ART CRUSH: LEFT FIELD CARDS

I recently connected with Amelie Mancini, a Mets fan/painter/printmaker from France who now calls NYC home. This beautiful set of letterpress postcards is from her edible all-stars series - baseball players with food names! She also has a series of bizarre injuries cards, as well as a tribute print to The Kid (Gary Carter) with all profits donated to The National Brain Tumor Society. Check out her card shop & paintings for more.

Anyone want to receive a postcard in the mail featuring a baseball player with a food name? Despite the fact that I am terrible at sending out friendly personal mail (cards/notes/etc) I'd like to write a few messages to 5 of you. If there are 5 of you interested out there in web-land, that is. Leave me your email address in the comments and I will contact you for your address.

Guys, it's almost baseball season...

ART CRUSH: KAYE BLEGVAD

I've long admired this wee skulls ring by Datter Industries (aka Kaye Blegvad) via my ever expanding Etsy favourites list, and finally brought it into my home and onto my hand. It arrived in the most simple/perfect packaging (red string!), and looked even better then I had imagined it would. I've worn it every day since. A new talisman to ward off evil spirits? Sure, who couldn't use that! Here it is modelled by Tara Bursey's plaster finger, which usually hangs out on my bookshelf and isn't weird at all.

Kaye Blegvad is a London born, Brooklyn based illustrator and maker of things. I love both her illustration and jewelery work a lot. She draws sword carrying ladies, hairy legs, healthy living, touches on themes of luck (one of my not so secret faves), witchcraft (another favourite!), and illustrates her day to day life in a way that is not just visually pleasing, but funny too. Art with a dark heart and a bit of humour to it really hits me in the guts in all the right ways.

Check out her shops (illustration and jewelry) and portfolio!

Her beautiful business card also features a hand. As does mine. I think this is a pretty good sign that we should probably be pals...

ART CRUSH: STACEY ROZICH

My friend Tim got me this incredible Stacey Rozich print for Christmas. So good. Rozich is a Seattle based illustrator/designer and all of her work is excellent. Lots of angles, shapes, colours, and dark horned characters. She also animated characters for The Shrine/An Argument video by Fleet Foxes. If you haven't seen it already, it's definitely worth a viewing. The visuals really compliment the song - the whole thing feels very haunting and rich.

The Shrine / An Argument from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

ART CRUSH: ELIZABETH GRAEBER

Elizabeth Graeber is an illustrator from Washington making nice rough around the edges work. Scratchy lines, watercolours, cool bikes, and great faces. I'd been checking out her shop, admiring her wide selection of goods, when I impulse bought An Illustrated Guide To Cocktails. My friend Tim's been drinking whiskey a lot more often these days, and I'm taste testing here and there in an attempt to develop an appreciation. Expand the horizons beyond lazily uncapping a beer, ya know? Though I certainly plan to continue doing that too... An Illustrated Guide To Cocktails (writing by Orr Shtuhl and drawing by Graeber) "tells the tales of the heyday of cocktails, from the origin of the margarita to the grandeur of the first celebrity bartender with some modern twists. Along the way, this fun, handheld guide is dabbled with beautiful illustrations and, of course, recipes." A little history, some excellent visuals, and delicious instructions? Yes please.

A few more recent crushes can be found in this Etsy treasury: Bad Ritual.

And why does Blogger keep denying me my text and font colour choices? This is not Arial. Those black links are not all peachy. This is not my beautiful house.

ART CRUSH: LET'S SWAP IT & MIKE PERRY.

Have you checked out Let's Swap it? It's a cool idea: a place where artists and designers can swap art for free. There is always one featured item up for swap (an edition of prints, etc). If you like what's up for grabs, you can submit what you'd like to trade (anything!), and the artist will choose the swaps they are interested in. I recently swapped with Mike Perry for this big, bright geometric print! Connecting with artists I like is always a total pleasure. Follow their twitter feed for updates on new swaps.

ART CRUSH: ROB HODGSON

This Rob Hodgson graveyard print taunted me from my Etsy favourites list for quite some time. You know when you see something and you're immediately in love with it and kinda jealous at the same time? Well, this one can now haunt me from the comfort of my home. It's the perfect mix of pretty and spooky. What a beauty!

Rob Hodgson is an illustrator from Bristol. Check out his excellent work here: website / shop / blog

ART CRUSH: LUKE BEST

Double sided cards that tell the tale of a dangerous journey... One dedicated, agile man and one brave, spider killing woman risk their lives to retrieve perfect tokens of love - one precious rock and one special little tree. To the top of the mountains and to the bottom of the oceans, people. I plan to frame these guys and hang them up in my claustrophobic bedroom. Off-kilter lines get me every time.

Luke Best is an artist from London UK. His catalogue of work, style, and colour choices are all super excellent. Inspiring stuff!

ART CRUSH: CHARLOTTE FARMER

Charlotte Farmer is a UK illustrator/screen printer (with super excellent handwriting) who describes her work as a combination of low tech printing methods, small intense detail, contrasted with mistakes, imperfections & a bit of more gestural mark making.

Via the magic of the web, Charlotte and I recently crossed paths, and a couple weeks ago I got some excellent mail. Above you will see my sweet new jazz guy tote, a fantastic hello postcard, and the bright stripey bag things came in. I've definitely got a thing for scratchy drawing and screen printing that's intentionally imperfect and full of texture, and Charlotte really hits the mark on this! I grabbed a few images from her website & blog below for your perusal - aren't the snow globes amazing?

Cat Tote

No Bulls Were Harmed In The Making Of This Print, Ole.

Teabag Teatowel

Kate & Wills Teatowel

Jane Hearts Isambard

ART CRUSH: CAROLINE GAEDECHENS.

Today I came home to a couple of prints I ordered by Carloline Gaedechens via Tiny Showcase. The Wolves & The Village. The text in The Wolves translates to "as soon as the wolves had eaten the siblings they became human." I love them. Check out her Etsy shop for more spooky, textured, mysterious, excellent work!

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A couple of other things:

A small selection of my cards are now available at The Drake General Store in Toronto, and The Hach in Vancouver!

And I just wanted to say thanks to anyone who's written about my stuff, stopped by this blog, or reached out in some way lately on the web or in person. I am so appreciative of your kindness, time, and (contagious) enthusiasm. Thanks!