One of my favorite things in coming across artists and designers is when I find one whose work inspires me, astounds me, what have you, and the artist in question is still in school. Do you even know what that means? It means that they’ve got the rest of their lives to get better. It also means that they generally haven’t been weighed down by the millions of conventions that plague the creative world. And on top of all that they probably haven’t been rejected enough to really give a shit what anyone else thinks yet. That last one is a pro and con. But such is the untainted, potential-filled, already wonderful work of Toronto’s Jan Avendano. Her patterns and doodly, scribbly illustrations make me all kinds of glad. I’m really into her complex pen work most of all. As someone with almost zero patience I am always amazed by anyone who can draw in so many lines and curves. I’m usually thinking about the next project before I’m halfway through the first. But this isn’t about me, it’s about Avendano, who’s work is great. Great, god dammit, and it’s only gonna get better.

Jan Avendano

Quiz question of the day: What do you get when you give a small, Japanese child a bunch of acid and some paints? Answer: Ginette Lapalme’s magical mystery works. She creates paintings and drawings that feel like if you knifed your dreams in the gut and tried to mop up all the blood with gumdrops. Yeah, that’s a pretty good description. Let’s go with that. I could see myself laying shirtless on a shag rug reading one of her zines and drinking Grape Drink from a goblet. Zappa will be covering Barry White on the Hi-Fi. And just like that I’ve got my weekend planned out.

Ginette Lapalme

Daniel Zeller’s abstract inkwork falls somewhere between close up shots of Nudibranches and aerial photos of the Nile, but more importantly it falls right into the radical section of my brain. It’s a big section, but it’s on the underside so it’s hard to get to. But anyone who has enough discipline to convey concepts through such rigorous detail gets a gold star in my book. I can’t even imagine the almost trance-like state he has to occupy while creating these modern mandalas. Along with the intricate drawings comes a color pallette that is both simple and perfectly suited to the task. The contrast between each color creates almost a vibration in the eye that gives the patterns depth and dimension. Capital job, sir. Capital.

Daniel Zeller

Nick Gazin makes these subtly twisted (sometimes not so subtle) little paintings that remind of why I laugh at dead baby jokes or fat people. His style is that rough paint over sketch thing that I liked so much in Mark Penxa’s work (mentioned here). Unlike Penxa’s baseball heroes, Gazin takes an acid trip down the wrong side of the American Dream, covering things in blood and day-glo disasters. I keep expecting Dennis Hopper to step into one of the paintings and flick a lit cigarette at my face right before kicking me in the knees. I like it. It’s like “If The Strip Club Floors Could Talk”. Someone will probably see that and turn it into a reality show.

Nick Gazin
He’s also got a sketch blog.

You would think that with my constantly looking for new prints that someone would’ve mentioned Dan McCarthy to me. You would be wrong. Maybe it’s my fault, maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. McCarthy has some killer line work and and plays with color and shadow like it was his own personal jungle gym. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the work of Jason Munn from Small Stakes. Maybe Jason Munn crossed with Chris Ware. But Ware is my reference for anything line related, so it’s probably a given that I would think of him. You don’t care, you just want to see pretty pictures. Ok. Give the people what they want.

Dan McCarthy

It’s the last day of a particularly grueling work week, and I’m so burnt from work I’m just gonna load you up with daily videos and send you on your way. I did want to mention this Flickr stream that I came across thanks to ffffound. The user, Kyu Hwang, has some nice little drawings to weirden up your day. I didn’t want to leave you with nothing. Your approval is all I’ve got going for me. That and a superior penis. If I lose those I’m nothing.

Kyu Hwang

I don’t need to say too much about the black and white drawings of Klas. They’re simple enough that they don’t need me gushing about them to make them any better. Look at them, love them, get some inspiration. It’s the great chain of whatever-it-is-I’m-doing-here.

Klas

I just recently bought a pack of Crayola markers (I kick it on the cheap side), and I’ve been looking for some inspiration for projects to use them on. Fate handed me an extra large helping of inspiration this morning with the work of artist Laure Nollet. Though there are paintings and sculptures etc. in Nollet’s work, it was the moleskine that caught my eye with some incredible marker pieces. There’s so much pointillism in each one my hand cramps just looking at them. Really amazing stuff. So I’ve got the inspiration, now I just need to put it to good use. A side note on my new markers: five of them are scented, and they smell exactly like the real thing they imitate. I almost ate the chocolate one. No, for real.

Laure Nollet

Nashville, Tennessee, which I’ve always enjoyed visiting, has just moved a little higher in my US cities standing thanks to it being the home of draftsman and photographer Chris Scarborough. He makes drawings like he’s an apocalypse survivor in Neo-Tokyo, even though he’s a dude from the American South. Mechanized clouds full of bombs, big eyed girls and boys, all feature in Scarborough’s work, which is something like the madness coming out of the Japanese Superflat movement. A key difference is that Scarborough’s drawings are black and white. I might also consider that a limitation though. His work is so damn interesting that I would punch a baby just to see what he would do with color. No joke, I’d punch your cute little tyke right in the ol’ milksucker.

Chris Scarborough

Britta Naslund is, according to the all-knowing MySpace, 19 years old. I was generally so stoned when I was 19 that I doubt I could’ve found a pencil and paper, let alone make delicate and beautiful illustrations like Naslund. Her linework is great, and the small symbolic elements she includes in most of her pieces are right on. I definitely got some good inspiration just clicking through her Flickr site. I’m especially into her light use of color; makes me think of the way Ahmad Jamal plays the piano. Welcome to my brain, Britta, watch your step.

Britta Naslund

She also has an Etsy shop.