Wednesday Work: Arty Potties

Clark Sorensen creates some of the most interesting urinals I have ever seen!

Art you can pee on... GENIUS!

If you can stomach the price tag, you'll find something for your mother-in-law-to-be, and something for the punk-rock-kids-next-door:

Has it been a sh*tty day? 

Hmmmmmmm, a hump day, definetely a hump day.

If you'd like to see more of Sorensen's work, check out http://www.clarkmade.com/

And we wanna know - what would your fancy throne look like?

Wednesday Work: John Buck's Woodcuts (and more!)

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"The Preserve": 2005

Color woodcut : 62 x 37" : Ed. 15

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"The Coal Mine": 1996

Color woodcut : 62 x 37" : Ed. 15

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"Argosy": 1998
Color woodcut : 62½ x 37" : Ed. 15

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"War Eagle": 2010
Color woodcut with hand coloring : 37 x 73" : Ed. 15

John Buck resides between Montana and Hawaii. He not only works with these beautifully detailed woodblock prints, he also works with wood carving and bronze sculpture. He has shown his work extensively and a retrospective of his graphic work is currently on a national exhibition. To see this work in person would be a dream! It will be on exhibition at the Yellowstone Art Museum through January 2011, so if you're in the area, check it out.

Ok, now more of the good stuff:

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"Projections and Predictions", 2008

wood & acrylic, 71 x 71 x 3.5 inches

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"The In Crowd", 2003

blown glass and wood

Is there any medium this guy hasn't eloquently mastered?

And check out where the magic happens...

Now this looks like the kinda place I'd like to spend my days.

Read more about John Buck here.

DEFY MONDAY: ...

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Wednesday Work: Textile Exile

All I have been able to think about in the past few weeks is fabric fabric fabric. I'm not talking fashion design, I'm talking fabric as a canvas, for everything I've always done, but with more possibilities...

Crocheting fabric,

Sewing, Serging, Shearing,

Textile designs by way of screen prints,

Dying fabric-y things,

Okay ... you get the picture.

It seems though, that the more I research fabric artists, the more I am coming across the same ole quilty quilts. You know, the kind that are meaningful if Great Aunt Wanda spent hours of painstaking time, sewing it by arthritis-ridden hands for that special birthday surprise. Those quilts have their places in our hearts..... of course....

But, Oh, The Delight! when I came across these two lovely ladies and their beautiful, original textile pieces:

Leah Evans creates these quilted wall hangings using an impressive assortment of layers and different techniques. All of her work has a common theme throughout, which is how maps interact with our ideas about land. More about her work can be found here.

Sarah Symes creates abstract art about life. She uses colors and spaces to explain real life emotions and experiences. See and read more here.

Just look at the detail!...

















Tomorrow I'm off to visit a friend's fabric studio.
Ohhh, that's right, Im just getting started.

Cheers to Autumns approach, the landscapes, the colors, and the entrance of new, fresh ideas.

DEFY MONDAY: bicycles + tattoos

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Big news from this past weekend - after walking with the dogs down to the neighborhood bike shop to pick up a new tube - I fixed my first flat, all by myself!

I know, I know, not exactly rocket science or even an awesome show of physical strength, but it is those small victories, is it not(?), that put the sugar-free frosting on our mundane day-to-day.

And it was! It was exhilarating! And I did! I did want to run out and get a rad how-to-fix-a-flat-bicycle-tire-diagram tattoo. But I digress,

(Perhaps I should wait on the permanent ink until I overcome a repair which involves a little more difficulty or an awesome show of physical strength.)

Check out these illustration by Matt Taylor! I am sure all of you out there know someone around your 'hood like this. (Ugh:way to go Dad - all I can think is: where are their helmets?)

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Bicycles + Tattoos + Art = a splendid day ANY day! See more of these things at Brush & Spoke, Pedal Consumption, and Fixed Gear Blog.

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A ball-bearing hub?

Can I be honest with you out there in blog land?

I keep dreaming about a mobile made of sticks & feathers & string & rocks, I think the tattoo sitting there just inside my subconscious resembles a ... dream-catcher! shriek BaHahahaha (evil laugh), on the inside of my upper arm, The Sea won't mind, no, not at all.

Oh the lunacy of a humid August - hope you all enjoy your week!

...mhmm...

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Hope y'all have a great weekend!

-drop it like a top

pop it while it's hot-

(summer is almost over... enjoy it while you can.)

Wednesday Work: Wafa Hourani

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Wafa Hourani is a Palestinian artist combining sculpture and photography is his current body of work, Future Cities.

Paraphrased from a fellow blogger,

"Future Cities deals with the social, political, and economic realities of Palestinian life to develop grim and apocalyptic predictions for the residents of the West Bank.

Each building is a miniature light-box illuminating glimpses into the private lives of the residents through film strips placed in the windows, an unnerving reminder that this science fiction horror is, for many, an everyday experience. "

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While I applaud the ability to be real-world pertinent/political, I mostly enjoy this work for it's whimsical object-hood. Thinking about the process, and how much fun it would be to make this little world. I love the nuance the photographs of the darkened world create, but am very interested in the array of bright colors used on the models you can seen when shot in daylight.

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I can imagine the working process, but find myself curious about the thought-process. Did Wafa Hourani think first of the concept then make the model, or does Hourani enjoy model making and after constructing a few, come up with the concept.

This is something I struggle with often. You creative folks out there - what works best for you? Plan or action? Plan to action? Attack and clean-up?

Regardless, *Cribs* Goldfish Edition - yes, why I would love to live here. (Those of you in Philly, does this remind you of the secret garden?)

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I want ice cream.

You can read more about Wafa Hourani here, and here.

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DEFY MONDAY: Always lovely...

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Wouldn't you like to be here?

Always lovely images from Fine Little Day.

We missed last week's Wednesday Work - we were on vacation.

Where have you all been getting away to this summer?