justin gibbens

I recently saw one of Justin Gibbens' paintings on Punch Gallery's site advertising their current Winner Takes All fundraiser (which sounds pretty cool) and had to learn more. Turns out I've seen his Birds of Paradise series before, although I can't remember where (perhaps I'll wake up in the middle of the night with the answer to this question). His watercolor and gouache paintings are a little like Audobon on acid - highly realistic traditional renderings of wildlife with a surreal twist. In Gibbens' world, cranes have four heads, moles have unicorn horns, eagles are 'American Griffons' and owls have Bird of Paradise tails. You can see more here.

toby lunchbreath

I saw one of Toby Lunchbreath's illustrations on Drawn! the other day and proceeded to lose the next several hours looking at his flickr stream. Some of his drawings are pretty insightful and most of them are totally hilarious. I highly recommend checking out the whole collection - just make sure you have a couple of hours free.

josh keyes

My friend Jesse Lortz just turned me on to the work of artist Josh Keyes. I love his use of realism to portray surreal scenes of our possible future. His work is a beautiful warning of what could be to come. Keyes is originally from Tacoma, WA and I feel a lot of the Northwest coming through in his work - from the animals depicted to his use of Northwest Native imagery like the totem pole. The end result is somehow familiar, even though what he is showing us is (hopefully) a worst case scenario.

sally hayden gilmore

Beautiful sculpture and drawing from Sally Hayden Gilmore. Sally and I were in the art department together at Western Washington University several years back and recently got back in touch through the wonder of Facebook. Her work is beautiful, tactile and sexually charged. I really love how she blurs the line between 2D and 3D by incorporating components that break off the page in her drawings, and 2D elements on the wall behind some of her sculptures. The first three images I've shown here are sculpture and the last three are drawings.

dirt poster

Roland Tiangco's Dirt Po(or)ster is currently making its way around the internets. According to his website, it is "a poster the recipient completes by revealing spot-varnished type with hands made dirty by handling the poster." Very clever. Apparently it will be for sale to the public soon - details here.

cassandra jones

I saw Cassandra Jones' video installation Eventide a few years ago, but had forgotten about it until I came across a post about her on BOOOOOOOM! the other day. I am quite fascinated by her work and her process. She takes found photographs and creates original still images and videos from them. The result is something new and beautiful that speaks to our connectedness, as well as the way the internet has changed how we view images. The video I've posted here is an interview with Cassandra about her work. She does a great job of explaining what she does and why she does it.

vanessa marsh

Vanessa Marsh is a photographer and sculptor based in San Francisco. We went to undergrad together at Western Washington University many years ago, during which time I had the privilege of seeing the beginnings of her artistic career. I haven't seen her in many years, but I love what she's doing these days. She builds models of places from her past and then photographs them. The result is a scene that is both real and surreal, almost as though the viewer is being afforded a glimpse inside Vanessa's memory. I, for one, am grateful for the view.

grain edit

I have a new favorite blog - Grain Edit. According to their site, it "is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period." What's not to love?

T is for Times

I just came across this intriguing collection of T’s on But Does It Float. They are all versions of the logo for T Magazine (the New York Times Style Magazine), which I must admit I've never read. Apparently these T's were made by artists and designers for past issues of the magazine. I've posted a few here, but it really is worth checking out the entire set on T Magazine's blog.

gift idea #1

I want this. Please. Thank you. It's available for purchase on supermarket.com, which, by the way, is a pretty cool site.

via we love typography