this year I...

- drove to both coasts and into Canada.
- started the Uptown Market, with help of friends.
- became a professional artist.
- loved the color purple.
- got my dream guitar.
- started writing songs.
- lost a grandma.
- began calling Minneapolis "home."
- rode a tandem, flew a kite, went to a monster truck show, roller skated.
- won a backyard kubb tournament.
- bought a blue bike.
- had many a drunken, beautiful nighttime rides on said bike.
- went to a lot of amazing concerts, including two in-studio performances (A. Bird & Metric).
- was constantly reminded of how great my friends are, new and old.
- watched movies on the side of a garage.
- made pizza on the grill.
- frequented the beach.
- met a neat guy, who makes me happy.
- found a new favorite author (Murakami).
- painted my face like a cat.
- saw a moose in the wild.
- tried something new, whenever I could.

Pic taken on my Portland road trip, in Gresham, OR.
Idea for this post by Sam, whom I don't really know, but probably should.

fox is the new owl

I've always been a fan of foxes, growing up with Disney's Robin Hood (oodelally!) and a name that lends itself to easy rhyme association. Maybe we have Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox to thank, but foxes seem to be cropping up more often in arts and crafts as a trendy subject matter. But I suppose they've been popular for a while; Threadless printed their "Foxy" shirt some years ago (which naturally I purchased). And Fuck You, Penguin has been ripping on foxes for some time, which helps their street cred. Anyway. Foxes are neat, and here are a few of my favorite recent images.


Pietari Posti's "Giants" series


Ashley G's Masquerade

Print by Pamela Michelle

And, for "awww" factor:

Books!

I rearranged my books. Kept the colour-coordination, but decided not to go true ROYGBIV. By adding a couple of floating shelves from IKEA, covering the exposed wall, I was able to place all my books in one spot, rather than on shelves in seperate rooms. Taste the rainbow. Sort of.

flora fauna

Mr. Paul Gardner knows how to make one snazzy gig poster- check out the entire collection (most available for purchase) at the flora fauna site. The designs are imaginative and uncluttered, with organic, naturalistic subject matter and color schemes. Not only can you show off your excellent taste in music and brag about the the live concerts you've attended, you can also obtain an actual piece of fine, handcrafted artwork. Maybe I'm a little biased as a friend, but I can't wait to hang some on my wall.

and more mugs... with mustaches!

mugs, mugs, mugs.

Been spending a lot of time in the studio making mugs. The ravens are custom order, using a method called scraffito, carving away a layer of black slip to create an image. The others are variations on my monster mugs theme.

books! art!

Mike Stilkey combines some of my favorite things in his work: books and art. Old, decrepit, books. Dark, whimsical, Tim Burton-esque drawings. Some even have cats and bikes; what's not to love?


I have been wanting to combine literature and painting for some time now and have sort of been struggling with the logistics. Tearing out pages of a book and painting over them is my thought, with patches of text showing through, but then do I need to worry about copyrights? Stilkey's solution to incorporating books is simple and the new canvas creates a wonderfully diverse starting point. He also does larger installation pieces, made up of hundreds or thousands of books. Here, he's coated a piano with book covers giving it a collage feel.

pull on the cord, let it take us away.

I'm currently en route to Portland, and the drive westward reminds me of my road trip with Jess a couple years ago to Albuquerque's Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. I'm not sure how I developed an obsession with hot air balloons, but there is something about them I completely adore. The simplicity of their design. The freedom. The adventure.

Some day, watch for a The Kid Detective's song about their allure.

Here are some of my old photographs from the fiesta as well as some other illustrations and photographs of hot air balloons I find enchanting.

I wanted to hug it.

Watercolour by Raquel Aparicio. The point of view on this piece is absolutely brilliant, as well as the soft colors and use of white space. The balloon is simply part of the flock.
An event poster designed by Minneapolis Fallout Gallery.

Watercolour available for purchase by babouche rouge on etsy.

Jim Datz drawing including hot air balloon and mustaches! win, win.

Dazzling photo on weheartit. I want to go to there.

Wanderlust staitionery by two guitars on etsy.

paper art

magazine cut-out art by nate page. spooky, no?


Paper Plates. Hah! By Joshua Gajownik. Can't beat nerdy, pun-filled dishes.


Rules, by Laser Bread. Simple, and effective. Makes me want to use thread in more projects.

crossword art

I mentioned my first attempts at crossword art poems a while back, but have since realized that individual pieces are more coherent. The first step is combining trendy nouns (pirate, t-rex, zombie) with appropriate pairings (arrgh, rawr, brains). Then I digitally design a crossword to fit and finish each one with a small sketch to keep them unique. To stay hip, my next series is going to have to include vampires, narwhals, and maybe bacon...

tetris in our lives

We all need a little tetris in our lives. With Halloween right around the corner, I am reminded of how amazing a group costume of tetris pieces would be. But impracticality rules it out; how would we dance? How would we drink? I've got another full year to work out these logistics. I still have hope. Photograph above by Patrick Runte- check out his other game inspired works.

A great example of tetris functionality-based designs are shelves. Lauren recieved a birthday gift of tetris shelves similar to the ones below from her new fiancé (congrats)! For those lacking carpentry skills but with ample cash to spend, they are available through Brave Space Design.


And for those without cash or carpentry skills, I urge you to graffiti sketchy neighborhoods with nerdy game references and consider tetris shapes when breaking out windows.

one classy gent

Probably everyone has seen these college pictures of Obama taken by Lisa Frank in 1980, but I'm quite fond of them so I felt like posting regardless. Also, it makes me want to take more photo shoots of my friends. In black and white. With cigarettes and silly hats.

The intimacy and insights of portraits gets lost with our saturation of photographs on sites like facebook, something that an intentional photo shoot brings about. And besides, you never know who will rise to fame in a few decades.