Carlos Mosquera

I love the googley eyes.



Don't miss that carefully contoured behind!

What happy colors. The two striped beasts are so plainly done, it mystifies me. I'm unable to come up with something so simple and beautiful. (More about Carlos).

Drawings by Robert Simon

"I can draw whatever my mind can think of. I do not force my mind to draw specific things. I let it guide my drawing as it will. I do not concern myself with how it will look, indeed I do not have a clue how it will look. I add the colors that attract me at that particular moment. I add color when I feel moved to. Sometimes as I go along, sometimes at various stages throughout the drawing and sometimes near the end. I do not plan myself out of creativity."

-Robert Simon

Le voyage dans la lune

Amazing! Hilarious! This french film is recognized as the first to tell a complete story and 'the beginning of cinema as a storytelling medium'. In this treasure, a group of gentelmen explorers makes a maiden voyage to the moon and meet it's terrible inhabitants. So much creativity went into this. The low tech special effects will really tickle your funny bone. The first part's a little slow, but it picks up after they blast off.

kHyal

Some strange assemblages by artist and fashion designer kHyal.
Here's a picture of her.

Birds on the brain

In honor of this week's Outsider Art Fair, I thought I would post some pictures by Olga Bielma (images above). Olga is a member of the Creative Growth Art Center, a place for artists with handicaps who have unique artistic vision to develop their work. I've always loved birds and find her drawings so raw and beautiful. I went through a huge phase about in 1998 where I only painted and drew birds. Olga's drawings bring back memories of those good times. Here are some of my old sketches.




Pablo Picasso also had a special fancy for birds. Here is a sketch of some pigeons he made at age 9.

Butterfly Windows

The Explosion - Exalted, 2006


Aubade - Crown of Glory, 2006



I just wanted to put up some images from the upcoming Damien Hirst exhibit 'Superstition' coming up in London and Beverly Hills at Gagosian Gallery. Hirst has created an amazing series of 'stained glass windows' made with butterfly wings and pressed into household paint.

Here is an excerpt that inspired the series:

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.
--Philip Larkin, from 'High Windows'

Show dates: Feb 22-Apr 5

Happy Couple

Looks like Dane's old 'Hank'. . .

Book Journals

I can't wait until I run out of pages in my sketchbook. Then it will be time to head on over to BookJournals.com to get some of the finest specimens you could ever wish for! Whenever I pull one out in public people lean over and take a peek. Each blank book is unique, made from a vintage used book cover. The journals sometimes have clues to who owned them before. A name scrawled in cursive in the inside cover, a piece of paper stashed inside, stamps from the library, all sorts of mysterious clues! Also, the manufacturers always leave some of the original pages in the book- so if you get tired of sketching you can brush up Nancy Drew, Applied Secretarial Practice, or whatever subject your book may be! My journal I'm using now is all about the practice and advantages of being a secretary. It explains how to write a telegram and says that a secretary may even have the privelege of sharpening her bosses pencils! (There is a great picture of a Jackie O. type playing the waitress to a group of smiling gents in the office).
Journals are $13 each.

Getting ready for Valentines' Day!

I just recieved two little treats in the mail that I ordered for my honey for Valentines' Day. Don't tell!
They're cartoon valentines painted on paper by the graffiti artist 'Chris Uphues'. My favorite online store 'Fred Flare' commissioned him to create a limited edition of 100, each one is unique. Not only are they a great little Valentines' gift, but they are a nice addition to my starter art collection. (It's one of those gifts where you give it to someone but it's really for you!) Only $10 each for these precious little works of art! Who knows, he could be the next Keith Haring. Just kidding, nobody could ever replace Keith. But I do predict great things for Chris Uphues! Here is a photo I snapped of one of his spray-painted hearts that I found on one of the buildings in the East Village.


(Thanks to Fredflare.com for the pic)

I also ordered a pack of these vintage style valentines. It seems a shame to break up the collection by giving them away!

I remember one year in elementary school, when I was home on the eve of Valentines Day making out all my little cards for my classmates, how I struggled on whether to write 'Love' or 'From' on each card. The next day at school everyone in the class SOMEHOW discovered that I had written 'LOVE' on every girl's valentine except one. Aside from all the boys', only Cheryl's valentine said 'FROM'. She must have felt like I hated her guts!

Panda Sneeze

Don't disturb the baby!

Crazy For Felt!

Over the past few years I've been noticing the slow and steady creeping of fabulous felt toys into my favorite stores and websites. There's something about felt that reminds me so much of craft time in kindergarden, it always brings me good feelings. Here are some of the cute creations of crafter Heidi Kenney. She makes all her toys by hand and calls her company 'My Paper Crane'. Kid Robot did a special project with Heidi inspired by her funny little donuts and created a line of vinyl donut keychains. Notice the colored donut filling oozing out of the bottoms of two of them?

Pixen!

After much searching I have finally found a program that allows you to create Pixel art using Mac computers. It's called Pixen and was developed by someone over at MIT. (Free download HERE) I'm so excited about this program! It's very easy to use, just like the old Mac Paint. It will allow me to create pictures with a similar look to the famous pixel characters by EBOY. Here's are a cow, a clock, and a wooly mammoth they recently posted.
This is my first little experiment with Pixen. It's a mushroom for my 'Lost District Gang'. I think it uses too many pixels- the point of this look seems to be to limit that. Does anyone have a good name for this character? I have names for all the rest but can't think of a good one for this little guy.

Jetblue Airways TV Commercial - Game

Here's a cool jetBlue commercial you might have already seen- but how did they do it? Any guesses?

Helge Reumann and Xavier Robel

CLICK for larger view!!! This picture is really neat. . .

In the chaotic comics of Helge Reumann and Xavier Robel, all the little characters are split into little factions that abuse one another by strangling, clobbering, etc. It's a great statement on the pointlessness of war and the silliness of trying to resolve conflicts by violence. In one of their strips, a group of stripe-faced aggressors follows up every military blitz with a session of prayer, dumps the bodies in the river, then starts the fighting all over again. I especially liked this comic because It reminds me of the way Bush tries to pitch the U.S. occupation in Iraq as a fight of Christianity vs the evil Muslims. When both sides are bombing, killing, and torturing, both sides lose.