A few days before Hurricane Sandy hit the North East I met up with Gurley – an artist from London whom I met through Jayson Lilley last year – on twitter!! She was here visiting for about a week, and asked if I would like to meet up in the city. Of course I did! I would have blogged about this awesome event sooner had Sandy not hit a few days later. The storm threw me completely off for about 3 weeks and then the holiday season kicked in. I did however have an awesome time with Gurley in NYC – we wandered around and went into bead stores, and wig stores and grandma’s attic looking antique stores! It was a lot of fun.

I’d also like to thank Gurley VERY much for my surprise. Before we departed on the subway, she gave me one of her pieces! The one featuring Mickey Mouse. I was really shocked and honored, and now I have works from both awesome London Artists Jayson Lilley and Gurley on display in my apartment. During our adventure I took some photos of her and her work… so I wanted to share them here.

A month or so ago I visited the Bergen Town Center in Paramus, New Jersey. My boyfriend Bryan and I just wanted to stop at Target, but then something caught my eye. I noticed a new place called “Sugar and Plumm.”

At first I thought it was just a candy store, but once I entered I noticed they had not just candy, but full food menu, along with pastries, cookies and ice cream. You can order, sit down in a self-serve area and have a snack or sit in the back on a big comfy purple chair where service is available. It didn’t take me very long to convince Bryan to sit down and have a bite with me. I had the Banana Nutella Crepe and I don’t think I even need to tell you it was delicious. Bryan decided to have a sandwich, which he loved, but I was too busy with my Crepe to have a taste.

I felt like a child in a storybook. The decor is that of a fairy tale only a little kid could imagine. There are clouds on the ceiling that moved. Yes, CLOUDS! Quotes along every wall; one of my favorite’s being “Forget love – I’d rather fall in Chocolate.” Some may tell you it was the purple all around, including the chairs that made me love this place, but along with a fun, mellow, child-like atmosphere, the food and desserts are delicious. How could I not love it all?

After my visit I searched them on line and sent an email requesting if I could stop in one day to take a few photos. I loved this place so much I really wanted to share it here on my blog! They permitted me to return to do my camera-thing. I also had the chance to try some of their amazing cookies and a lemon tart, which were “to die for.” I asked the folks that work near the kitchen what they felt are the most popular dishes. The Cuban sandwich and the Banana Nutella crepes were the winners with the California chicken sandwich coming in second.

There are still many dishes for me to try at “Sugar and Plumm.” and I’m happy, because I know I’ll be visiting again soon. They also have a few other stores opening up in NYC and Brooklyn this summer (2012). Here are some of many photos from their first New Jersey location! I hope you enjoy them… and if you’re ever in Northern New Jersey at least now you know where the Yumm is!

Jayson Lilley has some really amazing paintings with bright colors and high-contrast. I think that is what made me love his work so much was the contrast – the cow is definitely my favorite but his landmark paintings are great too. He is over in London but when he has a show in New York I will be first in line! Take a look at his website or follow him on twitter – @iamjaysonlilley.

From iconic London landmarks like Battersea Power Station, the Trellick Tower and South Bank to everyday subject matters like mopeds, buses and English breakfasts – Jayson Lilley’s art makes the ordinary look extraordinary.
With his signature bold colours, limited palette and illustrative approach, Lilley’s graphic novel style certainly packs a punch.

Taken from his website: http://www.jaysonlilley.co.uk/

Al Fatat (the girl)

Torath(culture)

My latest project it’s called “Subtitle” it was presented online on my website between (FEB 17,2011-FEB 19,2011) & the project contains 6 digital work drawings, these paintings are translated into components and events we face in our daily life. Each one of these paintings contains different objects like (lines, photos & drawings) mixed together to create a painting. I gave the paintings Arabic names like (Torath means Culture, Al Fatat means the girl, Al Moot means the death, Raqes means dancing, El Denya means The World, Al Qateel means The Killing).

Dancing

I would like to thank Christie for giving me this great opportunity to be on her beautiful blog.

Quinn Michaels does a lot of old fashion and digital drawing and painting. And our newest digital medium – iPad art. He has a mixture of cartoon-ish drawings to abstract paintings. From Shrek to Donald Duck, he even has Lady Gaga – called “Gagaverse” and I had to laugh. If Gaga could, she WOULD have her own universe (and I sometimes think she thinks she is already there). My favorite was the digital painting “Starry Night Mermaid” which collaborates Vincent Van Gogh and The Little Mermaid… which just so happen to be MY favorite artist and movie mixed together. Also take a look at his video of his guitar drawing – it will have you mesmerized! Find more of his work at http://www.thequinnshow.com

Matt Keeling has been working as a graphic designer and illustrator for the past 9 years. He has his own unique style which I think of as chaos and order all in one. This one particular series he had done a mixture of a subject with a graffiti feel to it. I love it! To me the more chaotic or distressed looking, the more interesting it is =] If you’d like to see more or even order prints please visit http://www.thepapershedgallery.co.uk/. You can also find out more about Matt at his personal site/portfolio http://www.mattkeeling.com/

Having been influenced through my work in the fashion industry and freelance work as an illustrator over the last 12 years, this work takes inspiration mainly from street artists such as Shepard Fairey, Eelus, Dface, Eine, Kevin Cyr and Mysterious Al to name a few. Having also painted watercolour landscapes for many years the work is a combination of the street inspired work that forms my freelance projects and my interest in local landscapes. I have tried to re-interpret the traditional landscape you may hang on the wall at home as a modern and urban piece of art. All the works are hand drawn with marker pens and then scanned into my Mac. I then use Photoshop and a Cintiq tablet as my tools of choice to paint/attack and work into the image. I like to bring type and hits of colour into an otherwise monochrome view, the colour to give the image punch and depth and the type to bring the graphic and bold feel that I love.

From London our artist of the week Richard Gallon, like myself has many interests. Photography, crafts, and design. I think for any true artist you can’t just limit yourself to just one focus, in my opinion it would make me crazy! But Richard has a love for all of them, and my favorite from his work is his photography. Although he has tons of photos on flickr, I chose my favorites from his top 25. Each photo links to the flickr page for that photo. My favorite is fire alarm. Anything weathered, aged with an old grungey look makes my eyes light up! Especially when it has text I truly think he nailed the composition beautifully as well.

Richard on his work:

When I decided to study to become a graphic artist, I took a course that allowed me to learn about both graphic design and fine art. This interest has continued throughout my work every since, and I think my most successful pieces balance these two approaches well.

The other two influences on my work are music (I am obsessed cassette tapes) and photography. I think it is the immediacy of these media is what particularly appeals, and these threads run throughout my work, too.

This year, the plan is to focus on editioned work. I am setting up an art ‘label’ (@personalsounds) to release one artwork a month, in editions of 25. Releases will include graphic works, DVDs and music, with the first release – Alta Punt Abrir, (http://www.etsy.com/listing/59598141/alta-punt-abrir-ltd-edition-of-25) being a combination of all three.

Apart from that, I am based in London, love to cook, and am currently working through the boxsets of Twilight Zone and Starsky & Hutch.

Sean Cahill our new artist of the week mixes art history, design and personality in his projects. I really enjoyed two of his projects: The Bar Cara Custom Art and the Google Picture project. His Bar Cara custom art kind of reminded me of a project I did not too long ago. I love mixing art history and design, I think it’s a great tribute. His Google picture project is very unique you’ll have to check out his site or read this entry to learn exactly how awesome it is

Sean Cahill on his projects:

Bar Cara, a recent client of ours, is a new Italian based restaurant in
Bloomfield, NJ who prides themselves on being a modern take on a traditional
taste. I decided to show this through the art on the walls. My goal was to
combine the traditional with the modern. I achieved this by juxtaposing
Modern imagery with traditional sculpture and historical landmarks. One of
my favorites is Rodin’s thinker sitting in front of a graffiti wall. I think
the imagery is particularly strong in this piece due to the duality of
street art. On one hand grafitti’s art, and on the other hand it’s
destructive. Considering both sides of the coin can lead to much though with
is expressed by The Thinker. I also snuck the Bar Cara logo into the
grafitti on the wall, it’s the black and yellow star.

The Statue of David was also a fun piece to put together. Chef Ryan DePersio
is a really hip guy who fuels the energy of Bar Cara so I wanted to include
him in the art in some way. I actually took a photo Chef Ryan’s arm and
photoshopped his tattoo’s onto David’s arm. The background is photo of SoHo
New York. This pieces was very well received by Chef Ryan and also his son
Nicholas who’s name is tattooed on the arm.

The Venus Di Milo made me laugh because I put her on stage as if she was the
lead singer of a band. Without arms it’s tough to look very active on stage!
The pieces that read “italiana” was also based on music. I placed a bass
guitar in the angels hands. I though her natural position was asking for it.
The Angel with the tank is the most impactful for me. The imagery speaks for
itself and I think the Bar Cara logo (star) and sunrays compliment the whole
situation.

All the artwork was created in Photoshop at full size (roughly 3′x5′ each).
The documents ended up being huge files. It’s tedious working in
hi-resolution at such a large size because each move or change can take up
to 10 minutes to process, depending on detail. I worked with many blending
modes and of course a lot of masking. In the end the pieces turned out to
fit the motif of the restaurant very well.

The Google Picture Project was an exercise I created for myself to stay
sharp and keep my mind focused on art. In my line of work all the art I
produce is based on clients needs. I’m always designing within certain
requirements. Therefore I wanted to bring such “constraints” to my personal
expression. Thus the Google Picture Project was born. The concept behind the
Project is that I’ll create an Image, Picture or Poster using ONLY the
images Google provides based on a Image Searching a specific phrase. I don’t
get to choose the search phrases, instead they’re all suggested to me by
others. This method restricts the amount of images I can create with.
Sometimes I get a whole bunch of great images, sometimes nothing. It’s
interesting to see what searches turn up what images. More often than not, a
search that I think will be good ends up bad and the ones I think will turn
up nothing yeild the most.

One of my favorites was “Great White Beavers.” This was one of the strangest
phrases that was suggested to me. I ended up making the image much like a
screen print. I keep the colors solid and the amount of colors to a minimum.
I used about 3 separate images and combined them into one composition. This
is the same method I use for all the Google Picture Projects. I don’t know
of anyone doing design this way…using viewer input as jump off point. But
it’s proven very rewarding for me and the other participants. I often print
out the image and mail it to the people who suggested the phrase. Suggest
one and I’ll design it for you!

You can find out more about Sean Cahill at http://www.cahillstudio.com and http://www.radkidcool.com

Now for another artist of the week from New Jersey! My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw this series of photos he had done. I love crazy ideas like this one! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This series is titled “Some Assembly Required” by Sam Abdallah. It is a project he has been working on for 3 years. Visit SamAbdallah.com to see more from this collection. Now for a little bit of information from Mr. Abdallah himself:

The Idea came about because I used to work with a photographer who treated their models really poorly, he would constantly go up to them and grab them and say thing like “this one needs new arms they are too lanky” or “this one needs a prettier face”. He would treat them like object and the models would LET him do it, to the point where it looked like they were losing their personalities.

So i thought to myself “how could I show the way this guy is treating his models in such a way where its interesting and different” , I then remembered how back in college I did a project in which I had to represent one of the 7 deadly sins which was “vanity” and I did a photo in which the woman in it had removed her head to apply makeup and thought that it would be a perfect way to represent what I was going for.

So now by showing the models with their heads/parts detached from the rest of them it shows how their parts are nothing more than clothing accessories that they could just change to suit their feelings. It also has some more hidden meanings behind it, showing how vain our society has become.

I wanted the photos to be in such a way where its comical but eye popping so that it captures the viewers attention and keeps them looking. I am almost done with the series, I have 75 different photos with various models so far, but am looking to get to about 100-150 photos with different models

More about the artist:
Sameh Abdalalh is a Graphic Designer/Photographer. He has been a designer for about 5 years professionally and a Photographer for about 7 years professionally. He graduated from William Paterson University with a BFA and a concentration in computer graphics. He worked for about 3 years as a product designer/ graphic designer for two companies, Springfield Precision Instruments and Taylor Precision Products/HoMedics. Currently he is searching for employment while working on his projects and photography in his spare time. Visit SamAbdallah.com to see more of his work.

Paul Jach has been working as a freelance artist since receiving his BFA majoring in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA in 1998. He has participated in several solo and group shows, as well as commercial work for created event posters for Bill Graham Present’s Fillmore West and Warfield Auditorium, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Auditorium and the record label Saturday Morning Records. In 2001, Paul formed the art collective, Speak-Easy Art. In January of 2009, Paul partnered in Speak-Easy Art Gallery with fellow artist, Michael Paquette. Speak-Easy Art Gallery sets a new standard in showcasing established and emerging artists. They have created a space, both interesting and accessible to all art enthusiasts. As co-owner of the gallery, Paul serves as co-curator and education director. http://www.SpeakEasyArt.com

Paul on his Work:

To create the doodle series, I used a subconscious constructive technique and knew that I wanted it to begin with line. For most of us, our first experience in creating art is to scribble on a piece of paper. This is a primal impulse for us, we naturally make these marks once a drawing implement is put in our hand. I felt the place where we all begin in art, an experience that most of us share, would be an interesting place to start with these prints. That line would then ultimately become the skeleton of the pieces. I wanted the curves of the lines to be more controlled than just scribbling, yet remain free flowing. The nature of the lines in some ways also references the graffiti tags that had caught my eye while riding the city buses in the past. To make the work more unique, I explored printing on surfaces other than paper, such as sheet metal, wood and backlit plexiglass. http://www.PaulJach.com