There has long been a tendency of mine that I have left unprobed, something that I have turned away from considering as long as I’ve known of its existence, and that is my tendency to fall in love with women in paintings. I tend not to question it, because it doesn’t have any adverse effects on my life, and it’s as short lived as the duration of me looking at the painting. 2-3 minute whirlwind romances with still images of women aren’t really a problem, and are probably even a little more healthy than say porn, which is not what I’d call romance, and generally isn’t as enriching. Whatever the neurosis behind it, I have a tendency to fall in love with women in paintings and I’m fine with it. The only problem I run into is coming across the work of someone like Serge Marshennikov who paints nothing but beautiful women in a mash of Dutch and Pre-Raphaelite styles, looking like warm, classical, Hellenic sculptures caught in quiet moments. Who couldn’t fall in love with an image that captivating? Not me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go write some love poetry to a couple of Titian paintings and daydream of running through a field of flowers with their subjects.

Serge Marshennikov

The Motomethod Story

The Ridebook: Prohibition Tour

When I Grow Up

The Eagleman Stag

Exo: A Visualization of Kepler’s Exoplanet Candidates

What a Wonderful World

Five Fingers of Evolution

I am way too astounded to say much of anything about Rose Anderson’s paintings of bugs on book covers. I am just sitting here speculating on which one would make a good tattoo. Answer: all of them.

Rose Anderson

Sounde Exploration: Text to Music

Channeler

Sebastien Tellier - Cochon Ville

The Temper Trap - Need Your Love

Killspencer: Weekender

The Camera Collection

Jogger - Nephicide

Melvin the Mini Machine

Tripwire

As someone who has looked through the Kunstformen der Natur from beginning to end about a hundred times, I think it can be said with confidence that I really enjoy scientific illustration. This also means that it’s a sure thing that I’ll like the work of Katie Scott who creates scientific illustrations from Jules Verne’s Venus as seen through the light of La Planete Sauvage. I just wish my body could be full of anemones and crazy swirls. Dammit, medical science, you have let me down once again.

Katie Scott

Insects!

Atomik Insight

Speed Painting: Just One in a Thousand

Prototype 2 Trailer

Buckwheat Groats - Million Dollar Menu

Phantom Flex Highlights

Film One: Harry (Archer and Bower)

Body Mechanics

I’ve never really been able to pin down what attracts me to certain illustrator’s work. Sometimes it’s the level of detail, sometimes it’s the simplicity, and sometimes I just like the layout/colors, but there’s never been a joining force behind my definition of what’s “good.” This is a positive, because my tastes are diverse, but it does mean that I have to constantly sift through a lot of content in order to find the work that I’m interested in. Anton Van Hertbruggen has work that I’m interested in. There’s something about all of it that reminds me of trying to find the things we’ve lost, the things we remember but can never get back to. Everything about his work makes the phrase “you can’t go home again” bounce around my skull. It’s wistful, reflective and just a little melancholy. But there’s hope and peacefulness in there, too; a whisper that tells me I might not be able to go home again, but I can make a new place just as good.

Anton Van Hertbruggen

Do I get a lot of emails? Yes. Do I get a lot of emails that are worthwhile? No. At least 90% of them are trying to sell me something or make my boner bigger (WITH THESE 42 SIMPLE STEPS!), and  7% are from friends and family saying things that they could’ve just as easily put into a text message. That leaves 3% of emails that I want to actually read and even then most of them are not fruitful. .5% are submissions, and those I love the crap out of; good or bad, I love it every time someone contacts me about their work. It’s an added bonus when the work is good and I can get really excited about it (talk about making my boner bigger). When Barry Friedland contacted me about Thumbtack Press I’m sure I got very tight in the pants region, but I was also swamped with work traveling, personal traveling, various plannings and projects, having a cold, having the flu, and trying to get crops sown and beer brewed for Spring/Summer. Now, NOW, I can tell you something that I have known for a few years: Thumbtack Press is great. It’s a noble cause to want to bring beautiful, affordable art into anyone’s lives, and I will support it however I can whenever I can. Thumbtack has the added bonuses of an excellent curatorial eye and something for pretty much any taste imaginable. I can tell you this from personal experience: put art you like on your walls, regardless of it being an original piece or a print or a cutout magazine page. Just do it. Get that shit up there and make your life better in every way. I’m currently going through Thumbtack’s vast reserve of product trying to find just one to add to my collection even though I’m running out of wall space that isn’t in my shower. Well, you know what, I know exactly where I can hang it. *points suggestively at crotch tent*

Thumbtack Press

Fresh Guacamole

Solipsist

Mechanical Wine Opener

Ink Injection into Yolk Sac

Dollarshaveclub.com: Our Blades are Fucking Great

Wrecking Crew Orchestra

Kid Zoom: Home

Delta Spirit - California

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers - I Can’t Go For That

It has been my pleasure over the years to meet, fall in friendship-love with, and enjoy living my life around various amazing and creative people. And through them I find other amazing and creative people, and so on 6-degrees-of-kevin-bacon-style until I’m part of a giant web of awesome that reaches into every corner of all 4 dimensions. That’s right, I have friends from the past and future! This is how I found Alvin Diec and his wonderful designs. That just conjured up a weird Seussian image of a man in a crazy hat cranking out beautiful designs from a fantastic machine. Dr. Diec and his amazing Designamaphone. Jesus, how do these tangents even happen? I’ll wrap this up before I start using spare cans to build a working model of the Designamaphone. Alvin Diec is a fucking killer designer, and you are going to look at his work right now. Imperative not interrogative.

Alvin Diec found via Outerstace