Nina Chakrabarti

Illustrator Nina Chakrabarti for the magazine I Want You.

Katie Turner

I just re-discovered Katie Turner's work, and I really like it. She's a senior at Parsons and I can totally see The New Yorker hiring her regularly as soon as she hits the pavement.  She recently did her first Op-Ed for the New York Times (link). I especially like this boyfriend criteria series. Not only do we have similar tastes in guys, the subway, tattoo, and bike illos are making me very nostalgic for NYC.

Website
Flickr

Maria Gil Ulldemolins

I've loved Spanish designer Maria Gil Ulldemolins' pen + ink hair portraits since I laid eyes on them last year, but I still can't decide on one favorite. They make me feel like I'm in a classroom, bored out of my mind by what's I'm supposed to be paying attention to, and instead transfixed by the minute details of the head in front of me. They're gorgeous, timeless, and each one has a story.




Maria Gil Ulldemolins' other work as featured on Design*Sponge

Her website
Her blog
Her etsy store: nosideup
Her etsy store: paperbling

Embroidered Friendship Bracelets

Hands Up Not Handouts' mission is to help empower impoverished women by helping them market and sell their handcrafted goods. Bonus? The bracelets coming out of these Palestine and Rwanda-based women run cooperatives are totally rad.




Link: Hands Up Not Handouts

Edie Harper

You're probably familiar with artist Charley Harper. I'm a huge fan of his bold, colorful, highly stylized wildlife prints. I just found out that his wife was an artist as well. Edie Harper's work is similar to her husband's in a lot of ways, but more whimsical, and with a focus on cats and biblical stories.




Images are from Fabulous Frames and Art, which has a huge collection of prints of both Charlie and Edie Harper's work.

Ana Bagayan

I like all of Ana Bagayan's work, but I'm especially attracted to the simplicity of the pencil sketches of her Keane-eyed girls.






Her paintings are amazing- I especially like the piece she's working on now. I'd love to hang it next to my Weeping Winnie painting.

Ana Bagayan website
Ana Bagayan flickr
Blog post about her process

Leslie Hall

If you like Har Mar Superstar, Amy Sedaris, Tim and Eric, Tracy Ullman or Jean Teasedale, I feel pretty confident you will thoroughly enjoy Leslie Hall.



I've followed her online for a few years, and have been impressed by the traveling Gem Sweater Museum, her guest appearance on Yo Gabba Gabba, and the plethora of entertaining videos. But seeing her live sealed the deal for me. She owned it - there's a sincerity behind the gimmick that makes it work. Plus, she eptomizes my favorite comedic archetype - the unnattractive character with grandiose delusions (Will Farrell, Danny McBride, Amy Sedaris).


Check out more at her site and wikipedia entry.

Greed

A Glossary:

Francesco Vezzoli: Contemporary Milan based artist, known for his lavish parodies, and whose work often revolves around deconstructing "glamor cinema"
Roman Polanski: Academy Award-winning Polish-French filmmaker, director of both arthouse and commercial films
Marcel Duchamp: French Dada/Surrealist artist, known for his "readymades" - everyday objects selected and designated as art.
Rrose Selavy: A pseudonym used by Marcel Duchamp beginning in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman.
Man Ray: Dada/Surrealist artist, best known for his avant garde photography
Eau de Voilette: A fake perfume - an "assisted readymade" created by Duchamp and Man Ray
Francesco Scavullo: an American fashion photographer best known for his celebrity portraits, who passed away in 2004.
Michelle Williams: Academy Award-nominated American actor. Started on Dawson's Creek and later graduated to film - Brokeback Mountain, and most recently Synecdoche, NY.
Natalie Portman: Actor, and Harvard graduate - The Professional, Garden State, Paris J'taime.

Okay. Now....

Conceived by Vezzoli, "Greed" is a fake advertisement for a fictional perfume. It stars Michelle Williams and Natalie Portman, and is directed by Roman Polanski. And I am very excited for it to be released.

Inspired by Duchamp's Eau de Voilette, the perfume is called "Greed" and the label has a photograph of Vezzoli taken by Francesco Scavullo.

Vezzoli says of the short art piece: “Lately the art world has become a place where there is a lot of effort to create desire, so I thought Greed was an appropriate theme. Natalie plays the good girl and Michelle plays the greedy one, and they start having a catfight over the perfume. They bite each other, pull each other's hair, throw themselves on the floor, and all of that is filmed by Polanski in his epitomizing style."

Did I mention I am very excited for it to be released?

You can see the trailer on Dazed Digital now, and the full length piece will be released on February 6th.

On a side note, Duchamp's Eau de Voilette, will be up for auction at the end of next month. Apparently it was in the private collection of Yves Saint Laurent.


link to the Christie's auction.

Dorophy Tang

Dorophy Tang's Diana+ Lomo camera has been starred in my Google Reader since August. But I just discovered more of her work which is equally cool.

Tang is a Chinese designer/illustrator who uses imagery from Ming Dynasty ceramics and the babies from Chinese New Year posters, to create work with companies like Lomo, Addidas and Epson.





found on: Wicked Halo

Coppola Ad

Big surprise, I love the new(ish) ad for Christian Dior's Miss Dior Cherie perfume. It's so pretty and girlie and sugary and 60's and French. Plus it has a girl in a dress on a bicycle. Plus it was directed by Sofia Coppola. Plus it's on top of a Brigitte Bardot song.



The most incredible thing about an ad like this - I've totally fallen for it. I want to experience life like this girl, so much so that I'd buy the perfume without even smelling it. I even believe that Sofia Coppola must like the fragrance too, or she wouldn't be promoting it - which is probably the furthest thing from true.



Source: fashionologie
Listen to the whole song with images of Brigitte Bardot here.
Opening of Lost in Translation - which has the same color palette as ad.
And a clip from Le Ballon Rouge. Just because.

Girl Crushin'

Yé-yé was a style of pop music that emerged out of France and Québec in the early 1960s. It was France's answer to British invasion and American girl groups.

I love British Invasion.

I love American Girl Groups.

I love cute sweet sexy French women.

I love yé-yé.







I really want to find Francoise Hardy, The "Yeh-Yeh" Girl from Paris or on vinyl for less than $25.00. Keep your eyes out for it won't you?

Links for more:
Blow-Up-Doll
Yé-Yé Girls
Yé-Yé Land
Les Chanteuses

Update:
Wow. I just searched for The Yeh-Yeh Girl from Paris again, and my friend's amazing podcast came up! He's going to give it to me, so you can stop looking. heh. Thank you Daniel!