Ok, sometimes you just need a simple collage that makes you smile… ta-dah! Here’s four! Melbourne based artist Alexandra Ethell sells her work {very affordably I might add!} under the name “in the early hours”. Hm… maybe that’s when these weird and wonderful ideas pop into her head? Cockatoos on kite strings, and jaunty rides on giant cranes. Wheeeee!

{via Poppytalk}

Ew!!! …and also, Ahahahaha!!! This is the work of Hamburg based artist/designer Silke Baltruschat. These are posters from Schulmädchen-Report: Was Eltern nicht für möglich halten (Schoolgirl Report Part 1: What Parents Don’t Think Is Possible) – a 1970 West German sex report film. Already kinda creepy, and then Silke adds some strategically placed, dangly, black thread. So gross, but oh, so so good. Ew.

{via the always fabulous yellowtrace}

Oh, vintage found image collage… you will always be my first love. I haven’t written about anything like this in awhile, but when New York based artist Johanna Goodman sent me a sample of her work, well, my heart skipped a beat. Cakes, big shoes & a bunch of cigarettes, airplanes, peaches n’ lemons – yes, yes, yes, YES!

Ok. This is taking affordable prints to an entirely new place…

Vintage paint-by-number. On circular, salvaged wood. For $22. Gah!!! These cool little nods to the past are the work of Canadian couple Patrick Lajoie and Mara Minuzzo. At their home studio, in the rolling hills of beautiful Caledon, Ontario {just outside of Toronto}, they manually transfer the pigments of an archival print onto wood… 1/2″ thick birch plywood scraps left over from the construction of their studio workshop. LOVE!

{ps. I bought one before I posted this just so I could be sure to scoop the one I wanted! Any guesses?}

You know how I feel about Polaroids, right? And, you probably also know how I feel about geometrics… not to mention found image collage. Ok then, check these out:

Oh! So good. Canadian artist/curator/all-round creative guy Randy Grskovic is the man behind these lovely gems, which are an exercise in exploring memories whose documentation has been lost {ie., your mom threw out a bunch of your childhood photos when you left for college – why would she do that?!}.

Now, what I love even more than these images is that Randy didn’t stop here. I’ve often talked about how much I admire artists who continue to push themselves and evolve their work – well, have a look at part II in this “Found Photographs” series:

Are. You. Kidding?! ♥

{ps. Randy has an indigogo project happening right now, titled “100 Patrons” – it’s all about the artist/patron relationship, and making affordable art accessible to all. He’s half way to his goal with 17 days left. Pop over there and help if you can.}

Holly Wales: Most likely to make me jealous using only felt-tip markers and white paper!

Oh I love this piece, titled “Class of” by London based artist/illustrator Holly Wales. This puts the doodles in my year book to shame! … hm… I’m pretty sure I dated the guy with the horns. Aaaaanyway. Oh, and look what she does with colored markers:

Vintage motel signs, hand-drawn with brightly-hued, juicy felt-tip markers… ♥

{ps. all of these drawings can be purchased as prints, right here.}

So, I was in Austin a few weeks ago, and somehow, found THIS! I’d read about this gallery, Roadhouse Relics, but never thought I’d actually have time during my whirl wind trip to make it over there… and then there it was, right in front of me as I crossed First Street… it was an artsy miracle.

All of these old vintage neon signs, are actually brand new neon signs designed and built to look old, by Austin artist Todd Sanders. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see that I did my best to document a few of my favorites {some are posted above}, but one was missing. There was a piece that I’d seen/loved online that wasn’t up in the gallery that day. This is it:

A giant mason jar full of neon fireflies? Love.

Gasp! I’m a little bit lost for words {which is rare for me}. This is just so beautiful, and oh so meticulous. This work is from the paper-folding series, Between the Folds, by Chilean born, London based artist Francisca Prieto. These sweet little birds are from pages of “A History of British Birds, 1870”, but now they are catalogued in an entirely new way… a delicate origami, tiny hidden window kind of way! LOVE. And there’s so much more where those little birds came from! Francisca folds just about everything – ornamental designs from 1892, British botanicals, some very very old maps:

I already said , Gasp!, right? ♥

Yes. Oh my goodness… YES!!! This is a series, titled Attraction, by Australian artist Maz Dixon. Sigh… these hilarious paintings whisk me off to my childhood instantly! Oh, I wish that I was spending a sunny day at the beach with a giant pineapple, a huge shrimp, AND a dolphin that I could kiss – but I digress – here’s what this series is all about:

The Attraction series is an examination of the prescriptive nature of souvenir media. Souvenir manufacturers photograph the scenery and attractions of a holiday destination, and mechanically reproduce these scenes for mass consumption through postcards, view-folders, tea towels. These items become instruction manuals for viewers, showing them how they are to experience their destination. Mass-produced imagery becomes mass-produced experience.

By separating figures and landscape from each other, the relationship between viewer and souvenir is realigned. With context removed, the viewer is free to create their own narrative around figures or landscapes.

Yep… and my narrative includes a giant pineapple, a huge shrimp, AND a dolphin that I could kiss.

Well, clearly American artist Richard Vergez has a thing for billowing smoke… hm, and it appears that I do too! His portfolio is actually full of all sorts of amazing collages don’t have smoke in them, but there was just something about these that called my name! Oh, and there was also this:

♥