Inspiration Thursday

I am inspired by Japanese artist Makoto Kagoshima.

Last summer, I went to an exhibit of his work at Chariots on Fire- a gallery located in Venice, California. I missed the opening on a Thursday evening and arrived early Saturday morning ready to see Kagoshima's beautiful ceramics (and possibly make a purchase). Sadly, I was told that there was a line around the block Thursday morning and everything had been snapped up within an hour. I was soooo disappointed! So I follow him on instagram and dream. (All of the following images are from instagram)

Chariots on Fire has published a beautiful book of Kagoshima's work - 137 pages of photos. You can order your own copy here.

Inspiration Thursday

Since my blog is called "Art & Inspiration", I thought I would start Inspiration Thursday to share some of the things that inspire me. This week is vintage mail. I love old letters and postcards with interesting postage and beautiful handwriting. Most of them I can't even read but but so nice to look at!

I've purchase my old mail on Etsy, Ebay, at the flea market and vintage shops. Affordable, they don't take up much room and each one is unique. 

Postcard from Vienna, Austria dated 1912

Postcard from Hungary dated 1889

Letter postmarked in Cyrillic (Russia or Bulgaria?) dated 1880

Postcard from Czechoslovakia to Finland dated 1921

French or Italian letter dated 1822

Postcard from Hungary dated 1888

Postcard from Japan to Italy dated 1903 sadly missing the stamp

French letter dated 1867

French letter dated 1836

New Art

Once again, I have been so busy that I have been neglecting my blog. It's the time of year where I have lots of shows coming up AND my calendar needs too be printed and finished. Luckily, I finished printing the calendar this weekend. One of the calendar images is a Japanese teapot, inspired by one in my collection. While I was printing the calendar, I printed the teapot onto an old scrap I had and made a new collage. The scrap already had a Japanese calligraphy pattern letterpress printed in the background so it was perfect for my teapot. I also used a bit of Japanese newspaper, some washi paper and a character seal. The collage is available in my Etsy shop here.

Happy July 4th!

In honor of the Fourth of July, I'm highlighting this book Yankee Doodle. I found it at my library sale room and since it is illustrated by artist Ed Emberley, I snatched it up even though the condition is rather poor. Published in 1965, Emberley's woodcuts illustrate the words to the famous song, Yankee Doodle. It also has a bit of history behind the lyrics such as Macaroni meant fancy trim and not the stuff you eat with cheese. I've scanned most of the book, but not quite everything, for you to enjoy.

A bit about Ed Emberley- he is a Caldecott Medal award winning children's book author and illustrator. In addition to illustrating books, he also has instuctional books on how to draw using simple shapes, lines, thumb prints, etc. His early books are quite collectible and many are hard to find and his instructional books are for children of all ages. You can visit his website here or see more of his illustrations on Pinterest here

Eric Ravilious Coronation Mug

Angie Lewin's linocut featuring the Ravilious mug

I first saw the1953 Queen Elizabeth II Coronation mug by Ravilious in a print by British print artist Angie Lewin. Known for his paintings and prints, Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) also designed for for Wedgewood Potteries. Ravilious was killed during World War II while working as a war artist. The mug was reworked posthumously for the coronation. I was lucky enough to win this lovely mug on Ebay.

The real thing with paler colors

While I would love to have an original print by Lewin to go with my mug, I shall have to make do with the greeting card above of the image. It's published by Art Angels and I purchased mine online from One Brown Cow (they have lots of other images by Angie Lewin, in case you are a fan!)

Pattern

I love to cruise my local Cost Plus World Market- they always have such interesting things. These papier-mâché bowls were from a special African exhibit. How cool are these patterns!

The bowls are from a South African non-profit, Wala Nani. They are made by women who are affected by HIV and AIDS. A few bowls are still available on the website here.

Bird Inspiration

I purchased this bird tile a few years ago at the flea market and it has been the inspiration for many of my birds, including the following. The tile is marked "mosaic" on the back and I have seen it in other color combinations such as green and yellow.

 

These birds were letterpress printed from my hand carved linoleum blocks and then embellished with pen and ink.

Flea Market Sunday

Well, I've found a new flea market to shop. On the fourth Sunday every month is the year old Topanga Vintage Market in the parking lot of the Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills, CA. There were many vendors I had never seen  before, and some I had purchased from at other markets. Here are some of my favorites of the day.

 

The trunk full of old frames was from Porthole Vintage, who also happens to have an Etsy shop. You can see more of their items here.

Vintage Cottage Finds offered all sorts of vintage crafting goodies and decor like the velvet ribbon and sparkly Christmas trees in delicious pastel colors. I purchase vintage wallpaper sheets to use in my collages. They also have an Etsy shop which you can find here. 

I loved these Kantha quilts from Kismet. These quilts are made from vintage textiles in India using Fair Trade. They were all so colorful and the backs were made from completely different, coordinating fabric. After much comparing and debating, I finally chose one (second photo). The back uses fabric with the same orange combined with pink. You can find out more about Kismet here.

This booth had lots of repurposed garden-themed items all beautifully displayed- unfortunately they don't seem to have a website.

Holiday Decorating

I love holiday decorations and here are a few that I have set up on my desk so I can admire them for the season.

The two snow globes are hand made by myself ( a really easy project using an old jar, plastic or ceramic decorations, oven bake clay like Fimo or Sculpey, water, glycerin and glitter). The pottery snowman was purchased from One Clay Bead on Etsy. I found the dyed trees in a local shop and the crochet covered rock was purchased from Hallo Jak at a local craft show. The fox card in the background was designed by British artist Claire Curtis and was published by Art Angels.

Alice in Wonderland

I have a lot of vintage children's books, but I also have a number of contemporary ones. I thought this book by "BabyLit®" was really cute.

It's part of a series of baby books based on classic literature. Other titles include "Romeo and Juliet", "Pride and Prejudice", "Dracula" and "Jane Eyre" to name a few. The company also sell art prints, totes and stuffed character toys. I believe that all of the books are written by Jennifer Adams and illustrated by Alison Oliver. You can check out Alison's website here (I can't access Jennifer's website at www.wordmusings.com)