the air bear

My favourite kind of street art makes me stop and smile.

It's beautiful, playful, interesting and smart (heh, that sounds like my criteria for a date, too!). It makes clever use of urban space; it really makes you take notice not only of what'd been added (the art) but also what was already there (the space itself). When these two things happen, it's magic.

A brilliant example of this was posted on the ever-awesome Wooster Collective the other day: Joshua Allen Harris makes fantastic inflatable sculptures from old plastic bags, then ties them to grates on the sidewalk. When the subway passes by underneath, the air rises up through the grate and the sculptures come to life.



Here are some videos of the sculptures in action:

The Air Bear


The little bear (or dog?) looks so happy when he's up... then everytime he lies down again, I can't help thinking awww...

The Air Zoo


These little guys must hang out with the Muppets.

So, so wonderful.

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hello, spring

Not to rub it in for those of you still buried in snow on the East Coast, but out here in Vancouver, it's a beautiful, sunny, windows-open kind of day. The cherry blossoms are out in full bloom.

Appropriately, just yesterday I came across this painting by Dan-ah Kim.

That is exactly what I do as soon as the blossoms start to come out. It's impossible not to take photos of those gorgeous colours.

You can see more of Dan-ah Kim's work on her site, blog and Etsy shop.

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I'm writing it down to remember it now!

Field notes notebooks! Beautiful.

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beautiful losers

Arg. Yet ANOTHER reason that I am envious of everyone who's at SXSW right now - as if the lure of new media + music + film was not enough - I just discovered that the film Beautiful Losers is premiering there.

No, it's not a film version of Leonard Cohen's novel...

Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural movements of a generation. In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the "establishment" art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture. Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories...speaking to themes of what happens when the outside becomes "in" as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today's youth.
--from the film's site

The film features a ton of really interesting artists, including Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Shepard Fairey and Geoff McFetridge.

Watch the trailer - plus, check out some close-up images of the gorgeous poster, posted by the designer, Keith Scharwath.

I really hope this eventually makes it up to Canada.

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a look inside a letterpress shop

Letterpress is one of the craftforms that I love, but will probably never do. It's a little mystical and magical to me, because it uses huge machines and lots of supplies - all those beautiful little letterforms! It's a little like Mr Wonka's chocolate factory - how do they make all those delicious chocolates when no workers go in or out of the factory? Magic, right?

Ah, well thanks to Hatch Show Print, you can see the Oompa-Loompas of Letterpress. So to speak. In other words, it's a great intro and tour of their letterpress operations.



If you want to read more about Hatch Show Print, Uppercase ran a nice article about them a couple of years ago. Also check out Hatch Show Print's website for a 360 degree tour of their studio. Get ready to be jealous.

(Video via I Love Typography.)

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said the gramophone's wonderful videos

The awesome music blog Said the Gramophone has posted the winning entries to their Wonderful Video Contest.

I really like the effects used in Benjamin & Stefan Ramirez Pérez's video of Joanna Newsom's "Book of Right-On", which was awarded second place:



Steven Cochrane's video of Jolie Holland's "Damn Shame" - which placed 4th - is very, very simple but incredibly lovely:



Also, although I didn't really enjoy the video, I was happy to see that #6 went to a video of a song by my friend Dan's band, Woodhands.

Watch all the Wonderful Videos over on Said the Gramophone.

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make your livingroom more interesting

Here's a quick DIY tip for making your livingroom more interesting.

Build a fort.

All you need are a few couch pillows, chairs, blankets...



Amir Fallah (who's the co-founder and Creative Director of the magazine Beautiful/Decay) has taken an excellent series of photos of livingroom forts - which he helped build.

The Fort series consist of collaborative forts created with male friends in their home. Each fort was built in under two hours. All materials for the forts were found on location and no aspect of the fort was preplanned.

Check out all the photos here.


(via)

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united states of random objects

I'm really enjoying watching Frank Chimero's latest illustration project develop. He's drawing all the states in the US of A, filling in the shapes with various objects...

Here are California as a cigarette, Colorado as a cassette, and Wyoming as a TV:



It's slowly starting to come together really nicely - or, as the artist himself says, "This feels pretty schizophrenicly awesome." I agree.



You can keep up with the progress on Frank's flickr set. (Also check out his site for his other work - I really like this project, where he pits his silhouette against those of Duchamp, Bob Dylan and Alfred Hitchcock - and his blog for random goodness.)

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i love those little yellow shorts.

This video just makes me smile.

And dance. Just a little.


Noah and the Whale - 5 Years Time

Listen to more Noah and the Whale on MySpace.

(Via La Blogotheque.)

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designer homes and designers' homes

And to talk more about designer homes - or rather designers' homes (thank you, apostrophe) in the sense of "homes that designers live in"...

Apartment Therapy San Francisco posted a look into the utterly lovely home of mutli-talented Jill Pilotte - illustrator, floral designer and small business owner.



I love the colour palette: white, green (mmm, i always love the green!), light and medium wood (yes, I know "wood" is not officially a "colour"), a little charcoal, and some punches of deep orange.

I also love the fuzzy felted plant pot holders she has all over the place!

And most of all, heavens to betsy, that work area. Check out that rainbowdelic selection of threads! And the cute paint detailing on the wall behind that! Way to live, girl.

Go here for more photos.

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beautiful and frightening

...but isn't that often how it is?

This scissor mobile was made by Lisa Congdon for her shop, Rare Device, in Brooklyn. Here they are in a less threatening arrangement.

(P.S. Lisa also boasts one of the cutest puppies in existence.)

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homes, not houses

I've said it before, but I adore Design Sponge's sneak peeks into artists' homes. If the houses on all those renovation reality shows were like this... well, I guess I'd end up watching a lot more TV, but it'd be much more inspiring. (HGTV and TLC, are you listening?)

Here are a few of my recent faves:

Alyson Fox's home (here are her drawings): I love the wood/red/white/charcoal colour palette.



Amy Ruppel (here's her artwork): really nice work space and burst of artwork on the wall. The deer head and antlers creep me out a little.



Oijoy's home (here's her photography): wow, where did they get that crazyamazing cabinet? (But again with the dead animal parts on the walls... Hmm.)



Three Potato Four (here's their shop): awesome kids' area; makes me want to bust out the crayons and a huge roll of brown paper.



Trish Grantham's home (here are her paintings): love the explosion of small artworks, the retro furniture against that wall colour... and that's a darn sweet typewriter, too!



Sneak a peek at all Design Sponge's sneak peeks here.

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abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

This is the best video I've seen in a long time.



The hands on the right belong to Job Wouters, a fantastic lettering fanatic from Amsterdam. The (smaller) hands on the left belong to his nephew, Gradus, who's just four years old.

Spontanious jam sessions in our studio inspired us to make this video about the fun of drawing letters.

I can't decide which artist I like better.

Part of why I love this video so much is that they could've only made it right now. If you did the same project with a kid a little younger or a little older and the results would be entirely different - Gradus has just the right amount of awareness of the alphabet - not too little, not too much - to make this pitch perfect.

And the letter W just cracks me up.

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more lovely etsy finds

As long as I'm wishing, I may as well wish right out loud, right?

Rainy Weather Necklace.

Large Double Disk Necklace.

Sage Fraulein Tote. (I was a click away from buying this yesterday!)

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i've never met a Matt (or Matte) i didn't like

If you liked those placemats by Matte Stephens (I know we did!), have a listen to this podcast with the man himself, over on Creative Thursday.

They chat about how he got started, his inspiration, and how he views his art. This is the first in a series of podcasts about how artists make a living.



Not only is Matte supertalented, he comes across as a really sweet guy -- plus, he has a great Southern accent!. In fact, I've never met a Matt (or Matte) I didn't like.

Click here to listen to the podcast. Also check out Matte's blog, site and etsy.

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covet list

Checking 3191 as I often do, I saw this:

After a bit of searching, I found it:

Gorgeous! That one is definitely on my wish list. Maybe I'll gift it to myself next month. Also, over on port2port, the picture in this post has me dreaming about a soft tartan scarf and a grey wool coat.

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