call for BC artists (who recycle!)

Hey British Columbians, bring out your paint box - and your blue box. I just received an email about this event and thought I'd pass on the call for submissions. Looks like it could be a great show.

ReVision – the art of recycling
Location: Granville Island Hotel, 1252 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Date: October 27 & 28, 2007

Call for Artwork
“ReVision – the art of recycling” is holding a two day, juried, show for Recycled Art (art made from anything reused, recycled, salvaged, scrounged or found - be it useful, beautiful, odd, playful, or thought provoking). We are seeking artwork by BC artists working with recycled material. Artists are invited to submit up to 5 pieces for a $10 non-refundable submission fee, made payable to Janet Lee (personal cheque or money order). Application is preferred by email, but if mailing slides or photos, please supply a SASE if you wish your material returned to you. Deadline for submission is May 30, 2007.

Artwork will not be for sale, but interested buyers can be supplied with artist’s contact information.

E-mail: ReVision [at] teraplanning [dotcom]
Mail: c/o ReVision, 4595 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6R 1V4

Please direct queries to ReVision [at] teraplanning [dotcom] or call Janet Lee at (604) 222-8372.
Accepted artists will be contacted by June 30, 2007.

Read more...

i can't remember the title, but i know it had a red cover

Chicago-based letterpress diva, Orange Beautiful, recently blogged about this amazing face-out bookshelf, and I couldn't help but repost the image here. It's the work/live space of artist Dale Chihuly.

This shelving method is perfect for you if:

a) You are the kind of person who wanders into a bookstore, looking for a book, but you can't quite remember the title and you can't quote remember who wrote it... but you remember there was something red on the cover... maybe a strawberry... or a tomato... or a balloon... or something... or maybe it was more orange than red... or maybe pink... Well, now the problem's solved, cause you can see all the covers at a glance. "Oh, the red book? There it is!"

b) You have a huge collection of oversized art books. It looks like Dale's removed the book jackets, leaving just the cloth. Interesting move - it definitely makes it look less like a bookstore and more like an art show. (Did you know that in most chain bookstores, the books that are displayed face-out or on tables are there because publishers paid a fee to the store? It's not that the bookstore actually thinks they're better or anything. Just something to keep in mind.)

c) You have a spiral staircase and a multi-level library in your home. (I wish!)

Also check out Orange Beautiful's elegant and smile-icious letterpress cards.

P.S. If bookshelves are your thing, also check out the rainbow organizational system.

Read more...

let them eat t-shirts

More cake goodness today.

Threadless, the lovable/loving t-shirt company, has launched their first-ever Threadless Loves Cakes competition. Design a cake based on your favourite t-shirt design and you could win some fun prizes (as well as eat some cake).

Check out some of the entries in the gallery. It's true: people who love Threadless love cakes.

I'm shocked no one has made a Communist Party cake yet. Party... cake.... (and, um, communists...): it seems like a natural fit. Hmm, maybe I should stop blogging and start baking.

The bake-off is on till April 29th.

Read more...

hostess craftcakes

Remember a few months ago when I blogged about Anselmo Swan, the artist who paints hyper-real cupcakes and other sugary treats? Well, two very wonderful (and sneaky) people* gave me a special gift - one of his paintings! It's so great, I just have to share. Cause I know you like sugar, too.



Looks even better than the real thing, huh? That is actually the very first Hostess cupcake I have ever eaten. It seemed wrong to have that painting and not actually eat one. Which brings up my tally of Hostess ultra-processed snack cakes up by one point:


My Lifetime Consumption of Hostess Snack Cakes To Date:
Twinkies: 0
Cupcakes: 1
Ho Hos: 0
Suzy Q's; 0
Ding Dongs: 0
Donettes: 0

Well, what I lack in consumption of these junkie treats, I will make up for now - at least by looking at my painting!

And it seems that many crafty types have paid homage to the Hostess Cupcake, in all shapes and sizes:

• Small: A knitted Hostess cupake hat by Flickr user beetsie.
  
  
• Large: A cupcake on wheels at last year's Burning Man festival.

Now that's a lotta sugar. Wheeeeeee!


---
*I know you like to stay anomymous online... But thank you!!!

Read more...

greener on the other side

Happy Earth Day! Today's a good time to review your habits and infuse your life with a little more eco-love.

But how? For inspiration, here are a few links for the creatives on your list...

For crafters: Sew Green is a great blog about many aspects of eco-friendly lifestyle including crafting - such as this article on how to knit green.

For designers: Re-nourish is a resource for graphic designers who want to make their practice more sustainable. It provides practical resources (such as information on recycled and tree-free paper options) and inspiration, including a blog about other sustainability blogs. One of the projects recently featured is Plastic Free, a blog by a women who, for the next year (at least), is not buying or accepting any products that contain or are packaged in plastic.

For designers (again!): Lovely as a Tree is a similar project to Re-nourish, based in the UK.

For kids: Meet the Greens teaches kids about environmental matters and what they can do to help. The drawings and animations are also fab.

Read more...

crafty travel report: calgary

On my recent trip to Calgary, I spotted these pieces by artist Elizabeth Clark in the window of a glasses shop on Kensington.

Pictured here are a dress shirt made from business cards and a corset made form tickets. There were some more pieces inside the store, including a dress made from copper pot scrubbers.

Read more...

dukkah (DOO-ka)

My new favourite thing is an Australian interpretation of an Egyptian dish called Dukkah. It's basically a mix of nuts and spices that you dip bread into after it's been dipped in olive oil (see illustration above). It's a simple and delicious snack or appetizer - I brought it to a potluck last week and it was quite a hit! I like the Australian version of it because it uses pistachios - a sadly underused nut in my day to day. The Egyptian recipe calls for hazelnuts or chick peas, which would probably also be good.

Try it! S'good.

Read more...

missed deadlines

Damn it, I missed them. Again.

I was all set to submit to Plush You (the softies show in Seattle) and Hot One Inch Action (the button show in Vancouver), but I missed both deadlines!

I knew about the deadlines a while back, but then got caught up with other things (darn day job! darn other excuses!) and they totally slipped my mind. Gah!

Oh well, I there's always next year. If I remember, that is.

Read more...

decorate by numbers

This is Love Forever is a blogger with one of the best names ever. And apparently, she also has one of the best livingrooms ever.

Her gallery of paint-by-number artwork in something to behold -- and envy. Bring on the kitsch.

Here's the wall of wonder, plus a close-up of the splendor.

(Now don't evern get me started on how cute her bunny is.)

You can keep up with This is Love Forever on her site and blog.

Read more...

turn the page

Bibliophiles, hold your breath. Texan photographer Cara Barer takes absolutely beautiful photographs of books - worn, tattered, curled up old books.

She gets the effect by soaking books in her bathtub...

I realized I owned many books that were no longer of use to me, or for that matter, anyone else. Would I ever need "Windows 95?" After soaking it in the bathtub for a few hours, it had a new shape and purpose. Half Price Books became a regular haunt, and an abandoned house gave me a set of outdated reference books, complete with mold and neglect. Each book tells me how to begin according to its size, type of paper, and sometimes contents.

See the full gallery of photographs here and here.

(Via Your Daily Awesome.)

Read more...

always carry your camera

Hey everyone, sorry for the lull. Lindsay has been working away on her thesis (send her your good/happy/smartypants vibes!), while I was away in Banff for a short break. (Life's not fair, Lindsay, I know.)

While in Banff, I saw a lot of real, live magpies - though never had my camera with me when they were around! Boo! This is the only magpie I got a picture of...



I also want to send out a big thanks to Whip Up for their lovely words about us. We have a blogcrush on you, too.

Have your say about Whip Up's new look - the competition for a new banner design is on. You can view the contenders here, then cast your vote right here.

Read more...

diy google maps

This is awesome.

Make your own Google Map.

I especially love that you can tag locations with your own photos.

Love the Google!

Read more...

one person's trash is another's fash(ion)

The city of San Francisco recently banned plastic grocey bags. It seems like a little thing, but estimates are that about 200 million plastic bags are used each year in the city of 740,000 people. Two hundred million. That's 270 bags per person per year. That's a lot of waste.

Art student Emily (aka Flickr user mleak) dealt with these disposable bags in her own way: she constructed a dress out of Safeway grocery bags. She collected bags, then ironed them together (using newspaper between the bags and the iron) to create a fabric, from which she sewed the dress. I don't know if she intended for her work to have any kind of environmental message, but I can't help looking at the dress without thinking that those bags usually end up as landfill. A nice reminder to bring along a cloth bag when you go shopping.

Here are some more photos of the dress in action - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - and on the hanger.

I came across this dress in a Flickr group called Trashionista: sustainable style and recycled fashion.

The group's admin is OutsaPop, a talented gal based in Finland, who recently made a fantastic runway dress out of old ties and a corset. It took about 60 ties to make. You can see more pics of the work in progress here - 1, 2, 3 - and keep track of her fashion work and inspiration on her blog.

Read more...

bacon was never so cute

If I had to sum up yesterday's post in two words, it would be: "Eww, meat!"

In contrast, today's two words are: "Aww, meat!"

Behold plush angel bacon made by SappyMooseTree.


Also available in non-angelic format.

Read more...

surprise, it's meat!

So you've already eaten enough chocolate Easter eggs, but still feel compelled to reach for sugary treats...

Here's the solution: Meat Cake.

Looks like sugar, tastes like meat. What more could you want?

Here's the original meatcake, frosted with mashed potatoes - and the gallery of other meatcakes that it spawned.

My faves are the meatcake with carrots and peas in place of sprinkles, and the Thanksgiving meatcake with layers of stuffing.

It's amazing how the form of our food influences how we think and feel about it. Here's a simple equation that reveals much about the human mind:

Cake = Mmm.
Meat = Mmm.
Meat in cake shape = Eww.

In fact, it's much like the chili ice cream cone that my dad and I made over the xmas holidays. Kidney beans are the new maraschino cherries.



[Thanks to Crazymonk introducing me to meatcakes.]

Read more...

martial arts

Artist Phil Hansen has a different interpretaion of the term "martial arts". He painted a mural of Bruce Lee, basically karate-chopping the wall with his paint-covered hands. Watch the video of the process to get the full effect.

Phil Hansen tends to use a lot of non-traditional materials and methods in his artwork. A couple of other pieces that I like on his site are his portrait of Mother Teresa made from dandelions and a series of pieces he painted on his belly, each one on top of the last. There's also a video of how his belly paintings progressed.

(Via Wooster Collective.)

Read more...

math + weather = crochet

This is not an April Fool's joke - although it does seem like one: mathematicians are using crochet to predict weather patterns.

Hinke Osinga, a mathematician from the University of Bristol, realized that the equations which are used to model weather patterns could be physically represented in crochet:

"On the top part, the geometry is incredibly complex where you have a helical rotation going up and you have a spiralling rotation going in one of the opposite directions," Dr Osinga said.

While staring at the Lorenz manifold on computer, Dr Osinga had a brainwave.

"I realised the way that we computed the surface naturally translated into crochet instructions," she says.

"When I saw that, I just had to try. It was too good for words really that you could actually make one."

You can see read more about the work, see photos of other versions people have made, and get the crochet pattern here.

(The original crocheted work was created in 2004, but I just read about it today, via What's In The Making.)

Read more...