What's Happening?
Perusing Super Punch this morning and found the art of Justin Hillgrove. I had never seen his work before and am thoroughly in love with it now :D
"Wampa Encore" from his show going on right now, Black and White And Read All Over at Mineral.
"Group Hug" from Imps and Monsters
"Every Little Bit Helps" from his Robot collection
He's so darn prolific it's amazing! Definitely going on my list of loves and inspiration :D
A friend of mine shared this site with me and before I could even ask her where she found it, I was all over it. It's called Q-pot Island and is a line of Japanese accessory shops. This Strawberry Milk Melt ring immediately caught my eye:
As well as this meticulous Rose Cupcake ring:
And this is just the ring portion! They've got necklaces, charm bracelets and such beautifully detailed trinkets as this Choco Biscuit Strap:
And last but not least, the Caviar Ring:
They have an English version of the site, but the online shop is only in Japanese and only ships within Japan. There are three places to get their wares in the states, Ala Moana Center in Hawaii has the largest selection, as well as the MoMA Design Store and Takashimaya in New York City (although limited items).
Either way there seems to be more than enough eye candy to keep me busy for days to come. :D
Just popped over to National Geographic and this beautiful gem popped up. Once again, it's a brand new, so-new-it's-not-even-named, species of katydid.
It was found in Sept of 2009 during expeditions to Papua New Guinea's Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges. The trips found 24 new species of frogs, 2 new mammals, and nearly a hundred new insects.
I'm always looking for photo reference for my paintings and always come across websites or items that I've never seen before. While lying awake at 4 am this morning, I decided I should start to set aside these interesting tidbits and share them. Maybe you've never seen them either :D
So for my first reference tidbit, I give you 'roasted chestnuts' via Google Image Search. My top three finds were:
1. Roasted Chestnut Doughnut via A Passion for Food Blog, written by Kathy YL Chan. How could I not love a site with such beautiful food? Besides she just got back from Paris and her first meal at home was Spam, eggs and rice (she's originally from Hawaii). Gotta love it :)
2. Kermit the Frog eating chestnuts in Germany via the Kermit On Tour site created by Conny and Markus. This couple "... try to travel with Kermit as often as possible to show him all the wonderful places around the world." How awesome is that! Their most recent post has them, with Kermit, on Australian television. Yay!!!!
3. Well, this might be a good photo of a chestnut...oh no! That's no chestnut! It's an adorable, little hedgehog via Cute Overload - where else! If you're feeling down, there's always something to perk you up on Cute Overload.
Enjoy :D
and his latest work just proves my point. At least I think so.
Firing for effect
Mixed media
44 inches diameter
2010
I can't even begin to describe how in awe I am of this man's work. Just in case you don't get how awesome it is just by the above pic, this is a closeup of the detail within the inner sphere...
Yeah, mull that over for a split second then click on the pics and go to his website to see all the closeups of this piece as well as the rest of his Distillation Series. There's more details that'll blow your little brain. I, for one, am happy to have stumbled across Arrested Motion this morning who happened to be posting about this piece.
The day suddenly seems a bit brighter for it too :)
Ed showed me this the other day and we just about fell to the floor. It's the 727 Fuselage Home at the Hotel Costa Verde. The place is breathtaking. Then we noticed that the view was very familiar...
Yup, it's in Costa Rica overlooking Manuel Antonio Park and probably about 100 feet from where Ed and I spent a part of our honeymoon, 13 years ago.
We"ve decided that for our 20th anniversary we're staying here. How could we not?
Enjoy!
Even up until last week this probably would have freaked me out. But then again, even going to sleep at night freaks me out (damn my brain). However, today, it inspires me. So I thought I would share. Haven't played it, but the whole atmosphere of it is amazing. Totally reminded me of Silent Hill combined with Little Big Planet. What a great job, kudos PlayDead.
I'm finally getting back to being able to look around the web and one of my favorite places to visit is Super Punch, by the awesome and generous John Struan. He rounds up such amazing art every day, from book covers to buildings. Well that's only the b's but you get the point. I went there today and found this:
A building in Taipei decorated with Friends With You.
I wouldn't mind waking up to that view every morning :) Thanks John.
While doing a search for jellyfish (and no, this article has nothing to do with jellyfish, but...) I came across practicalfishkeeping.com. I'm pretty damn sure that this is not practical, but they had a lovely piece on the world's largest planted aquarium. "It has been created by nature exhibit design consultants Green Chapter who have also produced many of Singapore and Malaysia’s best public and private aquatic exhibits" So this amazing 'fish tank' is in someone's home in Malaysia.
Roland Seah is the genius who created this beauty and is the founder, head honcho, big magoo for Green Chapter.
If you want to read more and see details on temp, construction and the lucky little fishies who get to live here, click here.
I had the best email yesterday from Michael Lalonde who creates the comic Orneryboy He made a little coffin for the Zombie I had made for he and his wife, Jen, and sent along pics of it. It is awesome and I wanted to share a bit of win with you all today.
And please check out his flickr account for closeups and how he made it.
AND...while you're looking around at cute, morbid things, check out Jen's shop, Sick On Sin. It's chock full of Michael's characters on tshirts, buttons, etc. Like this Cupcake Fiends button set (and you can get any of these illos on tshirts as well)
Or the Gulf Gang set where Sick On Sin is donating 100% of the profits from sales of this pack to the National Audubon Society, an organization that has protected birds, wildlife and their habitats for over 100 years.
Check them both out and give them some love. They are wonderful people who have supported CRM and myself over the years and I'm honored to know them.
Enjoy :)