Some lovely type candy from typographer Darren Booth. That "300" is making me drool.

All images courtesy of http://www.darrenbooth.com/

 
 

...just some stuff by Jacob Whibley. Graphic designer by day, Jacob creates these collages as a "personal outlet." He uses vintage paper from the mid 19th century to about the 1970s, and tries to use knives and rulers instead of scissors and a computer.

"I like the viewer to approach each collage with a sense of confusion and then have to work out their own relationship with the piece." – JW

I'm a little (completely) obsessed with those wooden cube pieces. 

Check out more of his work here.

Photos courtesy of http://www.jacobwhibley.com/

REX RAY

I went to a record/art/book sale over the weekend and picked up a book of SF native, Rex Ray's artwork....and well, folks....

I'm in love.

Having his book as my new coffee table display is not going to suffice. I might need a large-scale print, because, well, I'm in love.

So in love I'm talking in circles.

Check more out here.

All photos courtesy of http://www.rexray.com/

GREETINGS FROM
THE TWILIGHT ZONE

I stopped by a pretty great magazine/book shop in Piedmont today with a pretty great name: Issues. Picked up the latest issue of Elephant, and discovered Julien Pacaud, digital collage extraordinaire. Using vintage photos taken between 1900–1960, Julien layers them with bold color and modern shapes. The result? Surreal and otherworldly environments that keep me looking over my shoulder for Rod Serling.

See more from the Le Mans, France-based artist ici.

Study for Blue Water, Silver Moon, 1991

Lost Boys: AKA Black Johnny

Lost Boys: AKA Black Al

Lost Boys: AKA Baby Brother, 1992

Beauty Examined, 1993

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL

I checked out the MoMA site this morning, and came across this stunning image (at top) of what was upon first glance, a mermaid-woman, half-submerged in water. Mystical, mysterious, haunting, heavy, lovely.

Born in 1955 in Birmingham, Marshall pulled inspiration from his surroundings and the Civil Rights Movement.

 “You can’t be born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 and grow up in South Central [Los Angeles] near the Black Panthers headquarters, and not feel like you’ve got some kind of social responsibility. You can’t move to Watts in 1963 and not speak about it. That determined a lot of where my work was going to go...” 

— Marshall (thx PBS.org) 

Lucky for me, Study for Blue Water is currently on view at the MoMA as part of their Contemporary Art from the Collection exhibit, until May of next year.

Read more about the artist here.

ANTHONY ZINONOS

Try your best not to giggle. Just try.

See more from Anthony here.

I'M IN LOVE WITH PETER BEARD.

Fun fact: During his career, Beard has been painted on by Salvador Dalí and has journaled with Andy Warhol.

Today, while strolling downtown on Lafayette, I came across a tiny photography bookstore called Clic. Inside, I found a Taschen Peter Beard book that literally left me breathless.

S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G.

Born in 1938, Beard began creating collaged art journals/diaries at the age of 11. He layered hand-drawn elements, photography, type....basically any and everything. He traveled to Africa in 1955, inspired by reading Out of Africa, by Karen Blixen. There, he continued the creation of his journals by incorporating his own photography and layering it with animal blood.

The Taschen book is a documentation of Beard's life in Africa. The collages are SO incredibly detailed–layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of heart wrenchingly beautiful imagery.

I'm buying it (psst...on Amazon, it's almost half off!).