Looking for an art project to carry you through this long, hot summer? Visit Steven Weissman’s blog to pit your most vicious doodles against his son’s battalion of weird warriors. The template is right here.

I’m enjoying my first summer vacation in four years. The local art library has played a big part in keeping me entertained. Along with art books, they have a big stock of art videos including this surprisingly good tv movie, Dirty Pictures, about the controversy surrounding the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center.

Happy summer time, IF blog readers! It has been a little quiet around here lately. I guess we’ve all decided to be on the internet a little less and enjoying the summer sunshine a little more Which is a great thing.

Anyhow, here are a few of my flickr morsels for you in the meantime…

New paintings by Malota

It’s like I’m there by Justin Degarmo

High waisted pants by Lori Joy Smith

Coffee hot, tea cold by Frank-C

Work by Seonna Hong. See the entire gorgeous show right over here.

Enjoy!

Donna from Devilishly Good Stuff wrote in to share her MOO goodies with us. They look super great! She got postcards, stickers, and minicards. Fancy! Congrats again Donna!
(We’ll be having another MOO giveaway sometime in July. Stay tuned!)

Skinny laMink creates lovely vintage mug tea towels! She also has some great concepts for ceramics, paper and vinyl. Great stuff.

christine castro is funding one creative adventure with an even better one. the true story above is the first in a series of limited edition prints. 100% of the proceeds will go towards a reunion with her friends at the squam workshop this summer.

I’m one of those people that’s guilty of judging a book by it’s cover, and I mean this literally, as in, like, real books. I’ll buy a book sometimes just because the cover grabs my eye, only to go home and find some real stinkers content-wise. Same for CD’s (during the pre-Itunes Dark Age when I still bought the physical CD. Oh, how I have supported Apple over the last couple years!).

Still, album artwork really interests me, and I’ve dabbled in it myself. Every once in a while the artwork meshes with the music so well that an entirely realized image is formed, complete with that fuzzy feeling of being told a story. Being a big fan of the more folky side of Indie music (which, these days, there’s a LOT to choose from. As well as lead singers that look like Jesus.) this fuzzy feeling happened with the band Fleet Foxes. To me, they pick up the reins where My Morning Jacket left them after “It Still Moves”. And really, the lead singers sound identical. Check out the artwork:

There’s a bigger one here.

So yeah, first step, I buy the album, love it, get fuzzy feeling, and then I’m curious about who did the artwork. Sub Pop is known to employ some awesome illustrators, but this one just looks so… masterful. Know what I mean? Then I have a relapse to my whole “Bachelors of Fine Arts” education (most of which I’ve forgotten) and realize that I already know the painting. It’s the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegal the Elder. I bet he didn’t realize that he would be so hip some 500 years later. It’s also known as The Topsy Turvy World, which makes sense.

The only bad news is the artist doesn’t have his own website, blog, or Facebook page! Drag.

Would anyone like to do a special edition Portrait Party Moleskine Exchange? Portrait partier and moleskine exchanger, Melissa W., suggested a large scale international portrait party using the japanese fold moleskines. Each person starts with a Japanese Fold Moleskine, draws herself on the first page, includes 2 or 3 photos of herself in the pocket, then mails it to the next artist. Each artist then draws the previous artist and a self portrait to go with it and then mails the moleskine again. The details can be found on Melissa’s Moly X Portrait 1 blog. I’d love to see the results!