WE'RE SUPPORTING

London illustrator Simon Brader’s work is innovative and full of topical innuendo. I love his colour choices in particular, the soft watery washes blending energetically with the more stubborn, edgy textures.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Monet and The Impressionists is on display at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales until January 26, 2009. Alive with bold brushstrokes and dappled colours, the exhibit features 58 masterpieces by Cezanne, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro and Monet himself, among many others that have never been shown in Australia. It was amazing to view some of the finest quality works that revolutionised modern painting and the way natural light is portrayed on canvas. Go Monetise yourself and see Rough Weather, and all those serial haystack paintings.

WE'RE WEARING

Converse kicks off its hundredth anniversary with 1HUND(RED), a special artist series with proceeds going to the Global Fund. The project is a year-long release of shoes designed by notable artists, including Auckland-based illustrator, Dennis Juan Ma, whose shoe [above] is number twenty in the series.

WE'RE THINKING

Argentinean artist Benito Laren’s illustrations roll through the mind like a restless childhood memory. They remind me of building blocks — solid, inviting and always full of potential.

WE'RE READING

Says Yuko Shimizu on the artwork of legendary Japanese illustrator Katsushika Hokusai: ‘I was just at Kinokuniya Bookstore [a Japanese book store at Rockefeller Center in New York] a few days ago and bought The Complete Hokusai-Manga Sketchbooks [published by Shogakukan]. It was $150, but worth every penny with its mind-blowing works of art by Katsushika Hokusai from cover to cover’
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Oh man, my eyeballs feel like they’re dropping out of my head. This clip is pyschedelic in a way that platform shoes and polyester shoes could never be. The Faint are the shizz, and that’s the truth.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Listening to Mum’s fourth album — Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy — for the first time, I was awash with sentimentalism. Amidst carnival trumpets and burlesque beats, there’s a sense of this being a bohemian rhapsody. Perhaps it’s the mix of cello and brass with experimental electronica. Or maybe it’s just the soft vocals that cascade over playful, imaginative sounds. Whatever it is, it’s totally brilliant. [see also Sigur Ros' Heima]

Listen to Mum’s track, The Amateur Show.