August 26, 2010 | Cool Travel | by Nikki Savvides |
I’ve always thought it strange that Sydney’s grungily trendy and alcohol soaked Newtown has fewer than it’s fair share of cool little bars. There’s Madame Fling Flong’s, if you can find it, and Kuleto’s, if you make it in time for two-for-one cocktail hour. But just the other day I realised that there, smack back in the middle of the action, was a new small bar called Corridor. Read more
August 12, 2010 | New & Cool Architecture | by Nikki Savvides |
Picture a future in which climate change and exhausted coal supplies have left humans in need of inventive ways of living in an inhospitable landscape. Then combine it with two inch high yellow plastic people and a bunch of interlocking plastic bricks and you have Dave DeGobbi’s Lego Crawler Town, a fantastically detailed, miniaturized solution to life in a post-apocalyptic world. Read more
August 11, 2010 | New Eco | by Nikki Savvides |
The brainchild of Harvard University engineering students Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman, and Hemali Thakkar, sOccket is an ingenious creation that harnesses the kinetic potential of play. A soccer ball which uses inductive coil technology to capture and store energy for later use, sOccket has been provided as a solution to the day-to-day energy problems of people living in third world countries. Read more
August 10, 2010 | New & Cool Architecture | by Nikki Savvides |
In a city like Tokyo, where high-density living has reduced green spaces to mere pockets, and Japanese food self-sufficiency has dropped below 40%, it makes sense to look to alternative forms of agriculture to feed the growing population. Enter Pasona 02, a square kilometre of underground farm located in an abandoned bank vault that prepares jobless youth for work in the agricultural industry. Read more
February 19, 2010 | New Illustration | by Nikki Savvides |
Illustrator Molly Crabapple is inspired by Victorian culture and the sexy, bawdy world of burlesque. Her illustrations are colourful and erotic, her voluptuous female subjects bursting out of their corsets while eying off the viewer with undisguised lewdness. Having worked on numerous commercial projects, organised her own shows and illustrated several graphic novels, Crabapple also created Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School in New York City in 2005.
February 8, 2010 | New Illustration | by Nikki Savvides |
The twenty minute walk from my house to Newtown takes me down cramped backstreets and past run-down buildings decorated with some of the best stencil art I’ve ever see. One of its creators is Sydney’s Syke, a member of a group known as the Original Art Club, who ‘busk’ their art on the streets of the inner-city suburb. Read more
November 3, 2009 | New Art | by Nikki Savvides |
New Delhi-based digital artist Archan Nair (aka archanN) has worked for notable clients, including CNBC, Hugo Boss, Apple and Tiger Beer. But although his corporate works stand out in their glorious, hyper-real colour, his more intricate and personal works are my favourites. Read more
October 26, 2009 | New Eco | by Nikki Savvides |
The Miss Rockaway Armada is a group of about thirty artists, musicians and performers who hail from across the United States. In the summers of 2006 and 2007, the group floated down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans on a flotilla of handmade rafts. Crafted mainly from junk and recycled materials, the rafts ran on wind and solar power, were fuelled by bio-diesel, and their crew subsisted on rainwater and dumpstered meals for the entire journey. Read more
October 21, 2009 | New Eco | by Nikki Savvides |
Eve and Eryn, two amazing Free Spirit Sphere tree houses, are located in Vancouver, Canada, high up in the canopy of the West Coast rainforest. They are, as their creators describe, ‘suspended like pendants from a web of rope’ from the trees. This is a unique way of creating unobtrusive means of living amongst nature. Insulated and set up for one or two people to stay in, these spheres allow people to experience the ‘energy shift’ that occurs ‘once one breaks contact with the ground’. Read more
September 10, 2009 | New Art | by Nikki Savvides 
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When I was a kid, I loved balloon animals and was always sad when the colourful, inflatable creatures I bought home from shows and circuses slowly deflated. I think Jason Hackenwerth may have had a similar passion, which he has transformed into a peculiar form of art-making: balloon sculpture. Drawing inspiration from nature, Hackenwerth brings strange animals and bizarre landscapes to life through the twisting and turning of hundreds and thousands of balloons. Reminiscent of millipedes, of crustaceans, of deep sea fishes and waterborne plants, his giant works make the microscopic macroscopic. Rendered larger-than-life but yet unnaturally airborne they are brilliantly surreal, capturing the transcendentalism of both air and of nature itself. Read more
September 4, 2009 | New Art | by Nikki Savvides |
Sardinian born Carolina Melis is an illustrator based in the UK. She’s obviously multi-talented, her bio listing her not only as an artist but as an animator, dancer and choreographer. Her illustrations are apparently ‘informed by her background in choreography’ and explore ‘ideas of delicacy, organic development, life-cycles and living relationships’. Read more
August 13, 2009 | New Trends | by Nikki Savvides |
A survey of two thousand Britons has revealed the country’s perfect pet. Max is a bizarre hybrid that is part cat, part dog, part rabbit and part horse. Insurance firm More Than, which conducted the research, suggests that Max ‘has high energy levels, loves daily walks and sleeps for an average of nine hours 27 minutes a day’. Read more
August 11, 2009 | New Events | by Nikki Savvides |
Cremations Solutions, ‘[y]our complete source for scattering urns and accessories’, offers personal urns which are created from the image of the deceased. The large containers, which feature lifelike features, but no hair, can hold an entire loved one’s ashes, and cost only US$2,600. Read more
August 11, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Nikki Savvides |
I’ve just returned from an amazing trip to Vanuatu, a small cluster of islands north east of Australia. There my friend and I spent time exploring the coral reefs of the Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area, home to hundreds of thousands of brilliantly colored fish, sea turtles, reef sharks, sting rays and other fascinating underwater critters. Read more
July 9, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Nikki Savvides |
May’s is an outdoor gallery in Sydney’s St Peters that is devoted to promoting a legal space in which street artists can exhibit their work. The brainchild of Tuli Balog, who runs his own graphic art business behind the colourful façade, he set up the gallery to encourage and document the evolution of graffiti and stencil art in Sydney. Based on several removable and replaceable wall panels, May’s allows artists to work on an entire wall, and to keep the parts of their works on the panels before the next artist’s work takes up residency. While this system challenges the usually temporary nature of street art, it also provides an avenue for street artworks to be protected from removal or cover-up by the local council. For this reason, it is a unique space, protected from the rampant clean-up and gentrification which is sanitising so many areas of the city.
Karl Kwasny, also known as Monaux, has just embarked on a rather ambitious digital art book project - he’ll be publishing one illustration per week for two years. It’ll be one playful book when he’s done; you might recognise the Australian illustrator’s style from some recently released Insight51 and Mooks tees.
Yes, we’ve featured him a lot on Lost At E Minor, but how could we not? New York-based artist Sam Weber’s work is amazing, tapping into dreams, visions, and fantasies from every wayward mind. [more about Sam Weber]
In my next life, I want to sing like Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison. Oh, and grow a lush beard, so I can play in their band. Better start cracking.
Mexican architecture firm Senosiain Arquitectos recently designed a shell-shaped dwelling for a Mexico City couple. The owners are already living in their new abode with their two very happy children. The structure is maintenance-free and earthquake proof, and is full of soothing greenery and smooth, rounded surfaces. Read more
Interior design website, Apartment Therapy, just posted some amazing pictures of ’70s rock stars in their parents’ homes. My favorite is of David Crosby and his dad [below]. The two look so completely opposite of each other that it’s hard to believe that it’s Crosby’s real dad. They also look like they’re barely concealing the contempt they have for each other. Crosby’s father was an Academy-Award-winning cinematographer who shot Tabu and High Noon, amongst other well-known films. Read more
Oh man, close your eyes if you will and transport yourself to a place far, far away; where disco is in, polyester is up, and everyone bows long and deep to the gravitational pull of the almighty afro. Sister Self-Doubt by The Shakes takes me there. It takes me front and centre, feeling that slippery, incidenary groove as it crunches my spine and works its way to my feet. Hmmm, the feet. It’s always in the feet. And now I’m dancing and twisting, onwards and upwards, like a manic spinning top thinking nothing of today and even less of tomorrow.
Listen to The Shakes track, Sister Self Doubt.
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Marc Jacobs’ newly unleashed Autumn 08 collection hit the stage this week and if there is an international designer who I couldn’t appreciate any more, then it’s Marc. His signature patent-leather goods are the apple of my eyes and I think my MJ leather-quilted wallet, stam-bag and ballet mouse flats are being overlooked for Mark Jacob’s freshly launched red velvet trimmed pumps. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
A little infectious lollipop rock anyone? Feel free to embarrass yourself singing along at the stoplight. If the other drivers give you that look, roll down the windows and spread the love.
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Pencils made from recycled newspaper
The problem with awesome things like these pencils made out of recycled newspaper is that you almost don’t want to use them.
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
Michelle Blade’s psychedelic artwork
Michelle Blade’s washed out paintings are deceptively simple, her washy acrylics creating psychedelic textures and conjuring ghostly figures from the past. Read more
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. Read more
Using Kyoko Hashimoto’s popular design, these acrylic earrings are made with unique hand formed sterling silver sleepers that make them light enough for everyday wear. Part of Kyoko’s collection, I Blame the Uni, (pronounced ‘oo-nee’, the Japanese name for sea urchin) and inspired by her experiences in the underground club scene of Tokyo. Read more
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