Gorgeous, cheeky, and absolutely making a point. These hexagonal pieces are the work of California based artist Peter Adamyan, and this is why he does what he does:

“Post Consumerism imagines a world where humanity has returned to a way of life closer to the land. In this world people hunt and gather their food and cultures are based around the brands we worship in our own time. In this work I try to explore our replacement of cultural identity with brand identity and humanity’s disconnection with the natural world.”

Chills… which may have also been brought on by the final image above. Shudder.

Gasp! This is new work by Canadian artist Myriam Dion. I’ve written about her before, and I’ll do it again! In fact, I’m including her story and work in my upcoming book… how can I not?! Working slowly and carefully, Myriam meticulously transforms heavy front page headlines into delicate lace. Beautiful. And speaking of beautiful, here is one of her quotes from the book:

“I conceive my work like a gift of my time. I wish to give that tranquillity to viewers, that they can use this time to contemplate with attention and let themselves sink in the act of observation.” ~ Myriam Dion, 2017

Oh my word. This is the dreamy abstract work of Toronto based painter Janna Watson, and if you happen to be in Vancouver, you can see it in person. Her new show, titled “Light is Heavy” opens this weekend at Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver. The opening reception is on Saturday January 13th from 2-4pm… go if you can! I’ve been lucky enough to stand in front of Janna’s large-scale beauties, and they are absolutely breathtaking.

ps. Show runs until January 27th

“Plastic Ocean” is, unfortunately, an ongoing series by Thirza Schaap. While her compositions and palettes are beautiful, her supplies are tragic. Here is her statement about this important project:

This is the work of American painter John Holcomb. This series of crazy colorful flowers and pattern-covered vases were inspired by the old Dutch Masters. John’s portfolio is full of all sorts of other lovely work – scenic, art history, cultural portraits – but the pure joy in these pieces seemed like a perfect way to start the week. Happy Monday.

Drips, spikes, blobs, sploots and sparkly crystals. Yep, that can only l mean one thing… I got Texas based artist Dan Lam on the podcast! She {yes, Dan is a woman and we’ll get to that right off the top} is amazingly talented, hilarious, and just as sweet as her gorgeous color palette. Listen right up there under that iridescent beauty, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

First up, these were the spiky, gum-like “blobs” I wrote about a few years ago:

Yum! Well, those guys evolved into these guys, aka “drips”:

Gorgeous, and how insanely beautiful are Dan’s color choices? And her newest evolution, which might be potentially known as a “sploot”:

LOVE! But wait, there’s more! Here’s the video of the sprinkle-covered sploot that over 15 MILLION (!!!!) people liked on Instagram:

A post shared by Dan Lam (@sopopomo) on Aug 1, 2017 at 3:13pm PDT

Don’t you want to poke that? Me too. Now these bad boys… oh, I just want to watch them dance in the sunlight all day long:

A post shared by Dan Lam (@sopopomo) on Jul 8, 2017 at 2:05pm PDT

Gasp! That video! These Swarovski crystal covered drips are gorgeous, but still photos just don’t do them justice.

And finally, at the very end of the episode Dan mentioned that she was going on a winter holiday to several national parks in Utah… apparently she brought a few friends along for the ride:

How fantastic is that!? Sigh. Thanks so much to Dan for talking to me about all things ugly beautiful; thanks to Saatchi Art and Thrive for supporting the episode, and thanks to you for listening! There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Dan on Instagram (@sopopomo)
2. Left Field Gallery
3. Spoke Gallery – SF & NY
4. The Hole, NYC

These two photographs inspired a colorful, dreamy, David Lynch-ish traveling performance piece by American artist Jenny Fine. I wrote about Jenny’s series, titled “The Saddest Day” a few years ago – a heartbreaking project she did with her dear grandmother, Sarah, shortly before her death. Almost all of Jenny’s work is an homage to her Granny, and the beautiful dedication continues! May I present Flat Granny and Me: A Procession in My Mind:

“Intertwining the historic narrative surrounding the plight of my South Alabama farming community at the hands of the Mexican Boll Weevil with the memory-scape of my grandmother riding in the annual Boll Weevil Parade as 1968 Woman of the Year; past meets present, reality and memory collide placing the viewer in a dream-like setting and state. Part cyclorama/part moving image, A Procession… was created in an attempt to “reverse the camera’s crop” – returning space and time to the still image; and doing so, attempts to redefine the form and function of the photograph in our contemporary, image-saturated world.” 

So beautiful. And that’s “Flat Granny” above — a life-size photographic cutout of her grandmother turned costume. A full video of this dreamlike performance piece can be seen on Jenny’s site. There are also gorgeous behind-the-scenes photos that go into detail about the gorgeous costumes, lighting, etc.  It’s all just so weird and beautiful.

Discarded household items covered lovingly in discarded cross-stitch embroideries. LOVE. This is the work of Swedish artist Ulla-Stina Wikander, and this is her story behind this body of work:

”For more then 10 years I have collected cross-stitch embroideries and today I have quite a big collection with over 100 different designs. These embroideries have mostly been made by women and is seen as kitsch and regarded pretty worthless. I think that sometimes they are really beautiful and I want to bring them back to life. In 2012 I started to cover ordinary household things from the 70s, like a sewing machine, vaccuum cleaner, electric mixer etc. I find it interesting to see how these objects transforms in a new context; the obsolete, the things we do not want any longer, the old and forgotten things. I give them a second life and although I cut the embroideries into pieces, I still think they look very beautiful, when the objects has been ”dressed up”. 

Perfect.

{found via Create Magazine’s Instagram feed}

Love, love, love! This is the work of Los Angeles based photographer Sarah Elise Abramson, and FYI, the final image above is self portrait of Sarah… x3. Her portfolio is full of gorgeous, bizarre, glitter covered goodness but her Instagram feed… ooh, I could spend all day there! I love the peek behind the scenes (ie the photo of Sarah above), and outtakes from her weird and wonderful shoots. LOVE.

Whoa. This is the latest work from Cornwall based painter Lisa Wright. I wrote about her a little over two years ago – she was good then, but now… oh my goodness these oil paintings are GORGEOUS.