Three years ago my time on the internet was occupied by checking facebook and livejournal. Now, the majority of my time online is spent catching up with my feeds on Google Reader. It’s interesting to think that blogs have come so far, not only in my world, but for millions of others as well. Although not always the most reliable of sources, reading blogs fills up my daily requirement of information intake. For me, it’s mostly art, design and culture blogs, a smattering of food blogs, the big two in music (in my opinion – Pitchfork and Stereogum, but I’d love any suggestions on others out there) and the precious gems of my collection, the printmaking blogs. Reading these 100 or so blogs has kept me fairly current with the world, in comparison to three years ago when I really had no clue what was going on outside my bubble. Is it the equivalent of reading the New York Times or any other renowned publication? No, but it is an important step in how we get and share information and it’s pretty cool to witness these changes first hand.
Anyway, I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite blogs…
Mainly text/link based entries:
Kottke – I can’t even remember when I started reading kottke, but it’s definitely one of the first that I started off with. Jason Kottke is essentially a great editor; picking out delicious internet gems that are always interesting reads.
Dooce – Another classic that I’ve read for years now. Heather B. Armstrong is a legend in the blog world and has some of the most hilarious posts I’ve ever read. She also has some of the most critical fans, whose comments sometimes make guest appearances.
Mainly image based entries:
It’s Nice That – One of my more recent reads, there’s always something new and beautiful being posted here.
Dear Ada – Birdie, of Dear Ada, features work from a handful of artists each day. This blog has played a big part in my discovery of new artists both big and small.
Not Paper – Another relatively new blog in my roster, Not Paper feeds my collage addiction. Mmm, tasty.
OMG Posters! – My source for news in the poster world. OMG updates frequently on new prints for sale, often leading to an empty wallet and very happy walls.
#1.2, from me to Jason
#1.3, from Jason to me
#2.1, from me to Jason
I love this project so far. It’s a surprise every time.
A summary of my favorites that I posted to tumblr this week:
Monday:
Illustrator Natsko Seki, featured on It’s Nice That.
Tuesday:
Obey poster for Jane’s Addiction, perhaps one of my favorite Obey posters I’ve seen. (via OMG Posters)
Wednesday:
Post-election frenzy leads to an adorable illustration by Patrick Moberg.
Thursday:
Dear Ada featured woefoep, originally posted on notpaper (one of my new favorite blogs!).
Friday:
“Nevermore” by the always delightful Emmanuel Polanco.
Taking a break from the often infuriating process of trying to cram an ungodly amount of text into a (relatively) small amount of space by posting on the ol’ blog. To continue the inspirations posts, I wanted to highlight a playlist that I made over the summer.
Even though I don’t have a musical background, music is, perhaps, one of my biggest inspirations. I am always listening to music, especially when I’m working, so it’s only natural that the nuances from what I’m hearing manifests itself into my artwork. I have a lot of old standbys (Spoon, duh) and a tendency to listen to the same handful of groups over and over and over again until I find something new. To give you an idea of my mindset at the time, here’s my summer 2008 playlist (which used to be on muxtape before it went belly up):
1. Health – “Heaven”
2. Holy Fuck – “Korock”
3. The Octopus Project – “Porno Disaster”
4. Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Vietcaterpillar”
5. Aphex Twin – “Fingerbib”
6. Crystal Castles – “Air War”
7. Modeselektor – “Hasir”
8. Dabrye – “Hyped-Up Plus Tax”
9. TRS-80 – “Tickle Fingers”
10. Add N to (X) – “Metal Fingers in my Body”
11. Justice – “One Minute to Midnight”
Watch out for a zip file of this mix tonight, once I get back home!
#1.1, From Jason to me
According to the USPS, Jason should be getting this back along with a new collage sometime today. Once he scans it, I’ll post it here (and here)!
I don’t know about you, but my Google Reader boasts a ridiculous 98 subscriptions, which makes it difficult to keep up with the flood of inspiring images that I find on various blogs. I used to bookmark everything and even gave del.icio.us a try, but both things became bloated with the amount of links I had and I could never find specific items if I wanted to go back to them.
Lo and behold, Tumblr! I know that Tumblr is meant to be a simple way to blog, but I’ve found it works spectacularly as a method of visual bookmarking. With Tumblr, I can post photos of things that I would like to remember accompanied by a link or a short description. Scrolling through a long list of my photo posts is a lot easier than trying to read a long list of links or searching through tags that I don’t remember to include with a link. What it all comes down to is that, while I’ve been terrible at keeping up with this particular part of the blogosphere, I’ve been pretty decent at updating my Tumblr page, Lost & Found. Seeing as most of the things on my Tumblr page are relevant to my artwork / my visual vocabularly, I thought it would be good to post them here and elaborate on why I find them attractive.
The first installment from my Tumblr archives highlights three artists that I keep going back to: Cody Hoyt, Benjamin Edwards and Joey Piziali.
CODY HOYT
I stumbled upon Cody Hoyt at a time when I was thinking about using text in my work. Coincidentally, at that time, I was reworking a screenprint of scrambled text and Hoyt’s prints and drawings were on my mind. My work ended up more Wayne White, but I still can’t stop thinking about these. I love the 3D quality to the type, the transparency, the layering…it all builds up to this intense chaos.
BENJAMIN EDWARDS
With all the geometric shapes, map references and architectural qualities, it’s hard not to see why this is relevant to my work. I can see myself working more towards this direction with the cut&paste technique I was using with some of my Longitude prints. I love how these prints create such a complex environment but are still made up of simple geometric elements. If I had endless time and resources, I’d love to make prints with hundreds of transparent colors and thousands of little cut out shapes.
JOEY PIZIALI
Texture, texture, texture. I love the worn away appearance of printed matter. Piziali uses found billboard material for his work, revealing large halftone dots among his colorful geometrics. His work made me rethink how I was using collage in my own work.
Wow, it only took me a couple of weeks, but hey! I upgraded WordPress!
One of the main reasons why I was so motivated to start posting again was because of a new project I’m working on. Jason and I are doing a collaboration through the mail. We’re working on a bunch of mixed media/collage pieces and as soon as I can get some photos, they will be posted. This is exciting news because I’ve wanted to work on a collaborative project for quite a while but I’ve always run into some obstacle or another to prevent me from doing so. Even more exciting, working on a project will get me back in the routine of making art, something that has been sadly absent from my life as of late.
So, consider this the first of many posts about the collage project!
