Ok, this is very cool! First of all, one-off neon risograph prints… cool. Secondly, uploading photos from your phone to make your own custom neon risograph prints… cool. But here’s where it gets really cool: to celebrate the holiday season a lovely friend of mine, who happens to be on the inside at Parabo Press, asked if I’d like to give 100 of my readers {first come first serve} a FREE 12″x17″ risograph print, made from one of your own photos… COOL. I tried it and it’s super easy… well, except that whole ‘which image should I use’ part! Here are some picture-picking tips from the folks over at Parabo:

“Like any monochrome printing process risos look best when the photo you are printing is high contrast. That means the dark spots are really dark and the bright spots are really bright. That is because monochrome printers only distinguish light/dark and not color. Not every amazing color photo will make a great monochrome print. The simplest way to visualize it in your head is to think of a pretty red rose on a green background. Pretty pretty in color, but if you turned that image black and white, it would just look like medium grey on medium grey … not so stunning. You can open the Parabo App on your phone and choose a photo from your camera roll to preview as a risograph. Easy peasey.”

Love it, let’s do this! Download the free app, pick a photo, choose your color, and away you go… use promo code JEALY before checkout, and you’ll just have to pay $8 for shipping. Have fun!

*One per person. Offer lasts until December 13th, which just so happens to be their cut-off for holiday shipping… so make those decisions quickly!

I’ve written about her before, and I’ll do it again! I love, love, love the work of Australian artist Sandra Eterovic. Wood, and paint, and hinges in all the right places… so hilarious, and so beautifully made. Oh, and that shish-kabob lady on a stick? Yep, I need that.

Oh, I love this collage series, titled “Genius Loci”, by Sweden based artist Anastasia Savinova. Her description of this project is lovely, so I’m going to let her do the talking:

“In this project I try to identify differences and to find similarities between places of habitation. Traveling around cities and countries, I take pictures of buildings, look into windows sneakily, go to local shops, flea markets and bars, watch everyday life – all this helps to build the feeling of the Place. This feeling becomes a foundation or a series of large-scale collages. The Integral Image emerges from visual information and a dozen of associations. While architecture and landscape are visual components of the integral image of the Place, at the same time, this image is inseparably linked with a mentality and a way of life. It is saturated with “an incorporeal something”. Ancient romans called it “genius loci” – the protective spirit of a place. In contemporary usage, “genius loci” refers to a location’s distinctive atmosphere.”

Love.

December 1. Wow. We did it. An entire year full of unblocking projects! {If you missed the other projects, no problem, you can catch up right here.} I thought this was the perfect assignment to finish with… it’s from Toronto based artist Amanda Happé, the artist who painted the cover of Creative Block! This unblocking project sums up everything this year has been about for me… making lots of work, not being too precious about it, and sharing that work with others. Well, get ready, because we’re really going to share this one:

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#creativeunblock // december // by amanda happé, pg.113

“I challenge you to make something and leave it somewhere public — somewhere it might be found. Something not too grand or careful, but honest and perhaps lovely. When you’re creating it, think about one person happening upon it. Make them a message. If you enjoy this feeling of caring about something without feeling precious about it, do it again. And again.”

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Ok, how perfect is that for the holiday season!? When you leave your piece somewhere {exciting!}, post it to Instagram… I want to see where all of your special pieces have been left {I’ll do a big recap post in January}. Hashtag it #creativeUNblock, and as always, have fun!

*I’m in denial about this project being almost over, so instead I’ll spend this month acting like an artsy elf… yes, that might help.

Well hello latest addition to my Christmas wish-list! These are the wood-cut print sculptures of American artist Nic Annette Miller. They are “hand printed from an original woodcut onto mulberry paper with oil based ink. The print is then pasted onto 3/4″ plywood and the exact image is sawed out, sanded, wired, and made ready for your wall. Being that each one is hand printed, they all slightly vary from one another.” Hear that, Santa? READY FOR MY WALL.

Oh, these make me so happy… and kinda sad. Found photos starring gouachie ghosts by American artist Angela Deane. All of these pieces are from her “Ghost Photographs“ series. Angela refers to them as “ghosts of moments” – special events gone by which may or may not be remembered fully and or correctly – which is why they make me happy… and kinda sad. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go pore over old family photos and do my very best to remember what was happening and who the hell all of those people are!

{thanks to Carol for pointing me to Angela’s portfolio}

I don’t know how I did it, but somehow I managed to get American artist Esther Pearl Watson on the podcast. Actually I know exactly how I did it … I asked Martha Rich to ask her for me. Worked like a charm. I have been a huge fan of Esther’s for years, and finally met her a few weeks ago in New York. I was nervous and intimidated… until she opened her mouth. I quickly realized that she was hilarious, really nice, and actually a little bit shy herself. Esther’s story is amazing… she had a very unique childhood, to say the least, and it fuels much of her current work. Anyway, I’ll stop typing so you can start listening. Hit play right up there under “Looking for the Swimming Hole at Dinosaur State Park”, or you can subscribe on iTunes. First up, a few of my favorite pieces from her painting portfolio. Esther refers to them as memory paintings, and I called them “postcards from childhood”:

Amazing. Instead of sunny, perfect childhood memories, Esther illustrates the darker side… you know, things like “Before the Landlord Finds Us” {you’ll have to listen to find out why there are so many UFOs in her paintings}. Part of the reason I think she’s such a creative genius is because of the way she recognizes / embraces her experiences, good and bad, and turns them into creative projects. Speaking of which, she found an old diary in a dirty roadside gas station bathroom… and yep, she turned THAT into art too. Enter “Tammy Pierce”:

Creative. Genius. Since that day, years ago in a gas station bathroom, Tammy Pierce has become her own woman. {ps. the real owner of the diary was not named Tammy Pierce… it’s a name that Esther made up from various names found in her husband’s high school year book… and btw, her husband is Mark Todd – another insanely talented artist / illustrator / teacher}. Here’s a little taste of Tammy’s world today:

Oh Tammy. So many bad decisions. And there you have it… I beat the art history books and got Esther’s story now! It was such a thrill to meet her in person, and I’m over the moon that she said yes to the podcast. I hope you loved it as much as I did! Thanks to Esther for sharing her hilarious, creative stories; thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode; and of course, thanks to you for listening {AND thanks to everyone that’s given a rating on iTunes… ART FOR YOUR EAR is slowly moving up, row by row, in the “What’s Hot in Art” section because of you guys!}

Other people/things we talked about:

Mark Todd  /  Ashley Mistriel  /  Martha Rich  /  Alice Neel  /  ArtCenter College of Design, LA  

ps. I mentioned my brother, playing a hand mirror as a guitar in my “bossy older sister” air band… and should have mentioned that he wrote, played, and recorded the music for this podcast! Another creative genius. Thanks Cam, you’re the best  xo. 

Thank you to everyone that entered the draw for this lovely, heart-warming, made with love storybook! I could only draw one name, and that name is… MEGAN CARTY! If your name isn’t Megan Carty, you can still buy this beauty directly from the Cordes family. Visit their site, right here.

*Stay tuned because I’ll be giving away a little something, via my Facebook page, every Friday between now and Christmas!

I don’t know about you, but I am in desperate need of a happy, feel-good story… this is it! All of this started with a decades long holiday family tradition, reading a story that is over 100 years old. This tale, titled “Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn”, was written by Albert Bigelow Paine in 1898. The Cordes family has been reading it on Christmas Eve for generations. Such a shame that it has long been out of print… and so they decided to take it upon themselves to change that! Betsy Cordes, an art director with ideas, business savvy, licensing expertise, and a love of working with artists reached out to American illustrator Adam McCauley {really interesting video here with Adam talking about his traditional “crow quill” ink drawings}. With a lot of love, a truckload of hard work, and a very successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014, they brought Mr.Dog and his friends at the Hollow Tree Inn back to life! Take a look at this video of Betsy and her dad, Jim, talking about the sweet story behind this sweet story. ps. This was their Kickstarter video from 2014, which they finished with flying colors… so no need to pledge. Since this video they’ve printed a second, limited edition, run. Ok, now you can watch it…

Ah, Mr. Dog’s Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn … I just got a copy when I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago, and it’s absolutely gorgeous! Red linen, gold foil, Adam’s illustrations! Want one? Of course you do! Leave a comment below and I will draw one name on Monday November 30, at noon PST…. and if you don’t win this give-away, you can still order one right here. But be quick… Betsy and her family were only able to print a limited number for this holiday season.

I wrote about the gouache-dotted painted heads of Brooklyn based artist Rachel Levit almost two years ago. Today, it’s allllll about these ceramic heads, from a series titled, you guessed it, Heads. This entire series was cast from the same mold. For real. Simple, striking, beautiful, organic, and little bit sad … or is that just me? Sigh.

*Photos by Josefina Santos

Wednesday work blahs? No problem… these photos, from the 1970’s, of New Yorkers on their lunch breaks might cheer you up! They are the work of Charles H. Traub, from his series quite appropriately titled, Lunch Time. The color, the fashion, the whole “leaving your desk to eat lunch” thing! Ah, I love it all. Who’s with me? Shut down your computer and go outside for lunch today. Thanks Charles… we needed that.

via gothamist