Featured Artist

Dolan Geima is a wonderful mixed media artist. Depictions of rural America, country music and birds are reoccurring themes in his work. I enjoy the texture and deep colors that Geima achieves. My favorite are his construction pieces, especially this guitar. Stop by his website and check out this amazing artist.

All images are owned by Doman Geima, Inc.

Etsy Find

I found this wonderful handmade jewelry at Huismus's Shop on Etsy. I don't know which I prefer more, the jewelry or the photography. The photos are amazing and make we want to buy everything in this shop. Check it out here.

Featured Font

An oldie, but a goodie, Century Schoolbook is one of my favorite serif fonts. Sorry, but I'm a bit of a graphic design and typography geek. I love the uppercase and lowercase Qs. You don't get to use them very much. This font has the perfect balance of thick and thin and hard and soft contrast. It's a great all around, easy-to-read font. Read more about the font here.

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

Mark your calendars! The movie version of Where the Wild Things Are comes out October 16th. This was my favorite book growing up. I fell in love with Maurice Sendak's illustrations and then writing of children's books. My first taste was through the Little Bear books and then on to my favorite Where the Wild Things Are. These books inspired me to become an artist. My son now loves them as I did.

My only hope is that the movie lives up to my imagination of what the land of the wild things is really like. It looks promising. See the a trailer here.

Natascha S. Rosenberg

I love illustrator Natascha S. Rosenberg's light-hearted and whimsical style. She has fun with color and shape that is truly magical. Natascha is a freelance artist working on projects such as children's fiction and educational books. She was born in Munich and raised in Spain. She graduated from the University of Madrid with a degree in Law, then turned her aspirations towards drawing. Please visit her web site, shop and blog to find out more about this wonderful artist.

Please not all art and images are copyrighted by Natascha S. Rosenberg.

Fall Palette

Last night my son was asking me what my favorite color was. He thought it was funny that I couldn't pick just one. I explained that as an artist, I love all colors. They bring out feelings or a mood, add contrast to one another, etc. I thought it would be fun to create and share a fall color palette. Go to the site, colour lovers to see more color combinations or share your own.

Not your mother's wallpaper

Well, okay maybe it is. Drawflowers' Etsy shop consists of delightful and unexpected objects made with vintage vinyl wallpaper circa 1970. Check the shop out here.

All images owned by Drawflowers

Powerful Typography

I saw the Girl Effect video on Facebook and had to share it. Not only is this a wonderful cause, it's a wonderful use of type in a video. It's a great example of "less is more" and was created by Wieden+Kennedy.

Watch the video by going to this link. It makes me thankful to live in a country where I have rights to do as I choose.

I love getting color forecasting. This is Pantone's fashion color forecast for 2010. It's always interesting to see what fashion designers will pick as the new spring palette. Not to mention their lovely sketches. Check it out here and let me know if you agree with their choices.

Image and logos are all owned by Pantone.

Typographic History

I'm putting this book on my list of must haves. If you love typography, you'll want it as well. Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type. by William E. Loy (edited by Alastair M. Johnston and Stephen O. Saxe) is now available for purchase at Oak Knoll Press. The book not only looks at American typefaces during the nineteenth century, but profiles the designers behind them.

Paper Love

DALI DORÉ by Gruppo Cordenons is a felt-marked text and cover with an infused gold shimmer. The shimmer is achieved by millions of natural, tiny mica crystals in the coating. This sheet is acid-free and archival in quality. It has a thin, lined texture that runs parallel with the grain. It comes in 4 colors: Blumarino (dark blue), Rosso (red), Candiddo (cream), and Nero (black). The sparkle is amazing and even more dramatic on the darker colors. Love it and looking for an excuse to use it.

Feeling Sunny

It's a gloomy day here and I thought we might all benefit from some cheery yellow items.

1. Yellow leather notebook from Hermes. I love the vibrant intensity of the yellow and the texture is amazing.

2. Trollsta sideboard from Ikea. The juxtaposition of the clean lines and the ornate details around the bottom are what make this sideboard great. Not to mention the great Ikea price as well.

3. Bumble Bee Enamel Flower Ring - Black and Yellow from SpiderellaStudio's shop is fun and harkens back to the costume jewelry I used to play with in my mother and grandmother's jewelry boxes.

4. Pod no.2 10x8 print from the polaroidsandpinhole's etsy shop. It amazes me what artists can do with simple materials we often take advantage of or think are passé.

5. Whorled Trapunto Rug from Anthropologie. The rug has great organic yet graphic style and features pimpernel, mallow and anemone blooms.

All images are owned by their respective companies.

Stunning Sunset

I was looking through our photos from our 2007 holiday trip to Hawaii and came across this sunset picture. It seemed fitting for a late Friday night post. This image brought back a lot of great memories and the smell of the ocean and the feel of the warm breeze. It was a magical evening and a spectacular sunset as the sailboat drifted by.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone.

City Museum

If you love found art and your kids love to climb and do hands on activities, look no further. My family discovered the City Museum in St. Louis a couple of years ago. I was so enthralled by all the details of the building and structure. I've never seen anything like it. You have got to see it to believe it. And if you go wear long pants and tennis shoes. There is a lot of crawling and climbing to do. The photo montage shows just the tip of the iceberg.

Here is info from their website.

Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.

Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions'. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, CITY MUSEUM boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!

"CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know," says Cassilly. "The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, 'Wow, that's wonderful.' And if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving."

Images: City Museum

Passion for paper

While exhibiting at the National Stationery Show last year, I picked up some amazing swatch books from GMUND. My particular favorite is Savanna, a collection of paper inspired by Africa. It comes in eight shades, four with wood embossing and the rest are either a matt or structured surface. All are beautiful, however, my pick is Bubinga. I love the dark rich brown and the texture of the wood is fantastic.

Fun font of the day

This font is one that I discovered about 6 months ago. It is fun and friendly, which is pretty much my design aesthetic. Of course you should use it sparingly, it's not the easiest read and you'll have to kern the you-know-what out of it. But it's fun and light-hearted. Find it here.