Friday, June 11, 2010

Top 10 June 11

June 11 and yet another episode, check this thing out today because tomorrow
you will be to busy checking out the world cup.

Enjoy my friends.
Mr. J

1. João Ruas






João Ruas was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1981.

At an early age he was left alone with crayons and papers for a few hours every day, developing an unusual feral behavior which only got worse through the years. João was displayed in London from 2004 to 2007 inside (for an, yet, unknown reason) companies that developed Films and Games. He was shipped back to South America but managed to escape his cage, being spotted inside (for an, yet, unknown reason) Design and Animation Studios, however, the last sights at those locations happened in November 2008.

Since then it was reported by anonymous witnesses that João could be in a tall downtown building , in São Paulo.

See more work by João HERE

2. Jennifer Nehrbass






Jennifer Nehrbass' cameo series is inspired by Margaret Atwood's novella The Penelopiad, a reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Penelope and Odysseus. A little background on the myth, in case like myself you did not know or had forgotten it: When Odysseus returned home after a bunch of years of warring and raging, things got a little nuts. Dudes who had pursued Penelope where slaughtered for their hollering. In addition to these sorry bastards, twelve of Penelope’s maidens were also killed for not protecting Penelope's chastity. Basically, Odysseus was kicking ass and taking names.

Jennifer's twelve cameos symbolize Penelope's maidens in Atwood's version. Giving a voice to each maiden in her paintings, her choice of oval shape represents each women in cameo form catching them in moments of modern dilemma. Weep and Wonder opens June 11 at Klaudia Marr Gallery in Santa Fe.

See more work by Jennifer HERE

3. Tugboat Printshop!

P&V Collaberation
P&V Collaberation
Paul Roden
Valerie Lueth
P&V Collaberation

Tugboat Printshop:

Tugboat Printshop strives to provide quality, traditionally hand-made prints at affordable prices directly to the public. Our prints are completely original images drawn by hand, carved out of woodblocks by hand (with hand tools), and printed onto paper by hand on our in-house etching press.

Quality is extremely important to us. All of our prints are printed with top-shelf, oil based inks onto fine, archival cotton papers. If cared for properly, our prints will last many lifetimes! Though it is inevitable that there will be some variation in woodblock printing between prints, we curate only the best copies printed into our editions. Our prints are always handled carefully by expert hands. When you purchase prints from our shop, you can be sure that you will be getting the best that we have to offer.

Much of the artwork currently available on our site is collaborative, though we each have our separate pursuits in image-making as well. Through collaboration, we feel that we have been able to simplify and streamline our message—taking the best of our abilities and applying them dually to the conception, orchestration, and manufacturing of quality images in print. It is our hope that our prints provide pleasure—but also inspire new ways of thinking about the world that we live in.

Through our pursuits, we hope to keep printmaking alive in the public’s mind, reaching new audiences through travel, online interactivity, and direct conversation. Printmaking is one of the most accessible of the fine arts, as it produces multiples, and it is our hope that by completely devoting our careers to its continued revival we can stir up new found interest for traditionally printed works on paper and further cultivate interest in owning original art & greater public support for the arts.

Tugboat are:

Paul Roden was born & raised a true Nashville boy. Though he whistles a sweet dixie tune, he was drawn to the
visual arts (not music) and got his BFA from Washington University, St. Louis in 2001 and, later, his MFA in
Printmaking from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion in '04. Paul packs a whopper of a story into all of his images, prefering large scale woodblock prints as his medium of choice. Paul additionally excels at art-handling and framing, always equipped with a will and a way to tackle most any project.

Valerie Lueth is a South Dakota gal! Born in Des Moines, IA and raised in rural Humboldt + Hartford, SD, Valerie's favorite activities were drawing pictures and building prairie forts. Still the top two on her list! Valerie received her BFA in Printmaking from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion in 2004. She worked for Pulluin Software designing worlds, characters, and interfaces for educational video games until 2007 and then took the dive full-time at Tugboat with her husband, Paul. Valerie's artwork also has a narrative slant, her intricate drawings jammed with environs carefully built through the layering of dense linework.

See more work by Tugboat HERE


Thursday, June 10, 2010

4. Meredith Dittmar






Meredith Dittmar is an artist living and playing in Portland OR. Born near Boston Mass, she grew up in a world of pet pigs, horses, hay-forts and spy games . Follow this with an education in computer science, a career in interactive design, a compulsive need to create, and a drive to Seek and you get the major elements of her person and work.

Dittmars human-animal-plant-energy amalgams contain threads of common elements and colors to express deep levels of union across themes of biology, technology, and consciousness . Her characters are frequently involved in quiet expressive moments, or lounge facing their audience so they can share their inner space. Dittmar believes it is this space we recognize in ourselves, and through convening in that space, the interconnectedness of all things is revealed. She sees the act of spontaneous artistic creation as part of a larger practice of being present, and a way to better understand herself and reality.

Dittmars work is featured in the books Dot dot Dash and Mascotte 2, along with numerous magazines and online publications. In conjunction with her artwork she works as an independent character designer and maintains her company Corporatepig, through which she continues to create thousands of unique handmade characters called "My Guys".

See more of Meredith's work HERE

5. Mets De La Creme



Awesome looking baking website in french!
Check it out HERE

6. Tussilago Trailer



'Tussilago', the new short film by director Jonas Odell, just received the first prize in the San Francisco International Film Festival. The film got the award in the category Best Animated Short Film. It also won for best short doc award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.

See more of Jonas Odell's work HERE

7. Pine Sculptures by Jae Hyo Lee






Jae Hyo Lee graduated from Hong-Ik University in 1992. He has won the Hankook Ilbo Young Artists Award in 1997, the Osaka Triennial Award in 1998, the Kim Sae-Jung Award in 2000, the Sculpture in Woodland Award in 2002 and the Japan Hyogo International Competition Award in 2004. This is the first time his work

Visit Jae Hyo Lee's website HERE

8. Yoskay Yamamoto






Yoskay Yamamoto is a rising Japanese artist in the LA art scene. His varied work spanning painting and sculpture blends pop iconic characters from his new Western home with traditional and mythical Japanese elements, balancing his Asian heritage with urban pop art. Central to his work the is combination of apparently innocuous human characters with larger than life mystical forces and symbols.

See more work by Yoskay HERE

9. Melissa Haslam






Melissa graduated with a Bachelor of Computing (Multimedia Technology) from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. After working in computer graphics for a few years she found herself wanting to push her creative skills further and went back to school to study Visual Arts at RMIT, focusing on painting and drawing. With an emphasis on narrative theme and a romanticized, escapist view of the world, her paintings are populated by beautiful females in fairytale-like scenarios. Influences include botanical drawings, the pre-raphaelites, japanese illustration and contemporary fashion photography.

See More work by Melissa HERE
Check out her art blog HERE

10. Mario - paper stop motion