Nikki McClure

Maybe Nikki McClure's painstaking exacto-cut-out illustrations are no secret to everyone else but they pretty much hit me over the head yesterday as I was scouting out neat places to visit on my upcoming trip to San Francisco. I'm dazzled! Tongue-tied! There's really something about the graphic simplicity of her images coupled with the precision and detail in creating them that's really refereshing in this digital, edit>undo, 10-second-epic world we're working in these days . I particularly appreciate the interrelation of her subject matter and the labour-intensive way she works.

early century arts and crafts, where are you?

It has long been my hope that the venerable Arts and Crafts movement would return and slay the evil factories, terrible working conditions and shoddily made mass produced products of the Industrial Revolu----wait wait wait. Sound familiar? Yeah. I say it's time for Art and Crafts v. 2.0. Let's get a new William Morris and a new Josef Hofmann, but maybe they could, like, be chicks or something.

[RIVA Handkerchief by Josef Hofmann, c. 1910]

The Red Shoes - Sun Young Yoo

Hanging out at Audrey's Books this Sunday, I came across The Red Shoes, a beautifully re-imagined version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale. Sun Young Yoo's drawings feel so close to my own style I felt a little bit like my brain has been stolen! All graphic, all black and white, and all lines, all the time. Those genius designers over at AMMO even used Mrs. Eaves - swoon! Thought I'd share.

ps: in my continuing effort to spend time and support my own community, I've gotta commend Audreys for being open on a Sunday for all those downtown folks who would like to hang out in their own neighbourhood. cheers.

veekee agendas

following a three month ordeal which you are welcome to check out on my flickr, i am pleased to announce that i have somehow managed to create 100 hand- silkscreened, vintage silk scarf bound, originally illustrated agendas with

pockets and stickers. veekee agendas can be found at Uppercase Gallery in Calgary, Nokomis in Edmonton and Propeller Clothing in Osoyoos B.C. If all else fails, you can also get them at my Etsy shop.

They were truly a labour of love. i hope you enjoy using them as much as i enjoyed picking the fabric, drawing the interior spreads, and mucking around with a silkscreen and gold paint.

xoxo,
vikki

ps- there are 50 more books which i have not covered . i'm willing to do custom orders...let me know!

Making Artistic Careers Lucrative

I got tingles down my spine tonight when I read this article from nytimes. Working in a creative field and making a living at it is the dream. Point: there's only room for a handful at the top. Indeed, few of us will become massively successful conceptual painters with solo shows at SFMOMA, but many of us have a rock solid chance of making a fulfilling career where we don't starve and can maybe afford a side trip to San Francisco without having to mortgage out your cat to fund the damn trip (ermm...). Have faith, my creative, unable-to-stomach-the-temp-job-anymore friends! You can do good work and not sell out!

Tips and tricks? Post freely.

microphotographs

totally neat images (this here's a Dune Mouche) curated by SFMOMA (via Wired). There's a quality to them that is something between drawing and photography...and gel transfer?

lovely package indeed

there's something about those overly intricate mint tins (altoids, newman's own, etc) that make me stop in my tracks and share them with y'all.

(from lovely package via notcot)