KRETS at Needles + Pens..

I'm helping out over at Needles + Pens today. Anna and Cindy of KRETS are here installing their group show KNOCK KNOCK. They are working super hard, making sure everything looks perfect. It's coming together for sure and they most definitely are knock knock knocking it out of the park with this line up!

FEATURING WORKS BY: AJ Fosik, Chris Johanson, Danilo Stankovic, Holly Stevenson, James Benjamin Franklin, Jeff Olsson, Jennifer Muskopf, Johanna Jackson, Keith Shore, Kim Hiorthøy, Malin Gabriella Nordin, Matthew Feyld, Megan Whitmarsh, Misaki Kawai, Peter Larsson, Phil Elverum, Ragnar Persson, Shoboshobo, & a mural by Richard Colman .

K N O C K K N O C K a group exhibition curated by Malmö, Sweden’s  K R E T S. Opening Reception Saturday October 9, 6:00-9:30 pm at Needles + Pens. Refreshments and music by Death Cheetah.

Here are some crappy Iphone pics. But they'll give you a nice little taste of what's in store. I'll be at the opening and share more on Monday.

Misaki Kawai, love her zines and it's rad to see her sense of humor in 3d.

The ladies working it out & making it happen.

Richard Colman's mural mid-progress. I may have to buy this wall.

Speaking of buying...what I wouldn't do to take this Chris Johanson piece home with me. If wishes were horses...

Gah! These deer by Jennifer Muskopf are killing me.

A wee little AJ Fosik never hurt anyone.

Folk Mother..

Oh man, I saw these sewn beauties by Folk Mother on Teenangster's blog over the weekend. I swear, I could just blog off of Alison's blog and just be content (and not to mention NUTS and unethical) she is just so good at finding the most amazing shit ever.

I was introduced to Folk Mother a few years ago by Alison and may or may not have blogged about her work. But regardless these hand sewn, found vintage photographs should be seen as much as one wants. I wish, oh I wish she would make more of these stunning, stitched hybrids.

Lian Li Preps TYR PC-X2000F Full Tower Case for Release

Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd, well-known for their quality aluminum PCcases for enthusiasts, is preparing the TYR PC-X2000F full tower case for release .











Measuring 240 x 695 x 442mm and weighing 11.7kg, the tool-free aluminumcase has four 5.25” drive bays, seven 3.5” bays, eight expansion slots,2mm thick aluminum alloy side panels, holes for water cooling tubes, afan speed controller, support for graphic cards up to 340mm in length,and a top side I/O panel with one e-SATA, four USB 3.0 ports, and audioconnectors. It is fully compatible with all E-ATX/ ATX/ Mirco-ATXmotherboards and has support for up to six fans (comes pre-installedwith three 140mm fans (front) & two 140mm fans (rear)). Covered by atwo year warranty, the TYR PC-X2000F full tower case can be purchasedfrom major retailers, e-tailers and distributors at a MSRP of USD 529(price excludes tax) in end May.


Features:
Supports Extended ATX, ATX, and Micro-ATX motherboardsFour tool-less ODD bays placed either the right or left sideSeven tool-less HDD mounting racksMore cable storage space behind motherboard trayFan control-switch on the back panelFour USB 3.0 multimedia I/O ports & one e-SATA/HD audio portThree 140mm LED fans at front & two 140mm fans at rearAvailability: Arriving at local distributors end of MayMSRP : US$539+local VAT; only black color is available

News via [Techconnect]

free encouragement postcards..

Jeff of Booooooom! and Erin of Design for Mankind are seriously non-stop creative making machines, they never cease to amaze me with all the cool things they are working on. Awhile back they asked peeps to submit positive encouragement, the response was overwhelming. To celebrate what an awesome outpouring the received, they enlisted a bunch of great artists (one of my personal favs: Gemma Correll) and made two packs of limited edition post card sets. They are limited edition, so get yours soon!

New Work Kenji Nakayama.

Boston based stencil artist Kenji Nakayama sent over images of his latest work that's hanging in Woodward Gallery's latest show The Great Outdoors. Layer upon layer, Kenji always impresses me. I have some photos of his studio around here somewhere that I'll try and get up over the next couple of days. Kenji will be working on an outside installation this summer at Woodward, I'll post pictures as soon as it's up.

Steve Powers aka ESPO's Daily Metaltation..

I won't lie, I am a huge, huge fan of Steve Powers...and have obsessively stalked his website for years in the hopes that he would come around & update it with what he's been up to. Yep, no shame. I'm not sure when it happened but sometime at the end of last year my wish came true & he redid his site. Adding a whole bunch of goodness in there. Among my favorite (obviously) is his blog where he posts his 'Daily Metaltations'. So rad to see his brain at work and how he twists and turns words and phrases inside out. Here are some of my faves.

All images from ESPO's site.

when talking about the marriage bed

{image credit}I have this group of friends. They are some of the craziest, most amazing women I have ever met via the interwebs (although we have now all met in person). They are sassy and adventurous; they are all in differing places in life, but they all love Jesus. And there’s something else special about them.Have you ever been in a conversation with (other) women about sex? Is it just me, or is the tone more often than not a total downer? I feel like never once had I overheard or been part of a conversation like this without a general consensus being alluded to: us women could do without it. It’s almost as though we pretend to be above all that. Our silly husbands still have carnal desires, but us wives? We are further evolved. Jabs and underhanded comments are made about frequency and husbands’ “needs”. It is not a pretty picture and it is not edifying.But these women I was telling you about? They are the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit, even on this topic. Weird, you might think, that friends would be vulnerable about this with each other, but I don’t really think that it is. If I’m guilty of holding flippant conversations joking about the marriage bed, why shouldn’t I be regularly talking about it with those who would be encouraging and honest instead of bitter and stereotype perpetuating?And so we do. These women, we encourage each other. We talk about how life gets in the way, about the hurdles (O, man. Having babies: If ever married sex had a foe it were you. #irony) and yea, we talk about our strategies to avoid the hurdles. We brag. You hear that? We brag when things are going well. We also blush a lot. But it is so worth it.No, this isn’t the only thing we talk about (wouldn’t that be a weird friendship?) but it is an open conversation and I am so thankful for their perspective. They are the sisters I never had and their refreshing attitude is something I would wish for all women if not to have for themselves (yet), to have a sister friend who can speak it to them.

friendly friday our mailman

{photo credit}Because of potty training, OBoy spent a good portion of August nekkid from the waist down. Obviously we put pants on him to go out to stores, restaurants, church, etc., but we quickly became those parents. You know, the ones whose children run around in their yard half nekkid? Yup. Those ones.No shame.The weather was beautiful, our son was making fabulous progress in potty training, and well, he’s two. What little two year old boy doesn’t want to run around outside without pants on? Hello, OBoy’s dream come true. So like the klassy neighbors that we are, we embraced it.We live in the city, where lot sizes are a fairly uniform (and small) 40ftx120ft. This makes for some dense housing (as in if my neighbor and I both reached our arms out our living room windows we could almost high-five). Add to that the fact that our houses were built in the 1920s and 30s so they have built-in mail slots, and it means that our mail deliverers walk from house to house rather than drive to mailboxes along the street. (Isn’t that cute? I grew up in the Suburbia of Suburbias, USA and had never seen walking mailmen or women before college. True story.)Cut to DanO and OBoy drawing with sidewalk chalk on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Up walks our regular mailman. Now, I wasn’t there so I can’t be sure, but my guess is that it was either the green molded plastic toddler potty seat they had with them outside, or it was the fact that OBoy was, again, nekkid, that tipped the mailman off.“Potty training, huh?”DanO and he went on to talk about how our mailman’s grandsons were in the process of training, and how cheerios had become a family favorite for, uhm, aiming reinforcement.Later that week his delivery was timed just as I was leaving the house with the boys for the morning. This time, OBoy was fully dressed. Our mailman stopped to chat with him.“How’s potty training going, young man?”Like a scene straight out of Sesame Street, our neighborhood postman asked my son about going on the potty.What a sweet man. I imagine his is a somewhat thankless job, given that most of the people he affects aren’t even home at the time that he serves them. And please, I don’t even want to think about what his job looks like in the winter here in Minnesnowda.Since that interaction (which had me checking over my shoulder to see if Mr. Noodle was going to show up next or perhaps might the birds break out into the ABCs?) I had hoped to do something special for him, but hadn’t gotten around to it until last week. I made muffins on Wednesday morning, put a few in a box and wrote a simple card that told our mailman how grateful we are for his work and that we love seeing his face around the neighborhood.Then, I staked out by the front windows where I could see our walkway. In the early afternoon when both boys were napping (miracle upon miracles!) I heard the familiar metal clang of our mail slot. I darted to the door and caught him halfway to our neighbor’s house.“We made you some pumpkin muffins. Just wanted to thank you for being so friendly.”Not going to lie, it was awkward. (I imagine this kind of thing doesn’t happen to him everyday.) There was a moment of you shouldn’t have and then a sincere smile from both of us. Silly, probably, to think that some muffins and being a dork, keeping lookout and waiting by the window could make a difference, but I hope that it did. I hope that it gave him just a little glimpse of what he means to the community he serves.:: :: :: :: :: ::Did you step out and do a friendly act this week? I would love to read about it. Please link up here. Only rule is that you link to the post about your act of kindness, not just to your main blog url, that way if people are surfing through in the future, they’ll still find your post. Then, within your post, link back to this post so that others can come join in the giving and the sharing and the love.(Any links that don’t follow the rulesies will be deleted. Capiche?) So? Go ahead! Warm fuzzies all around! Link up below:

Matt W Moore Crystal Lasers..

It's the middle of February, a time of year when we all need a huge shot of color for sure. Luckily and just in time, pictures are up on Matt W Moore's site of his recent show Crystal & Lasers that opened February 5th in Paris. What I wouldn't give to roam the streets of Paris and stumble into such color. Check out the eye candy here. (Make sure you scroll down and check out his inspiration shots taken with his iphone.)

kevin cyr rocks it, it's true..

often times when i start a blog post, it's really hard for me to not just blurt out all over the page: HEY! I REALLY LIKE THIS. YOU SHOULD TOO!!! really, all i want to do w/ this blog is be a portal for the great art i come across. it's often hard to find the right words w/ out coming over like a polly anna who speaks abbrev.

well, this post isn't any different. i was recently very fortunate to be in touch w/ kevin cyr, a ginormously talented painter in brooklyn. he has a show coming up this friday at PEP gallery and he took a moment to sit down and answer some questions i had for him about the upcoming show, his work and the many vehicles he paints so beautifully. instead of getting all shouty about how incredibley talented he is, i'm going to let his interview do that for you. but just in case it's not clear by the end, i really like kevin's work and you should too!!

can you talk a little about your upcoming show at pink elephant projects? what are yourinspirations behind it?

i was lucky enough to travel to india and beijing, china with an artist i worked for last spring. it was my first time in both places and i was really amazed at the cultural differences. i was immediately drawn to the different modes of transportation since i've been painting a lot of vehicles and industrial landscapes for the past couple of years. i took a ton of pictures of Indian rickshaws, because they were everywhere. when i got back to the u.s. i started doing drawings and paintings of them.

you have a lot of motorized vehicles in your work. what's the story w/ that?

i think painting vehicles has a lot to do with the small town i grew up in. i’ve never been interested in fixing cars or even owning one, but i like the way they look and what they can represent. it’s interesting how different vehicles can define not only the owner’sgeographic location, but their social status. each vehicle i’ve painted has been found on the street and in some cases documented just before being carted off to the junkyard.

you mention that you took lots of pictures of rickshaws and vehicles in india and beijing. the vehicles you paint are these actual vehicles or are they ideas you have created on your own?for instance, the camperbike, is that an actual vehicle you have encountered?

the rickshaws are actual vehicles that i photographed in mumbai, india. the only changes i made were to add the american junk food logos. the camper bike does not exist in real life. the tricycle does, but adding the camper top is my creation. the tricycles in beijing carry so much stuff i figured why not a camper?

where did you grow up, and do you think that has an influence on your work?

i grew up in a small, industrial town called madawaska, maine. it’s one of the four corners of the U.S. right on the border of canada. when i grew up there, the majority of the town was employed by madawaska’s papermill, so it’s a pretty blue color town where very few people had fancy houses or cars. i grew up riding dirt bikes, playing in the woods with my friends and brothers. i wasn’t necessarily interested in cars, but there was definitely a modest, working-class quality to the town and people that has found it’s wayinto my work.

i love your chevy van sculpture...can you talk a little bit about that? did you build it completely? it looks amazing...how did you get it to look so real?

the van was partly inspired by those “art” toys. i bought a plastic model on ebay, built it, then based the paint job on a few chevy vans in brooklyn. it started out more as a prototype than a sculpture. my brother is a toy designer in hong kong, so i asked him to look intomaking a real prototype, but it’s too expensive.

what are your feelings on graffiti and street art? what do you think about how popular and mainstream graffiti has become? can you name some of your fav artists.

i've always been too chicken to be a graffiti artist, and i don’t have strong feelings about the purity of it. i like how a lot of artists have bridged the gap between the street scene and the more mainstream toy industry or gallery exhibitions—artists like kaws and neckface. i also really like the wheat pastings of the collective faile.

did you go to school for art?

i went to massachusetts college of art in boston for illustration andpainting.

you've done some work for some great firms and publications...what has been your favorite work so far?

i have done a couple of illustrations for readymade magazine. they were really easy to work with and i’ve always liked the magazine.

what are you listening to right now?

“this american life” on npr. i'm pretty lazy when it comes to music— either finding new music or changing a cd in my stereo. i usually end up turning on public radio and listening to it all day.

who are some of your favorite artists? who are you watching right now? any shout outs?

i like christian helmich who shows at lehmann maupin, jules de balincourt, anna conway, david hardy, who have all shown at P.S.1’s greater new york show. shout out to ain cocke who does great little paintings and drawings of WWII era soldiers, and also to all my chinese artist friends.

what has been your best experience as an artist so far?

i would say traveling to beijing and being part of a painting project. i have plans to do my own project there--hopefully soon.

what is your favorite piece of art (you can pick a few if narrowing it to one is too much)?

at the moment, it's a piece by david hardy. he built a mini recreational vehicle out of a wheel chair and wood grain contact paper. at first i didn’t like it, but mostly out of jealousy. i’ve had my own mobile home project in the works, but his piece is really good and really funny.

what was your favorite xmas or hanukkah present this yr? why?

an artforum subscription and a recycled bike part bottle opener. i've been using pliers to open beers in my studio.

any big plans for 2008? any collabs or projects you want to share w/us?

i plan to expand on my camper-bike project. when i was in beijing i bought a motorized tricycle and had it shipped here. this spring i'll buy a camper top, the kind that goes on a pickup and modify it to fit the tricycle. then i’ll develop a series of paintings around it.

you live in nyc now, how is that for you as an artist? is it exciting? inspiring? can you tell us some of your favorite galleries and places you like to go?

new york is great. there is always so much to see and do. i live and work in brooklyn, so i tend to hang out in and around my neighborhood a lot. most of my favorite galleries are in chelsea: david zwirner, lehmann maupin, zack feuer, leo koenig. they all show the work of alot of great artists. there are a lot of new galleries in the lower east side since the opening of the new museum, but i haven’t visited any of them yet. i’ve been busy working in my studio.

kevin's show, look both ways, opens on january 4th, this coming friday at PEP gallery and runs through the 9th of february. there will be a reception from 8-10p.m. you can check out kevin's website here.

yellow

It’s the color of the sweater I wore on our third anniversary date last week.It’s the color of the twelve roses he brought me.It’s the color of friendship.(I’m so glad he humored me and let me set an auto-timer to take our picture.)(I’m even more glad he’s my friend.)~~~~~~Part of You Capture hosted by the beautiful mama, Beth of Folding Laundry.

A question for you

Doubt it….

were laughing with, not at him

We’ve been practicing a new word around here in preparation for May, but every.single.time. I try to catch it on film OBaby plays dumb. This time I  got about half of the word at the beginning of recording, and then at one point a little later I’m pretty sure he said it while burying his head into the chair…But in the end, I captured something so incredibly typical of toddlerhood that I just had to share.You kind of had to giggle, right? I mean, not giggle at OBaby, because really he didn’t come up with the idea of throwing one’s self on the ground in despair, just giggle at toddlerhood and it’s idiosyncrasies in general. It is such a unique and crazy stage, and we are so up to our eyebrows in it around here. The banging, the boundary testing, the squealing with excitement. It’s loud these days.Plus, I’m still learning how to best help him through times like this one. If he’s not too disturbed I usually just try to distract or remind him of the right choice and help him make it (like I did here). Sometimes I have to walk out of the room because it is the only thing that will lessen the hysterics. Sometimes if his poor little heart has truly been broken, I console him and tell him that I know it’s hard when we can’t have XYZ.Really, I have no idea what I’m doing. I do know, though, that I’m enjoying the (loud, crazy) ride!

seven paintings of south vancouver erin mcsavaney..

erin mcsavaney's seven paintings of south vancouver, opens this friday at atelier gallery. his paintings give hidden narratives to buildings, loading docks, factories and back parking lots. often these structures go unnoticed in our everyday life, almost shadows in the background. seemingly abandoned, these sorts of buildings are prevalent in many cities, yet rarely is there focus on or talk of them. erin paints them w/ a beautiful, eerie light; giving these ghosts their very own spotlight.

i was really taken w/ erin's artist statement:

"based on rules and parameters, architecture is premised on the creation of boundaries. but time and usage have the ability to strip intent and function from a building, revealing its inhabitants' successes and failures. surfaces, stained and battered, become porous, transparent. evidence of beginnings, middles, and ends are clear. we are told "don't judge a book by its cover," but we cannot help but use our environment to make economic and social judgments every day."