City reflections

Kal Gajoum was 10 when he entered his first art contest. A family friend, who attended the Leonardo Da Vinci School of Art in Rome, later introduced him to oil painting with palette knives.

I once used a palette knife to paint a horse and Native American relaxing by a river. If you caught me anytime in the middle of the process you would have thought I was smearing globs of paint to depict zombie brains or something. But I still love the finished product.

Below are a few of the mesmerizing cityscapes Gajoum paints using this technique. Aren’t they dreamy? He paints anything from the iconic European landmarks of Paris and London to New York. Using oil painting techniques and watercolor, Gajoum creates subjects vivid in color and hypnotizing in depth. They almost remind me of scenes out of Inception.

Check out more of Gajoum’s cityscapes.

Spaces for head cases

Over this morning’s cup of Joe, I found this insane little room:

Is it a bedroom? Is it a study area? A nap spot? An office?

Whatever it is, I kind of adore it. The book space! That art! The vintage decor! I bet somebody holes themselves away here and produces their most brilliant work. The only flaw: it’s very possible that Howard Hughes lived here at some point. (Also, is that a stuffed cat?)

Photo via Tumblr, found on Craft Idea Every Day.

Special lens

I came across some prints this morning that stopped me short. Lawrence Yang, a San Francisco local, updates a blog with his stunning artwork, which he describes as a mix of graffiti art and traditional Chinese painting. Using ink, marker and watercolor, he creates paintings that are a bit surreal — combining atmosphere and emotion. “They are concerned primarily with creating order out of chaos, and vice versa,” he writes.

Bloom by Lawrence Yang

I used to draw and paint in high school. I got out of the habit once I started college, but I remember the catharsis of painting. And I will always appreciate artists because they take things we all observe, much like photographers do, and interpret them in ways we didn’t think were possible. There is something special about the raw end product — a tangible piece borne of a person’s unique creative lens. Beautiful.

Restore by Lawrence Yang

To view more of Yang’s work, check out his website.

Arctic wonderland

During my study break, I stumbled on beautiful photo-painting-design work in The New Yorker by Sarah Anne Johnson. During an artist residency, she sailed on board a double-masted schooner in the Norwegian territory of the Arctic Circle. After the trip, she created “Arctic Wonderland“, a photo gallery that uses paint, Photoshop and embossing on the photographs she took.

Fireworks, 2010

“I do this to create a more honest image, to show not just what I saw, but how I feel about what I saw.”

Bubble, 2011

“It seemed so pristine and perfect, vast and strong, but also somehow delicate and fleeting.”

Party Boat, 2011

It’s definitely a different take, to document nature while conveying feelings. Creative and lovely.

Abandoned

 

I like to think of this abandoned room as the home of some unrecognized genius out in the world. Someone who composed haunting melodies, or holed him (or her) self away to write the next Lolita. Or perhaps, this is the future home of an unemployed college graduate.

It remains to be seen. Pretty though.

Via Design Is Mine.

The most intimate portrait

Jane Mount paints people’s ideal bookshelves: your favorite books, books that changed your life, books that made you who you are.

Here’s what she has to say about the project: “Picking your ideal books is not an easy task (try it!), and the results are always enlightening. I think of this project as an intimate form of portraiture; a way to illustrate who the subject is on the inside instead of out. I love that a book is something created very personally and then mass-produced in order to affect many other people very personally. I paint them to turn them back into something very personal and intimate. In the age of the Kindle, it’s very satisfying.”

I adore this concept. What would your ideal bookshelf look like?

I think I would include books from every year of my life that changed my world. A Wrinkle in Time, Where the Red Fern Grows (to this day, I’ve re-read this book the most), The Fountainhead, An Invisible Sign of My Own, Harry Potter (of course!), A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Great Expectations, Mrs. Dalloway….. ahhh, OK, there’s so many more I can’t even think of.

I remember reading The Hobbit in sixth grade and being absolutely convinced that a world like that existed. I remember reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and feeling as though I had dreamt that story already. I remember reading The Fountainhead in middle school and weeping afterward and having no idea why.

The ideal bookshelf is personal. I would love to request my own painting.

School House Road

The Faceted Couroucou by Carrie Marill

I remember the creeks, body surfing, crawfishing, our own private island, my rock collection, the smell of the woods and the slippery moss on the rocks.

This artwork by Carrie Marill is so quirky and fun. It reminds me of our old house in the woods, the dirt road and days spent with my sister and brother out by the creek — our own personal playground.

Marill gives a quick little bio about her work: “I am a full time visual artist who has a keen interest in the natural world. With my gouache on paper paintings, I navigate the rich history of nature illustration and combine it with a contemporary pop aesthetic.”

Interesting! OK, now I’m missing grade school art classes.

See more artwork by Marill. I especially love this one and this one. (The last one reminds me of puzzles I used to put together in my loft when I was recuperating from a fifth grade bike accident and thought I was near death. I wasn’t.)