Secret Still

I’m pretty picky about what I add to the blogroll over there to the left. Really the list is for me, because I hate RSS feeds, so that I can check all of those sites listed everyday. Yes, everyday. So it takes a lot for me to add a site. I have to decide that, “yeah, I could read that everyday.” Today sees a new addition to the list in the name of Leslie Miles. Is Leslie Miles a person? I don’t know. The only thing I know about Leslie Miles is that it’s the name of a blog that features a series of beautiful images based on a single theme for each post. It’s simple, elegant, visually interesting, and inspiring. I can’t ask for more than that from any website. Welcome to the family, Leslie Miles; expect at least one hit a day from over this way.

Leslie Miles

With my general obsession over the linework of Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes, it’s odd that I’ve never mentioned Adrian Tomine here before. He can easily be placed alongside those two giants in the halls of crisp, clean, and amazing lines. His style is a little more like Clowes, in that it tends to be more realistic, but Tomine’s compositions are usually more complicated, like Ware’s, and makes my eyes bug out till they water. If you’ve read the New Yorker, chances are good that you’ve seen his work at least once, because he’s been their cover artist more times than I’ve passed out drunk on the floor. Trust me, it’s a lot. But familiar or not, there’s no doubt that you’ll respect and idolize his talent. You know you want to respect and idolize it. Give in to those desires.

Adrian Tomine

19 year-old Brixton banger T.S. Abe has pencil skills the likes of which I have never seen. She takes draftswomanship to that Shao Lin level, possessing the graphite equivalent of levitation and the “death touch”. Her work is probably silently falling from the sky right now preparing to break your neck with its mind. But not only are her abilities top notch, her compositions also show a level of introspection and understanding not generally attributed to someone so young.  If I believed in any of that “old soul” bullshit I would probably apply it here, but I think she’s just talented and smart. Oh, and destined for greatness, let’s not forget that.

T.S. Abe

Because it’s just what Fridays are for.

Mars-1

Greg Laswell - How the Day Sounds

The Tale of How

Sweet Dreams

It’s a cold, wet Thursday in the Bay Area, and there’s no hot chocolate in my hand. That usually makes for a lousy day all around. Fortunately the duo at Deep Slumber Lake have given me a direct conduit into the awesome power of the Norse metal gods with their righteous artworks. Now I can steel myself against the cold rain by utilizing the even colder strength of death in the great, white northlands. And even though these two have branched out into the apparel world well, I think they’re missing out on their true opportunities in the realm of totally badass tattoos. I’m considering getting the above image inked onto my spleen. A heavy nod to Secret Still BFF Sasha Lee over at B/D who has a killer interview with the dudes.

Deep Slumber Lake

Some of the most amazing semi-anatomical paintings from Italian painter Valerio Carrubba. If real surgery were this beautiful I probably would’ve gone to medical school. Or taken up serial killing. It’s hard to know.

Valerio Carrubba

Some weird, wild stuff from Kenneth Lavallee. And a lot of double letters in his name. I’m sure that’s a portent of something.

Kenneth Lavallee

Lenny Bruce, late in his career, was known for yelling out “We’re all gonna die!” Photographer Simon Hoegsberg seems to be continuing Bruce’s commentary on the one absolutely certain aspect of the human condition. He shot 178 people in Berlin over the course of 20 days, and 17 months later he emerged with a 100 meter photo that displays the banal rollercoaster that is the daily life of human beings. The photo, titled “We’re All Gonna Die - 100 meters of existence,” contains all the characteristics of any person’s life somewhere within its bounds — joy, sadness and everything in between. I like that it reminds me that there is no gap to bridge between myself and any of the 178 people in the photograph, except maybe our respective distances from each other in the world. Each of them will feel and do the things that I’ve done in my life at some point or another, that’s why it’s the human condition. So yes, with a certainty, we are all gonna die, but we’re all living, too, because you can’t have one without the other.

We’re All Gonna Die

Have you ever wanted to plunge your hands into the red, beating heart of modern European illustration? Then put on your gloves and try not to hurl, because you’re about to get your chance. Working together in a unity not seen since the time my dog and cat actually sniffed each other without freaking out, some of Europe’s best young artistic minds have gotten together to form the agency/collective Toy. You’ve seen it before, they team up because there’s power in numbers, and everyone benefits. The rarity is the overwhelming wash of talent in the ranks of Toy. If there was the design equivalent of a Tug O’ War, and they were your opponents, you would be staring at a veritable immovable object of skills. Don’t ask me to take this analogy any further, because I could never decide who would be their anchor etc. You can’t pick the strongest brick in the Great Wall of China.

Toy

A lackluster preparation for tomorrow’s main event.

Star Wars (retold by someone who hasn’t seen it)

The Animal Odd Couple

Audi Q5

Breakin’ and Poppin’ (Thanks, Matt)

Martin Luther King: I have a dream