Like A Fox Jewelry : one of a kind and limited edition

Eco-Vision Art Show in Lakeland on March 21

Might go to this art party on Saturday. Platform is non-profit organization that showcases central Florida artists in various media at several parties each year. More details on Platform here.

ARTpool Trashion Fashion Show - mark your calenders for July 11

Since we're on the theme of recycled and eco-friendly art today, have you noticed how trashion is super hot at the moment? It definitely pervaded the Atomic Holiday Bazaar, where I met Marina Williams, a St. Pete based photographer and the creative force behind ARTpool Gallery. I just received ARTpool's call for artists, and while there are some exciting shows over the next few months, I definitely won't miss the Trashion fashion and art show scheduled for July 11. The wild and elaborate fashions from last summer's Trashion show are amazing and inspiring! Go check out the slideshow under the events tab on ARTpool's site. Then circle the date on your calendar as you break out the bubble wrap and hot glue to make your own trashion outfit this afternoon. What do you think I can create from Cadberry egg foil wrappers?


 

Elizabeth Soule's Animal Artistry

 
I am bewitched by the photographs of Elizabeth Soule, particularly the Little Zoo series of plastic animals presented with so much personality that they come alive in their portraits. I got this horse at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco this summer, and I brought back a rabbit from a recent trip to Seattle. I dream of having an entire menagerie, so I should take advantage of a holiday discount - 25% off the Letting the Horses Loose series, prints and notebooks through November 29.

Domestic Construction : A Dynamic Duo

Ask me to name the second best thing about Renegade San Francisco, and I'll claim Domestic Construction, a tag-team design studio from Brooklyn specializing in interiors, environments and one of a kind fashion and home products.  

Above: Trish and Maureen with their 2008 surface project Pack and Ship.
Left: Ted pendant lights constructed from teacups
Below, clockwise: [from Domestic Construction's website] photos of skirts from the yellow button brown pony collection, surface explorations in the Pack and Ship collection.

Art on Wheels

If ever there was something to convince me that I need a tricked out ride....Of course, I drive a fuel-economy civic, but the custom paint job on this supersized truck is outa sight. Art comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Lakeland's 2nd Downtown Spring Art Festival

Like A Fox will be at Lakeland's second Spring Art Festival on Saturday, May 3.  Come out and show your support for local artists and musicians. Sponsored by the Downtown Farmers Curb Market, there will be plenty of fresh produce on hand, too.

Pencils in Art and Jewelry

While Jen Stark works true wonders with construction paper, Jennifer Maestre prefers to sharpen pencils and stitch them together. That's right, stitch not glue. Amazing. Maestre describes her sculptures as "originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion."

From top: Seethe, 9"x13"x14"; Detail of Aurora, 7"x17"x17"; and Flex. View Maestre's portfolio here.

Maestre also crafts intricate pencil mosaic pins and necklace pendants, $30-45, so that you can wear her awesome artwork. I've compiled my favorites above, but check Jen Maestre's etsy shop for available jewelry and custom urchin sculptures.

Go Carl!

My friend Carl got an awesome review for his new outdoor sculpture at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston. In Glasstire, Bill Davenport writes: Suddath's new work is a folded geometric toy made from rusted pipe outside Lawndale's back door. Half plop-art and half industrial relic, it balances uneasily with doodle-like casualness, a little bit like a lot of things, but not much like anything. Brief images of a crashed TIE fighter, a sailboat, or an origami duck slide off the piece's self-contained aloofness. The piece is willfully non-objective, even it's distorted geometry defies easy categorization. Like steel sudoku, it contains the beginnings of familiar geometric shapes with gaps left for us to complete. You start to build a hexagon, pyramid or tetrahedron in your mind, only to have it wiggle loose.

Read the whole article.

Jen Stark's construction paper masterpieces

For weeks, I've been meaning to look up Jen Stark, an artist featured in Readymade's Aug/Sept issue.  R.M. showcased Stark's cleverly intricate Burst  construction paper sculpture. Still, I was unprepared for such splendid glory to explode from her portfolio!

Simply put, Jen Stark is extraordinary.

From top: Burst, Square, Coriolis Effect, and Piece of an Infinite Whole

 

No Guilt Felt Fetish

I had almost forgotten about the collection of Um bags designed by Josh Jakus that got rave reviews earlier this spring, but then I saw them while browsing in Natural Home in Asheville over Labor Day weekend. If ever there is a bag to covet, this is the one. Equal parts organic and industrial. More like portable sculpture than a purse. The utilitarian construction is ingenious: excess industrial wool felt transformed by a zipper. Love it.

Watch a clip of the bags in motion here.