Lost AT E Minor

Patrick Gildersleeves

I’m a big fan of the vibrant, textured work of Brighton, England based illustrator Patrick Gildersleeves, who uses ‘pencil, felt tip pen and paint’ and is ‘inspired by the people of the world, patterns, paper, animals and plants’. He is a part of the Joyful Bewilderment group show at the new Rough Trade record store in London, opening October 2, 2008. Read more

Erica Eyres

I love art that scares me a little. Erica Eyres somehow manages to make subtly unnerving drawings of distorted figures using nothing more than a ballpoint pen and a piece of paper. She renders shockingly realistic hair, yet skews the proportions and features of her subjects, exaggerating their expressions and making them look monstrous.

Steve Schofield’s Land of the Free

In his series Land of the Free, photographer Steve Schofield captures geeky, cosplay fanatics in their own homes, sometimes with their costume-less family members. Two Klingons relaxing in a Middle-American living room as if waiting for grandma to serve cookies and tea makes for a truly compelling image. Schofield’s photos seem tense, as if halfway stuck between a mundane but warm reality and an exciting fantasy world. Read more

The 10 most interesting boutique hotels in Australia

By definition, boutique hotels are the smaller, more fashionable, niche hotels which offer its guests enhanced levels of service. Previously we’ve covered some of the coolest hotels in the world, but given the rising popularity of independent boutique hotels, we thought we’d show off some of the best in Australia. Read more

Polymer architecture

Here’s another commercial building, and no doubt a nice one too. But just another commercial building. Yet there is something different here and it’s in the materials used. The cladding is a fibre-reinforced polymer, or a FRP, and has a finish similar to that of a car. This technology has not been used on buildings extensively, though it has been used commonly in aerospace industries due to its higher strength to weight ratio than steel and concrete. The building by Foster and Partners — called The Walbrook — is located in London and is due to be completed in 2009.