natsko seki

Original and nostalgic illustrations by Natsko Seki. Born in Tokyo and raised in London, Natsko illustrates her favorite cities while while adding an element of fantasy.

Click the pictures to enlarge!

-g.

marcel ceuppens

Marcel Ceuppens is an art director and graphic designer from Belgium. His digital paintings of the "everyman" is very reminiscent of Rene Magritte... the faceless man, a simple setting...

I feel that Ceuppen's paintings are very relevant for the present day, where too many people have a hard time differentiating between their work life and their personal life...

From Aqua Velvet:

Marcel’s protagonist—his “everyman”—appears solo or with cookie cutter duplicity throughout these paintings. Each work possesses a specified narrative within a spare, minimalist context and no doubt is very communicative. It is easy to either directly relate, or be rather familiar with this universal character as he conforms to the expected norms of both life and work in an unresisting manner and as he passively observes out of the ordinary natural disasters. Our protagonist appears detached; he is faceless and nonemotive but we empathize with him nonetheless.

-g.

mirah & thao concert

Instead of doing my usual "Pretty Things Friday," (I'll admit that I completely forgot it's Friday and I have nothing prepared...sorry, guys ) I am going to recap last night... which includes a review of Sea, Surf Bar, and the main event... Mirah & Thao's performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

First of all I got an almost-amazing parking spot right infront of MHoW. I say "almost-amazing" because after the show people were leaning all over my car smoking, but that's how good a spot it was. Also, I am becoming an expert Brooklyn driver.

I met Allison after browsing through some depressingly expensive boutiques and we ate at a Thai restaurant called Sea. It's a really neat restaurant with a pond right in the middle, and off to the right there are some bubble swings and really interesting concave egg shaped chairs. We both got pad thai and it was delish.



After dinner we headed over to Surf Bar (I keep calling it Tiki bar.) I was so impressed by this place because it was so over-the-top beachy! Isn't that the theme these days anyway? The floor was covered in sand and they served their mixed drinks in Hawaiian cups with flowers and umbrellas. We sat in the patio and ordered drinks. Allison's mojito reminded us of a salty beach with seaweed, and I got a Blue Point Blueberry Ale. We met up with Katrina and headed over to MHoW.



I was never at the Music Hall of Williamsburg but it looked exactly like Bowery Ballroom except on a much smaller scale. We were given free Heinekens because Heineken was sponsoring the Northside Festival. Free beer is definitely the best. Anyways...

The first band that played was called Chica Vas. There were literally 17 girls on stage, each playing a different percussion instrument. The two main singers were twins, and all the girls were wearing pretty floral dresses, flowers, feathers, sparkles and facepaint. Basically, they were AWESOME. I've never seen anything like that. They had great energy and it was such a nice surprise. I hope they play more because I would like to see them again.





Another band played called These United States but I wasn't too into them.

Finally... Mirah & Thao with The Most of All aka Mirah/Thao superband. I didn't think I would ever get to see Mirah play again because she hardly ever comes to New York, so I was very excited for this show. I wasn't too familiar with Thao but she has awesome enthusiasm and I love the way she plays guitar. Mirah and Thao played so well together and it was nice hearing Mirah songs sung by Thao and vice versa. I was so excited that Mirah played the disco version of Gone Are All The Days for the final encore because it's such a great version of the song.

Overall, Mirah and Thao were amazing and their band was terrific as well. I'm so happy I was able to see Mirah again and got turned onto Thao, too!

Can you see me in the bottom right hand corner? :)








I found this video before I saw them and I wished they had played this song because it's so beautiful.

Thao & Mirah "How Dare You" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

You can see more pictures from this show at Brooklyn Vegan!

-g.

irina vinnik

My friend Katrina sent me these amazing illustrations by Russian artist Irina Vinnik.

I'm in awe of the amount of detail in these illustrations. I also like the way she took photos of her sketchbook in situations rather than scanning them.









-g.

marc johns

I am very interested in these drawings by Marc Johns, and I think his sense of humor is right up my alley. I love the bright colors and simple pen drawings.

This is bio from his website:

Marc Johns creates whimsical drawings filled with dry wit and humour. Whether it’s a man with branches growing out of his head that need pruning, or a pipe that’s trying to quit smoking, his characters are simply, sparsely drawn, yet speak volumes with just a few strokes of the pen. He's been drawing since he was tiny. He's not tiny anymore, but he's not exactly big either. Marc is not sure why he's talking about himself in the third person...

I generally aim to say as much as possible with as few elements as possible. My work often leans toward humour. Finding the humour in things often leads to finding the truth. I like to create absurd situations, by combining things together that don’t belong, or imagine what inanimate objects would say if they could speak. For instance, the pen I am using to write this draft would probably say: "I'm tired. Can we stop for a bit?" Or perhaps it would say: "I can't believe you're making me write this. This is rubbish. Signing cheques would be more inspiring than this." These are the things I think about. I think about a lot of things. I think about thinking. Don't try it though, it's not worth it.

-g.

etsy lovin'

I haven't "flipped through" Etsy in a while, and I just went through some of my favorite sellers, favorite items and suggested shops, and here is what I got!


From Babyjewlz... a charming bicycle ring, that doubles as a locket and opens up to insert a photo.


From Simplethrift... a vintage quilted bag with a chain strap.


And to match the bag... a pair of vintage cutout oxfords from the Bag Basement


From Lulu Bug Jewelry... adorable avocado felted necklace.


From Tilly Bloom... anatomical charm bracelet. When will my organ-phase end? Or is it only getting bigger?


And while we are on the subject of anatomy... a ribcage necklace to match, from Run Wild Horses.


A tiny vintage suitcase from Tree and Kimball Market. This would be perfect for carrying all my extraneous art supplies.


Since this is supposed to be an art blog I should also include some prints. This is an awesome ferris wheel print by Gallerie de Illumina.


And finally, a cute birdnest print by Golly Bard.


What kind of things do you lust over on Etsy?

-g.

NEWSFLASH! Christina Hendricks (aka the hot Joan Holloway from Mad Men) modeling this scarf on Etsy. Wonder how that happened...

From Black Bird Design House

the notebook doodles

Happy Monday, all. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I spent most of the weekend in Brooklyn, and I had a great time. Unfortunately, I am beyond exhausted today, to the point of not being able to support my own weight at my desk. Thinking about taking a nap at lunch today... But anyways, on to the real deal...

I am totally in love with the notebook doodles, a blog that combines quotes (and some original ones too) and typography, along with beautiful pictures and scanned images.

I find this blog really inspiring because not only do I relate to about 90% of the quotes used, but it's great to see other artists use quotes in their artwork. For me, I usually use song quotes that I like, and sometimes I even think of weird phrases that I can't get out of my head.

I hope you find these inspiring as well!













-g.

pretty things friday

Happy Friday everyone! Here is the almighty Pretty Things Friday. Apologies for not posting much this week, or a PTF last week- I've actually had to work at work. Who would've thought?

Enjoy my loves.

Pretty much Carli and I.


Pretty mustache tea cups and saucers.


A ridiculous amount of pretty lace.


Animals and pretty patterns.


Pretty much what I (try to) do.


More mustaches! Pretty typographically nerdy.


Pretty freaky.


Pretty embroidered white bread.


Pretty deliciously fabulous.


Pretty strange.


Pretty fucking cute.


Pretty cute matches.


Pretty intense.


Pretty SEXY.


Pretty elelelelelephant.

Pretty awesome.


See ya next week!

-g.