Secret Still

I know that some of you out there enjoy found photos. Some of you out there enjoy being peed on, probably, but I think that more of you enjoy found photos. You never can fully realize your target audience on the internet though. Sorry to all of you urolagniacs out there.

The appeal of found photos is twofold:

1) It’s a good photo (most of the time)
2) The complete dissociation from the subject of the photo leaves you wide open to imagine any kind of backstory you want.

And that’s the best part in my opinion. You have this photo that you know nothing about except what you can directly see from its contents. Everything else about the picture is all assumption. I love anything where a greater percentage of it’s existence is completely imaginary (cartoons, religion, sex etc.).

I have a photo of a young black girl in a band uniform framed on my door. Why? Because I like the picture, but also because she could be anyone. I could walk past her on the street and not recognize her because of the time between the photo and the present day. She could be dead. She could be completely happy. She could be both. There’s no limit to the possibilities. A picture is worth 1000 words, but imagination is infinite.

The Modern Association understands all of this and has created a site dedicated to a collection of found photos called Look At Me that is constantly expanding. Anyone can volunteer a found photo for their collection. Of course they aren’t the only ones who have joined the found photo bandwagon. Here are some worthwhile links for you to scope on the found photo tip:

Look At Me
10eastern
And of course the progenitor of them all Found magazine which encompasses photos, letters, notes, and anything else that people have put their stamp on and then promptly lost.

William Joseph Dunn is by trade an animator, or rather a background painter for animations, but his personal works are definitely meant to shine in the foreground. Equal parts painting and found objects, Dunn’s work combines objects he considers of social import with the symbols that he feels accentuate the message of the object. He paints his subjects in a worn fashion so they don’t drown out the previous life of the objects being painted on, letting the personality of the object have a voice in the composition rather than just act as a base for the medium. If all that fails to impress you then just have a peek at the work for yourself and tell me you don’t like it. You like it. You know you do.

In 2003 Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung decided that they wanted to create some original promo pieces for an art show they were producing. The small handful of artists involved designed wallets and each contained an info sheet about the artist. The demand that this limited run produced was enormous. And thus was Poketo born. In the present day there are now 70 artists from all over the world involved in designing a broad array of fashion and accesories for Poketo.

Of course I can’t describe their style with such a diverse list of artists, but I can tell you that hip aint hip without this shit, and everybody wants to be hip these days. Put your hotpants on over your american apparel leggings and then stick a poketo wallet in that tight spandex back pocket.

Their site
Their blog
Their Flickr

Gallery 1988 always manages to throw together the best theme shows in the country. That’s not hyperbole. Their 8-bit shows have garnered renown all over the world, and there’s even a book about them. So it’s no surprise that their newest theme show, Plush Week 2 is chock full of kickassity. I, for one, am going to buy felt as soon as I have enough money, and I’ll try not to feel embarassed when visitors see how many plush monsters I have on my bed. I think I could have a future in plush.

My dreams aside, you should definitely scope the variety of talent an inspiration on display at the show’s website.

Which is located here

The ever incredible Jonathan Levine Gallery has gotten together with Brazil Foundation to bring the work of 30 artists to auction all for Brazil. The auction is called Ruas De Sao Paulo. All of the artwork is up today, and I’m pretty sure that you can bid, but the auction is listed as starting tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that most of you can’t even afford the opening bid on most of these pieces. I sure as hell can’t. But you can at least look at what the upper crust does with your rent money. The list of artists is truly incredible:

Gary Baseman
Tim Biskup
Andrew Brandou
Ray Caesar
David Choe
Dave Cooper
Dalek
Ron English
Shepard Fairey
AJ Fosik
Camille Rose Garcia
Doze Green
Alex Gross
Matt Haber
Jim Houser
Andy Kehoe
Chris Mars
Liz McGrath
Tara McPherson
Nouar
Daniel Peacock
Plankton
Mark Ryden
Isabel Samaras
Todd Schorr
Shag
Jeff Soto
Mark Dean Veca
Adam Wallacavage
Jonathan Weiner

I mean, damn.

As chance would have it, just as The Little Friends of Printmaking come to the top of my site review list, The Little Chimp Society did an interview with them. LCS interviews LFP. Having fun yet?

I was going to define them with all kinds of personal opinion and whatnot, but LCS did the job for me. Hooray.

The Little Friends’ site
The LCS interview

Just a post to draw your attention to a few of the new guys hanging out to your left there.

Recently added:
VVORK
Kanardo
Beautiful Decay
Drawn!
Wooster Collective

They merit some credit for being badasses.

Maybe some of you out there in all those tubes can answer this question: Is Anticon associated with Anticon. I personally don’t think they are. I do however love their hooded sweatshirts. Rad idea. Get a new name that doesn’t rip off someone else. Maybe something like “Outkast.” Just a suggestion.

Get the sweatshirts here for 85 euros. I don’t know what that is in real money. Maybe you can find a fairie or some orcs to give you the currency exchange.

Most of the art that I find appealing is what is classified as low-brow art. That doesn’t imply that I’m a moron (although I’m sure the name was created to make most people feel that way), but rather that I don’t often get excited about art that requires more interpretation than is possible without a Ph.D. or art that could only be at home in a museum. There’s a reason for this: I don’t go to museums. I mean, I’ve been to them and I love them, but I don’t live close enough to any major museums to go often. What I do see often is my house. I see it every day. And most of my seeing it, the parts not concerned with TV, sex, food, or disgust with the state of it, is thinking about what I could do to make it look better. I’ve given up on my current house but I’ve been decorating my next one in my head, and so far it’s a nice place to live.

That’s why my taste in art is what it is. I like art that I can put in my house (the imaginary one). I like art that can live with me and vice versa. Welcome to low-brow though I hate using that term. The artwork of Lisa Congdon is wonderful, but it doesn’t ever need to be in The Louvre. It needs to be in my house. It skirts that gentle line between art and craft, between folk and garage. It makes me smile and feel warm and want to be wrapped in a blanket with only my head sticking out. I fucking love that. There’s dimension and well thought out color, as well as innocence and joy. There’s just no way to go wrong with that combination.

Peep her portfolio

If you’ve ever looked at Doze Green’s work, and I’m sure you have since I’ve mentioned him before, then you will be able to see a similarity between his work and the work of Julie West. She has a much more feminine style, softer and cooler, but with the same concentration on figures. Yin to his yang maybe.

But with her casual illustrative touches and almost painfully hip style, Julie West’s work is more accessible and more friendly than Doze’s often mystical and sex-centric work. I love them both but for different reasons and with different feelings. Plus you can get Julie’s work for less than the cost of medical bills from a major car accident. Always nice.

Her work
Her shop