Another recent find while (body)surfing the ‘net is Seattle visual artist Zack Bent. His work most commonly marries objects with people or dynamic space; he once went so far as to spend a week living with his wife and two children within a frontier installation.
With Answers To The Universe, Bent’s 2007 series, he photographed stacks of vintage library books and left one tome with a given message. The inscriptions are unexpected, or maybe just introspective, but poignant all the same. Talk amongst yourselves, but the selections pictured above are my favorites.
Color bomb!
Ilana Kohn is a Brooklyn-based artist who has provided illustrations for a variety of clients, including The New York Times and The Stranger. It’s no secret that I’m inspired by color—lots of it—and Ilana is not one to skimp. She mixes acrylic and collage techniques to bright, eye-catching results. I love the handmade feel to these pieces, too, the hyper-detailed facial features surrounded by rich splotches of blue, red, yellow and green. Win.
The Beholder has several of Ilana’s originals up for grabs. Or, visit her own shop to see a selection of affordable prints.
It’s the dead of winter, y’all, but you’d never know it while listening to the latest release from Tycho. I’m not a big fan of Christmas music, so I always try to discover instrumental alternatives around the holidays, pleasing background music for wrapping gifts or having drinks. That said, “Coastal Brake” is not holiday music by any expected stretch (unless, maybe, that holiday is the Fourth of July). It’s a foamy visit to the seashore, a saltwater splash for the headphones complete with drippy bleeps, bloops and sighs. I’m having a SoCal Christmas this year; the temperature has dropped some, but there’s still plenty of sun and that’s reason enough for this.
Tycho is Scott Hansen, a San Francisco artist and musician. What’s especially pleasing about his music is that it is always accompanied by stellar visuals. He designs all the posters and packaging to support his releases—with everything damn fit for framed display. There’s clothing, prints, music and lots of other design-y goodness over at the site he runs, ISO50.
Handmade notebooks that I made by hand! Neat-o, eh? They are made with sweat and gallons of affection from all sorts of cards and old papers.
While I procrastinate writing or simply want to take a mental vacation, I make stuff. The notebooks have been my favorite project over the past several months because almost everything can be made into one. I’m really conscious to save scraps from everywhere now so that I can incorporate them into new books—the Figaro ones (above, bottom right) were check booklets from one of my most favorite French restaurants.
Once I select the right cover, then I use fresh grid paper and colored embroidery yarn and bind it all together.
Originally, I thought I might sell them on Etsy. I created a shop and everything but then never placed them up for sale. It’s been much more fun to give them away as surprise gifts. It makes me happy to know they’re one-of-a-kind, each with its own individual perfections and flaws.
Cool! Ian Dingman sent me a new illustration this week.
Hopefully you already know: All of the artwork and illustrations on this site are original works by Ian, and each piece in my stories section has been inspired by one of his paintings. He’s been a great friend to me. I’m honored to continue to work with him and feature his stuff.
