Secret Still

Given a choice between tranquility and chaos, I’d have to say I prefer chaos. Looking out over a perfectly calm, glass-like lake in the still of the dawn, I am just as captivated as most people, but after about 30 minutes of quiet reflection I want to cannonball into that lake and shout my head off in guttural animal cries. Tranquility has no where to go; it’s already achieved the ground state. And what’s interesting about that? I even find myself arguing in favor of things I don’t support or have no opinion on as an exercise in chaos. The storm of ideas and tricky thought it conjures in my brain, and the loud, passionate discussions it causes in my conversational partners are my rewards. Artist Anton Vill embraces that same noise, fighting the calm, white blankness of paper with as much visual information as possible. His work is the ripples spreading away from our bodies as they disappear into the lake, and the howls that shake the sky to let the world know that we’re alive somewhere. Each drawing beautifully encapsulates the organized chaos that comes with being a living, breathing, animal — all the fear and desire tearing us apart little by little. Entropy claims first our bodies, and then our spirits.

Anton Vill

Some days I don’t have much to say, which is fine, because my words are usually pretty superfluous compared to the visual talent of the artists I post. Such is the case with New Zealand illustrator Andrew Archer, who’s analog/digital work is definitely better than my babble.

Andrew Archer

If you’re looking for a way to kill the last few hours of the work day, or the first few hours of the non-work day (for those of you not in PST), then consider them dead and gone because Narwhal Projects has a giant preview of Gary Taxali’s new show, “The Taxali 300,” available for your viewing pleasure. That’s right, 300 paintings/drawings from the prolific and amazing Gary Taxali, the Canadian wonder. You can also buy them, but I don’t want to pressure you into something like that. You haven’t even had dinner yet. Get comfortable, relax, get out of those work clothes, and then maybe we’ll talk about buying some art.

Gary Taxali: The Taxali 300

I think most of us, at one time or another, have thought we were better suited for a bygone era. I am pretty certain that I would’ve done a lot better in the 1940’s. Even without the internet. So happening across Belgian/German illustrator Pieter Van Eenoge’s work this morning, I was smitten pretty readily. His work has that beautiful quality of ads from the period between Deco/Nouveau and WWII. New Deal-era? Names aside, Van Eenoge’s work is beautifully done in a style that just never seems to get old to me. I should’ve been born into fedoras and ties.

Pieter Van Eenoge

I’m on a roll with the design posts it seems. Travis Stearns, the brain behind Mint Condition, gets to be the third in a row of killer designers I’ve mentioned. His work is more along the usual vein of illustratorial work that I feature, but the type and design are so fresh and so clean clean. He’s good with muted and bright colors, sketchy lines, hand-drawn fonts, and all the other designer tricks in and out of vogue. In other words, he’s got skills. I’d let him design me a tattoo and a wedding invitation. I don’t think there’s anything that he would come up with that I wouldn’t nod my head and grin about. For some reason it makes me think of A Tribe Called Quest. Idea: Travis Stearns makes an animated video for a Tribe song. Just put me down for a consulting credit, Travis.

I Am Mint Condition

I wanted to top off today’s posts with a splash of color and, though it’s not a fitting enough word, whimsy. Whimsy is a word that makes me think of a poster of a kitten peering out of a boot, and not the tongue-in-cheek madness that is the work of Oreli. Usually colorful, always deranged, each of Oreli’s images is like a mushroom trip through some rainbow Dreamtime on the back of a Pegaphant (Flying elephant. Do I have to explain everything?). Oreli, have you met The Little Friends of Printmaking? I can see you guys getting along really well. Or fighting to the death in a technicolor battle royale of ultimate glory. I’m down for either.

Oreli

If the name Joshua Davis doesn’t mean anything to you then you aren’t paying close enough attention. Innovative, influential, uber-talented, and widely renowned designer are only a beginning to what he has accomplished in his tenure in the design world. He’s responsible for developing entirely new systems for using technology to create original designs. And I don’t mean he’s just well versed in photoshop. I mean that he’s created systems that follow a set of variables to create completely original works themselves without his help. I can’t say enough about how important he is. I think he and I should play catch in the front yard sometime.

Joshua Davis
His Flickr