“My intention with this work is to reduce a “landscape” into a minimalized and stylized form. For these pieces I use organic shapes that were sawed from wood panels and a pared-down color palette which mirrors the “fading” of these landscapes.”

WHAT. A 2D cafe that you wander around in!? I want to go to there. It’s a perfect black and white wonder where you can drink coffee, eat fancy treats and, clearly, Instagram your little heart out! This is YND 223-14 Cafe (previously YND 239-20 Cafe before they moved a few doors down) in Seoul Korea. I love everything about this fabulous place, so obviously I messaged them immediately to find out who did the artwork… the founder/owner Eun-Jin Lee responded with, “me”. Wow.

That final image is proof … cold hard proof that those delicate, thin, perfect little lines are done by HAND. Yes, the hands of California based artist Kelly Ording are responsible for all of this goodness. Paintings, drawings, collages made from cut up drawings all of which feature her insane line work. Seriously, my hands get shaky just looking at these pieces! If you happen to be in Sun Valley, Idaho in the next week, she currently has a show – titled “An Unseen World” – at Gilman Contemporary until April 15th, 2019.

ps. Some of her work is also available to buy via Local Language.

Oh. My. God, indeed! All of these fashionable ladies are part of an ongoing series, titled “Girls”, by London based artist / illustrator Frida Wannerberger. Ah, so beautiful and bizarre … one of my favorite combos. Also, that fabulous Jurassic Park outfit? YES.

These “one-minute-nudes” are the work of Hudson, New York based artist Gretchen Kelly. Now, anyone who’s ever taken a life drawing class will know about these quick exercises… the model changing positions every 60 seconds so you have to work fast and make decisions on the fly. I did hundreds of these in art school. Um, NONE of them looked like this! Elegant lines, washy wonderfulness, and a fabulous celebration of – not only the female form – but also the creative process. Beautiful and confident.

ps. These lovely (affordable) pieces are available  in Gretchen’s shop.

“Thursday’s Drawing Class Had Run Its Course”, and, “Roger Worried That His Hair Style Was Out of Fashion”… So. Good! I always love whatever LA based artist Kelly Puissegur does, but these two? Oh, YES. Kelly created these for a curated collection on Saatchi Art, titled “Refuse To Be The Muse”, in honor of International Women’s Day. Nailed it. 🔥

psst… Kelly happens to be one of the 75 female artists featured in my book, “A BIG IMPORTANT ART BOOK – Now With Women” , which is also very appropriate for today!

I’ve written about Philadelphia based artist / illustrator Amze Emmons before {way back in 2012}, but I just found these pieces … bad pun totally intended. These works are graphite and gouache on handmade paper, and I’ll hand it over to Amze to explain the rest:

“Notations is an on-going series of drawings from my walks around Philadelphia. At about the same time I started this work, Nicole Donnelly (of the Paper Think Tank) started producing ‘Philly Kozo,’ a handmade paper made from Kozo growing wild along the banks of the Delaware River, on land belonging to the power company. This locally-sourced paper seemed appropriate to use for a series of street objects found on my local walks, and so the Notations drawings emerged. This series will require several more years to build up the quantity of work required to have the desired impact.”

Can’t wait! Happy Friday.

I absolutely love it when big, beautiful, high-end brands work with artists. Gucci is particularly good at this {I shared this project they did with Toronto’s Kris Knight in 2014}, and this is their latest artsy collaboration. They recently invited six artists to reimagine their DIY cardigans… I found out about this because of the unstoppable Ashley Longshore {hers is the first image above}. Ashley & Gucci … um yeah, that’s a match made in fashion heaven. Anyway, I did a little more digging and found the whole campaign. Here is Gucci’s description:

“Angela Deane’s friendly ghosts, named Sam and Wendall, wear the sweaters painted on top of winter scenes. Isabella Cotier’s portrait style illustrations are based on the characters who live around her London neighborhood, and artist and illustrator Marc Burckhardt’s richly detailed creations feature a gorilla and a tiger, chosen by the artist because “the elegance and style of a tiger seemed like a perfect fit for Gucci, and the brute strength of the gorilla felt like an amusing counterpoint to the sophistication of the DIY line.” Amber Vittoria—an artist who focuses on the accurate portrayal of women within art—imagines two female characters, Ashley Longshore paints a girl immersed in flowers and Brianda Fitz James Stuart’s whimsical illustrations, inspired by classic Renaissance paintings, feature a swan.” 

Love, love, loooooove! {ps. I also really love that 5 of the 6 artists are women}. Stay tuned because there is another top secret project that is part of this, but I have to wait until next week to show you.

Vote. For the love of all that is good, VOTE. This is the work of Portland based artist Lisa Congdon. Lisa does all sorts of things {I’m not actually sure when she sleeps}, but one thing she does particularly well is THIS: she uses her artwork to share her views, spread love, and motivate action. I am Canadian, so while I’d love to vote in the US midterms today, alas, I just have to sit up here biting my nails. Please, please, please exercise your right to make change… the world is counting on you.

What, how!? Markers. Yes. Paris based Ronan Bouroullec knows how to play with color. By day, he and his brother Erwan design everything from furniture to textiles, vases to lighting … but later that day you’ll find these inspiring curves and lines filling this drool-worthy Instagram feed. I don’t know about you, but I have to go see if I have any markers that aren’t dried out.