Gary Baseman does not release enough prints! Thankfully, another one is on the way. Saturday!! At the Decoder Ring Design Collective website. Price? Edition size? Who knows? And who cares. We'll take it. All we know is that it is being offered at NOON, central time. Be there, or be... very sad you weren't.
(Above is just a tiny preview -- it is NOT the entire image.
New Gary Baseman Print
Friday, February 29, 2008
Who Needs Groceries Alert -- New BASEMAN print!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Stunning website - not to be missed
Last year PopDrawer was aimlessly floating around the net, and we found what must be one of the most beautifully designed websites EVER. It belongs to graphic designer Jonathan Yuen, based in Singapore. We don't know much about Mr. Yuen. But we do know is that he represents the future of the internet. So go take a look, click on the little red plusses all around the website, and be prepared to be wowed.
Jonathan Yuen
Monday, February 25, 2008
French Dunnies
First French fries take over America, next the French Dunny. The newest line of Dunnies (or is the plural of Dunny actually Dunnys?) arrived on our shores in KidRobot stores last Thursday. With 21 different designs by 19 different artists, there is a potpourri of choices from which to choose. But ah, mon dieu, you cannot choose! This is a blind assortment, which means you get whatever comes in the little 3-inch box. But $6.95 is a small price to pay for a little mystery in your banal life, n'est-ce pas? Or, if you must have them all, you can purchase the entire assortment (with no doubles) for less than $150. Just follow the instructions on the ordering page carefully.
Here's a brief description from KidRobot...
"The French are invading! Kidrobot takes a trip across the Atlantic to collect designs from France's hottest artists. The French art scene left a lasting impression on 2007 with an explosion of new and upcoming talent making their mark on contemporary culture.
A variety of artists rocked Dunny in this exciting new series. 123 Klan, SKWAK, Tilt, SUPERDEUX and MIST are just a few of the artists chosen to collaborate on this lovely new series."
Get 'em before they emigrate.
French Dunny
KidRobot
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Snow Globes!!!
Who doesn't love a good snow globe? Well feast your eyes on these! Artists Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, AKA Martin & Muñoz, have created some of the most intricate and stunning snow globes ever. Here is a nice article about them and their process in a recent New York Times article. If you are anywhere near Scottsdale, Arizona in March, they will be showing their work at Bentley Gallery starting the 4th of March. If you are, just visit their website. You are sure to be transported to a winter wonderland in no time at all.
Martin & Munoz
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Who Needs Shopping Alert! Elizabeth McGrath fun for St. Patty's Day.
On her site, sculptor/stitcher/painter extraordinaire Elizabeth McGrath is selling some great items in advance of St. Patrick's Day. Who doesn't need a butcher knife? Or a stuffed bat? I know we do!
The bat is $35.00 plus S&H and comes in a hand sketched box. The two butcher knives, one with a green mouse, the other with a green rabbit, are each $25.00 plus S&H and also come in hand sketched boxes. What a morbid treat for the holiday. Get yours now, b'goshen.
Elizabeth McGrath's St. Patrick's Day store
Friday, February 22, 2008
Tooth Fairy Helper
As some of PopDrawer's have realized, we are very attracted to funky kid stuff. Why? One, we're really just 10 year-old toy fetishists at heart, and two, we have kids of our own. And happily we live in a culture where other parents are creating cool stuff for their kids and the thriving childrens' marketplace. So we apologize to the footloose and fancy free non-parents out there as we once again wax rhapsodic over a fun new item for kids and the adults who love them (and I mean parents, no NAMBLA).
And once again we lazily turn to the fantastic writing of Valley Girl, Interrupted for a piece about a great new product from our friends at Gama-goo. Read on...
"...Not to mention the highly inconvenient ritual of hiding a tooth under a pillow. I’m sure this ritual was designed just to torture parents right before bedtime. Baby teeth are teeny tiny and impossible to find when you’re groping your hand gingerly under your sleeping child’s head in the dark. Retrieving them is like playing that horrible Operation game when you were a kid. Your hand is shaking unsteadily, nerves on edge and you break into a sweat as you burrow your hands under the pillow.
I’ve found my hand trapped under my son’s heavy cranium on more than one occasion, terrified of moving and waking him up. Even when I do manage to execute this delicate operation of retrieving the plaque-ridden little tooth and replacing it with money, my son is such a thrasher at night that the errant bill always manages to flutter behind the bed or get lost in the sheets.
These little pillows tooth fairy pillow are a stroke of genius. They’re made from recycled irregular Gama-Go t-shirts, so they’re super-soft and cozy. Even better, they come equipped with a little pocket in the back to store a tooth and the money the tooth fairy leaves behind. This way, you can avert the morning drama, when your child tearfully rips apart the bedspread in search of payment due."
We see other non-kid uses for this clever little invention. A way for a guy to present his gal with a ring (hidden in the tooth pocket)? A glass-eye-keeper? The possibilities are endless for just 40 bucks!
Gama-goo tooth fairy pillows -- www.gama-go.com/home.php?cat=258
Valley Girl, Interrupted -- www.SheKnows.com/blogs/minsun
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Photography Break - Brian Finke's Flight Attendants
Time for a photography break! Today we look at the upcoming show of Brian Finke at Clampart in New York. Let's hear from the gallery for their description of Mr. Finke's modern yet nostalgic portrait of everyone's favorite sky goddess, the flight attendant.
"Flying the friendly skies, Brian Finke crisscrossed the United
States photographing flight attendants on Delta, JetBlue, Hawaiian,
Hooters Air, Southwest, and Song airlines before going abroad with
such carriers as Air France, Qantas, and British Airways. In
London, Finke visited a flight attendant school complete with
emergency rafts and billowing smoke, and then, continuing east,
he traveled Air Asia, Thai, Tiger, ANA, Japan, and Cathay Pacific.
Finke finished two years of travel with the illustrious Icelandair.
The result of Finke’s wanderlust is his series, “Flight Attendants,”
a vibrant collection of photographs documenting the lives of those
adventurous souls who choose to work at 40,000 feet. Shot before,
during, and after flights, the photographs capture the allure of the
high-flying profession alongside the more quiet moments of the
attendants’ daily lives. As with his previous series of photographs,
“2-4-6-8: Photographs of Cheerleaders and Football Players,”
Finke is drawn to the distinctive dynamics of team formation,
focusing on uniformed individuals executing practiced actions—
whether on the playing field or in the air. With an eye for the iconic
as well as the absurd, Finke seamlessly blends the glamorous
with the casual, offering a memorable look at the people of the air
travel industry."
We wholeheartedly agree. Check out these gorgeous photos. The show opens today.
Brian Finke - www.brianfinke.com
Clampart - www.clampart.com
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sloan Fine Art's Stunning Part II Opening
Mark Ryden
Alix Sloan and her new Sloan Fine Art Gallery have put together a truly remarkable opening in two parts. Part I included, among others, The Clayton Brothers, Elizabeth (Liz) McGrath, Aaron Smith and Eric White in a fantastic gallery opening show by anyone's estimation. Now Part II not only reaches the heights of the first half of the show, but somehow manages to exceed them. Check out this line-up:
Mark Ryden, Joe Sorren, Marion Peck, sculptor Jud Bergeron, and slightly newer-comers Andrea Aversa and Jean-Pierre Roy. And the works are of course, eye-poppingly beautiful. Alix Sloan again shows that her excellent taste and breadth of experience makes for an important new gallery on the scene. Not much more to say but enjoy the images.
Marion Peck
Joe Sorren
Jean-Pierre Roy
Sloan Fine Art - www.sloanfineart.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Your own kids' art as a coffee table book
Okay, this doesn't really fall under the Pop Surrealism category, but... it does kinda. Because what art is more outside, more inexpensive, and more surreal than art by children. And now a company called Petite Artwork will take the reams of arts and crafts projects from your kids, your nieces and nephews, your favorite neighbor kids, maybe even you pets (paint their paws and walk them through some oils) and put them together in a great-looking coffee table book.
Check out the blog Valley Girl, Interrupted for more info, or go straight to their website.
Petite Artwork - www.petiteartwork.com
Monday, February 18, 2008
Fake movie posters -- better than the real thing
Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham have a flair for the cinematic and dramatic, and we get to benefit from it. The two have run a site called Fleet Street Scandal since 2006. Here's the "story" behind the site and the gorgeous artwork on it:
"In 1967, the Fleet Street Art Gallery in London was robbed of its entire collection of priceless paintings. No clues were left. No motives were determined. No suspects were apprehended. The only thing known is the thief had exquisite taste. The incident became known as the Fleet Street Scandal.
Fast-forward to 2006 - Scotland Yard uncovers a hidden vault containing the entire cache of paintings. Upon hearing about the discovery, two young entrepreneurs from the American Northwest traveled to London and purchased the paintings at auction. They decided that instead of keeping the art to themselves they would make prints available to the masses so they could be enjoyed for generations to come."
Mssrs. Dart Turnham make these hidden treasures available on their site at extremely reasonable prices (in the $20 range!). The prints run from faux movie posters to travel posters, all done in gorgeous mid-century style. We're going to go out on a limb and suggest that Mssrs. Dart and Turnham are creating these posters themselves. We sure hope so, because then the Scotland Yard vault has no chance of running out of these lovely prints.
And don't forget their great new book!
Fleet Street Scandal - www.FleetStreetScandal.com
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The best of Poketo - Oksana Badrak
What is Poketo, you ask? Poketo is an awesome e-store selling everything from t-shirts to wallets to dishware to stationery to... to... seemingly everything. And all emblazoned with the work of some of the best artists working today. Artists like Oksana Badrak, for instance.
First, a little about Ms. Badrak. Yet another graduate from the fine institution of the Art Center in Pasadena (see Ryden, Clayton Brothers, and on and on), Ms. Badrak hails from Moscow, and in addition to earning recognition from the Society of Illustrators, she has been published in numerous mags, including Entertainment Weekly, Travel + Leisure, the New Yorker, and Playboy, which PopDrawer knows about because we read Playboy for the art. She has also done work for Target, Nike, and many others. And she has been doing more and more fine art shows. Her works are stunningly beautiful collage-like images, often of animals cavorting in fantastical settings. Throw in the occasional headless body or body wearing an animal costume head, and you have just a taste of Ms. Badrak's crazy, gorgeous world. Currently, she has a number of very inexpensive prints available at Thumbtack Press (more about Thumbtack in a later post) for just about $40 apiece. But this post is supposed to be about Poketo, so...
Poketo is offering a few Oksana Badrak items, including a couple of awesome plate sets for $28, and a couple of wallets for $20 apiece. What a perfect pairing. Put some money in your Badrak wallet, buy some grub, and bring it home to put on your Badrak plates. It's as if they planned it that way!
Oksana Badrak - www.badrak.com
Poketo - http://poketo.com/shop/
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Evan Hecox meets Mexico City
If you don't know Evan Hecox by name, you almost certainly know him by image. His work has graced endless youth-oriented products, from skateboards to t-shirts to album covers and on and on. His images of urban scenes have a simple graphic beauty to them because of his spare use of color combined with intricate black-gray-white detail. The landscapes are bold and surprising due to his removal of some details and emphasizing of others. It's a style that has allowed him to grab attention and success in both the fine art world and in illustration. And now he's tackled the urban complexity of Mexico City in his new show at Kinsey/DesForges Gallery in Culver City, CA.
In DF (Distrito Federal), which is the Mexico City locals call their hometown, Mr. Hecox attacks the streets of one of the most cosmopolitan and at the same time ancient cities in the Americas. In his own words ""The history feels so heavy... this hectic, modern city built on top of Mayan and Aztec ruins... filled with people just trying to get by day-to-day, selling whatever they can on the street - people that are ingenious and adaptive in the ways they manage to survive in a place like this." So far, only one image on the site, but by the looks of it, the show is going to be eye-popping.
Evan Hecox - www.evanhecox.com/
Kinsey/DesForges Gallery - www.kinseydesforges.com
Friday, February 15, 2008
YOU decide!
One of the hottest rising stars in the art world is letting her fans decide which of her works will grace some new products she's creating. You're not going to find this inter-activity between fan and artist in the "high art" world. The closeness between collectors and artists is one of the most exciting things about the Modern Pop art world, and Yumiko Kayukawa is taking the idea to the next level.
Ms. Kayukawa is one of the belles of the Pop Surrealism world these days, and it's not hard to see why. Her sensual pieces are something of a 21st century take on the candy-colored 80s pop icons of Patrick Nagel (you remember Nagel, don't you? Covers of Duran Duran albums, poster-child of Miami Vice 80s excess... Not surprising that Ms. Kayukawa's work reminds us of that style, since she herself says that "I'd rather my paintings hang next to rock star pin-ups than on museum walls. Ultimately I want to connect with people all over the world on that level." Ms. Kayukawa, a native of Sapporo, Japan who now lives in Seattle, has been doing a number of solo and group shows in the U.S. recently, and right now she's asking her fans to help her choose which paintings she will use to grace a number of products that will be sold online. Send an email to gabriela@sweetyumiko.com to let her know. Democracy in action! (Paint the vote?)
Yumiko Kayukawa - www.sweetyumiko.com
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Glenn Barr's new Pressure Printing print
A few days ago we waxed rhapsodic about Amy Crehore's new luscious print available at Pressure Printing. But we'd be remiss if we didn't also say some choice words about our fave Glenn Barr's new print as well. It's called The Ruiners, and it's a framed giclee in an edition of 50 for $1200. It's an eerily beautiful image of three fluffy-haired sirens just waiting to lull you to your watery doom.
This isn't the first time the masters at Pressure Printing have worked with Mr. Barr. Unfortunately, they are entirely sold out of their first three projects with him, The Oceanid, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Jocky Full of Bourbon. A word or about Pressure Printing. Founder Brad Keech, a veteran of almost twenty years in the graphic art world, puts all of his experience and love of the art he produces into his meticulously crafted, limited-edition pieces. They are highly-valued amongst artists and collectors. Add yourself to his mailing list at brad@pressureprinting.com -- you'll be glad you did.
And a special thank you to Amy Crehore, who sent me this very cool link to Pressure Printing's blog where it discusses the process they use to make their awesome prints. Thanks, Amy!!
The Ruiners - http://www.pressureprinting.com/ruiners/ruiners.htm
Pressure Printing - www.pressureprinting.com
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Who Needs Groceries Alert - Gama-Go Limited Edition book for FREE!
From Gama-Go, the super spectacular clothing company co-owned by artist Tim Biskup, comes a great new offer. In their words, "To celebrate the second printing of our 400 page book - we're giving a small number of them away for free!.
That's right, for a limited time, when you order $100 worth of goods, you'll receive the book free of charge. That's a $24.95 value!"
So step right up and git yer FREE Gama-Go book with the perchiss of quality apparel from the fine folks at Gama-go. Limited time offer!
Gama-go - www.gamago.com
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Calcium is insufficient
Okay, we don't know what "calcium is insufficient" means either, but it's apparently the motto for Tokyo design collective Mad Barbarians' new vinyl toys Mad House and Phantom Ghoul. Limited to 1500 pieces each, Phantom Ghoul and Mad House are each 8 inches high, cost $39.95, come with a removable bowler hat, and tiny accessories. PopDrawer believes that all vinyl toys, and many people, should come with removable bowler hats. Don't you?
Mad Barbarians toys - http://www.kidrobot.com/products.cfm?OF11=PROMO6
Kid Robot - www.kidrobot.com
Saturday, February 9, 2008
New Show from Jen Stark, Master of Paper
Op Art is alive and well, and being reinvented by artist Jen Stark. Ms. Stark, who describes her mind-blowing three dimensional paper cut-out works of art as mathematically-organic, color paper explosions has had her work featured in Wired, Wallpaper, and Ready Made, among other magazines. And this weekend her new show (shared with artist Diem Chau) opens at OKOK Gallery in Seattle.
Check out the preview to see another series of gorgeous, impossible paper sculptures, along with some of Ms. Stark’s lovely felt-tip pen works. Sadly, her sculptures are all sold out already, but some of the other works are still available. But sign up for updates on her website, and you might get an early shot next time she has a show. And don’t forget to read her blog.
Jen Stark - www.jenstark.com
OKOK Gallery - okokgallery.com
Friday, February 8, 2008
Who Needs Groceries Alert - Awesome Amy Crehore print from PressurePrinting.com
Click on image for larger view
The fourth in an ongoing series of Who Needs Groceries Alerts, where PopDrawer alerts you to wonderful stuff you can buy to clutter your home and lighten your wallet.
Today’s must-buy item is a gorgeous new mounted, varnished and framed giclee on canvas by Pressure Printing, hand-signed by artist Amy Crehore. The print, titled “Banana Eater” (and seen above) is a terrific example of Ms. Crehore’s lovely island-inspired, wildlife-filled canvases. For everyone who finds much of the work categorized as Pop Surrealism as slightly morbid, but loves the vivid colors and pop aesthetic, Ms. Crehore is your salvation. Her paintings are generally slightly surreal portraits of beautiful women in idyllic surroundings, with a touch of whimsy or quirkiness lurking in the background. Don’t get me wrong, some are delightfully creepy, and PopDrawer loves those, too. The Pressure Printing edition, assuredly done with their typical detail, is a small edition of 40 for $750.00 each. (and don’t miss Ms. Crehore’s awesome blog “Little Hokum Rag.”
Ms. Crehore also has a great new t-shirt available on her website for a mere $27 (plus s&h)
While you’re checking out the Pressure Printing sight, you may also be interested in the new print by PopDrawer fave Glenn Barr. But more about that another time.
Amy Crehore’s official site - www.amycrehore.com
Pressure Printing - www.pressureprinting.com
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Dave Cooper Preview -- see now!
Dave Cooper’s newest solo show opens at Billy Shire Fine Arts on Friday February 8th in the City of Angels. But if you’re not there, no prob. You can see the preview pics right here. Mr. Cooper is one of the top artists in the field, and his show is sure to sell out. Got a spare $38,000? How about just $14,000. Either way, you can get a Cooper original.
The preview show is Friday, from 7-9PM, and the show opens officially on Saturday night.
Dave Cooper - http://www.davegraphics.com/
Preview - http://www.billyshirefinearts.com/08Cooper/
Chrome is the new vinyl
Looks like our friend Tim Biskup is on the leading edge of a wave of chrome. Just days after he announced his Pollard toy in Chrome (available tomorrow at Noon PST), designer Jonathan Adler has announced a couple of his classic designs in chrome as well. The above 60s throwback Raindrops Sculpture was once upon a time only available in brass, but now is being made in gleaming shiny chrome (for a mere $1500).
Here’s hoping that Mr. Adler makes available some of his cool 60s-style ceramic animals in chrome as well.
(Apologies that the above image is the brass version, since we haven’t been able to get a chrome shot yet).
Jonathan Adler - www.jonathanadler.com/
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