a familiar orange octopus

when i saw this illustration by amber alexander, i recognized the octopus immediately!  you can’t tell me that it’s not the same one i had the pleasure of meeting at the oregon aquarium back in september.
it simply must be the same one.
no question about it.

 

check out more work by amber alexander.

black (white + red) swan

i have not seen the movie, but i do love these posters for it.

 

posters created by design group La Boca.

cherri house, quilter

yesterday i posted about a woman, fred shand, who created quilts with a very organic feel to them. non-traditional.

i thought it would be fun to post about the opposite. cherri house is a well known quilter who has written a variety of books, one of which is city quilts, where she takes her inspiration from the city. sometimes when you are walking in and around and through a city, you can forget to stop and admire just how amazing it can be.

cherri has managed to do that, and then put it in a quilt, go figure.

 

cherri house, city quilts.

fred shand, quilter

just the other day i was talking to a friend who quilts, and she mentioned that she is growing a little tired of her regular angular designs and expressed her desire to explore some more organic, free form shapes.  i, myself have never done any sort of quilting, but i can really appreciate all the work that goes into each one.  i know it’s no simple task… people spend months on a quilt, sometimes years.

a few days after speaking with my friend, i saw these by fred shand, an english artist that anthropologie is featuring.  definitely not your typical quilter, she uses a variety of methods from silk-screening to painting to sewing and quilting in order to make each one-of-a-kind piece.

 

fred shand.

a month of sunday walks

this is a series of sunday walks that leanne shapton illustrated for the new york times.
i wish my sunday walks looked liked this.

see the series.

hello, again.

it has been a very long time since my last post; for a variety of reasons, my mind has been elsewhere.

this doesn’t mean that i wasn’t saving pictures or thinking of things to post… in fact, my desktop is littered with images, and it’s driving me a little crazy.  i‘ve grouped some of them into clusters that i will try posting within the next week or so.

…and i do apologize to those of you who keep reminding me of the date of my last post… you know who you are.

 

fantastic mr. bfg and the giant peach in the chocolate factory

my latest painting is of roald dahl, best known for writing pretty much every great childrens book ever.

stained glass windows

so i’m finally back from my european travels!

the past two months have been a whirlwind of moving, seeing, eating and exploring.  i‘m just now digesting all that i have done and am in the process of trying to filter it down in order to share with you.

for my first post, it seems only appropriate to talk about something that was intricately woven throughout the countries i visited.  stained glass windows!! i now consider myself an expert on the subject.  there are bright, abstract, geometric, pastel, large, small, iconographic and decorative windows…. but all interesting in their own right.

here are just a few that i saw along my way:

joe kievitt

these patterns by joe kievitt are pretty great.

see more here.

three city posters

these posters actually remind me of each of these places… all of which i have spent some time in.

blanca gomez for cosas mínimas