Inspiration In-between

Peter Stults

2012-01-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

In a world (preview guy voice) where the actors of days gone past, return to have their revenge on recent movies. What would the posters look like? After seeing a series designed by Sean Hartter, Peter Stults knows and blesses us with his fantastically detailed designs of these modern meet classic marvels.

Peter Stults

Sean Hartter

Check out Peter's designs here.

Check out Sean's designs here.

mentalgassi

2011-12-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

Mentalgassi's been around for a little while inserting his humor on everyday objects. Whether they're giant floating heads in a marina or a face on a ticket dispenser, he seems to really find gems wherever he bombs. He also did a really nice piece for Amnesty International a couple years back that I only now saw was his work.

Check it out here.

Stanley Borack

2011-12-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

I have a new favorite artist of the moment. Stanley Borack. He passed away in 1993, so he's obviously not a new artist, but his work is fantastic. He served in the Navy during WW2 and when he got back went to art school to study painting. Out of school he started painting book and magazine covers, which is what he ended up doing for the remainder of his career. In my opinion, the strongest work came out of his pulp phase in the late 50s where he was doing covers for mystery novels about Nazis, cowboys and Amazon women. I love his use of negative space since he always new the title and author information would have to be laid into the composition.

Check it out here.

And here.

Susan Kare

2011-11-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

This is a little off the norm, but it's total worth a gander. Susan Kare was the artist charged with creating the icons for Apple early on. Her sketchbook was recently scanned and publicized for all to gaze upon. It gives you a new appreciation for graph paper.

Check it out here.

Richard Sargent

2011-11-22T06:37:00.000-08:00

Richard Sargent shoots billboards. Not in the redneck with a rifle and a pickup sense, but with a camera sense. He stalks decaying billboards in the East Bay area and frames them up square so they take on a really abstract quality. To take something from ugly to gorgeous in 1/250th of a second is a real talent.

Check them out here.

Max De Esteban

2011-11-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

Max takes technique to the max on this project. He meticulously deconstructs the technology of yesteryear and photographs it layer by layer. He then reassembles the objects in Photoshop. I'm still trying to figure out how he got the color he did. It's amazing stuff.
He's currently showing the work at Klompching Gallery in NYC. So get up there before it comes down at the end of December.

Check it out here.

And here.

John Paul Thurlow

2011-10-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

John is a master of graphite. His pencil drawings are the most insanely detailed works I've seen in a while. One of his series caught my eye recently. It's not his newest work, but its subject is certainly unique. Magazine covers. He does precisely detailed reproductions of magazine and record covers in pencil.

Check them out here.

Alexandra Bellissimo

2011-10-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

I don't often feature photographers on here even though I have my degree in it. Chalk it up to over saturation, but there are exceptions. Alex is one of those. Her photo collages caught my eye because they're so extraordinarily simple. She combines things that you wouldn't normally see together, but in a really amazing way. She calls her work 'making pictures' instead of 'taking pictures'.

Check them out here.

Brian Hart

2011-10-25T06:50:00.000-07:00

Brian is a painter from Massachusetts and a graduate of RISD. His work has a great textural quality to it and uses imagery from skeletons to Alice in Wonderland. One of his series caught my eye recently, his Alphabet Series. Each of the 26 paintings uses his standard catalog of images, but he hides an individual letter in each one. They're pretty rad.

Check them out here.

He's also got a really cool series of light paintings here.

TrustoCorp

2011-09-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

TrustoCorp is a collective that takes parody seriously. They source out locations and augment them with their spoofs of advertising, signage and pop culture references. Their most recent stunt planted altered issues of popular celebrity magazines with headlines like 'Donald Trump Pregnant' along with graphic novel type illustrations in great monochrome color palettes. Their ad spoof stuff has a similar graphic language to that of ESPO aka Steve Powers in that it has a 50s graphic simplicity to it, though most of it is black and white.

Check it out here.

Prefab77

2011-09-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Prefab77 is a collective of artists from Northeast England. They take imagery from popular culture like fashion, fame, politics and history and collage it together in inspired and contrasting ways. Most of their work is about breaking down British culture and doing away with the old ways. They just did a great installation for Dublin Contemporary 2011 that uses type contrasted with fashion imagery in a really beautiful yet stark way.

Check it out here.

Alexandre Farto aka Vhils

2011-09-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

Besides having an awesome name, Alexandre aka Vhils has an awesome style too. He has pioneered deconstructive stenciling. He covers a wall with plaster, or maybe it was already there. Then stencils on his design and goes to town on it with a hammer drill. Removing layers of plaster rather than adding layers of paint. He draws the figures out of the wall in a truly ghostly way.

Check it out here.

Noma Bar

2011-09-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Noma Bar is an Israeli illustrator who focuses on using negative space as a positive thing. He develops images that create a play between the negative and positive space that are both insightful and humorous.
His latest project is a giant plastic dye cutting dog sculpture that allows the user to create their own neg/pos images and artworks.

Check it out here.

Lloyd Schermer

2011-09-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Lloyd started his career in newspaper publishing and so he spent the majority of his time surrounded by block type. Wood metal or otherwise, he always thought it had a peculiar beauty so when he left the business he hung on to a larger personal collection of the stuff as well as picking up any and all type he could find. Eventually he got the idea to put these large block letters together in artful compositions and hang them on the wall. His idea caught the eye of galleries and collectors and so here he is today. With work in the Smithsonian, The Newseum and many publishers boardrooms. It's pretty awesome looking work.

Check it out here.

Missum, Works on Paper Show, Brighton, UK - October 21st - Check it out.

2011-08-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

I recently featured the work of Miss Bugs on here and saw that the Miss, in MB, has a show coming up in Brighton opening on October 21st. So if you happen to be in the jolly ol' UK around then, go out of your way and swing by the show it aims to be a great body of work.
Works on Paper by Missum opens at Ink_d Gallery, Brighton on Friday 21st October – www.ink-d.co.uk

Me Alone

If I Was A Cat

In anticipation of the show, I sent Ms Missum a few questions about her work and the new direction it's taking. Enjoy.

Where did the name Missum come from?
Nickname really – I get called a lot of thing by Bugs; Miss, Missy, Missum and some I won’t repeat!

You seem to focus a lot on cats, did dogs do something to offend you?
Cats were last year, its dogs for me at the moment! I love all animals, cats and dogs. In the work I look at the emotions we give animals and what we take from them.

When a lot of other street artists are coming out from behind their curtains to work under their real names, why do you choose to stay anonymous?
It allows both of us to work on other projects under different names, or for that matter, our real names and one doesn’t then cloud the other. There is a connection between Missum and Miss Bugs and when I started this body of work we could see that certain elements were coming from the same thought process. However other work that Bugs has done under his real name comes from a very different place and as such and exists separately.

In short, I suppose staying anonymous gives us more freedom to explore different things.

Are the artists and culture icons you appropriate from in your work influences or enemies and why?
I wouldn’t say I use cultural icons in my solo Missum work… In the Miss Bugs pieces we are constantly stealing from other artists. But it’s not down to ‘influences or enemies’. The reasoning behind it is to explore ownership of ideas, working styles and the relationship and knock-on effect that artists have with one another.

You sometimes have to look harder for the artistic references in our work while others can be staring you in the face. Even then they can sometimes still go unnoticed as they are being seen out of context. We are playing with ideas of how we view art and how much of the thought process behind it we understand.

We look at links between the artists and their working methods throughout history. Artists that would not normally be considered to sit alongside each other are then remixed together, showing, for example, how the working style of Keith Haring can gel together with Picasso. And how artists from very different periods in time and culture are using very similar approaches, often where you wouldn't expect to see it.

When did you first start doing graffiti?
I wouldn’t say I was a graffiti chick, B-girl or any think like that. I didn’t take much notice of street art until I worked as part of Miss Bugs and then it felt right for the work to be part of our environment. My solo work as Missum wouldn’t ever appear on the street, it’s not really about that, it’s born out of me staying at home with my sketch book.

Have you ever been arrested doing graffiti and if so, were the cops surprised that you were a girl?
Yeah, we have been stopped pasting up in the middle of the day. I’m not sure if they were surprised that I was a girl, they seemed to be more surprised that we hadn’t get our story straight between ourselves before opening our mouths!

How long have you been working on this new body of solo work? Any good stories of challenges you overcame in its production?
I’ve been working on it on and off, in-between the Miss Bugs work, for a while now. There is no dramatic story really, etching is a very slow quiet process. Working on my own, the highlight of the day can be when Ian the sandwich guy pops in with his array of treats!

Why Ink_D gallery?
It a lovely intimate gallery, right by the sea, and perfect for this body of work.

In a past interview you said that Bugs was “the creative force behind the work”, is this solo show your way of proving you’ve come into your own and are a creative force of your own now?
Ha, did I say that? I was probably trying to get on his good side! I can get him to do anything I want with those sort of compliments … I don’t really want to be a ‘force’ with Missum, it’s more about creating an artistic space where I can play with new ideas and work with new processes.

Whose work are you loving right now?
Peter Doig

Do you want to give a shout out to an artist you think needs more respect or deserves more attention?
Bugs recently sent me a link of Matt Stuart’s photography, it’s definitely worth spending some time checking him out.

Did you send Kate and William a painting for their wedding?
No, I’m afraid not!

Works on Paper by Missum opens at Ink_d Gallery, Brighton on Friday 21st October – www.ink-d.co.uk

Anna Garforth

2011-08-20T09:27:00.001-07:00

The world of hobby typographers and weekend typophiles is starting to get a little overcrowded these days. That doesn't mean there's any dilution of talent out there though. Anna is an English artist and designer that takes type play to many places it's never been before. Most recently noted for her baked Edible Poster, she also works in moss, tape and trash creating type delights that cross borders.

Check it out here.

Susan Jane Belton

2011-08-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Susan is a Boston area artist who focused on landscapes for most of her career, but on and off painted the coffee cups she had at the studio as an exercise. Then after 9/11 she started thinking about our United Gluttony and saw these cups as a symbol of our ability to imbibe without worry. Since then it's turned into a seriously large body of work.

Check it out here.

Pam et Jenny

2011-08-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

Pam et Jenny is French for Pam and Jenny. That's all the French I know. They list themselves as designers, but one of their series caught my eye as a real work of art. Their Scam* project looks so freakin' cool. I remember playing with this technique in school, but they've taken it to a whole new level. Dragging copies over a scanner as it scans deconstructs the images and causes an RGB noise that plays really well off the grainy black and white images. Most of their source material are images from text books of old paintings, but they also toss in some 60s looking images of people dressed like Warhol and what looks like Lou Reed, though they are somewhat abstracted. The format is cool too, long and narrow so they hang to the floor and roll out into the path of the viewer.

Check them out here.

Christopher Gideon

2011-08-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

Christopher Gideon was born in middle America and his work takes influences of his surroundings. Crosses, billboards and baseball are all themes that show up in his art. His most recent series "America's Pastime" is created entirely out of vintage baseball cards. Not the amazing ones from cigarette packs from the 30s, but mid 70s and 80s afros and burnt sienna uniforms. He butchers the cards and then pastes them back together in patterns or weaves them together to reform the original image. They are harmonious and disjointed at the same time. They actually communicate a great deal of action in many of them. If nothing else, they are a super original medium to work in and he's done a great job with them.

Check them out here.

SiT

2011-08-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

With street style being focused so much on intense color it takes a lot for someone who uses only black to get noticed, but that's exactly what SiT has been doing this year with his series NOIR. His bold use of black and wild line style give his work an energy usually reserved for brightly colored burners.

Via SiT: Artist SIT has been part of the Amsterdam creative scene for many years. Doing action painting, graphic design, advertising and more until he got fed up. He went back to square one to find his true essence. Back to head and handcraft.

Check his work out here.

Dana Tanamachi

2011-08-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

Dana Tanamachi is a Brooklyn designer that works in a challenging medium: chalk. Usually reserved for hopscotch courts or sidewalks, Dana has taken the craft of chalk drawing in an artful new direction. Until this, the best chalkboard type I'd seen was at the grocery store, and that was nothing to brag about. This however is something to brag about if it was done on a computer, let alone in chalk. She has been getting a lot of buzz for her Nagging Doubt wine label designs, but her work stretches far beyond that.

Check it out here.

Been a minute.

2011-08-09T11:20:00.001-07:00

Being a new father has been nuts and cutting in on my posting time. I just noticed it's been nearly a month, sorry bout' that.

Aske

2011-06-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

Russian graffiti artist Aske has been as busy inside as he has outside. He's created amazingly intricate mosaics from plywood that defy belief. They are so detailed and colorful and kind of remind me of the original Tron.

Check them out here.

Sydney Cash

2011-05-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

I know this isn't the normal aesthetic for this blog, but I just thought the work was so cool. Sydney is a sculptor and light painter. He creates graphic images on glass and then projects light through it to create light and shadow "paintings" on the walls the glass strips occupy. There's gotta be a rad outdoor application for this.

Check it out here.

becca

2011-05-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Becca is so different from most street work out there. She's soft, even dainty and has a flair of 50s fashion to her work. Her subjects are idealized females painted in an urgent way that shows both their energy and sensuality. She also focuses on female toddlers as well with their innocence, but usually tweaks them by adding firecrackers or the such.

Check our her work here.

Ludo

2011-05-04T08:46:00.001-07:00

It seems like this is I.I.B Parisian edition. Ludo is from Paris as well, but has a whole different style. Using only black, white and day-glo green to make his surreal images. He pirates brand images, logos and messages like Blackberry or Del Monte and mocks them with his smart takes on their markets. One of my personal faves is his Del Monte pineapple skull.

Check it out here.

C215

2011-05-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

C215 is a stencil artist who takes details to a whole new level. He's originally from Paris but has become almost a full time traveller spreading his sickly detailed stencils over seas. His subjects are more serene than most street artists consisting of everything from cats to babies.

Check it out here.

Greg Papagrigoriou

2011-05-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Greg's a street artist from Greece (I think) and has some of the illest script styles I've seen. And he does them on walls quickly which is even more amazing.

Check it out here.

Mr Bingo

2011-04-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

Mr Bingo is an English illustrator with a crazy graphic eye. He's great at reducing things to their most simple and has a sick sense of humour (Eng spelling) too. He has quite a few prints for sale as well. You may recognize his work from the recent Perrier print campaign.

Check it out here.

Thomas Doyle

2011-04-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is fitting for the first new post in a while. Fatherhood really is a time vampire as far as this kind of stuff goes so I'm sorry for taking so long.

Thomas Doyle is awe inspiring. Both in his craftsmanship and his patience. His terrariums must take forever to craft and he has sooo many of them. I think I just spent 40 minutes looking through his site and I didn't even finish. The work defies explanation.

Check it out here.

Kid Zoom

2011-02-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

KZ is an Australian graffiti artist who has the illest can control I've ever seen. All his works are done with spray paint and uses no stencils that I could see. He's got a really amazing illustrative style while still maintaining a pretty diverse range of looks. I love his caricatures and his skulls.

Check it out here.

Nutmegger

2011-02-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

Nutmegger workshop is a studio making hand painted signs inspired by vintage ones. They take the time to affect the sign in ways that the weather would. To the point that it's hard to tell which is the actual vintage sign. Their work has such great character to it, and I really want that Tea Rooms sign.

Check it out here.

Darren Booth

2011-02-08T10:49:00.000-08:00

Darren is a painter, musician, collager, typographer. I could go on, but it's better if you see for yourself. His type collage is my favorite.

Check it out here.

Christian Northeast

2011-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

Christian is not a new talent, but I'm just learning about his magic. And his work really is magical. He's got a totally hilarious voice and an amazing, instantly recognizable style reminiscent of circus posters from the 20s and 30s. He also spans all mediums and works equally well in all. Get ready to be jealous.

Check his work out here.

Ben Eine

2011-02-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

I know I know. It's been forever. It's hard to balance work, child and the endless hours I spend looking for new edgy artists. Here's a great video on one of my personal faves, Ben Eine.

Haroshi

2011-01-07T12:35:00.001-08:00

I know it's been a while. Having a baby will do that to you. I figured I'd start it back with a bang and the work of Haroshi.
"Haroshi makes his art pieces recycling old used skateboards. His creations are born through styles such as wooden mosaic, dots, and pixels; where each element, either cut out in different shapes or kept in their original form, are connected in different styles, and shaven into the form of the final art piece. " - From Haroshi's site.

Check it out here.

Julien Pacaud

2010-12-11T14:38:00.001-08:00

Collage is a growing trend right now and at the lead is Julien Pacaud. His surreal and humorous compositions are funny and insightful at the same time.

Check them out here.

Mark Pernice

2010-10-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Mark Pernice is an artist living in Brooklyn who works in all different mediums. He's recently hit the spotlight with his series of masks based on Apple's Photobooth distorted pictures. They are fantastic and disturbing at the same time. Browsing through his site though, he's so much more that just a pop sensation for the masks. He thinks on a greater level than just humor. He's a designer, an artist, a writer and a craftsman.

Check out his work here.

Miss Bugs

2010-10-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Miss Bugs is an artist pair (girl and boy) living in London. They take visual cues from pop culture, cartoons and journalism. Then combine them into beautiful and graphic images that have an extraordinary dynamic. They cross seamlessly between the street and the gallery. Their new project 'Cut out and Fade out' takes these characters and puts blends them into scenes around London.

Check them out here.

Interview here.

Brett Amory

2010-10-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

A painter from Oakland CA, Brett's newest series is about people waiting. That's it. Waiting. It's beautifully simple. He is a little more verbose on this statement, but for me I love the simplicity. It's a series of people from different places, in different places, all doing the same thing. Something we all spend an average of an hour doing everyday. That's 365 hours of waiting per year. That's a lot of waiting. It's about time someone gave waiting it's proper recognition.

Check it out here.

A1ONE

2010-10-20T16:39:00.001-07:00

A1ONE is an Iranian graffiti artist merging graf handstyle with Arabic script. Somewhat reminiscent of the work of Jose Parla, his layers of script create a cloud of text and shape that is at once calming and anxiety provoking. He works in many mediums, stencils, stickers, canvas and spray paint. He moves between the gallery and the street seamlessly.

Check it out here.

Ripo

2010-10-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Ripo is a graffiti artist from NYC. He has a good sense of humor and works in a bunch of different styles. I'm not sure what else to say about it other than check it out.

Check it out here.

Mike Shine

2010-10-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Mike is a painter influenced by vintage circus posters. He lives in the craziest surf tiki shack ever.

Check it out here.

Alexandre Orion

2010-10-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

Orion is a Brazilian artist who is mostly known for his use of power washers to create his reverse graffiti in the tunnels of Sao Paolo. His newest project is dubbed Polugraphia. He builds a mount to hold a canvas and stencil behind a tailpipe of a truck and leaves it there for days as the truck drives about the city blasting sooty exhaust through the stencil onto the canvas.

Check it out here.

Oker

2010-09-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

Don't know much about Oker yet, but I know he/she has a really nice graphic illustration and graffiti style.

Check it out here.

Risto-Jussi Isopahkala

2010-09-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Logotourist.com is an art project by Risto-Jussi Isopahkala. It mixes iconic landmarks and commercial logos. It features logos from the hundred most valuable brands.

Check it out here.

Graffiti Technica

2010-08-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

The concept of living graffiti is what GT really focuses on. Taking it off the wall and having it live in a 3d space so you can walk around the letters, explore the negative space and really feel the flow and energy of the style. I love this and can't wait to see more.

Check it out here.

Jon Contino

2010-07-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Jon specializes in hand done typography inspired by historical signage. He's also clearly inspired by woodblock printing and tattoo culture.

Check it out here.

Tegan White

2010-07-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Tegan is a student at Minneapolis School of Art which blew my mind the first time I saw her work. Her hand rendered type treatments defy logic with how detailed and graceful they are. This young lady is going far for sure.

Check more out here.

Jay Howell

2010-06-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

Jay's an illustrator living in SanFran. He likes to draw little men and little dogs and skateboarders and such. His use of color is what really struck me about his work. It's so playful and combines a lot of colors in a way that might not work without such competent hands. His linework and shapes remind me of Warhol's early advertising illustrations.

Check it out here.

Kareem Rizk

2010-06-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Kareem Rizk is an Australian artist who works in all mediums, but seems to really excels in collage. He has been shown at Art Basel as well as other galleries around the world. His collage is inspired by nostalgic images from advertising and old magazine editorials. He's really talented at combining images and colors and textures from a lot of different sources to create really cohesive compositions.

Check it out here.

Mark Khaisman

2010-06-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

Mark is a mixed media artist from Russia who now lives in Philadelphia. His favorite element to work with is packing tape and he uses it in amazing ways. He creates haunting portraits of celebrities, silly snapshots and film noir stills. He creates them on a plexiglass backer and lights them from behind. It gives an amazing sense of dimension.

Check it out here.

Saimir Strati

2010-06-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

Saimir has set the record for the largest nail mosaic ever. I don't know how many other people have tried to do a giant nail mosaic, but it feels appropriate that the mosaic happens to be a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci.

Check it out here.

Lauren DiCioccio

2010-06-23T11:18:00.001-07:00

Lauren DiCioccio is a textile artist who is obsessed with reproducing mundane everyday objects in beautiful fabric or intricately stitched compositions. Her newest series Sewnews uses fabric sleeves over NY Times newspapers and then she sews the photographs onto the sleeve with vibrant thread.

Check it out here.

Kurz and CT

2010-06-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

These are 2 Euro graffiti artists who are pushing form and color in graffiti. This is still street art but these 2 are truly graf-rats that are killing it on the street and in warehouses around Europe. Where their burners fit into the graffiti aesthetic, it also stands far outside it with it's precision and careful attention to color theory.

Check it out here.

Jacob Whibley

2010-06-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Jacob Whibley creates collages that have a depth that's rare in a 2D medium. He uses found paper, shapes, colors and rarely uses recognizable imagery. His site is under construction, so check out his Flickr thread.

Check it out here.

MIchael Steele

2010-06-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

Michael Steele is an Australian illustrator who is fascinated with typography, cartoons and robots. His canvases combine all in a surprisingly harmonious way. His new work called his Cluster series is an explosion of color line and form. Really beautiful work. Here's the description of the series in his words:
"A Cluster to me resembles images or objects grouped together to form something larger. I feel this gives images or objects a stronger presence, rather than being displayed by themselves, creating a much more dynamic experience for the viewer.I am constantly exploring new avenues within this theme."

Check it out here.

Raymond Pettibon

2010-06-19T14:06:00.001-07:00

In case you weren't familiar with the work of the great Raymond Pettibon, I thought I should put a link to his work since I mentioned him in a previous post. He's responsible for many iconic images from the punk and alt generation including album covers for Black Flag and Sonic Youth.

Check it out here.

ZEROPERZERO

2010-06-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

ZPZ is a design duo in Seoul South Korea who are reinventing the way we look at subway maps. They take existing diagrams and finesse them in a way to make them friendly, eye catching and fun. It's similar thinking to the way D-Barcode made us revaluate the UPC symbol on our purchases.

Check ZPZ out here.

Vrno

2010-06-19T13:36:00.001-07:00

Don't know a whole lot about vrno, but I'm diggin the work. They work in paint using a rough technique reminiscent of Raymond Pettibon. Very cool look and feel if you're looking for album cover artwork.

If anyone finds out about them, post in the comments section.

Check it out here.

D*Face

2010-06-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

D*Face is a British street artist who grew in popularity alongside Banksy. I had thought I'd posted about him here a while back, ut couldn't find it so I apologize if this is a repeat.
D*Face takes images of skulls, the Royal family, money and cartoony heads and applies his trademark wings to make the images fly all over the world. Lately he's smoothed out his style a bit, but it still has a rough appeal.

Check it out here.

orticanoodles

2010-06-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Orticanoodles is an Italian street art duo who's taken stencils to the next level. Their detail is unmatched and color combinations along with typography works perfectly together. Some of the work is a bit reminiscent of D*Face with their use of skulls and British royals. They have a ton of work on their site too which is refreshing for most street artists.

Check it out here.

Justin Gignac

2010-06-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Justin also taps the online media world for inspiration. Only he takes it from total strangers doing totally ridiculous stuff on Chatroulette. He does beautiful (crude) charcoal drawings of the funniest and rudest screen captures he can find.

Check them out here.

Matt Held

2010-06-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Matt takes inspiration from his social media network. He paints people's Facebook profile shots. There are some classics in here and maybe, someday, you'll end up here too.

Check them out here.

Priest

2010-05-14T07:29:00.001-07:00

Priest is a graffiti artist with a similar aesthetic and sense of humor to that of Banksy. He's been putting up some new stuff recently that's really nice.

Check it out here.

And here.

Alex Lukas

2010-05-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Philly painter Alex Lukas has an intense imagination of a world without humans. That's the subject of his recent body of work. It's beautifully disturbing.

Check it out here.

Kevin Earl Taylor

2010-05-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Kevin Earl Taylor is a seriously talented painter. He has an uncanny way of combining figures and animals in a really surreal way.

Check it out here.

rafael rozendaal

2010-04-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

rafael rozendaal is a digital artist pushing the limits of what we understand art to be. He creates web-based art animations that are funny, thoughtful and interactive. The way he makes a living is by selling the domain to a buyer along with a certificate of ownership. So far he's created about 30 pieces that have delighted millions around the world. It's like digital street art, free for all to see.

Check it out here.

Francesco De Molfetta

2010-04-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Francesco De Molfetta slaps pop culture in the face so hard you'll laugh till you pee. You have to see it for yourself.

Check it out here.

Eleanor Wood

2010-04-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

Eleanor Wood is a young illustrator from England. Her collage illustrations combine vintage images from advertising as well as natural forms cut into ameobic shapes to form soft cloud forms. She also combines patterns, like wallpaper, to create further depth and visual interest. She combines these to make compositions that are evolkative of dream like scenes. She doesn't have an official website yet, but it should be up soon.

Check out her blog.

Greg Gossel

2010-04-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Greg Gossel was born in 1982 in western Wisconsin. With a background
in design, his work is an expressive interplay of many diverse words,
images, and gestures. Gossel's multi-layered work illustrates a visual history of change and process throughout each piece. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad, including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Milan, and London. He currently resides in Minneapolis MN.

Check it out here.

Greg Lamarche

2010-04-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Greg's work uses simple letterforms and creates shapes and environments and clouds out of them that seem to float and morph with each angle you view them from.

Check it out here.

Issac Cordal

2010-04-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

I'll let Issac say it best:

Cement eclipses is a research project about the urban space, in-between sculpture and photography. Sculpture is used as a starting point and photography as a witness to the execution of installations for later publishing or exhibition. The small pieces (25 cm. approx.) are made in cement, then reproduced with silicone molds. The figurines represent a kind of metamorphosis through which human being leaves his role of citizen merging with the city and slowly becoming part of urban furniture.

Then confirming its voluntary isolation/alienation from nature, hiding himself among sidewalks, streets, walls, etc. and transforming little by little the urban environment in its natural habitat.

This project started in 2006 as a nomad project and as a continuous process, combining urban installation and street art. Cement eclipses was developed in urban areas of several European cities including Berlin, London, Brussels, Liege, Barcelona, Vigo, etc. Most of the photographs in this dossier have been realised in London, where I currently reside, between September 2008 and January 2009.

- Artist Statement, Issac Cordal

Check it out here.

Jason Koxvold

2010-04-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Jason Koxvold is an art director living in NY and doing photography on the side. I ran across his site and thought that for someone doing photo on the side it was actually really good. He focuses on the landscape mostly in a style that fits within the new topographic ideal. His images are mostly devoid of people with the exception of his Water series.

Check it out here.

Steve Lambert

2010-04-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Steve Lambert is an artist living in NYC who uses advertising as inspiration. Obviously conflicted about whether he loves or hates it, he uses advertising tools as his art. My favorite works are his signs. He imitates signs he's seen in LA and NYC, but changes the message to suit his sense of humor. They are very well crafted.

Check it out here.

Baptiste Debombourg

2010-04-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

Baptiste Debombourg doesn't restrict himself to a single medium or venue. His gallery is the world, he's medium is everything. From his smashed furniture to his cigarette sayings, he just does what comes most naturally, he creates.

Check it out here.

Good write up here.

Craig Ward

2010-04-06T10:15:00.001-07:00

Craig is an illustrator and type designer responsible for the latest Dockers campaign graphics. His attention to detail is unmatched, everything feels so raw and analog in the best possible way. His laser cut wood type reminds me of Scott Campbell's laser cut dollars.

Check it out here.

super size art

2010-04-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

SSA is Morgan Howell who owns an ad agency in England and does his painting on the side. You may remember a little while back, the giant tapes, well Morgan does giant records. He paints distressed record sleeves with the discs in them. He also does old books, but all are painted large. It takes these everyday objects and makes them so much more.

Check it out here.

Jessica Joslin

2010-03-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

Jessica Joslin is a mad scientist of sorts. She's been collecting tiny mechanical parts since she was a child and in the early 90s began constructing her mechanimals. These objects of the bizarre are scary and fascinating. Her attention to detail will hold your attention for hours. I only wish I could see them in person.

Check it out here.

Jessica Hess

2010-03-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Jessica Hess's graffiti landscapes push color to the limit. They're almost hyper-real.

Check it out here.

Aaron Nagel

2010-03-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Aaron Nagel is a painter currently showing at Shooting Gallery in SF. He is entirely self taught which will blow your mind when you see his beautiful use of color and subtle typeography hidden in his works. His current series is about guilt and power.

Check it out here.

Amelie Hegardt

2010-03-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

Amelie Hegardt does really cool fashion illustration that has a really unique and erotic spin on it. She has a beautifully distressed messy style too ala Ralph Steadman.

Check it out here.

triborodesign

2010-03-09T13:18:00.001-08:00

Triborodesign is a design group out of nyc. They've just published their triboro leftovers, a project that created new art out of castoff images from past projects. There are some really great visuals in here that would have been a sad loss had they been just tossed.

Check them out here.

Jeff Canham

2010-03-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

Jeff Canham is an artist from SanFran who is single handedly bringing back old school saloon style hand painted signs. He also happens to create art for galleries as well so you should look at it and get transported back in time. He does some really beautiful typographic work.

Check it out here.

Martin Machado

2010-03-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

Martin Machado is an all around artist who's main focus has been on the sea. He's spent some time sailing around the world as a deckhand on container ships. He paints and photographs a lot of his experiences on board and on shore. These photos are a great glimpse into a world rarely seen by most and they have a really beautiful quality to them as well.

Check them out here.

Rebecca Ward

2010-03-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

A lot of artists these days are working with house hold objects more. Rebecca Ward is someone who's really taken that to a new and more beautiful level. She creates installations using grids and patterns made from duct tape and electrical tape. Her newest project is at the Kate Spade store in NYC. It's her second collaboration with the designer. Keep an eye out for a lot more from her.

Check it out here.

Tristram Lansdowne

2010-03-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Tristram Lansdowne has similar qualities to Jessie Douglas in the way he isolates urban architecture and makes it extremely interesting to look at. He's also taken one of my favorite things, the exposed sides of townhouses and really heroisized them a beautiful way.

Check it out here.

jessie douglas

2010-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

jessie douglas is an illustrator from Oregon. She focuses on the urban landscape with an interest in sign typeography. She's got a really nice sketchy style that makes even the most mundane street corner interesting to look at.

Check it out here.

Alex Varanese

2010-02-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

Alex Varanese is an artist living in San Fran who loves red. "More than you" he proclaims. His work is super graphic and he is obviously influenced heavily by music.

Check it out here.

Marco Zamora

2010-02-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

Marco's paint style is really rough and rugged, yet manages to have a real elegance to it. He focuses on cycle and messenger culture, but has an overall urban theme that includes graffiti'd trucks and the homeless.

Check it out here.

Cai Guo-Qiang

2010-02-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist who has been gaining worldwide acclaim for some years now. He works in a unique medium, gunpowder. His "illustrations" or fire paintings are created by setting different mixes of gun power on fire on a large canvas or piece of paper. He recently did a performance at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where he created new works while the public watched. The contrast between the aesthetic of the works vs. the violent way they are created is gorgeous. He also works in many other mediums. Some of his work on display now involves hanging cars from the ceiling with rope lights protruding from them giving the illusion of them being fireworks. He also has a piece featuring a stuffed tiger with arrows protruding from all directions. Also evocative of fireworks. I sense a theme here.

Check it out here.

Michael Sieben

2010-02-17T05:53:00.000-08:00

Michael Sieben is an illustrator from Austin TX who takes his inspiration from skateboarding. He's been a staff illustrator and writer for Thrasher Mag for some time and has his own line of skateboards with a friend. His work is funny and fascinating using comical expressions and distorted proportions on his characters.

Check it out here.

Mr Brainwash

2010-02-17T05:50:00.000-08:00

Mr Brainwash is a kind of enigma the same way Banksy is. There is now speculation that they are either the same person or very closely related. His/her work uses stencils of iconic personalities and juxtaposed situations to convey his/her ideas with a street sense of humor.

Check it out here.

John John Jesse

2010-02-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

JJJ is a legend from the NY punk scene of the 70s and 80s. He's left the grit of NY to pursue his new love painting to tremendous success. His work has a great tension and beauty to it. It really evokes what it was like growing up in a punk scene with girls and booze and tattoos etc.

Check his work out here.

Michael Genovese

2010-01-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

As far as excitement levels go, I'm pretty high on finding Michael's work. He never went to art school and is a "professional" sign painter in Chicago, yet his thought and vision and inspiration far outweighs 99% of the creative people I've met. His work is almost totally text based, whether it's graffiti text, Latino sign text or book type. He's worked on canvas, tin, zinc, steel and he's had solo shows around the country. If you haven't seen his work you should go to these links and look at it right away.

Read more about him here.

Check out the work here.

The Date Farmers

2010-01-15T06:23:00.001-08:00

The Date Farmers were just that until they were discovered by a gallery owner in Los Angeles as the new hot folk art duo. They worked in the California date groves during the day and painted Latino cultural inspired works at night. They take ques from the hand painted signs of urban bodegas. Of Dia de Los Muertes figurines and legends. From Libre wrestling heroes and accessories. The work is truly beautiful and primitive by design.

Check it out here.

Os Gemeos

2010-01-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

Os Gemeos are twin brothers from Brazil that I've been following for years. Their style is unlike any graffiti here in the States. It's really reflective of the unique culture and climate that Brazil offers. Their characters are depicted in a very playful, cartoony style that makes they infinite and tangible to anyone in any country while maintaining a uniquely Brazillian look.

Check them out here.

Evan Hecox

2010-01-15T06:12:00.000-08:00

Evan is a great illustrator / painter. He works in a really graphic style that's due to the fact that he works in woodcuts. He takes a lot of photo studies of things that interest him, mostly urban scenes. His subjects range from crowds in Mexico to teahouses in NYC.

Check it out here.

And here.

David Jon Kassan

2010-01-15T06:08:00.000-08:00

David's work isn't something that would normally catch my eye, except that he's so damn good. He's a realist painter from NYC and his canvases are so rich and full of detail they're impossible not to linger in front of. He also has a beautiful knack for being drawn to the mundane. A tagged wall, a bored friend. It really is gorgeous work.

Check it out here.

Simon Evans

2010-01-07T06:10:00.001-08:00

Simon Evans is a British artist living and working in Berlin. His art communicates about loneliness, self-reflection, newness and unfamiliarity. His new series focuses on his new surroundings in Berlin and the isolation it creates. He works in photo, painting and collage.

Check it out here.