Cold days are dreary, but can be creatively productive ... I painted at home this morning ...


This is why I love my job - We had a bit of a lull at work yesterday morning, so we made these cute mini-signs for display in the shop, mostly props to handwriting genius Lauren ...

Some tulips in bold colours sitting on our front counter, which made the cold day a lot brighter and spring seem a little nearer ...

Inspiration: Australian Designers, Artists and Crafters ...

I read about The Finders Keepers on decor8 ... The Finders Keepers are design and art markets dedicated in supporting emerging designers, artists & musicians and bringing new contemporary design to the forefront in Australia.

Here are some of my favourite artisans ...

{angus & celeste}

{Sharon Muir}

{The Storybook Rabbit}

{Philippa Thomas}

{Kristina Brenke}

{Caro Baertling}

(Nikki Catalano}

{Little Branch}

I LOVE ... Haptic Lab's baby-soft maps and readymade quilts of American cities, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Boston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, etc. (see pictures below) Here's how they describe their quilts:

Soft-Maps are quilted maps of cities and neighborhoods that represent someone's unique place in the world. Wrap your children in them, have a picnic, pull them close during the next Nor'easter. As a keepsake, a Soft-Map serves as an intimate reminder of home: where you’re from and where you belong. In a world that is increasingly digitized and remote, a quilted Soft-Map provides an expressive way to reconnect with your surroundings.

Not only beautiful, these blankets can be used as a mnemonic tool. As your child grows up with a Soft Map, they learn to read their neighborhood and its landmarks in a tactile, easily remembered way.

Some more inspiration:

Amazing florist in Rome - Tulipani Bianchi

Newer company for event design - Landing Feet First

Little Flower School with Nicolette and Sarah

Rainy days ... It is gray and drizzly outside ... I had a craft and colouring day planned for Leo and I, but he proved to be too young - I had to take the crayons away from him, he was eating them ...

Just outside my door, this kale plant is hanging on, it's one of our last plants thriving in this dull weather ...

This past summer, D and I got engaged ... we are excited to have a photo shoot with Blair Marie in a few weeks. Once the leaves start changing colour, we're all going on a nature walk so she can snap some engagement photos. I'll post the pictures once we get them!

Today, I photographed some more still-lifes and redid the letters for Leo ... I am happier with these - they turned out more clear... and I framed the 'L' for Leo ...

Inspiration: my mother's piano ...

Just showing some of my work in progress ... these are the first scans I have done for my mom's portrait. I have scanned the entire piano and tomorrow I'll have her put her hands on her favourite keys/notes and scan this ... I'll add these to the scans I have already completed tonight ... so here is her piano sans hands and some of her things sitting beside the piano ...




These are my favourite portraits of Leo. I think it's the colours, textures and unusual camera angles that make them so wonderful for me ... and of course the subject - my little man. Blair Marie took the photographs.




Sharing a couple great artists and designers ...

yumiyumi makes these wonderful animal and floral prints ...


Kenyon Yeh : Product + furniture design - I especially like his furniture collection - homeless ... the idea behind it is genius!

Here is a great article IKEA Hacks: Designs by Kenyon Yeh

"I have assembled the pieces from a standard IKEA flat pack without following the instructions … Instead, I have simply composed the kits into customized furniture to suit my personal preference, adding some new details along the way."

(Behind the Scenes - UNIKEA)

(BRIA - UNIKEA)

Inspiration: Simplistic design and gray, white and green ...
Here is the design I submitted for EVDS 2010/2011 Lecture Series poster and mail out competition ... I love this font, it is Gulim Che ... I especially like the spacing between the letters ...



David has been watching me piece together the vanitas portraits so far. Yesterday, his curiosity got the better of him and he asked me to scan his tattoos and his hand with Leo's hand ... I think the pictures turned out somewhat sweet ...


I found the bicycle of my dreams ... it is a wicked MADSEN and I love the colour ... I could haul stuff around, especially when Leo gets big enough, I'll throw him in the bucket ...

I woke up to this beautiful peony sitting on my bedside table and I wanted to remember it ... so I made multiple scans of this beautiful flower ...


and added the scans all together ...


and I came up with this ...


I love peonies ...

I am reading this book: Maps to Anywhere by Bernard Cooper. I am pleasantly surprised by this book of short essays, his work lyrical and poetic, written as though he is painting imagery, not merely describing ... He is an art historian and his short works are autobiographical, but obviously influenced by his art background.

I read this essay last night and it made me wonder if he is referring to Marc Chagall's paintings. Here is an excerpt from the essay:

Saturday Night

Can Mother muster enough thrust to leave the earth in a sudden leap? Does Father need words of encouragement, a rabbit's foot, a running start? Will they rise above our suburb at dusk and see it studded with lights? Wind must play havoc with mother's dress, her stole blown back like a vapour trail. Father's suit, diminishing, dark, will become part of the night. What instinct helps them scout for the house, find the right street, land on their feet? ...

It especially reminded me of Chagall's Au Dessus de la Ville (shown below)

Inspiration: Botanical names and illustrations. Here are some maidenhair ferns that I picked on our nature walk. I have scanned them, I like the light and dark effects created by scanning, especially with anything botanical ... Click on image to view ...

Adiantum capillus-veneris (maidenhair fern)

I am reading this book: 100 Flowers and How They Got their Names by Diana Wells. After all, "Weren't names designed to enhance the matter in which they referred? (Bernard Cooper, Maps to Anywhere, 1990, 4) I wish this were true - I am finding that most botanical and family names of flowers are Greek origin with mythological stories to match; which is interesting. Whereas the common names are often named after botanists and not relating to the flower's characteristics or habitat or cultural context; this is not so interesting.

However, the Foxglove's common name, it's meaning and history are not only interesting, but quaint. Wells (1997) writes:

Foxgloves, native to Britain and Europe, have always been considered fairy flowers. There are dozens of fairy names for them, as well as some more sinister ones like the Gaelic ciochan nan cailleachan marblia, or "dead old woman's paps". The name "foxglove" comes from the Old English foxes glofa, and the flowers do look like the fingers of a glove. Foxgloves tend to grow on woody slopes where foxes' burrows are often found. Foxes are wily creatures who may have needed magical gloves when they slunk out of the shadows and spirited away chickens... William Curtis, whose illustration of a foxglove was the frontispiece to Withering's book, compared the flowers to spotted wings of butterflies, which "smile at every attempt of the Painter to do them justice"... (77-78)

(Foxglove -photo courtesy of Old Varieties)

Inspiration: cloudy skies, cityscapes and chaotic illustrations.

This afternoon Leo and I walked down to 17th Avenue so I could photograph my project site. It was a cloudy day, but I like photographing when it's overcast best, its like a natural filter so you don't have to worry about harsh light. Here are some shots I took along the way ...




This amazes and inspires me - I read this article 'Favela Painting by Haas and Hahn' by Frame Magazine:

Haas and Hahn create a community driven artwork spanning over 34 houses, by painting the favela Santa Marta.

In the heart of a favela in Rio de Janero – called Santa Marta – a huge art project has given colour to the streets. The artwork aims to brighten up the neighbourhood, giving the community a boost by educating and employing workers. The project is an initiative by Dutch art duo Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn.

Haas en Hahn (hare and hen) as the artist call themselves, made a flexible design of colourful rays that can easily be expanded, to paint the houses around the central square. A group of locals were trained as painters to work with scaffolding and different materials; during the month it took to paint the buildings, they received training as well as a pay check.

The final artwork is a monument to the community living in the slum. The artists’ goal is to transform the whole hillside favela into one big colourful area, turning it into a community-driven artwork and helping inhabitants on the employment ladder.

(Photos courtesy of Favela Painting)

Natsko Seki is a Japanese mixed-media artist who creates these cheery, fanciful and chaotic cityscapes. She finds inspiration in antique and vintage culture, as well as nostalgia. I love the aesthetic of her work - it is inspiration for my own cityscape project. I especially like these works by Natsko:

(Map of Clerkenwell, 2009)

Mike Perry's illustrations and designs are chaotic -a mix of graffiti, graphic design, poster and street art ... I love it ... there's a sample of his work below and see more here.


Tomorrow we are off to Bragg Creek, so I'll share some pictures from that day trip soon ...