Good morning!

So, let me explain what we’re doing here on the weekend! There are so many artists that I’d love to hang out with… especially over french toast and a latte. Ah yes, two of my most favorite things. Art, and brunch. Now, I can’t fly around the world every Saturday morning, so I’m gonna fake it. Enter this new series – “weekend brunch” – a five question interview with one of my favorite artists, “at” their favorite brunch place.

Up first, Seattle based artist Shaun Kardinal. I asked Shaun to choose our destination, and he picked “Oddfellows Cafe” in Seattle… looks like a lovely place to me! Ok, grab your coffee, and let’s do this:

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JC:  hi shaun… what are you gonna have?

SK: eggs benedict, a mimosa, a coffee, and a water, please. i partied a little hard last night–three liquids are essential. what about you?

JC: hm. same, hold the mimosa. i’m a light weight. so, thanks for having brunch with me! … who do you usually have brunch with?

SK: you know, i haven’t actually been out to brunch in a long time! i’m a bit of a homebody by day (definitely not a morning type), and find myself more inclined to plan ahead for a meal at home, should i expect a big breakfast on the horizon. that said, in the past, brunches have almost always been group affairs, with friends meeting again after partying the night prior.

JC: what are you doing later? do you normally spend the weekend making art, or do you use saturday and sunday for other stuff?

SK: oh my god – there’s no way i am getting anything done today. being a freelance designer, i don’t so much subscribe to weekends, so i take days off when my body requires them, and  getting out into the world for brunch was enough for today with this foggy head. afternoon movie on the couch?

JC: which movie?

SK: there are a lot of recent releases i’ve been hoping to see lately, but today i definitely need something light, not too conceptual. probably an old favorite like “stranger than fiction” or “royal tenenbaums”. maybe a woody allen flick, ideally one with diane keaton! if i really can’t pick, i’ll just put on a half dozen episodes of “arrested development”.

JC: ok, well after you recover, do you want to go {pretend} searching for old postcards? i’d love to see where you find all of the amazing bases for your work!

SK: that sounds fun. in fact, my supply is dwindling so a hunt is definitely in order soon. there is a great antique shop down on the waterfront that has a big stack of postcards i love to dig through. they also have an awesome collection of LIFE magazines, and every issue of playboy since the early 70s, should you want to grab your birthday issue – i already have mine!

JC: nice! i do have a thing for vintage playboys (seriously). ok, so this is no secret but, i LOVE embroidery on found images. how did you learn to sew so precisely? do the mimosas and coffee help with a steady hand?

SK: simply put: practice. there are only so many ways for the thread to pass through paper, and against itself, and with each piece, each pattern and with many different weights of paper, i’ve learned better and more efficient ways to solve every puzzle.

…and yah, sometimes a drink ain’t so bad either : )

JC: ah, so fun! thanks for breakfast shaun… i’ll pick up the tab this time ; )

SK: much obliged.

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And that’s how we do it! A fake brunch with one of my favorite artists… I really could go for some REAL eggs benedict, a coffee, and a little vintage postcard shopping with Shaun though. Come back next Saturday and join me in another restaurant, in another city, with another fabulous artist. Happy weekend to you!

Ok, this is some of my most favorite collage I’ve stumbled upon in quite some time! Belgium based artist Katrien De Blauwer combines only two images in each piece, yet magically creates a fascinating & mysterious story. Oh, and don’t even get me started on her amazing color palette, created solely through found images and found paper that she somehow manages to maintain throughout her entire, huge, gorgeous portfolio. Love with a capital L.

…And, as a little post-nod to the Oscars, here are three pieces from Katrien’s series, “Cinematic Cuts”:

{via Erna Reiken on Pinterest}

Well, I’m off {literally on a plane right this very moment} to Tennessee! It’s going to be an amazing trip. Here’s how the next few days fold out:

Wednesday:

* Finally meet Mark Bradley Shoup! : Atlanta airport

* Start installing Beautifully Boring at Tanner Hill Gallery

Thursday:

* 10 am EST : Airing of interview with NPR affilate, WUTC ~ wutc.org

* 10am ~ 4ish : Tours of the Art & Design students’ studios ~ University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

* 5:30pm : Lecture at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Friday:

* Hang out with Leah Giberson and Samantha French… wishing Holly Farrell was with us too!

* 5:30 – 8pm : Opening of Beautifully Boring at Tanner Hill Gallery (Curatorial Talk ~ 6pm)

Oh, and one more crazy perk to this trip?! I get to meet an artist that I have loved for AGES… Chattanooga based artist Hollie Chastain will be swinging by the opening as well. Here are a few of my favorite collages by Hollie:

Sigh. I feel like I might to get wrapped up in a cozy diamond blanket when all of this excitement is over! Stay tuned – I’ll have photos of everything very, very soon!

Found images, AND thread? Oh, be still my beating heart! California based artist Lisa Kokin is killing me with this work. Here are Lisa’s words about these images, from her Sewn Found Photos series:

Sometimes there are inscriptions on the back (“Susie, 7 years old”) but more often they come to me stripped of all identity. I sit in my studio and speculate about the nature of the photographed people’s lives. I will, of course, never know the truth, so I feel it is my job to give them new lives and rescue them from the obscurity they would be headed for were it not for me, humble servant of the arts. I try to invent an altogether different identity for them but of course, in the final analysis these works are more about me than any of the hundreds of anonymous individuals who appear in my work.

I am intrigued with other people’s photographic recording of their lives both for the generic quality they possess — the family and social rituals, studio portraits, vacation shots — and for the feeling of sadness and nostalgia that acquiring other people’s memories provokes in me. I feel somehow that it should be illegal to own them, yet since they are for sale it might as well be me who buys them.

… and this is literally only a fraction of her portfolio. Just wait til you see what she does with old books!

{I found the first image in the post on Pinterest, via Artsy Forager}

Oh boy. I found the work of LA based artist/designer Ming Ong when I was putting yesterday’s post {about Garage Gallery} together. Um, I love these little paintings on found paper oh so much! Slightly disturbing? Yes. Crazy awesome? Yes.

And on that note, may your weekend be filled with cow cuddles and giant bras… you might want to avoid birds and bunnies though.

Oh, this is such a sad, beautiful, inspiring project, titled “If We Lived Here” by Portland based artist Paula Rebsom. Usually my posts are quite short, but I had to give you the full {although, slightly shortened} story. Here’s where Paula’s story begins:

Thirty-one years ago, when my mother was 3 months pregnant with me, a harsh winter forced my parents off the farm that has been in our family for over 50 years. The 1,300-acre farm is tucked away in the little Badlands of North Dakota and only accessible by 9 miles of scoria road. After my parents’ left the farm they moved to nearby Dickinson, the land was rented to neighbors and the home was rented out to a couple that left the home in such disarray it was no longer safe for human occupancy. That is when the barn swallows, rabbits, raccoons and mice began to settle into their new home… Last February, after my grandmother gave my parents power of attorney over the property, they burned down the farmhouse, barns and chicken coup for liability concerns … This past September I returned to North Dakota and built a 16-foot tall by 40-foot wide billboard like replica of the home with the assistance of my father just over the hill from where the original homestead was:

I used the last image taken of the home before it was burned as my model for the front of the structure and attached 20 birdhouses that spell out the words “If we lived here, I’d be home by now.” to the back of it.

In its simplest form “If We Lived Here” was built in an attempt to provide shelter for the birds that were displaced when their home was destroyed. In it’s most complex form it is a quiet and haunting, ghostlike reminder of what was, what is no longer, and what may never be. It holds memories far beyond my years and comprehension while at the same time providing a new presence of hope and possibilities for this rural landscape. The landscape my mom was raised on, the land that her and my father would try to make a living off of, a place that I dreamed as a child to call home, the land my sister and I will someday inherit.

See? Sad, beautiful, and oh so inspiring.

Sigh. Love. I have written about Canadian painter Holly Farrell so many times. She paints everyday objects like chairs, bowls, bars of soap, and yes… shoes! Holly’s work is going to be featured in my book {YAY!}, and when I was going through her portfolio looking for my favorite pieces the other day, I found myself gathering up a whole bunch of her shoes… and voila, today’s post was born! ♥

I wrote about American artist Stacey Page almost two years ago… well, clearly she’s been busy, and so clearly I have to write about her again! Portraits & embroidery? Yep, it gets me every single time. Gah!

I have a thing for found frames, color swatches and bold type… and now have a thing for California based artist Fred One Litch. Sigh… yep, I do love a giant A from time to time.

Ok. Yes. More faceless portraits. Clearly I can’t control myself, but hey, the heart wants what the heart wants… and my heart wants people with rainbow-hued embroidery on their faces, and vintage photos that have been snipped to bits and put back together into amazing kaleidoscope-ish configurations. London based artist Julie Cockburn, and her amazing portfolio, have everything my heart is looking for… and then some!