The Drawings of Winnie Truong

I love that Winnie Truong's "About" section of her website declares only: "b. 1988 Toronto, Canada." So with that introduction, we know that Winnie is, in 2010, a mere 22 years old and might pronounce "about," "aboot." Oh, and she's an intensely talented artist whose massive line drawing portraits (4'x6', pencil and chalk) delve head first into discomforted notions of beauty via the exploration of hair and teeth. With names like "Lady Gymkata" (the skill of gymnastics, the kill of karate?) and "Virility and Grace," musings on Samson-like strength seem fortified. And yet my mind drifts to thoughts of teratomas, and vagina dentata. Truong is currently being shown at Katherine Mulherin in Toronto. [via Design Porn]

Georgia Russell

Scottish paper artist Georgia Russell falls within the notable ranks of Brian Dettmer and Su Blackwell — both artists who remodel the book into 3-dimensional narratives. Whereas Detter excavates his subjects like an archeological dig, and Blackwell erects select images into diorama-like scenes, Russell abandons depiction to focus on form. Her books shred out in sculpted waves that seem to at once defile and release the text, as if blown out from the spine in a sudden organic bloom. [via Silent Storyteller]

Yelena Bryksenkova: Sketchbook

St. Petersburg-born, Midwest-raised Yelena Bryksenkova creates storybook-style illustrations full of a certain folklore nostalgia. Her sketchbooks reveal a lush inner landscape brimming with musings, portraits, meals, notable fashion, historic figures, and the view out the window. They remind me of Maira Kalman's illustrations, both in aesthetic and theme, as they remodel everyday subjects into curious delights. Thank you for letting us be a part of your world, Yelena.

Lee Price

There is something plainly private about the photorealistic figure paintings of American artist Lee Price. Her subjects are all women, in varying degrees of dress, often in closed spaces, surrounded by food. The aerial vantage suggests secrecy, as if we the viewer are getting a privileged look inside the darker parts these women's lives.

Lee graduated from the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.

LEGO MoMA

I love when art imitates art.

As an excuse to spend a little time on a Friday afternoon playing with Legos, we decided to whip up some pieces in [New York's] MoMA’s collection in Lego form.

Shinya Kimura: Zero-Style Bikes

I just posted this over at CRAFT. Witness: the vintage craftsman glory of a man and his machine. Japanese-born custom motorcycle builder, Shinya Kimura, made a name for himself as founder of the shop Zero Engineering, where his streamlined aesthetic turned vintage bikes into a "no frills minimalistic" functional artistry known as Zero-style.

A Zero-style bike is typically based around a rigid gooseneck, a pre-1984 Harley Davidson engine, springer front end, spoked wheels and often includes parts of the bike remaining in bare metal. The inspiration came from wabi sabi (austere refinement) and the beauty of the raw materials and incorporating the essence of wa (harmony) into his designs.

Today, Kimura runs his own workshop, Chabott Engineering, in the California desert town of Azusa. Watch more Kimura videos here, and follow him on his blog.

Shane Waltener: Lace Webs

Many moons ago I found the above image in a Tumblr feed without any luck of locating the artist. Finally, Lovely Textiles has the answer: London artist Shane Waltener! This piece, Auntie Peggy Has Departed, is a great example of his body of work, utilizing lace doilies and audio as part of an installation focused on memory, place, and craft. Apart from these knitted web installations, Waltener also takes photographs and makes sculpture.

Deth P. Sun: Sketchbook

Berkeley, CA., artist Deth P. Sun is one of those kids that has no doubt been doodling since conception. He was probably the extra quiet guy in the corner of class, head down, meticulously filling in the margins with a continuous brain dump of characters, words, and random compilations. I covet this sketchbook. I also (not so) secretly wish Deth did children's books for adults.

Deth is part of a group show, Look Alive, at Double Punch right now if you want to see some of his work in person. I also encourage you check out his food journal zine, The Various Things I Eat, and all his illustrative goodies on Etsy. On a personal note, Deth and I worked together ever so briefly at Utrecht in downtown San Francisco back in the day. My favorite moments were when Deth answered the phone:

"Thank you for calling Utrecht, this is Deth."

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!

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.