Jolie laide?

Sydney, a design production associate for Blueprint magazine posted on the mag's blog about a brilliant portrait she had commissioned. She says in part:

Throughout history, portraiture has typically aimed to make the sitter look his or her best (if not drastically, unrecognizably better). But I'm tired of the same old 'smile and look pretty' shtick. It's time to get ugly.

She hired Reverend Aitor, a Toronto-based artist and member of art collective Misanthrope Specialty Co. whose "Unflattering Portraits" series is just that. In the best way of course. You can see all of them here.

Per Spook

This time last fall, I spent a few weeks in Scandinavia and saw this show at The National Museum of Art Architecture and Design in Oslo. Per Spook was a Norwegian fashion designer with his own haute couture maison in Paris from 1977 to 1995. His work has incredible prints and unusual silhouettes, something I think is a rare combination. Spook is still active as a designer, he creates prêt-à-porter under his own name in Japan (!). These images are scanned from my catalog of the exhibit, and there are a few more scattered around the internerd (lots of crystal....I guess he did some glassware work), but I didn't dig up anything recent. Nothing compares to seeing the garments in real life. Now I wish I'd bought he catalog to the Sixties Fashion exhibition I saw in London before we left!

phonics illustrations

Yes, it's been a busy day (outerwear! design card deadline!), but I've had these illustrations in my visual journal for ages. They are from my phonics book in elementary school. I loved to think up all kinds of narratives for the bottom picture...who lived in which building, whether the man on the raft was the woman under the umbrella, who would join the girl swinging (or who left her to swing alone), why no one was on the bus....more deep thoughts throughout the week, I'm sure.

ouch....monday.

Easy post day....from an old book of illustrations above and below a few favorites from my collection of old photos I've bought at yard sales, etc.