanna newsome video if you can find her section. its quite sweet, i like the blackboard animation and of course her fantastic harp playing and pretty dresses.

artist: gary taxali

fun lights: weplight for my love of lighting and things that come in flat packages!

an affordable interiors chain we went to in nyc that i quite liked called west elm

fabric and ribbons

was good and staved off the record store for another day.
it was difficult, last night we stayed in and played records and i felt a lot of my records are sorely outdated!

carl leant me his copy of rivers and tides which i'm hoping we'll watch later.
will be great to see andy goldsworthy in action!

the studio was good today. the commission is coming along well.
its very exciting.

i love this fabric site...it makes me want to make stuff with fabric and ribbons...oooh its so hard not to buy some!!! i mean how can you resist robot fabric?

or zoo animals...

i need to get a sewing machine!

oh and for anyone who ever wanted to leave a message before but couldn't, you can now, so go for it!

ginga bread

i'm enjoying a gingerbread latte (WITH whipcream) tonight...mmmmmmmmm
a guilty pleasure.

i've been meaning to post a picture of this

its my childhood towel. i wanted to document it because it is getting so old.
i'd like to find some more some day.

i can add it to my tadalist. its great fun for anyone who likes making lists like me!

i printed out images of the picture i'm using for the commission piece today...
i'll go to the studio tomorrow and work some more on it.
we'll see how it goes.

mmmm lasagna

pretty domestic day
did the dishes
cleaned the litter
did the garbage
cleaned the stove and put new element covers on
(there was a strange odour eminating from that general area
i think it was the thai curry...)
and 7 YES SEVEN loads of laundry!
made a lasagna
and then won at scrabble

here's my little still life
with oranges and hello kitty bubble bath jp bought yesterday


ooooh jeeps just found this awesome illustrator
ghostshrimp.
i have to go look some more.

switching gears

so ever since i found the cathy daley drawings i've been in a bit of a pickle. i don't think i can really go ahead and make the work after i've seen the ones she's done. i know mine would be different and mean something different but they would be too easy for people to compare. i think i gotta do something else instead. its so funny because i really thought my drawings were something new that hadn't been done...geesh (you have to say this like napoleon dynamite)

"its a liger
its pretty much my favourite animal. its a mix between a lion and a tiger. bred for its skills and magic"

ah, it makes me laugh! if you need a napoleon fix they have clips at the link above.

so i think i just have to go back into the studio and play around. see what happens. do some secondhand shopping for some new inspiration. funny how that works!

i went to cbc3 this morning and WOW was i ever suprised at all the amazing sessions they've put up. i've only gone through a few so it will keep me busy for the next few morning coffees.

jp and aaron both launched their new sites today. looking good boys! i get to help jp choose a print of amf's in exchange for him doing his site, its going to be hard to pick!

here are a couple of my faves (for very different reasons)



hey neat, jp just came across this postal service video made by the director of napoleon dynamite, its funny too!

the 6 degrees

its such a crazy weird time right now, i feel unemployed. i seem to be doing a lot of waiting. waiting for design projects to start or come back, waiting to get stuff to finish that art commission, waiting for my wrist to heal...and of course waiting for cheques to come in!

yesterday i found something interesting...i was looking up work by john kissick (because frankly i just don't get the appeal of his work) and i found a site called newzones. i was looking at a few of the artists and i came across these:




by cathy daley. i know and love her work but never had her as a teacher at OCAD. someone at my last open house commented that my new work has similarity to hers but WHOA, that is crazy similar!

i think i might have to start another body of work while i'm working on the scribble series. it makes sense to do some more collage work...hmmm, but what would that be...i'll just have to go rooting around my wee brain for something fun.

ooooh, just found work by cybele young on the newzones website. i first saw her work at the ago rental gallery. its so lovely and sweet!!! here are a couple of details of the work: