Since the demise of Domino and their nifty online style file thing, which allowed you to save home decorating and inspiration photos, I’ve sort of just been assembling jpgs in a folder on my desktop. But imgspark.com lets you upload these images and create moodboards (currently limited to 2) using all your images, in varying sizes and against a grid or solid background. Very useful. Here’s mine so far:
Click to imgspark.com and view my board
Hey, did you know that you can develop a food allergy just by eating that food a lot? And did you know that soy milk, tofu, tempeh, and soy sauce are pretty much the same food? Also, FYI, if you do develop a food allergy, you might recognize it by weeks and/or months of agonizing unexplained generalized anxiety, severe sinus congestion and pressure, dizziness, rashes, and a general feeling of malaise that comes from feeling out of your mind and having no idea what the hell is wrong with you. So, that happened.
Anywho, I’m finally back, and I’ll ease back into it with an illustrator who’s already been thoroughly covered elsewhere, but this current exhibition in San Francisco (through October 31) you know, reminded me. This exhibition includes original drawings for Golden Book of Biology (1961) and The Animal Kingdom (1968) as well as other original drawings and paintings. Since the Golden Book of Biology isn’t exactly an easy or cheap item to find – it can go for several hundred dollars on eBay – check out these images at grain edit to get a peek inside the book.
Here are some of my favorites in this show:
If you’re in the Bay Area, check out the exhibition here:
Altman Siegel Gallery
49 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Also, know what starts next week? That’s right, the AT Cure. I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself. My house is a disaster. They’re offering an interesting “green” cure option this year, and I’m not sure this will be any different from how I usually do it, but I signed up for that version. There’s also a 4-week kitchen cure, which, yes, I’m going to do as well. Here’s to overdue organization. Better late than never, right? Let’s hope I can finish this time.
(I know, sounds like too much, doesn’t it?)
Painting my kitchen has made some of my previous bright, kitschy artwork obsolete:
Though they were cute, I’m selling my roosters, which don’t really go with the muted wall color anymore, and it’s time for someone else to enjoy them. That leaves a small space which I have unsuccessfully tried to fill, but I’m wanting something a little more – dare I say it – modern?
I love gocco because it has that feeling of being old in a new way, like pictures taken with a Holga. What is gocco? The savegocco.com website explains:
Print gocco, is a Japanese color screenprinting system developed in 1977 by Noboru Hayama. Resembling a toy, the compact and completely self-contained printer is clean, quick and easy to use. The system works using flash bulbs, a carbon-based image or photocopy and an emulsion-coated screen. When the bulbs are manually flashed the carbon burns the screen into a stencil. Several colors of Ink can then be applied at one time and multiples can be stamped out, as many as 100 before re-inking is needed. Fans of print gocco appreciate its size, cleanliness, relatively inexpensive cost, and the fact that several colors can be printed in one “pass.”
If this sounds too complicated and you lack a modicum of creative skills, there are a lot of very talented artists selling their gocco prints on etsy. Here are some contenders for my kitchen corner (or that I just think are cool):
Summer Song gocco print, $12
Forsythia branch gocco print, $6
tiny village gocco print, $20 from katep
hey hi banana print, $15 from sugarcookie
vintage lamps gocco print, $8 from cindytomczykart
Gold Series 3 by AmyMarcella, $20
pumpernickel flowers by wonting, $10
fish school gocco by kerrybeary, $12
Golden Fruit by pinkbathtub, $10
Double Camera gocco by leighwells, $18
occie orie 1.1 by birdsandswings, $14
Sacre Coeur by LizzyStewart, $25
Gocco Misprint/Fun print by e50e, just $5!
Raindrop gocco print by blancucha, $22
cluster leaf print by meganauman, $10
Shine by deebeale, $20
Doodle Gocco by nateduval, $15
I think I’m going to have to go with katep’s tiny village, but I have to buy e50e’s misprint because it’s awesome and only $5. I’ll find someplace to put it later.
Over the last few months, there’s been a considerable amount of financial hardship around here. It’s meant more time working and less time doing awesome things like writing for free and for fun. It’s also meant digging through old and heretofore forgotten collections and reevaluating their importance and value. I have a collection of original posters for the (excellent) movie Rushmore, including an original double-sided American one-sheet, a Japanese one-sheet, a UK quad poster, and a poster for the video release (my obsession with this movie coincided with my discovery of eBay). When poking around on eBay to see how much I might be able to sell these for, I noticed this:
Awesome handmade Rushmore poster, $60
Wait, what? A cool, handmade poster for my favorite movie of all time? Sign me up! But then I saw that he’s set the opening bid on these at $60. Cool poster? yes. Thrifty and responsible? Absolutely not. Sorry Nate, hopefully some of my readers can afford them. I revise my earlier statement, having made it when I thought they were just printed on paper. No. These are wood. And they are awesome. There are more:
Great film. Did I mention I saw it at the Castro? I saw it at the Castro. In San Francisco.
To see them all, check out his shop listing.
A few days early, here’s a new desktop calendar for June (1600×1200):
Click to see full image, right-click that to download. I’m going to be adding more sizes too, before June actually starts. Here are a few more resolutions:
Update: this wallpaper has been featured today on Smashing Magazine, including many more resolutions and sans-calendar versions.
It’s been a while. There’s been a lot of upheaval around here lately, but I’ve learned that without some extracurricular activities like ye olde blogge here, I go crazy. So to flex my design muscle, I made a big desktop calendar for the grand month of May, which also happens to be the month of my birth. Here it is, at 1600×1200.
For more of these great botanical images, check out this set on flickr.
Click preview to see full image, right-click that image to save:
While hunting around etsy, I found this adorable idea:
One paperback supplies a unique wall of art.
and although I have such an odd overappreciation for all things aged, it didn’t really bother me that much that this vintage paperback was dissected in the name of home decorating (what’s next, painting wood?). I’m not sure I could take a book apart, but often the covers are framable enough:
This fantastic cover comes on a paperback for just $4.00.
The Blue Book of French, starting bid $5
The Ponder Heart, illustrator unknown, but a great cover. $5.00.
And then there are beautifully illustrated children’s books, which I’m pretty sure I could never disassemble:
Circus alphabet book, just $6 on etsy
And this is a wonderful find by Czech illustrator/author Miroslav Sasek with some incredible illustrations that should never be taken apart:
This is London, available for just $15 on etsy
A beautiful illustration from This is London by Miroslav Sasek, 1959
Sasek’s books are highly collectible, and although many are being reprinted, the original copies of most of his books come up for sale from time to time. For more on Sasek’s work and life, visit This is M. Sasek, a wealth of information about his illustrations and collecting his work.
Here’s some wintry desktoppery for your visual enjoyment. No, I don’t have rights to any of the illustrations contained therein, so I’m asking that these not be distributed widely – just stick them on your personal desktops and tell no one. Happy holidays!
To kick off our happy holidays month, I thought it was about time I got some holiday cards. Here are some of my favorites, via etsy:
Letterpress Santa cards by byvikINK, $14 for set of six
Warm Wishes letterpress cards from Sycamore Street Press, $18 for 6
Seasons greetings, $16 for 6 from The Paper Peony
Holiday wishes from Paper Dragonfly, $16 for set or 5
Season's Greetings letterpress card from May Day Studio, $15 for set of 5
Let it snow screen-printed card from Orange Beautiful, $14 for set of 6
Peace on earth gocco cards, $18 for a set of 10 from annamatic's etsy shop
Before I get into this Fiesta stuff later, I wanted to plug a couple friends. This will require action on your part, but it will be worth it. First, go to threadless.com and give this girl a 5! Our resident illustrator Lisa Hanawalt has done it again, creating a brilliant t-shirt design that should become a cult classic. You’ll have to register, but stop whining, it takes like a second and if you don’t you could be depriving the world of this:
Civilized Sasquatches, an original design by Lisa Hanawalt
Go vote! I’ll wait.
Okay, next is an event that should not be missed by anyone. Tonight at Tangier in Los Feliz is one of the best musical ensembles I’ve heard in a long, long time. Accurately billing themselves as “the finest in prairie pop”, Townland is playing tonight at 8pm for a mere $8:
Townland is playing tonight, August 12, at 8pm at Tangier in Los Feliz
Visit their myspace page over yonder and sit back and take a listen to some, perhaps all, of their ditties. Over some lemonade. In a rocking chair, if you like. Our good friend Jeff Crocker is the drummer, and a mighty fine one at that.
See you tonight!
