VADS

VADS is the Visual Arts Data Service, an online image catalog, which is a portfolio of over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK. I just spent an hour looking at textiles. There are collections of all kinds of things in the visual arts, so go feast your eyes, here.

Nui Project

The Nui Project is a body of fiber work, mostly embroidery, done by a group of textile artists in Kagoshima, Japan. The artists have intellectual disabilities. For this project the artists have used ready-made shirts and have embroidered them, and then offered them for sale. There is a great article here, in HandEye magazine. There is a book published as well, which I believe is in two volumes. I got the following images from a blog post, here, at Day In and Day Out blog.

Cover textile by Atsushi Yoshimoto

Mikio Hamada

Naoki Fujimura and Aki Nozawa

Nutsa!

Are we all drooling over this leatherwork? It's been going around a little bit on Pinterest. It is the work of Nutsa Modebadze, a Russian artist. Her work is not yet available in this country apparently. Take a look at her website here. That tall brown leather bag would suit me just fine.

Go in Peace

New work on Etsy!

Just put some new work in my Etsy shop. More drawings done on repurposed Chemex coffee filters and a couple of tiny watercolor drawings. Here.

Habu Textiles

I don't think I need to say much. If you love fiber, take a look at Habu Textiles, here. Honestly, there is no quality better than this.

Louise Fili

I just listened to an interview of designer Louise Fili, conducted last week by Debbie Millman of Sterling Brands. Ms. Fili has just published Elegantissima, about typography. I'd like to get my hands on this book after listening to the interview (long, but worth it). The thing I loved about hearing her speak is the strength of her convictions about how she wants to work and even where she wants to work. She talked about making many of her important career decisions on the basis of what she felt at the time. Not on what she thought, or on what was logical, but what she felt...what she wanted at the time. I also like the way she comes across as someone so precise and meticulous and deeply focused. We all know her packaging designs and her book jacket designs. Her cover for The Lover by Marguerite Duras, "reinvented" book jacket design in the 80s. It all started with an Osmiroid pen which she used to make illuminated manuscripts of Bob Dylan lyrics! I think my next google search will be for those. You can see more of her designs at her website, here.

Supercycling

These are plastic bags recycled into these beautiful, useful vessels! They are created by molding the plastic bags around objects using a heat gun. The website for this great work is here, at Supercyclers, plus more about reclaiming plastic.

Terri Brooks

I'd like to find out more about this Australian artist, Terri Brooks. She has a website with a catalog of works here, and she writes a blog about her art here. What I have read so far interests me because she is exploring surfaces for their own sake. That is what I have been doing in my work for the past 18 months. I am getting deeper into that study, so I admire what this artist has done over the course of many years. Inspiration for me, and validation that surface is a valid focus for serious art.