Fred Eerdekens

Fred Eerdekens creates amazing typographic sculptures. At first glance they appear like abstract objects. When light is shone through the sculpture, a message is revealed using the negative or positive light of the shadow. There's an inspiring beauty in the madness.

Anthony Lister

I've been enjoying these great superhero paintings by artist Anthony Lister. The subjects are fierce but the style is very lighthearted.

Josh Keyes

Josh Keyes paintings have a wonderful mix of scientific and artistic spirit behind them. The paintings play with the idea of the Earth's natural system and the link between the built world and the natural world. The paintings give a wonderful sense of how small the Earth is.

Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers has all sorts of fabulous work on his website. It ranges from loose sketches to realistic paintings and book illustrations. I like his style a lot. It is very sophisticated but very relaxed.

Where's Waldo, Google Earth Style

I was a huge Where's Waldo nerd in the late 80s, so I'm loving this idea. Canadian artist, Melanie Coles, has created a Web 2.0 version of Where's Waldo by painting an image of Waldo on a secret rooftop. The challenge is to be able to find Waldo on Google Earth. Google's secret and sporadic updates of its satellite images mean that it's unpredictable not only where Waldo will show up, but when. Melanie's Where On Earth is Waldo website encourages other people to hide Waldos by providing complete how-to instructions.

Ten Thousand Cents

I'm not sure why, but I'm totally enthralled by Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I just can't get enough information about it. I'm particularly fascinated by Aaron Koblin's artistic take on the the Turk (see previous post - The Sheep Market). His latest project is Ten Thousand Cents, created in collaboration with Takashi Kawashima. Thousands of Mechanical Turk workers were asked to paint a small section of a $100 bill using a custom drawing tool. They were paid one cent for their work. None of the workers were aware of the final image they were contributing to. You can click on any image in the bill to watch how it was drawn. Very cool.

Bert Simons

Check out these crazy paper heads by artist Bert Simons. His sculptures strike a really cool mix of fine art and CAD. They tread an interestingly fine line between real and digital sculpting. Bert creates the heads using the dot per dot reference method to represent a real face in 3D. He then uses Blender to render and flatten the image. Pieces of the image are printed and reconstructed like a 3D puzzle. The explanation behind the methodology and thinking, as well as some of the 2D print files are up on Bert's website. (Found through Hip.Young.Thing).

New York City Garbage

It's hard to know what kind of souvenir to buy in New York City. Do you go with the Statue of Liberty foam hat, the scaled model of the Empire State Building, or the always classic, I Heart NY t-shirt? Well how about going for something completely different and with a much better story... like a cube of garbage. Artist Justin Gignac (also of Wants for Sale), specializes is collecting and selling NYC garbage in neat little smell-proof clear cubes. I love them because they are so representative of New York (and I mean that in the best possible way). You can even purchase special event garbage such as, garbage from New Year's Eve 2008 in Time Square, or garbage from the national republican convention. Brilliant! I want some.

Brian Jungen

Brian Jungen's work appeals to both my industrial design side, and my new found west coast side. Brian is a Canadian artist who makes art out of everyday objects. His series Prototype for New Understanding creates aboriginal style masks out of Air Jordans. The red, white and black of the Air Jordans amplifies the aboriginal feel, while making the material instantly recognizable as that of the pop culture shoes. It's a nice juxtaposition that starts the gears of the mind turning. Some of his other works include large whale skeletons made out of plastic lawn chairs and golf bag totem poles. Very cool artwork. (Thanks Mike!)

Aitor Throup

I was very inspired looking through the portfolio of fashion designer Aitor Throup. I'm not sure that fashion designer is a very good title for him. He seems like more of an artist/illustrator/storyteller who just applies his talents to the world of fashion. The end result is captivating. You can see the background story and characters oozing out of every piece of clothing. Aitor's stunning sketches add the extra wow factor.

Wants for Sale

Artists Christine Santora and Justin Gignac have come up with an uber creatively practical approach to art - they simply paint what they want. The project is called Wants for Sale. Each oil painting that they do is of an object or concept that they desire (i.e. an iPhone or some buffalo wings) and then they sell the painting for the cost of that object. For example their painting of a Slice of Pepperoni costs $3 while the Financial Security painting cost $1000000. They are also willing to trade if you have the exact item they want. There is something really refreshing about the honesty and directness of this approach.

Christine and Justin also have an even more brilliant sister site called Needs for Sale where they use the same approach to raise money for charity. You can buy paintings of a Toilet ($100 for Habitat for Humanity) or a Can of Peas ($250 for City Harvest). Not only do you get to donate to charity, you also get a piece of art with a great story behind it.

Roxana Zegan

I like the thinking behind the work of Canadian artist Roxana Zegan. She uses acrylic paints to transform Montreal's potholes into temporary works of art. The contrast of the colored paint on the dark asphalt is stunning.

I found Roxana's gorgeous work on an old Design Sponge post. I can't seem to find a more direct link to her work. If anyone has one, please let me know.

Interview with Chris Jordan

I had the pleasure of interviewing the fabulous Chris Jordan today for The Greener Grass. You can find the full interview here.

Zach Johnsen

I stumbled across the work of artist Zach Johnsen today. He uses a combination of pen, ink and watercolor to create his illustrations. I really like his drawing style. It's very sketchy but fluid. His compositions are often complex, telling an interesting story with their elements.

Andrew Kuo

Dear Andrew Kuo, please be my friend. I've seen into your brain and decided that you are awesome.

New York based artist Andrew Kuo has made me once again second guess all of the negative things I've ever said about charts and graphs. Andrew creates the most intriguing editorial charts. They don't display actual quantifiable information, it's more like charting thoughts. For example take this chart commentary on a summer of concerts at McCarren Park Pool. It features graphs entitled 'How upset am I at missing the bands I missed' and 'My summer mood swings'. They display semi-useless information in a gorgeous and fascinating way. For more of Andrew Kuo's work, check out his blog or his contributions the The New York Times online. (Found through Cool Hunting).

Bryan Christie Design

Bryan Christie Design specializes in scientific and architectural illustrations and diagrams. Their portfolio is very inspiring, especially the medical illustrations. You may recognize some of their work from recent covers of Wired or Business Week.

'Your House'

Apparently commissioned by MoMA, artist Olafur Eliasson has made a 85:1 scale model of his house... inside a book. Each of the 485 pages was individually laser cut, taking about 3 months to complete.

Because it's 'Art', this time consuming process is acceptable but it seems like there must be an easier way. No disrespect to the impressive paper laser cutting skills that went into this, but a mass produced version would be great. The most interesting aspect of this book, to me, is the ability to move through the dimensions of the house as you flip through the book. It would be great to be able to experience that firsthand. (Found through Core77)

Michael Cross' Bridge

This art instillation called Bridge, by Michael Cross, was part of last year's London Design Festival. The setting is an old church filed with 60 inches of water. As you approach the water you are met by one single stepping stone. Stepping out onto the stone causes a series of small platforms to rise out of the water creating a walkway. As you walk out to the center of the church, the steps disappear behind. You end up peacefully alone above the water, free to take in your surroundings. Sounds wonderful.

Unfortunately, based on people's Flickr photos it looks like the insurance company stepped in and added lifejackets and an escort to the mix as well as cutting out the disappearing steps. The effect isn't quite the same. (Found through Computerlove).

Neil Duerden

I was just looking through the online portfolio of UK based artist Neil Duerden. He's a mixed media artist who combines vector artwork with photography. He has a lot of very nice work. I like the balance is able to strike between the real and the surreal, depending on the subject matter and client. I was actually surprised how much of his work I had seen before.

Eric Oosterhof

I was enjoying the work of digital artist and designer Eric Oosterhof today. (Found through Computerlove)

Mark Coleran

I'm drooling over this showreel of Mark Coleran's work. He is a visual designer who specializes in futuristic on-screen graphics for television and movies. His interfaces have been featured in movies such as The Island, Mr and Mrs Smith, The World is Not Enough, The Bourne Identity, and many more. What a fun job! Check it out here. (Found through the always spectacular Core77)

Hasan Elahi

Part art project and part alibi, Hasan Elaihi's self tracking project is totally fascinating. After finding out that his name had been mistakenly added to the FBI's terrorist watch list, Hasan Elahi decided to be totally open about his life. So he turned his life into the ultimate blog. His site, TrackingTransience.net, shows thousands of pictures of his daily activities (including meals he's eaten, toilets he's used, airplanes he's been on) accompanied by a list of debit card transactions and his current location (care of a GPS unit he carries in his pocket). He's been doing this daily since 2002. His theory is that "the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away". He figures the government monitors all of these things anyway but without much accuracy. Why not help them get it right by simply providing the information yourself. Awesome! (Found in Wired Magazine)

Lori Early

I came across the work of Lori Early last weekend in SoHo's Opera Gallery. Her work was so striking and beautiful that it drew us in from the street. All of her paintings have a certain eeriness that grabs your attention. The big gothic black frames enhance the grandeur and mystique of the images they contain. Once you see the paintings up close you are drawn in even closer by the fine detail, until your nose is almost touching the surface and you have to fold your hands together to keep from reaching out and touching the hair or fur. Neither the artist's site nor the gallery's site do the paintings justice. Her show has only been on for about a week and already all of her paintings have little sold stickers beside them (each selling for a reported $55,000-$95,000).

Peter Callesen

Peter Callesen creates some amazing artwork out of cut paper. I particularly like his A4 Papercut series. Most of his pieces use the cutout in the paper to create part of the imagery and the sculpture formed out of the cut area to complete it. You can't help but be amazed at how much thought, effort and delicacy goes into each piece of paper.

My Moleskin

My Moleskin is up for a Webby Award this year. The site is a collection of artwork by Fabio Iaschi. What I like about the site is that all the drawings are done in a Moleskin notebook and then scanned (presumably) into jpgs for the website, but it doesn't lose the feel of a sketchbook. An interesting website and nice artwork.

CrisVector

This weekend I came across the portfolio of Brazilian artist Cristiano Siqueira (a.k.a. CrisVector). All of his pieces are vector based digital artwork. His main creation tool is Illustrator; using reference pictures, hand sketches or Poser images as underlays. What I really like about Cris' work is his bold use of color, and the interesting place where most of his work exists (especially the Women series) somewhere between realism and comic.

Petr Weigl

I'm inspired by British artist Petr Weigl's work. On one hand his work is very natural and raw, using heavy slabs of concrete and ceramic with details that look as if they have almost rotted away. On the other hand all of his pieces maintain a certain level of composure and elegance. The control of this juxtaposition is what makes these pieces so dynamic and interesting. (Thanks James)

Russ Mills

I love the work of British illustrator Russ Mills. It's a nice mix of illustration techniques, combining real and digital media. Most of his latest work is head shots of people. There is something really captivating about his portraits. The subjects draw you in with their facial expressions and poses giving a sense of emotion and seduction.

Influences

Phil Hansen's fascinating version of a self portrait has been making the rounds, and rightly so. It is pretty impressive to watch. He uses his bare torso to paint 30 different paintings, one on top of the other. Each painting represents someone who influenced his life, such as Georges Seurat, Stephen Hawking, and Adolf Hitler. The paintings took a total of 30 hours to complete. You can see more of Phil's work at www.philinthecircle.com.

Chuck Anderson

Artist/Designer Chuck Anderson has a new print out entitled Places You Can't Imagine 1. It is a lot simpler than some of his previous work, which can be seen on his website NoPattern.com. It's hard not to admire Chuck's shameless self promotion. It seems to be working for him as he has a pretty stacked client list and he is only 22 years old.

Brandi Milne

Check out the gorgeous artwork of Brandi Milne. Her work is very art nouveau but with a modern twist. There is lots more on her website www.brandimilne.com.

Banksy

If you are not familiar with Banksy's work, check it out at www.banksy.co.uk. Banksy is a British graffiti artist known for his controversial work that often pokes fun at political issues and modern society. His works can be seen on the streets of London and in other cities around the world. Some of his most well known works are the 9 images he painted on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier depicting children playing in front of large holes in the wall.

The Banksy website has a good collection of his work and now includes a Shop where you can download large format images of his work for free. While you are there also check out the Mail section. There are some pretty entertaining emails from fans and critics. (Thanks Q)

Snow Globes

These snow globes designed by Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz are somewhat eerie but totally gorgeous. Check out the more of the collection here.

David Lanham

I'm a big fan of vector based artwork, and David Lanham's is some of the most enjoyable that I have seen in a long time. You can tell that he has a lot of fun creating these pieces. David is generous enough to allow you to download high-res images of is work as wallpaper, but give they guy some props and order an 8.5" x 11" print for $30.

The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton

My friend James bought me an Edward Monkton calendar for Christmas last year and I became an instant fan. His humorous cartoons about life, friendship, and food are brilliant. How can you go wrong with a guy who names his website "The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton"? Some of my favorites are The Penguin of Death, The Meaning of Life, and of course, Ninja Biscuits.

You can enter the world of Edward Monkton at www.EdwardMonkton.com

Robin Rhode

Video art is so impressive when it is done well. The work of the South African artist Robin Rhode is great example of how captivating this approach to art can be. He uses chalk, simple props and his own body to create animations. His work was featured at MoMA earlier this year. More images of his work can be seen on the Perry Rubenstein Gallery site.

Clean Graffiti?

My manager Chris put me on to the idea of Clean Graffiti. Britain's graffiti artist Moose (a.k.a Paul Curtis) makes art by cleaning dirt and grime from sidewalks and tunnels. Although some still consider his work vandalism, it's hard to reprimand someone for cleaning. Check out more of his work at symbollix.com