The "Maja Chair" by Wisla Nicieja

I have been writing a lot about chairs on this blog. I have also been complaining that I don't have enough space in my apartment to work on my chair collection.But I never described the one chair that stands out the most. It is a chair that features... well, me basically.

One of my best friends,Wisła Nicieja, is a painter and an art restorer. Apart from restoring art, she also works with furniture. She can take and old piece of furniture bought online or found somewhere in trash and turn it into unique, hand painted treasure. She paints custom patterns on furniture, or copies your favourite piece of art onto them. When I visited her a couple years ago I caught something with a corner of my eye, when I entered her room. It was a little disturbing, it looked familiar, yet I couldn't quite put my finger on it. After ten seconds or so I realized the thing I was looking at had myself painted on it. It was a chair. With me in my bikini, looking at the sun, from our holidays in Paraguay.

The chair wasn't even made for me, Wisła needed something for an exhibition somewhere. But I did receieve it in the end, for my birthday. You can see the photo it is based on on the left, with Wisła in the right corner of it (I was pretty skinny back then, my ribs are kind of sticking out...). It was taken at a lake near Ciudad Del Este, a twon my uncle lives in. It is right at the border of Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina.

Wisła doesn't have a website (yet) but if you wish to contact her about a possible assigment, let me know.

Justyna Warwas-Kozak

Today I spent the afternoon with my friend from work and her husband. I learned my gmail accound had been hacked again, which was not the pleasant part of the afternoon, but Agnieszka showed me something she thought I might like - drawings and collages by her friend Justyna Wyrwas-Kozak. I am looking for something to hang in my living room and immediately fell in love with these! I hope I can buy a couple, I already have my favourites... Check out few more pieces after the break and I will get back to you with more details on Justyna's work and the techniques she uses soon.

Tom Messenger

A leaf in the sunset looks like a million bucks - I wonder where that comes from...

Animals On The Underground

You're on your way to work / school / fun. The train ride drags forever. The only thing you can focus your attention at are the faces of your co-commuters or the underground map. Chossing the second option, you look at the lines, follow their destinations, until the whole thing starts to live its own life. You see things that you're not supposed to see, shapes take form of animals and faces. Well, at least that's what happened to Paul Middlewick which leads us to Animals On The Underground. Smart and funny concept of drawing animals on the map of the London Underground. Since I'm going to London in a couple of weeks myself, I need to practice my ability to see them for the long rides in the tube.

The animals, created using the tube lines, stations and junctions of the London Underground map were first spotted by Paul Middlewick in 1988. The original animal, the elephant was discovered while Paul was staring at the tube map during his daily journey home from work. Since then, the elephant has been joined by many others from bats to bottlenose whales.

Go Wild at the Bronx ZOO

It's been almost two months since I've been to New York and I can't believe how time flies... One of the things we saw, among endless museum tours which I loved, was the Bronx Zoo. We went there on the free day and it was packed with families and kids and strollers. I never thought then they would need advertisement to attract any more traffic, but here it is. These beautiful illustrationsby  Leonardo Rodriguez are sketches for the tv ad, but I think they work better as illustration than the actual animation.
Check out one more cute and adorabe character in the illustration of Leonardo after the break.

Jason Graham And His Imagination...

While we're waiting for the new version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland directed by the crazies and most imaginative director - Tim Burton - here's something to make the waiting sweet and funny. A couple of illustrations by Jason Graham. Enjoy the weekend! Be creative!

Hipopotam Studio

Hipopoptam Studio - a creative duo that graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw - has a pretty impresive portfoilo of book illustrations. Pictures above come from one called "D.O.M.E.K", telling tales of the most creative and crazy houses in the world. Awarded Book Of The Year at IBBY (International Board on Books for Young Pople).

How much can one house differ from another? This book shows what fascinating art architecture is. In witty and vivid drawings, concise and catchy descriptions 35 extraordinary creations of the most eminent architects in the world are explored.

Mmmmm ...Marshmallows!

These cute marshmallow mascotes come from Yael Miller's website. Yael associates to me mostly with her excellent package design portfolio and her expertise on the subject, often presented at The Dieline. But hey, we don't all always do the serious stuff, there's time in everybody's life to simply draw marshmallows! For those of you interested in Yael's packaging please visit her website or check out The Dieline on a regular basis to come across her posts.

Silija Goetz

After spotting Silija Goetz on Behance, I wanted to find out a bit more about her and her amazing illustrations. Unfortunately all I found on her website was this: Silja Goetz is a freelance illustrator with home in Madrid/ Spain. She was born in 1974 in Regensburg/Germany, studied comunication design in Nürnberg (by the way, Nürnberg was the first foreign city I ever saw, I was 10 and in awe). If you think this isn't enough, you can read a short interview with her on Make Do and Mend.

Sea Life

There's always something interesting, pretty and colourful to admire on Etsy. This particular is a screen print by beethings. Can't say I recognize all of the animals featured, but they look so good together.

Jason Graham

It's so (sooo) hot today, I'm atracted to anything that says COLD. This beautiful Eskimo definitely does. It's a painting by Jason Graham, found on Behance.

Peggy Wolf

It seems like we're having another beautiful summer day in New York. These two collages by Peggy Wolf fit perfectly in the summer mood.

Katie Kirk

Katie Kirk is a graphic designer and illustrator living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With a love of vector art and patterns, Katie is always in the mood to scheme, collaborate and create. Together with her husband, Nathan Strandberg, they started EightHourDay, a multi-disciplinary, multi-talented design boutique. integrated organically. Most often found either at the studio, the dog park or an antique shop they aspire for the designed life(style), a place where work, life and inspiration are all equal and integrated organically. Via Graphic-Exchange.

Russel Peters by Jordan Domont

Another great illustration by Jordan Domont.
I had the pleasure of painting the portrait of Canadian comedian Russell Peters for Toronto Life Magazine. It was part of a larger spread called “12 Reasons to Love Toronto”. I love getting the chance to paint comedians, they seem to lend themselves perfectly to my sense of color and the playfulness of my work. Featured in Toronto Life.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Tired of just following Mary to school, this lamb got a job as a fourth grade teacher's aid. The children still laugh and play when they see him, but the novelty has worn off a bit...especially on the days he gives them homework.

This lovely lady put on her best pearls just for you! Meet Victoria Swann, Crafty Cat. She enjoys knitting (she knitted this nice yellow sweater) and she also makes furniture out of salvaged materials. At the end of the day she likes to curl up with a good book and a cup of tea. I think it says it all. By Berkley Illustration.

Illustrations by Jordan Domont

Jordan Domont is an illustrator from Portland. Here's a short description of his style: To infuse depth and iluminosity into his work, Jordan employs a palette of punchy hues. Experimenting, he discovered that when inks layer heavily onto Mylar, it creates a rich, almost melted effect. Pigments become slightly volatile, even mercurial, and their behavior enlivens the entire process. His portfolio is also presented at The Loud Cloud.

Oh, in case you haven't recognised, from top: Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War, Conan O'Brien, Joaquin Phoenix as Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton character and Tina Fey.

Eliza Logan

Eliza Logan is an old friend of mine. We met a long time ago, back in the days when she worked in the Polish branch of EMI. She was our door to the world of interviews with our favourite bands. I still remember the day we met Chumbawamba, in their days of biggest glory, after the release of Tubthumping. Or the Blur party for their 10th anniversary in London, or meeting Dandy Warhols... She now lives in L.A and is known by the name Francis Poland. I would ♥ to own this painting of hers...

Lucy In The Sky (with a book)

Painted with acrylic paint, ink, gel pen, pencil and marker on a vintage book page from 1892.Mounted on white acid free textured cardboard. Ready to get framed. By Annette Mangseth.