Oooh, so much wooden loopy loveliness! This is the work of Canadian artist Nate Nettleton, and I want all of it in my house. Ok, that might be a bit greedy … I’ll just take the white ‘n rose gold, please! Happy Monday.

Can you tell I was hungry when I wrote this post? YUM… not only about the sandwiches and chips, but also a great big YUM when it comes to those paint strokes, color choices, and the absolutely gorgeous celebration of everyday life. Yep, I think I might have to call American painter Zoey Frank to see if she’s free for lunch. Happy weekend.

Spoke NYC is pleased to present The Moleskine Project VII, a group exhibition curated by Ken Hashimoto and Rodrigo Luff featuring over 60 international contemporary artists. SIXTY! Here’s a quote from Rodrigo:

“The show is a tribute to how artists have developed and grown by using sketchbooks to dive deeper into the personal realms that fuel their artwork, exploring new ideas, concepts and even experimenting with different media and styles. An energetic visual dialogue of imagery flows from frame to frame, forming a collective sketchbook that allows us to appreciate the radically individual approach taken by each artist.”

The opening reception is this weekend – Saturday, August 4th from 6 – 8pm {210 Rivington St, NYC}. For more info, you can email them at nyc@spoke-art.com.

{Artists shown above: Travis Louie  /  Michael Reeder  /  Matt Ritchie  /  Alex Garant  /  Alessandra Maria  /  Daniel Bilodeau}

One of my favorite artists, especially when it comes to murals, is American artist Mando Marie… and starting TODAY, I’ll be spending the next ten days painting five murals around Vancouver for the Vancouver Mural Festival {and freaking out just the tiniest of bits}. Clearly I had to zip by Mando’s site for a little inspiration… but then I found these new paper pieces and suddenly I had an entirely new plan for today’s post! How gorgeous are these? They were hung in a show, titled “One Trick”, at First Amendment Gallery in San Francisco earlier this year. I have a sneaking suspicion that they’re made up of discarded “mistakes” from other works {but don’t quote me on that}. Either way, LOVE.

ps. While my podcast is on summer hiatus, you should go listen to Mando and I chatting in episode no.100 … it’s a good one!

This is the brilliant work of Belgian artist Sylvie Franquet. That’s all… I’m going to immediately hand it over to October Gallery in London. Here is their perfect description of Sylvie’s work:

“Needlepoint has for centuries been seen as the domain of the female. Franquet is fascinated by this inheritance: the needlepoints she finds are based on paintings by men, who until recently had a monopoly on the visual depiction of women. Those images were then reinforced by women sewing, and are now transformed by her needle. This complex history of gendered production and reaction is a central concern of Franquet’s work: “reMembering” questions attitudes surrounding gender and social and creative status. An electric aesthetic reminiscent of punk imbues the stitching with the look of pixels. Franquet uses rhizomatic layering of texts and languages that, in her hands, take on the nature of rebellious graffiti and radical twitter feeds.” 

Boom!

I mean, what!? I’ve written about American artist Cayce Zavaglia and her insane embroidery portraits before, but every now and then I like to swing by and see what’s new on her site … and today I found these quirky little kids in the middle of some gorgeous / colorful negative space. LOVE. And just to reiterate my earlier eloquent observation… what!?

“Non-traditional portraits painted in traditional ways are my greatest passion … Each piece seeks to go beyond realism and capture the essence of the subject.”  

Ok, well now I want to know whose essence is wearing this lovely, delicate, perfect lace dress! This is the exquisite work of New Mexico based painter Shana Levenson. I am, and always have been, in complete awe of people who can paint like this … not only because of the skill involved, but the fact someone would challenge themselves to paint LACE. And HANDS. I am not that person, but Shana certainly is. Happy Friday.

I have never liked yellow… until RIGHT NOW! Australian artist Joan Ross and her hilarious use of neon yellow has changed my mind completely. Long live yellow … well, as long as it’s combined with historical scenes of pastoral villages and fancy ladies. ps. If that dog looks familiar, then you’ve probably watched the fantastic Netflix special, “Nanette”, by comedian/brilliant woman Hannah Gadsby. If you haven’t, go watch it immediately {here’s a little bit of proof about the dog thing}:

This is the beautiful, and symbol-filled, work of Dominican Republic born, New York based artist Firelei Báez. I recently heard a talk about Firelei, and my goodness, there is power in every square inch of her work. Take a closer look at the headdress in the first piece, titled ‘Sans Souci’ … black panthers and chains. She also regularly features the black fist symbol, and even the headdresses, known as tignons, are not just decoration… they represent the 18th century headdress – imposed by law – for women of color in New Orleans. It was meant to oppress them, but these women used patterns and designs from their home countries, and instead turned this racist law into a symbol of power and beauty. Brilliant. Here is a little bit about why Firelei does what she does:

“Through a convergence of interest in anthropology, science fiction, black female subjectivity and women’s work; her art explores the humor and fantasy involved in self-making within diasporic societies, which have an ability to live with cultural ambiguities and use them to build psychological and even metaphysical defenses against cultural invasions.”

Just in case you don’t know what a diasporic society is, it’s defined as “a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. In particular, diaspora has come to refer to involuntary mass dispersions of a population from its indigenous territories” … the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, for example.

*Bio photo by Martha Cooper