stamps.

today i sent the first handwritten letter i've mailed out in a long time. i prettied up the upper right hand corner with one of the 'pollination' stamps from usps. specifically the bat one.

artist steve buchanan created the four stamps arranged in two alternate blocks that fit together like interlocking puzzles. in one block the pollinators form a central starburst; in the other block the flowers are arranged in the center. i think that it's great that they played around with the overall design as well as making each individual stamp interesting. here are some other stamps with neat designs, from flickr member david mcfarline.

summer fruit.

a nice little painting of watermelons from daily paintings to celebrate the first 80° day this year.

hedi diary.

some of my favorite images from hedi slimane's photo diary.

owning up.

"I, W. H. Jackson, of the county of Clarke, of the one part, and the oak tree… of the county of Clarke, of the other part: Witnesseth, That the said W. H. Jackson for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears said tree, and his great desire to see it protected has conveyed, and by these presents do convey unto the said oak tree entire possession of itself and of all land within eight feet of it on all sides."

levi van veluw.

since i'm on an "artists who are blowing my mind" kick, here's another. levi van veluw uses his face as the canvas to create self-portraits that are not "a portrait, but an information-rich image of colour, form, texture, and content." the ballpoint pen ones are my favorite. my dad used to get SO MAD if i ever drew on myself {which i did all the time} and make me go wash it right off. i wonder what he'd do if i showed up home from highschool looking like this:

i love his expression in the top image and how the pen extends onto the ears and chest in both.

alex da corte.

i've loved alex ever since i met him my junior year of college when, instead of presenting his piece to the class, he did a little dance. since then his work is constantly evolving and consistently amazing. i own no less than 20 pieces of his work and i'm so excited that he's finally getting the recognition that he deserves {although i do wish that he'd start painting again}. a great guy with beautiful work, and no one looks better in turquoise jeans!

10,000

run run run

accessory

activity #9


[installation shot]

his newest work will be shown at fleisher/ollman here in philadelphia this coming friday, april 18th. the show titled "love explosion" will feature work by both alex da corte and jack sloss and includes works in neon, bronze, wood, plaster, found objects, photographs, paintings, film and video.

daniel eatock.

today i was looking for information on pantone markers and came across the 'pantone pen print' by daniel eatock. by taking one complete set of letraset TRIA pantone markers, arranging them in the colour spectrum and resting them on their nibs and letting them sitting for one month soaking through a ream of paper, he got this:

49/73

12/73

his website also contains about 100 other ingenious/proposed/conceptual/mass-produced/theoretic/funny and subversive pieces, collections, videos, photos and objects. i've spent all day looking at his work, it's got a little bit of everything and it's all clever!

Mini Manifesto

Begin with ideas
Eliminate superfluous elements
Subvert expectation
Believe complex ideas can produce simple objects
Trust the process
Allow concepts to determine form
Reduce material and production to their essence
Sustain the integrity of an idea
Propose honesty as a solution
Remove subjectivity

birthday bike.

today is my bff4e {that's best friend forever forever} emi's birthday! we've been friends for about 10 years now which is sort of crazy to me, but she's totally great and i love her. here is a picture of us two years ago holding hands and trying not to laugh.

we are so different but have bonded over many things such as; cats, making fun of people, and the idea that yin-yangs are hilarious. she's been talking about getting a motorcycle [scary!] and if she does i would want to get her one of these helmets from ateliers ruby so that she can be safe AND stylish.

obamarama.

next tuesday is primary voting day here in pa. in anticipation of the results i'd like to present the quite strange website; barack obama is your new bicycle. click on the phrase and a new one like, barack obama carries a picture of you in his wallet, pops up.

here is an article about the "... is your new bicycle" meme as well as a meta meme about the meme. whoa.

ps. a vote for obama is a vote for pizza.

visual literature.

stefanie posavec combines three of my favorite things into one; books, maps and art. by scouring the text of a novel, highlighting and noting sentence length, prosody and themes, she maps the regularities and patterns within the literary space of the book. visually mapping the rhythm and structure of kerouac’s on the road, posavec creates gorgeous works that will change the way you think about diagramming the sentences of your grammar school youth.

found on www.notcot.com

the red balloon.

a little magic to start the morning, a clip from le ballon rouge.

zzzzzz.

i had to get up extra early this morning so this is me today.