Exit Through The Gift Shop

I love documentaries.  I will (and have) watch a documentary on just about every subject.  However, the perfect storm of captured moments, interesting characters, untapped subjects and social commentary combined with humor and a bit of street smarts to make a documentary that plays like a screenplay labored over for years only comes along once in a decade or so.  Exit through the gift shop, a documentary within a documentary wrapped in a riddle, that explores art as commodity, is one of these rare gems

I'm the type of person who doesn't really like to know much about a movie before seeing it, so the above is a short trailer. If you're up for more, watch this:

And if you MUST know even more, check out the reviews here here and here

but honestly, the thing is genius, hilarious, and SMART. Just go see it. It's playing for a limited time in these cities. If you miss it on the big screen, you can toss it in your netflix que.

The Other Side Of the Rainbow

Ok dearest darling readers, I need you to come sit down so we can have what my buddy Jen calls a little come to Jesus. A couple of years ago I was just a design obsessed web-o-file shamefully perusing the interwebs at night looking for the sexiest modern design had to offer.  I found many blogs I loved and many more that I didn't love but none were completely my style and I thought it would be fun to have a space where I could post a quick pick of whatever I was currently drooling over at that minute.  Fast forward 2 years later and somehow or another I've fallen down a rabbit hole of 20-picture posts and almost daily essays.  This creative outlet is giving me flashbacks of grade-school homework, and who wants to do homework when they could be outside playing on the swing set... or just cruising the web and looking at OTHER blogs.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving you all behind, I love the blog and want to keep it up, but things are going to be a little different around here.  The days of milk and honey are done.  Mostly.  Oh, don't you worry, I'll still have the urge to do a big ole round up from time to time and I'm certainly not speaking for Erin here, but I need to be able to post one or two images that I find truly amazing and inspiring and then (gasp) walk away guilt free.

Aside from the novel above, today is day one.

Earlier this evening (it's monday night right now, btw) I stumbled across Jessica Hische's blog - Jessica is an amazing typeface designer and I encourage any one with an interest in graphics to check out her website post haste - anyhoodle, Jessica just finished teaching a course to illustrators at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Her students were asked to design a book cover for The Wizard of Oz.  Below are my 3 favorites, to see all the works, click here

Grace Kennedy

Poppies!  Poppies!  I just love everything about this cover.  Go ahead, name something about it?  Yes, I love that part.

Sara Wood

I love that Dorothy and the Witch complete each other on this cover, as though they are alternate egos within the same person... do I feel an English lit essay coming on?

Michael Olivo

Ok, I have to admit that I'm not really crazy about the typeface here, although it does fit within the tornado nicely.  However, i do think using the conical shape of the storm to split Dorothy's two worlds was clever clever smartness.

And see, this is how I'm going to be steering this ship from now on.

A Few Big Paintings

Out here in the wilds of Texas, we say Go big or go home. Well, that is not exactly what we say, since we're all about being welcoming and friendly and stuff. But I will confirm that everything really is bigger in Texas. Bigger houses, bigger yards, bigger hair, bigger cars, and even though Austin is a bastion of sanity in an otherwise supersized state, it still has its resident megalomaniacs.

Namely me. But instead of parking a Hummer in the six car garage of my palatial estate, I fantasize about big art. Really big art.

Ooooh, it's so... BIG.

Don't believe the haters who say size doesn't matter. It does.

But what if you have a lust for oversized eye candy on a teeny weeny budget?

You fake it.

Can you believe that Nick Olsen, MY decorator boyfriend (I'm talking to you, AB Chao), made this painting all by his very own self? He is one hot DIY dude.

I am suddenly inspired to embark on a similar endeavor, although I'm pretty sure it will not turn out as well. In fact, it will probably look like my cat threw up on a canvas. On the other hand, my cat is very talented at many things, like sleeping, shedding, and clawing up furniture, so perhaps I should just back off and let her have a turn at it. It couldn't hurt, right?

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you all have a supersized weekend!

1. Kelly Wearstler

2. Steven Volpe

3. Nick Olsen