mother of pearl aw12

The blending of art & fashion will always make me smile, so when I read about Mother of Pearl’s autumn/winter 2012 collection over on Trendland, I was excited. The mix of print & pattern, colour & texture is creative and I must say that I love the vibrant palette of royal blue/burnt orange/plum/blush.

For this collection, Mother of Pearl has collaborated with New York-based artist Fred Tomaselli to produce a series of prints with mixed visual references. The real, the photographic & the painterly are all combined to create a collection rich in hyperdelic imagery.

click over to Mother of Pearl to see more from this unique collection.

iconic prints

I’m such a sucker for a good print and always love the ones they’ve got over at the Print Shop. This monochromatically iconic trio caught my eye today…

cassette, bicycle & camera print at only $15 each.

Snap! #13

hello everyone. Those delicious plum shades from yesterday’s guest post seem to be creeping into this Snap! today. It’s raining cats & dogs in Cape Town today and this painting reminds me of a misty morning along a river. A neat row of gorgeous shiny Volkswagen Beetles is the perfect colour match in a retro palette.

Have a look at the rest of my Snap! series here.

going dotty

My guest post for Freeworld Design Centre last week was avant-garde with a serious case of the measles…

Louis Vuitton, the powerhouse brand under the helm of Marc Jacobs, continues their collaborations with major artists. This time the creative partnership is with Yayoi Kusama, the 82-year old Japanese artist who’s known for putting brightly coloured dots on everything. The collection will be revealed on July 10 and is set to include silk pyjamas, dresses, trench coats, bags and shoes in an array of bright primary colours. This coincides with Kusama’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum in New York, a second exhibition following the retrospective of her work at London’s Tate Modern museum earlier this year funded by Louis Vuitton.

“Her energy is just endless,” Jacobs said. “For many people who don’t look at art or go to galleries, or maybe they’re not aware of Kusama’s work, there will be a new venue, a new place to see this work and to come to appreciate it through the eyes of Louis Vuitton.”

Kasama became famous for her dotty decoration during the pop art movement in the 1960’s with her colourful polka dotted nudes. Through her avant-garde sculptures, paintings and performance art, Kusama is now acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan. This eccentric visual artist is truly living the dotty life, given that from 1977 she has voluntarily stayed in a mental hospital in Japan where she has continued to make art in her nearby studio, as well as publish several novels, a poetry collection, and an autobiography.

images from NY magazine & fashionologie

going dotty

Enter the world of Yayoi Kusama, the famous Japanese octogenarian who is the latest artist to collaborate with Louis Vuitton on their new collection… catch my guest post over at Freeworld Design Centre to spot this artist’s eccentrically dotty avant-garde style.

showcase: Liam Brazier

The work of illustrator and animator Liam Brazier was featured in the December issue of Design Times and grabbed my attention immediately. I find it inconceivable to click past a graphic & geometrically inclined artwork, so it’s a no brainer that these distinctively angular illustrations by this London-based artist were right up my street.

 

Having created illustration and animation work for the likes of Apple, Samsung, Dazed & Confused, Design Week, the Museum of London, London tube platforms, international film festivals, Virgin TV, and nationwide cinemas, Liam’s idiosyncratic style has deservedly captured the attention of many others.

Alluding to many a pop culture villain & hero, Liam’s work is original in the manner in which he creates it. Starting with a composition in mind, Liam used to meticulously cut the angled shapes from paper (painful and laborious, by the sounds of it) but now builds the collage up in Photoshop… a far safer method with less finger injuries, one would hope.

These sketch-like illustrations showcase Liam’s artistic talent and intuitive use of colour:

With a wry sense of humour and a simple concept, these black & white illustrations were among my favourites:

Watch this video for one of Liam’s clever yet uncomplicated animations:

yeah, you can be my muse

Find more of Liam Brazier’s work here and follow his blog here.

osmosis

This series of paintings/photographs from artist Charlotte Caron stood out from the crowd for me. Part human, part animal, the paintings are Charlotte’s response to a form of duality. In one sense, the medium of painting and the art of photography have merged, but are still clearly separate in their styles. The photographic human portraits have been over-painted with acrylic animal heads to ultimately create an osmosis between paint and photograph, between the animal and the portrait. I find them fascinating in a slightly odd way. What do you think?

images from Charlotte Caron, seen via trendland

showcase: William Miller’s serendipity

after buying a Polaroid camera at a yard sale for $20, which subsequently turned out to be broken, William Miller began making abstract works of art with the faulty camera.

“It sometimes spills out two pictures at a time and the film often gets stuck in the gears, exposing and mangling them in unpredictable ways,” says William.

In his series Ruined Polaroids, William showcases the photographs resulting from the internal manipulations within the camera which he’s learnt to control with great success.

“I’ve figured out how to control and accentuate aspects of the camera’s flaws, but the images themselves are always a surprise. Each one is determined by the idiosyncrasies of the film and the camera.”

These beautiful images are both photography and art, a collaboration between the abstract and the serendipitous mechanical nature of camera. Some of the photographs remind me of the cross-section from a gemstone or a piece of fossilised rock. A inspiring series which keeps the viewer captivated and searching for more behind the layers of colours and shapes.

[all images from William Miller Photography & quotes from Trendland]