What a cubicle dweller dreams of...

I got a new job that requires me to be on the field with a more flexible schedule, so apparently all my day-dreaming in a cubicle will now be done outdoors...

My sister led me to this local San Diego artist named Christy Pepper Dawson who makes these whimsical illustrations and pieces.  Her Office Dreamer piece perfectly encapsulates what I feel like everyday on the job. So even though, I will now be out of my three and half walled world, I will never stop daydreaming.

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Fave celebrity home tour: Jayma Mays

I admit I have never watched one episode of Glee, but I am a regular reader of Dwell magazine. Their latest furniture issue featured the home of Glee actress, Jayma Mays. The home had a colorful retro feel to it, which isn't exactly my style, but there was one image that caught my eye:

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The mural on her exterior block wall is awesome in it's scope of size and the fact I love the quote. 

My husband and I are planning on looking for a new home this year and if we have the wall for it, it would be a great idea to try something similar. I think I found the perfect quote for my family of snackers:

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Anyhoo, check out the latest Dwell if you want to see more of Ms. Mays home. 

Oh so that's what's in a Gummi bear...

Ever wonder about the anatomy of a Gummi bear or a My Little Pony? Well, wonder no more. Artist Jason Freeny has created these clever anatomy prints of some recognizable figures/toys. 

With my love of things cute, yet slightly a little creepy, this is definitely up my alley. But I also think this is a great way to teach your kids anatomy in a way that is not so scary as seeing those human anatomy posters (although, it may backfire, because when I showed my son the picture of the gummi bear anatomy, he said he doesn't want to eat gummi bears anymore because he'd be eating "bones").  

I just admire anyone who can take a subject like anatomy and turn it into clever art. Check out more of Jason Freeny's work here. 

Art is everywhere: Chihuly

The hubs, my kids and I will be taking a train ride up to the Pacific Northwest at the end of this month. We will make stopovers at Portland-Oregon, Tacoma-Washington, and Seattle-Washington. Needless to say, I am looking forward to a long-needed vacation out of town as well as visiting places I have never been. 

I've been compiling a list of places I hope to see over at Pinterest (check it out).

One of the places I'm excited about visiting is Tacoma, Washington, if only for the chance to visit the Tacoma Art Museum for one Dale Chihuly.  I became aware of this artist when I visited Las Vegas's Bellagio and witnessed the most amazing and beautiful ceiling sculpture:

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To my untrained artful eye, it looked like an explosion of sugar candy. Chihuly's Fiori di Como is actually a representation of Italian fields in the spring. 

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The Tacoma Art Museum has the largest permanent collection of Chihuly's glass work. Chihuly was born in Tacoma and continues to gift the museum with his work. 

Several of Chihuly's work can be seen for free throughout Tacoma. The most significant is his Bridge of Glass which leads to The Museum of Glass. The Seaform Pavilion section of the bridge has over 2300 pieces of his glass sculptures seemingly suspended over the walkway. 

In Seattle, Washington, I have to make it a point to visit The Seattle Center to visit Chihuly's Garden and Glass Exhibition.  Chihuly's glass sculptures are seen "growing" out of the garden and in the "greenhouse." 

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Just amazing.

Art is everywhere: Walking dead inspiration

The Walking Dead's season finale was this past Sunday and now I have to wait like 10 years (okay, I'm being a tad bit dramatic) before season 4 premieres. 

In honor of Walking Dead, I'm sharing with you one of my favorite Zombie recreations using food.  I'm okay with my kids playing with their food as long as they create something as hilarious and creative as below:

Enjoy!

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Art is everywhere

When I look for art I sometimes do not have to look further than my own home. My son, Milo, is five years old and has an imagination as limitless as every child seems to have. 

Just recently while I was at work, my sister emailed me a photo of what my son and his cousin, Isa, had created using a piece of plastic and fallen succulent leaves. They said it was a robot and doggone it! it looked like a robot:

(photo by Stephanie McMahon)

While I kill plants, my son makes art out of the dead parts - we make a perfect team.

Art is everywhere

Graphic designer Eiko Ojala created this vertical landscape illustration. It looks like cut paper, but it isn't.  Eiko draws everything digitally by hand to make it look like cut paper. He does not use any 3D software. His illustrations are amazing. Check out the details.

Go visit this talented illustrator's website and see the rest of his work.

I'm Nesting

(photo by Fanghong)

I have a couple of Matryoshka dolls or more commonly known as Russian nesting dolls. The whole idea of opening up something and finding something even smaller in it was always interesting to me. The typical Matryoshka dolls had the outside figure as a Russian peasant woman, which when opened repeatedly eventually revealed a baby inside. 

Lately, it's the more modern renderings of Nesting dolls that have got me thinking of buying outside the typical Matryoshka versions. They are all clever and some have a sense of humor about them. 

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Art is everywhere

This past weekend, I visited one of my favorite little shops in San Diego, Pigment.  This shop sells adorable home decor and accessories.  If you are ever in the neighborhood, check Pigment out.  It's a great place to find perfect gifts for those you care about. 

In particular I love this shop for all the wonderful, creative, terrariums it sells.  You can even buy DIY kits to make your own. Revisiting this shop inspired today's post regarding Terrarium as art. To be honest, I have this uncanny ability to kill any plant I have, including succulents and air plants - the two types of plants that are very hard to kill.  What can I say, it's a gift.  But that doesn't stop me from looking at terrariums and appreciating the work that goes into creating a beautiful tiny landscape.

Artist Kim Holleman uses found objects and trash to create terrarium sculptures. Her pieces express her views on our current environmental state and our possible future. There is a colorful beauty to her 'sculptures' but at the same time a point to be made. 

My favorite type of Terrarium art is where there is a miniature world happening. 

Some of the best "miniature" terrarium worlds I have seen is at Twig Terrariums.  They sell DIY kits, but also imaginative ready-made terrariums. 

Artist Paula Hayes creates these gorgeous biospheres highlighting the beauty of nature.  Her work has been displayed in galleries like MoMA.

Terrariums are like zen gardens - beautiful and relaxing. Try your hand at one and you'll be hooked. 

Doodles Come Alive!

I was a big doodler in my younger days and I admit even now, during one of my job's long office meetings, I zone out by doodling on my notepad. 

So when I found out the illustrator, Christoph Niemann, had done an IPad app (Petting Zoo) I had to have it for me my kids.  His doodles come alive with a few simple strokes. There are no instructions needed, kids instinctively know how to swipe up, down, and from side to side. Not only is this app affordable, it's so kooky, clever and entertaining that it's hard to put down.  

Kids can create music on the back of a porcupine, by the legs of an octopus, or the teeth of a crocodile. 

My favorite is the ladybug on the apple you can make him do a quick jog around the apple, ride his skateboard, jump on the apple, and if you swipe fast enough, he "flames on."

The clever transitions between each doodle is also a plus.  Even the credits are doodle animated.  

Treat your kids and yourself - Check it out here.

hipster animals

Dyna Moe became known when she did illustrated scenes of the show Mad Men, she has since branched out and created a wonderful world of hipster animals which can be seen on her tumblr. She was influenced by the drawings of Richard Scarry, but she gives it her own twist by her cool, a tad bit pretentious, sometimes trendy, animal characters, all drawn with Dyna's tongue-in-cheek humor.  

The hipster animals are everywhere now. No longer are your children's rooms decorated with cutesy bunnies, kittens and puppies, but with more intelligent, sophisticated woodland animals (nothing says "intelligent" than a hedgehog with glasses, Harry Potter glasses that is).

I'll name this guy "Harry the Hedgehog" who likes to read "War and Peace" in his spare time...for the 100th time.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox like to sit together drinking their English Tea and chatting about the Fiscal Cliff.

Ruthie the Deer spends her days in the museum wishing she could inhabit a Seurat painting. 

Oscar the Owl, who is an accountant by day, but designs irreverent clothing at night (those Charlie Brown stripes with the space invader jacket is so....hip).

I've always been a duck fan. Growing up my family had ducks for pets (yes pets). Ducks always seemed so clumsy, yet cute. Clumsy and cute no longer, in homage to my post theme, I've created my own hipster duck:

Meet Lulu the disinterested lifestyle blogger.  Lulu is more interested in enjoying her cup of coffee than taking a picture of it or blogging about her experience at the newest cafe down the street.  She is just too hip for it all (but of course once she is done with her cup of coffee, she'll go right on blogging about the salted caramel brulee she is about to consume, because it's that good).

Paper Cutting Art

I absolutely love the art of paper cutting. The intricacies of this art is unbelievable. It takes a combination of imagination and precision to create them.  The extent of my paper cutting skills were the paperdolls I made as a child, so to see something like the following is mind-blowing:

(Bovey Lee)

The art of paper cutting originated in 6th century China and now all parts of the world have their version of it. In my Filipino culture, the parols (which began as a traditional star shape lantern) were originally made using paper (the newer versions use capiz).

The famous children's author, Hans Christian Andersen, was a famous paper cutter. He often used his own cuttings to illustrate his stories.

The following are some artists works that I find amazing:

(Sher Christopher)

(Chloe Fleury)

(Elsa Mora)

(Fideli Sundqvist)

This is where an X-Acto Knife and a whole helluva imagination can take you!

(parol photo via, Hans Christian Andersen via)

Photo Art

One of my favorite classes I ever had in high school was my sophomore year photo class. I learned to love the camera and the ability it had to make your subject look like art. I am still a huge fan of using your photographs as a home decor element. It's not only personal, but sometimes can be quite inexpensive as well.

Some of my favorite home decor shots are the ones using large celebrity photographs as art on their walls. Being a fan of the world of home design, pop culture and photography, it's the perfect combination.

The following photo collage is such a fantastic way to display your personal photos in a stylish and artistic way.  I've begun my own project to frame my children's photos through the years this way. 

Polaroid Art.  A simple idea of arranging your polaroids into a heart shape and then taping it to canvas.  Love it.

Next time don't relegate all your photos to an album - frame it, hang it and be proud of it. 

(photos found here, here and here; if anyone knows the source of the Paul Newman photo, please advise)