heather wilcoxon

these paintings by heather wilcoxon are really speaking to me this morning. i love the color schemes, and the lines and subject matter have a child-like quality that i really love. they are so full of imagination. she has many more to see on her website right here.

{via the lumper, via camilla engman}

cool artist... takashi iwasaki

i really like these embroidered pieces by takashi iwasaki...

check them out at motel gallery in portland, oregon.

rockafeller going green!

this is so inspiring: i just read that the rockafeller center christmas tree is going green this year! instead of the traditional bulbs (which use mucho power, i'm sure you're aware), they are using energy efficient LED lights, and, as if that wasn't cool enough, they installed 363 solar panels on the roof of the rockafeller center, and that's how the tree is going to get some of its electricity!

i'd like to give mayor michael bloomberg a hand. i love when people change traditions to make them more eco-friendly. every step in the right direction is helpful, and hopefully this will inspire new yorkers and beyond to think about the footprint they leave on this earth.

here's to an eco-conscious holiday season!

{via dori and val at greenfeet}

some new things in the shop!

a quick post to let you all know there are some new things in the ol' etsy shop to check out (and buy, if you so desire!)

some drawings, and some cute little partridge-in-a-pear-tree ornaments.

visit the shop right here!

{and keep checking back, because i am adding new things all the time.}

poketo wallets

i'm loving these wallets from poketo this morning. poketo, if you don't know already, is a network of international artists that create exclusive works and limited editions (t-shirts, wallets, homeware, etc), and my favorites are the wallets.

the above wallets are designed by page tsou, and the wallets below are by sarah utter.

and on a different note, i have, sadly, been hearing about artist plagiarism lately, and i thought this was a fun way to tell people it's not cool to steal ideas. this 'fake' bag is by designer zinoo park, and it "visualizes and satirizes the current era by combining the louis vuitton brand and graphic image of FAKE. through this project the artist critiques idolization of brand names and prevalence of knock-offs."

supposedly the louis vuitton people even bought some!

a weekend in south georgia

ryan and i had a fantastic weekend down in south georgia for the thanksgiving holiday. we camped for three nights and did/saw way more than i expected-- we started out at skidaway island state park (images above), where we camped for 2 nights, took a little side trip to tybee island (images below), where people were swimming, it was so warm! i couldn;t believe it. ryan and i were laughing because we brought winter coats, and then it was sandal weather. we are clearly from colorado. :) but it turned out to be a good idea, because the weather took a turn and got pretty chilly.

then we spent a day in savannah, which is such a lovely town. the mansions are ridiculous, and it just has that old south feeling that i've been looking for since moving to georgia. atlanta doesn't quite have it, being the big city and all. we ate at this great restaurant for lunch called mrs.wilkes', and if you are in the area i highly recommend it. it was a big ol' southern meal, complete with creamed corn, collard greens, beef stew, fried chicken, and the works. (i, of course, was not able to eat a lot of it, being a vegetarian, and i was sure to stay away from the collard greens, which i suspected were cooked with a nice ham hock!)

then the highlight of the trip for both of us was a trip to the okefenokee swamp in the southernmost part of georgia, where we had high hopes of seeing alligators, but there were all hiding due to the chilly, damp weather. we canoed around the swamp for a good chunk of the day, and it was amazing. i mean, amazing. the water was this crazy murky black, and it looked like we were canoing through a sea of coffee. the vegetation is like nothing i've ever seen, and it was so quiet and peaceful. i'm bummed that we didn't see any alligators, but the swamp was definitely a place i would like to visit again. it was truly incredible.

all in all, a relaxing, satisfying, inspiring weekend. the best kind. :)

happy thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving to you all! here are some traditional thanksgiving images for you to enjoy, pilgrims, cornucopias, and all!

ryan and i are off to tybee island, georgia (30 minutes from savannah, which we will also be visiting) bright and early tomorrow morning for a weekend getaway (our first thanksgiving just the two of us!!)-- we are going camping, and we're going to have thanksgiving dinner over a fire. tres romantique!

enjoy your tofurkey (or turkey if that's the way you fly), and have a great thanksgiving! see you monday morning.

{tybee island}

{savannah}

found

i discovered a really fun website this morning called found. it's a website dedicated to collecting found things that give glimpses into someone else's life-- found notes, drawings, lists, etc.
(it started when one of the website's creators got an i-hate-you sort of note from a girl to a boy on his car windshield, meant for someone else!)

it makes me a little uncomfortable in a way, hoping i've never left something around for someone to find that might be embarassing or something (because that would be the end of the world, you know) (I'm being sarcastic), but i like that people become anonymous, and it's all just a part of life. nothing personal.

anyway, check it out here. it's quite intriguing. :)

{ps: about the note in the top image: i take it was a child, who seems extremely wise for his young age. and i hope he's having a better time of it now.)

deth p sun: artist discovery

i had a serendipitous moment this morning. i love when this happens. so, i was browsing flickr, going from one site to another, and i somehow ended up on little paper planes' site, which led me to click through to her website, and i then clicked on her link page, and then on an artist named deth p sun. little did i know that this would turn out to be the artist who created the image on my *very favorite* t-shirt that i bought at urban outfitters several years ago. amazing! my shirt is a version of the bottom image of this post, but it is blue with a color screen print of the drawing on the front. i am in love with that shirt and have always wondered who created it. i can rest easy now!

check out more by deth p sun here. it is a really fun site.

this is the shirt below...

fire hydrants

i have always liked fire hydrants. while browsing keri smith's flickr page this morning, i saw this image of the yellow fire hydrant, which reminded me of this image that i took of a red fire hydrant, so that got me thinking about other fire hyrants, and there is an amazing variety of them in the world! here is a small sampling of my favorites from flickr:

{from cyclingbill2003}

{from pixel packing mama}

(from judeanpeoplefront}

life is a road, not a highway

i have been feeling a little off lately. i'm not really sure why, although i think it is just the ups and downs of being both an artist and a human being. it seems that the up and down is just a part of life. my life, at least.

i was reading earlier, immortality by milan kundera, which i read once before, but which is striking me in entirely new ways than when i read it the first time several years ago.

{ps... read his books. they are really something else.)

this section spoke to me:

'Road: a strip of ground over which one walks. A highway differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A highway has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A highway is the devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.

Before roads and paths disappeared from the landscape, they had disappeared from the human soul: man stopped wanting to walk, to walk on his own feet and to enjoy it. What's more, he no longer saw his own life as a road, but as a highway: a line that led from one point to another, from the rank of captain to the rank of general, from the role of wife to the role of widow. Time became a mere obstacle to life, an obstacle that had to be overcome by ever greater speed......

In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty. In the world of roads and paths, beauty is continuous and constantly changing; it tells us at every step: "Stop!"'

this seems to fit for me these days. my life has become a highway, both physically and metaphorically. i am driving more these days here in georgia than i ever have before, and i get stuck in traffic every day, and it makes me want to scream. the time in the car is not peaceful, relaxing, rejuvenating, or any of the good stuff. i find myself cursing and wanting to get to where i'm going as fast as i possibly can, so as not to waste any time. on a metaphorical level, i'm measuring my life by 'islands of beauty.' i compare myself. to everyone. there's always someone out there who is doing something i deem a little (or a lot!) better, or they seem to have it a little (or a lot) more together, and lives seem just a bit better than mine. as an artist, this comparing is both useful and detrimental: i'm learning a lot by watching what others are doing, but at the same time i'm allowing the line to be crossed from healthy admiration to jealousy, and that does *nothing* to feed my creativity. it's like i'm waiting for something big to happen that i can mark as 'something i accomplished' on my life-highway, when really my life is happening right now. RIGHT NOW. isn't that crazy? this is my life. and that is your life. right now.

anyway, sorry to sound melancholy. the book is pulling big questions out of me, and where else to put them but out into the big ol' internet world?

enjoy the book if you decide to read it. :) it is wonderful.

knitted craziness... sandra backlund

while checking out simply olive this morning, i was immediately taken with these pieces by sandra backlund, and had to share them here. sandra lives and works in stockholm, sweden, and each piece is made by hand. amazing work, isn't it? can you imagine knitting all that by hand? incredible.

{via simply olive via a shaded view of fashion}