JUSTYNA WERBEL

Justyna constantly amazes me with her creativity!!! She creates incredible work in all mediums. Industrial design, photography, collage, sculpture, social change campaigns.....Justyna does it all. I am especially fond of this series of collages. These were constructed from a box of ephemera that was given to her. When Justyna described the man who gave this to her, I realized it was the same person I used to visit every Sunday at the St. Lawrence market to buy my old photos and notebooks. When he stopped selling at the market, I stopped going because he always had the best collection of found objects.

THE XX

Sorry for the lag in blog entries!! Just got back from a trip to Montreal. It was a long drive there and back but some new music on the ipod helped the time pass.

Here is my favorite new find...thanks to Kathryn. THE XX. Especially obsessed with this rexix by Jamie (eliza doolittle) from the XX.

TREASURES

These beautiful art pieces are past birthday presents from Kathryn Macnaughton. It was recently her birthday ( her little gifty is the purple bag in the middle photo). I usually make art for her too but this year she got a makeup goody bag from me. I will have to search for photos of some of the pieces I made for her. The bottom photo shows the collaged horse boxes Kathryn made for me two years ago. I feel so lucky to have such wonderfully creative friends!!!!!! Thanks Kathryn! xoxoxo

FUN PURCHASE

courtesy of Deco Alley

Hard to tell from the first picture but I am showing off my new candy- covered contact and pill cases from Deco Alley on Etsy. You won't believe the detail on these!!!! My sweet tooth has officially overcome me!!!!

BOOK COLLAGE

A year ago I escaped to a friends adorable little cottage in Prince Edward County and did a whole lot of random collaging. I bought Dash & Dart at a library book sale in a tiny town called Bloomfield that was 30 minutes away from the cottage. There are still so many pages to decorate!!!!!!!

VINTAGE FINDS

These finds are from Elora, Ontario. I went on a an amazing day trip with an overloaded car full of friends and we stopped at a garage sale on the way. We all found fun little treasures and then made our way to the Elora Gorge. Can't wait to go back !!! Next time we will be prepared to go tubing in the Gorge!

DREAMS DO COME TRUE

I continue to be enchanted by Tim Walker's photos. While interning at Vogue, I would escape to the Conde Nast Library at any chance just to study photos like these. The design department would use inspiration from past publications to help illustrate new campaigns or photo shoots. I would be flipping through hundreds of magazine's a day and each time that I came across a Tim Walker photo I couldn't help but get lost in his dream world . It turns out that Tim Walker was first inspired to become a photographer while sifting through magazines in Conde Nast's library. This was while he was working for Cecil Beaton in London. If only the Conde Nast library was open to the public!!!!

MUSHY PONY

A new interview for Mushy Pony!! Mushy Pony's founder and #1 cowgirl, Emma Farquhson, has created this website to help city dwellers navigate Toronto's social scene. I wish I had this when I moved to the city. I have lived here for 8 years and I am still learning new things about the city. Can't wait to see what adventures the cowgirls guide us to next!!!!!

COCOROSIE!!!!

I saw Cocorosie play at the opera house last week. It was the most captivating show I have ever seen. Sisters, Bianca and Sierra Cassidy gave a magical performance. They are widely eccentric in every way and their costumes and makeup tell a different story each time they perform. Bianca was sporting masculine garb, as she usually does, and her makeup drew resemblance to a raccoon. Sierra's neon outfit interacted with the black light that they had at he front of the stage. Her face was painted white with florescent pink highlights. She wore many a layers of colourful unitards with a gold bathing suit on top. It took me three songs to realize that all of the background beats were coming from one guy beatboxing. He was amazing too!!! If Cocorosie comes near you, I highly recommend going to see their show.

There is an interesting documentary called The Eternal Children featuring Cocorosie too!

NEW WORK

Here are some new pieces. I am doing a continuing series of little balloon people. To see more work visit my website. Lots more that I have yet to post!!

It is my Nana's birthday today!!! This is the card I made for her. Her siamese kitty Coco is the love of her life so I always try to make kitty cards for her. Happy b-day Nana.

DISCOVERY

Discovery is the brainchild of Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles and Vampire Weekend keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij. I have loved listening to them lately and can't get their songs out of my head. Hope you enjoy!

PAPER WORK

These are a couple of my mixed media experiments. They are pencil drawings on vintage scrapbook paper with sewn elements. I am planning to do more but these took an eternity to finish because of the hand-stitching.

Yesterday's adventure took us to a deserted construction site!! We had tons of fun jumping around in the dirt. To see more from the shoot go to Beckerman Biteplate.

My newest craft obsession is this Japanese washi paper tape. It comes in all different colors and patterns. You get great tertiary colors when you layer the tapes too. I ordered my tape from a company called Happy Tape. If you want to see more of my art pieces using the tape check out my website.