Zhou Fan

Chinese artist Zhou Fan creates, quite literally, the stuff of dreams.

"A series of my paintings are based on dreams that I had as a child of many many jellyfish floating in the sky, some of which fell to the ground on parachutes and became mushrooms ... Somehow I feel that it is easier to focus on dreams than reality."

Perhaps, then, it is no wonder that I am reminded of the intense sequences from Paprika. [via Magpie & Whiskeyjack]

Forage Bow Ties

Let me just start by saying that I am so bummed I did not get it together to go to the Forage pop-up opening at the Curiosity Shoppe in San Francisco [stupid, stupid, kicks self]. The exclusive bow tie line was created by Shauna Alterio and Stephen Loidolt of Something's Hiding In Here. Each tie is handmade by the artists (with love, of course) and appears in 3 limited-edition styles: Arrowhead, Cricket, or Thistle.


The line was inspired by "the personal style of our favorite mid-century artists, designers and architects ... We're in love with three different silhouettes inspired by Louis Kahn, Charles Eames and le Corbusier. We spent weeks searching for the right collection of fabrics in classic patterns and sorbet colors — just right for summer! We're obsessed with the details ... well crafted with simple hardware, vintage french woven labels and the perfect box." It's true, the box is almost worth the price of admission, as are the postcards!


You can see some set-up pics at the Smarts & Crafts Flickr. And if you want to be looking dapper, best peruse your options (and quickly before they're gone!) here. To everyone involved in this project, you get on with your bad selves and keep up the good work!

French Paper Pop Ink Soap Packaging

You know you do it. You buy the beer with the Coney Island mermaid, and the bubble bath with the 50's looking Dirty Girl. Maybe you buy them because there are boobies involved, but really you buy them because you'll keep the packaging after you're done with the product. Good packaging is perennial, and I am a huge fan of French Paper's Pop Ink soap packaging designed by the Minneapolis creative CSA Design. [via Lovely Package]

Vintage Sewing Pattern Goodness

Here's a little eye candy for your Friday. I neither know how to sew nor draw fashion illustrations, but I am completely enamored with the elegant designs of vintage sewing patterns. Most of these are from the 50s, with a few hits from the bookending decades. See? High-waisted skirts are where it's at!

Filip Dujardin

Before he was a photographer, Belgian artist Filip Dujardin was an art history major who specialized in architecture. His affection for structures led him to create his own fictional assemblages, composed from his "photographs of nondescript, often post-modern buildings" by reremixing them "using Photoshop to create strange hybrids. The results may be fantastical, but could never be described as whimsical."

Every montage, says Dujardin, is one project. It begins with an idea for a specific image. Often he starts off by building a model of the form he is trying to achieve – at first in cardboard, but he has recently discovered SketchUp. He then goes on a photo safari, often just around the corner, to find suitable buildings "with a lot of the same things," so that they can be cut and pasted and serve as building material. In fact most of the fictional structures are buildings in Ghent, just resampled. —Mark Magazine

You can read more at BLDG BLOG and I Love Belgium. Dujardin also has a book out, Beyond Architecture: Imaginative Buildings and Fictional Cities.

Sergey Loie

Since I recently mined his images for my own pursuits, I thought it only fair to post on amazing Russian photographer Sergey Loie. I stumbled upon the above woman with milk jar shot while doing a random image search on Google [felinofelice]. I was immediately arrested, tunneling into the dubdubdub tronscape. Milk bears prominently in Loie's captures, as do children, bald heads, and anti-gravity. Some of the more overtly posed shots lean toward the occult, and not, in my mind, to great effect. But the simple poses, those that present almost as portraiture — caught between Andrew Wyeth's Helga Pictures and the Brothers Grimm — are nostalgic while still being contemporary, redolent of what Hemingway must have felt reading the Russians during a Paris winter. You can see more on his flickr.

And you can see my photoshop collage below, created for my latest sad cowgirl folk mix CD. The title is from a Dawn Landes lyric that appears on the album.

Alexis Anne Mackenzie

San Francisco artist Alexis Anne Mackenzie aptly calls herself a "paper surgeon." All of her work is done by hand, painstakingly clipped from collected books and artfully assembled, customarily to spell visually enigmatic words or phrases. One can decipher these messages simply by reading the titles, though of course this spoils the fun — Youthless, This Isn't What It Looks Likes, Slow Dance, Never Be Sad, It Matters to Me.

Technically they are collages, but I've never enjoyed describing them in those terms ... I feel like there is a general concept out there of what collage is and tends to look like, which doesn't apply to what I do at all. My general intent, throughout all my work, is to portray the world as a flawed thing of beauty — a place that shines brightly, but has a dark side to match.

You can read an interview at Fecal Face, and learn more at The Beholder. For more collage(esque) goodness — and happily there is a lot of it! — check out her blog, Cocoon Balloon, and her flickr. I hope to meet you one day in SF, Alexis!

Maurizio Bongiovanni

A few selects from a fantastic series by Spanish artist Maurizio Bongiovanni. Oil on canvas. [via Koi Koi Koi]

Be Cycle & Fashion: Custom Bikes for Charity

Twelve fixed gears + twelve great names in fashion and design = art for a cause. Introducing, Be Cycle, a customization project whose proceeds will benefit ACT Responsible, a non profit dedicated to promoting environmental and social causes.

As a cult object and symbol of a responsible attitude, cycling made its comeback in many major cities. Very likely, it became the flagship of the new eco-committed generation. Meanwhile, fashion, luxury and design have established a real dialogue for several years with the creative and sustainable development, turning it more attractive.

The designers are as follows: Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Ylan Anoufa, Antik Batik, Karim Bonnet, François Duris, Marithé et François Girbaud, Elieux by Kaori Ito, Jean-Claude Jitrois, Jérome L’huillier, Swarovski by On aura tout vu, Kenzo Takada. You can read more details at One Heart Channel, and if you speak French, check out the making of videos. See a complete photo gallery here. [Thanks, David!]

Steven Meisels: Patterns for Vogue Italia

Legendary fashion photographer Steven Meisel created these jaw-dropping eye orgasms for the 'Patterns' editorial in an '07 edition of Vogue Italia. More here and here. [via Look In Art]