My Studio

One wall in my studio.
In addition to my own stuff I display work by Miroslav Sasek, Martin Haake, Margaret Kilgallen and Jeff Jackson who are all very inspirational to me.

Eames chair tees

I really like these Eames Chair tees by Peter Rogers.
Peter runs Creative Leap design studio in Toronto and writes a very entertaining blog which he describes as "Absurdly quotidian".

Brothers Dressler: Wasting material is taboo!

Brothers Dressler: Jason and Lars

Their slab cube shelf made from salvaged materials. Wonderful.

"Let's Dance": Table made from reclaimed wood and found shoe lasts. (!!)

Janet's desk made from reclaimed wood from a bowling alley.

Janet's shelf.

I was introduced to the work of the Brothers Dressler last December when my friend Janet showed me the fabulous desk they had built for her out of a former bowling lane! I now wonder what took me so long to discover them - as their work seems to be popping up everywhere these days.
The twin brothers believe passionately that wasting material is taboo (yay!) and have created a thriving business out of repurposing and upcycling salvaged material into useful + beautiful objects. Last week they were featured in an article in Now magazine in which Andrew Sardone referred to them as the reluctant poster boys for the sustainable design movement. Not a bad moniker to be given!

Images from Last week

Carol at Quaff (a new cafe on Queen West)
*Check out the groovy felt ball necklace that she made!


Quaff exterior

A visit to comrags is always inspirational.

Love this dress - especially with the socks.

Sign in my hood.

Visit to neighbours: Artist Scott Griffin + Rita Koos. Scott's welded pieces on metal are wonderful.

Fomato cards: Smart+ Sweet

Discovered this smart + sweet greeting card company from California called fomato. Lots of the cards contain social media jokes and I find the sweet creatures sitting behind their computer screens kinda heartbreaking.

New Book Sample

Working on some new samples.
Influenced by Ben Shahn who often layered black line drawings over torn paper.

Two Inspiring Talks: Ji Lee and Matt Mullenweg

Recently watched these two online lectures:

1. Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress interviewed by Liz Danzico at The School of Visual Arts in New York.
Watch here for his insights on design, entrepreneurship, and open source.



2. Ji Lee, Creative Director of Google Creative Lab: speaking on the Transformative Power of Personal Projects.

In both cases these entrepreners emphasized the fact that the more they gave away the more they got back.
Highly recommended.

via swiss miss (again!)

In a librarian state of mind

The English teacher Ms. Stubbs from An Education

gorgeous.

I went to see An Education this week. My favorite character was the English teacher Ms. Stubbs who lived in a groovy little apt filled with dog eared penguin paperbacks, and other soulful tchochkes- not unlike the gorgeous interior above (well...minus the Philippe Starck ghost chair and Mac computer!) Speaking of nerdy women... above is my silk screen print called Franny goes to school. I created it to celebrate woman like Ms. Stubbs who read alot and wear sensible shoes.
ps. Excellent nerdy Podcast: In Our Time on BBC Radio 4
You can learn about the history of the Frankfurt school or The library of Alexandria while folding your laundry!

Press: Gestalten Publishing

Me screening the first orange pass of the print.

The original book published by Pelican

A great read

Two of my penguin book prints will be featured in an book entitled "Printmaking Rediscovered" published by German publisher Gestalten. The titles chosen are A Room of One's Own and The Intelligent Woman's Guide... by George Bernard Shaw.

Several people have asked me recently if this was an actual title so I am including a photo of the original book published in 1937 for their perusal. As you can see it was actually published by Pelican Books - but I took the liberty of switching out the name and bird as I knew that penguins were a much more aesthetically pleasing creature then big gawky pelicans!

FYI For an excellent history of penguin books I suggest Penguin By Design by Phil Baines. Is fantastic.

Print available: N is for Novel

This is my N is for Novel silk screen print.
It's part of my alphabet series which I began in 2007.
To see more prints please visit the silk screen section of my website.

Grant Heap's Stag Tapestry

Tapestry in full (note the tiny heads below)

Close up

Ultra Close up

Grant stitching at The Workroom

A great reason to go for dinner at the Gladstone Hotel this winter is to check out my friend Grant's amazing Stag tapestry. The tapestry measures 10' by 15' (!!) and is made up of 20,049 fabric scraps stitched together! The result is fantastic and somehow very cozy. (ie. While dining it's very nice to be surrounded by a gigantic stag in the middle of a cold Ontario winter!) The piece also fits in perfectly with the Gladstone's "Retro Canadiana /Cabin in the woods" vibe. Methinks they should purchase it permanently.

Press: Canadian House and Home

The current issue of Canadian House of Home features the home of HGTV producer Tanya Linton. Tanya owns my Reading for Profit print as well as my scissors and Japanese tea pot prints. Above is the photo of her very colourful office/livingroom with my print on display in the background.
The Japanese teapot print was cut off in the spread so am including here in full.

ps. The magazine is moving in a much more colourful + electic direction since Suzanne Dimma took over the reigns as editor last year.
yay.

A t shirt created for knitters

This is the screen used to print.
This a tshirt I created for knitting fans. The ball of wool is screened on an American Apparel tee and comes in sizes S to XL.
This design is currently sold out but I will be doing another run. Please send me an email with requested sizes if you're interested.

New Work: Poster for Nabs

This is a Pro Bono piece I created with Art director Denver Eastman at draft fcb.
It is in support of Nabs: The National Advertising Benevolent Society
which is a charitable organization that provides assistance to folks in the communications industry, who need help due to illness, injury, unemployment or financial difficulties.
I created the scritchy background by scanning in one of my silk screen prints. I then drew the boat, water and lettering by hand and then layered them in using photoshop.
I LOVE how Denver included his type in a torn piece of paper. It adds texture and a nice spontaneous feel to the poster. It also reminds me of Paul Rand's collage work - which is always a good thing.
Below are 2 other ideas I submitted during the sketch process.

I like the mix of Victorian advertising cuts (the boat) and crayon.

This was influenced by the film titles of Saul Bass.
I like the use of a very high horizon line.

But she kept to herself...

A Smile in the Mind

Yay My book arrived today.
Highly recommended by book designer David Drummond.

Karyn's 365 Project + my Dress judy silkscreen print

Karyn Valino of the Workroom has a neat project beginning on her makesomething blog. She has joined the 365 project on Flickr and consequently must post one photo a day for a year. A neat way to document time methinks. On day 3 she included this photo of her dresser which includes my dress judy print + a really cute benjamin bunny.

Book Designer David Drummond

The stolen l = brilliant.


Here's the entire series.
Love the level used to signify wellbeing. So clever.


The process of creating this cover is documented on his blog.

David Drummond is top notch book designer known for creating very clever covers with an economical style. He limits himself to four fonts: New Baskerville, Helvetica, Trade Gothic and Futura. His blog is full of interesting details from his design process + great pictures of his office in rural Quebec.
In an interview with Chris Tobias, Drummond attributes the intelligent and subtle humour he brings to his work to the reading of the book A smile in the Mind by Beryl McAlhone and David Stuart.
(I am keen to learn what secrets lurk inside these pages - the book is on it's way from Amazon!)

Inspiration: 1930s + Retro Canadiana

With the cold nights upon us I'm in a retro Canadiana mood these days.
Love this photo from 1937 of Miss Toronto (Billie Hassam). Such a great hairstyle and
sweater - which was part of the former Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club uniform.