Paula Grief ceramics

The current thing most inspiring to me is Paula Grief Ceramics. Absolutely love the thick stripey line and relaxed vibe. Inspired me to do a sketch.

New Illustration: Modern Office

Interiors are my favourite thing to illustrate.

Am very happy with this new piece. 

Experimented with torn paper and watercolour and not colouring in the entire illo. 

Partially inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans

 and the drawing from the old Clue game.

My Head is full of Wallpaper

My livingroom yesterday.

Yesterday I began sketches on the wall mural I'm working on. In the research stage I hit my usual textile/pattern suspects: Lucienne Day, Josef Frank, Alexander Girard, + Piero Fornasetti* All amazing.
There are also so many new wallpaper designers cropping up. Lots of inspiration.

Here are a few images.

Raoul Dufy for Bianchini-Ferier
Did you know he did a lots of textile design in addition to painting?


Piero Fornasetti's Mediterranea for Cole & Son. So dense. Fantastic.
Would look wild in a bathroom!


Harlequin Boutique UK. Whimsical


Small whales by Geoff McFetridge - So fun + graphic!

I saved my images to my pattern + wallpaper boards on Pinterest so if you wanna see all of my faves just go there. I am finding Pinterest to be a very QUICK way to do research + store reference images. Am grateful to my lovely neighbour Valerie for introducing me to it.

ps. Read this book on Fornasetti last month - but too busy to write about it.
He definitely deserves his own post! Such an interesting character.

Score! Vintage book with Ben Shahn cover

At Balfour Books today was thrilled to find an old copy of S.J. Perlman's The Rising Gorge with Ben Shahn's gorgeous cover. I love Shahn's very expressive + blobby line, off register colour and wonderful unique type. He has been a big influence on my work.
ps. Balfour Books is moving In September so all books are 1/2 price!

Women who Paint on Walls: Hazel Meyer and Margaret Kilgallen

Hazel Meyer

One wall of the installation

Another wall!

A deconstruction of the tshirt

Pleased to see a quote from Michel de Certeau included! (one of my favorite Situationist thinkers)

Part of Margaret Kilgallen's Installation from 2000 UCLA Museum, Los Angeles

Margaret working. Love this picture

Love this one too.

Margaret working
She never did projections - She painted directly on the wall based on a sketches. Brave.

Two Saturdays ago I went to see "Hyper Hyper": an installation by my friend Hazel Meyer at The OCAD Graduate Gallery. The installation was Hazel's MFA Graduate thesis event. As explained in her invitation Hyper-Hyper was an installation of doodles, sketches, marks + text that weaved together the physiology of muscle building through resistance training with art methodology. It consumed the walls + floor of the gallery and was an explosive visualization of a discursive thought process!

Hazel's courageous doodles + text dancing on a large scale immediately reminded me of one of my favourite artists and mentors Margaret Killgallen -- so thought it was high time I included some pictures of her work on my blog. She is endlessly inspirational to me.

I Heart Andy

Watched this great PBS documentary on Andy Warhol again this week. You can watch it for free on line on YouTube. It's part of the American Masters series.

Shooting my apt + Katy Dockrill

David Cooper of the Toronto Star

Katy's paintings

David Cooper of the Toronto Star came by today to shoot my apt ... and I decided to shoot him!
(The article will appear Sat June 5th)
Those bright pink paintings beside David are by Toronto illustrator + artist Katy Dockrill. They hadn't made it into my apt photos yet so wanted to highlight them today.
I love their colour, composition and sense of whimsy.

New Book Sample

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

Creativity according to Andy Spade

This is a quote from an interview between Andy Spade and Glenn O'Brien from Interview magazine.
Je comprend.

Inspired by Rand + Haake: Crayon boat

Inspired by the collages of Paul Rand and Martin Haake I'm experimenting with combining different media in my drawings. I like the mix of the scrawley crayon with the line drawing.

Inspiration: Old envelopes

Envelopes are endlessly inspiring with their layers and patina. I love the yellowed paper, overlapping lettering and elaborate stamp on this one.

Influences: Wallpaper Designer Tracy Kendall

Last night attended an evening with UK wallpaper designer Tracy Kendall. I've admired her work for several years - especially her fantastic cutlery series. Her enormous knife fork and spoons are so bold + beautiful and were a definite influence on me when I created my oversized book covers and scissors. They definitely fall under the category "Wish I thought of that first!

She is now moving into wall coverings with 3 dimensions. On display were several of her new designs including wonderful papers made of buttons and puzzle pieces. Must also be mentioned Tracy wore great argyle leggings and red shoes. Very 'quirky British'.

Lessons from Paul Rand: Cutting paper is fun

My immersion in all things Paul Rand continues.
I am too rushed today to summarize all the work + theories that I find inspiring (Plus I am starting to think that most people don't read illustrator blogs anyway- they just look at the pictures!) so for now will just focus on one of his strengths: Collage.
Rand loved the spontaneity of collage and used it through his career.
I've been looking for ways to move my style forward in a more immediate and minimal direction and I believe collage is the ticket.
Looking for a starting off point I decided to create a little 'homage collage'.
I began by colouring paper with pastels in quick strokes. I then cut out pieces quickly and glued onto a piece of cardboard.
*Note: The shape + colour of the flowers are taken directly from Rand's children's book titled I know alot of things.
This IS an homage. Ahem.
It was very refreshing to cut the letters out rather than draw them.
The technique ensures the piece has a fresh look that is not overworked.
This is definitely the direction I'd like to take with my illustration.
Studying Paul Rand's oeuvre and reading about his theories is like finding the brilliant, curmudgeonly design teacher I never had.

Textiles: Lucinenne Day

Calyx


Dandelion Clock

Am reading Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneer's of Modern Design
Very inspired by Lucinenne's textiles from the 1950s which were groundbreaking at the time.
They are sophisticated with a wonderful spontaneity about them.
Shown above are Calyx and Dandelion clock.

Books: Paul Rand by Steven Heller

So my latest obsession is Paul Rand. After seeing so much of his great design in New York I'm determined to know everything about him. Am starting with Steven Heller's big survey book. So far am very impressed with the disciplined self education he carried out in his early years.
I love the image of him coming in from Brooklyn and "consoling himself behind the large doors of Room 313 at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue." :-)
Also loved the quote "When I was doing the covers for Direction I was trying to compete with the Bauhaus, not Norman Rockwell". Love it. Also didn't know his real name was Peretz Rosenbaum.