Big shout out to Jason Freeny at Moist Production, who's created some great images and hand customised vinyl toys showing the anatomy of various well knowns. From Mr Potato Head and a Lego man, through to Kidrobot's Dunny, and others like Qee, Domo and more. You can buy some of his stuff on his site and, if you're quick, a hand customised Nemo is up for grabs on Ebay until 21st September...
There's a great body of jolly lovely work over at Matthieu Bessudo's site - aka McBess. Above is an illustration for his collective, Salle Polyvalente, from ages ago, but I always like something with a stuffed animal on the wall, so you'll have to head over to Matt's site to see newer stuff.
This is an Escher print I haven't seen since I was about 4. I think it's supposed to be oriented portrait but it was hung on the dining room wall like this so, bizarrely, it's now the only way I like it. Fits on the blog better this way too, sorry Escher...
Wonderfully crafted and intricate sculptures, for want of a better word, are the product of Mike Rea. I love this piece, titled "A prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawkin w/ Japanese Steel" from 2007, which is massive and actually accommodates a real size human. His website is a bit small and faffy, but well worth a look around. I'm totally in awe of his work.
For his Halloween costume last year, Eric Testroete used a bunch of programs like 3DS Max, Photoshop and Pepakura to make a wire-frame look version of his own head, inspired by the big-head mode from video games. Freaky, but totally excellent.
Max Abadian has worked with the likes of Lady Gaga & Dita Von Teese (and a bunch more on top of that) and has just shot Doutzen Kroes (Dow-tzen Crew-s) in NYC for the cover of Canadian fashion mag Flare. The shots are a messed up, mixed up version of classic Brigitte Bardot style images.
I've been keeping an eye on Deth P. Sun's work for a while now, so it's about time it got a post. If you're in San Francisco between now and 9th September drop by the current exhibition at Double Punch.
One of the many good things available through Counter Objects, this screen printed tote bag by Anthony Burrill is a good way to stop using plastic bags without using your tote bag as a way of making a statement about the fact you're not using a plastic bag. It's a tenner, but it's limited edition which makes it a steal. Doesn't it?
Personally, I don't get it. It's a toilet, which isn't a particularly nice place to be at the best of times, more so if you're sitting on it. So why does anyone choose to read there? In and out in 3 minutes max. Shit, wipe, read in the living room.
It's been over three decades since Blek Le Rat started stenciling around Paris. Without a shadow of a doubt, he's the pioneer and, looking at his back history it's interesting to see where the medium developed from. It's a shame so few people even know of him, in comparison to the other B word anyway.
He's got an exhibition on at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco which is on now and finishes on 5th June 2010.
I'd also recommend getting his book, "Blek Le Rat - Getting Through The Walls" which is out through Thames & Hudson. I got my copy signed by Blek Le Rat when he was promoting the book at London Graphic Centre and, amazingly, there was virtually nobody there.
I've just seen the new Audi R8 ad from BBH, directed by Sam Brown. There's a behind the scenes making of short film as well which is worth a look. Pretty much everything was shot in camera with virtually no CGI.
Amazing images by Kiev born Mark Khaisman, who now resides in Philadelphia, and creates his works by layering brown packing tape.
I've just seen the stairs in Edinburgh's branch of Urban Outfitters on Princes Street and, being a bit of a ply fanatic, they're well worth a quick blog post.
This is what a decade of Playboy centrefolds looks like. It's 1988 - 1997, in case you're an aficionado on such things, and it's a work by Jason Salavon where he's used "...point-by-point mathematical averaging..." to produce the image.
Task: take image of old pin up or good shot of a lady. Add laser effects to her breasts. Lazertits. A totally pointless website, but worth a butchers.
A Beautiful Machine is a two-week event curated by McFaul Studio and howies and is running from the 26th March to 9th April. A combination of art, talk and ride based above the howies store in Bristol.
Great news about Min-Kyu Choi, winner of the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2010, and his folding plug. Another example of an idea you look at and kick yourself you didn't think of it, which just goes to show we're all guilty of not spending enough time thinking about the world around us and how we can improve things. I can't believe we've been using the clunky big plug design, apparently the biggest household plug in the world, since it's conception in 1946.
Christoph Niemann is well worth a mention, his work has a nice sense of wit. He's got a new book out which is "A playful homage to New York" and shows aspects of New York depicted through the medium of photographed Lego bricks. The above image is taken from a n Abstract City series which are well worth a look.
Peskimo and Chris Dickason join up to bring us Tease Made - and exhibition of prints, paintings and doodles running from 19th March to 11th April, 2010 in Bristol. It's an exhibition at Start, a new art space in Bristol, and is based around all things to do with having a nice cup of tea. Sounds like my kind of place.
Just got a zero score on the Colour Acuity Test which means I have perfect colour acuity. Good job really in my vocation... And no, I didn't retouch the score.
This stop frame video by Eric Testroete of his photos from a trip to Japan is really well put together and, partly because it's Japan, enchanting to watch. Anyone who's been there will fleetingly recognise so many of the flashes of places and thoroughly enjoy the video even more.
Spiffingly ruddy brilliant, Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer. Influences include Chuck D, Terry Thomas and George Formby. There's a load more stuff on his MySpace site too...
I love these shots of Stormtroopers on their day off. If they weren't so good, I'd say someone has too much time on their hands, but some of the poses are so perfectly positioned it's a high quality project well worth the hours that have been invested in it.
Just got hold of this copy of me and my brother when I'm probably about 3, back in the days when photo booths didn't do colour shots (Holy crap, that was about 30 years ago). I'm the good looking, quizzical one on the right. I got the brains too.
I'm too busy laughing right now, but I'm going to have to watch The Spy Who Loved Me again now, just to find out where the big fish featured in the story. And what's that? Lovers Fishie Club? I'm very confused now. At least Gary Wilmot, err, sorry, Roger Moore, is ready for settling down with his Lotus Esprit estate. See the original American version of the poster and more movie posters from Ghana over at Empire.
I don't seem to be able to make a cup of tea without coming back to see someone else writing a blog about the iPad, or tweeting about a blog about the iPad. So I'm posting something good about the iPhone.
Unlike many people, I'm a fan of spiders and never kill them. They're good for controlling the pests in the garden and lets face it, they're pretty stunning when not squashed under your size 10 boot. Thomas Shahan's amazing up close and personal photography with some eight-legged friends makes you realise just how wonderful they are.
Nope, your eyes do not deceive you. You can get Helvetica cookie cutters and then, presumably, be the envy of everyone you know as you have t with your tea (he says, avoiding the other obvious "Can i have a p please Bob" jokes)
If I ever have the time, I'll do this - graffiti analysis, showing there's a lot more that goes into a tag than might meet the eye...
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett join forces once again for the Gorillaz next outing to Plastic Beach. The single "Stylo" will be released in a couple of days on 26th January with the album following on 9th March. Stylo features Bobby Womack and Mos Def makes a couple of appearances on the album as new character "Sun Moon Stars."
Ok, so. If you're ever bored, get into a photo club like this, shown on the English Russia website. This photo is from the project where the community have to construct and shoot the following scenario:
Mr Bingo is producing a couple of prints which are up for sale though his site - a mere fiver each to you, but a hell of a difference to the disaster fund. So you get a damn good print and a damn good feeling too. Every penny is going to charity, GFSmith have supplied the paper free of charge and K2 Screen have produced the screen prints FOC as well. Dig deep everyone...
It's a long story, but I planned a second proposal to Liz as the first one (18 months ago) didn't go amazingly to plan. True to form, the second one didn't either. Snow caused massive delays and our romantic lunch in Amiens, France, turned into a horrible 23 hour journey which saw us arrive at our holiday destination at 4am the next day. Thankfully, she said yes. Again.
