I envy Chris. I cannot crack the code of watercolors. Every few years I dig out my watercolors and say, “This is it. I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna beat these lil’ tubes and tray of water and I will be their master and they. will. obey.” About an hour later the table is all wet and I pack my crap up, admitting the fact that the coup de watercolors have overtaken their benevolent leader. The most recent uprising was last January. It was not pretty.

Anyway, back to Chris Ballasiotes. He rocks. He’s a regular Cesar Milan with them rowdy watercolors. I’m really feeling his handmade typography, organic lines, and mixed media work. Check out more of his amazing work after the jump:

- Curt

Props to Quality Peoples

We got the above print by Charley Harper as a wedding gift back in October, but we never found the right spot for it. I had all but forgotten about it until Curt pulled it out the other day. It’s now sitting pretty on our new shelves! Clearly, we have a thing for art with animals, and we’re big fans of Charley’s work, so I was excited to learn about his mosaic mural in the Cincinnati federal building. 100 animals, all made out of tiles! Amazing. And it totally has his distinct style, even though it’s not in his usual medium.

Love it! More over on Style/SWOON and Visualingual, if you’re so inclined.

- Jessica

Here’s a great little video made by FlyLo and the gang featuring Leigh J. McCloskey, the painter and “visual philosopher” who created the artwork for Flying Lotus’s chart topping album Cosmogramma on Warp Records.

- Curt

We got an email from artist Josh Evans last week showcasing some of his digital illustrations. Josh recently graduated from ArtCenter in Pasadena with honors – which automatically gets mad props in my book. He also “enjoys homemade ferments, pickles, sauerkraut, and playing the banjo and accordion” – all valid pursuits. Check out a few more pieces of this Angeleno’s work after the jump:

There’s something about Josh’s work that’s always a little sinister. There’s a noir to it that I can’t quite put my finger on, but I like how it resonates throughout his work.

- Curt

I love artist/sculpture AJ Fosik’s wild wooden beasts. Each creature is made with regular plywood and found materials that are carefully cut, painted, and assembled by AJ in an improvised construction. He says that he doesn’t even sketch out or plan his builds anymore – he just goes. That’s crazy! Check out a few videos of AJ and his work after the jump:

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AJ also gave an interesting talk at this year’s Pictoplasma Festival in Berlin which is a conference focusing on contemporary character design and art. Watch here the video here.

I’ve been a long time fan of AJ’s work and would love to someday have a smallish beast mounted on the walls of the Bear Cave…just like in Melinda Gorham and David Charles’ home in Glen Park, San Francisco (via Apartment Therapy).

- Curt

For my husband… because he cleaned the whole apartment on Saturday and because there was a yummy yummy dinner waiting for me when I got home from work today. You rock, babe.

- Jessica

*Inky Lips Press, spotted over on Oh Joy!

Check out this amazing Ink Calendar by London-based designer Oscar Diaz! The paper slowly absorbs the ink, one date at a time.

From Oscar’s website:

“The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are ‘printed’ daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.”

Amazing, huh? You can check out more of Oscar’s work here.

- Jessica

I’ve always admired Kevin Cyr’s photorealistic paintings of automobiles covered in graffiti, rust, and general urban grime. The above Hausman print went on sale on 20×200 today and it looks like they are movin’ pretty quick – so jump on it if you want get your twinkie on. Check out more of Kevin’s work after the jump:

- Curt

Remember when you were a freshman in high school and the seniors were soooo much cooler, had cars, better class schedules, and were generally everything your twitchy little freshman butt wasn’t? Well, consider Kitsune Noir as part of the class of 2010 with a serious case of senioritis, while Grizzly Bear Modern is still trying to remember its locker combination.

KN is a big inspiration for GBM – I even used some of KN’s CSS/HTML in building this blog. Bobby’s weekly Desktop Wallpaper Project has been providing my computers with wallpapers for years now. The supremely talented artists and designers that Bobby procures for this project never cease to amaze me. But I think the real feathers in Bobby’s hat are his collaborations, and most recently his co-curation of Los Angeles, I’m Yours, the local art and craft exhibition with Poketo at Space15Twenty in Hollywood. This eclectic mix of found objects and artistic creations was just amazing – and everything was for sale and most of the stuff was really reasonably priced. The show runs until May 15th, so if you’re in the area I highly suggest you check it out and say hi. Enough with the love fest – let’s see some pics yo!

Portugal. The Man was doing their sound check for the free concert Poketo was throwing that evening. We already had plans that evening, but it would have been fun to swing back by for the show.

This rad Steven Harrington teepee will be coming home with us when the show is over. Mmmmmm yeah.

“Los Angeles, I’m Yours” Exhibition walk-through at Space 15 Twenty with Bobby Solomon from Kitsune Noir from Space 15 Twenty on Vimeo.

- Curt

Romeu Silveira of From Brazil, With Love is an amazing artist who creates digital collages from high fashion magazines. There’s a ton of energy exuding from the artwork. Some of the pieces are really dense, but I prefer the more geometric and simplified pieces. You really do need to check out the collages in whole here to get a feel for what From Brazil, With Love is all about. See more samples of Romeu’s work after the jump:

There’s not a ton of info on Romeu other than his (her?) site’s manifesto:

“APPROPRIATE TO RECRIATE. DAILY ARTWORKS FROM THE BEST MAGAZINES AROUND THE GLOBE. STYLING THE ALREADY STYLED. DIY. WITHOUT POWER, CORRUPTION AND LIES. SINCE 2008.”

- Curt