The Inspiration Pad is a notebook by Marc Thomasset.  Credit for the photography goes to Marcel Veelo. I just may have to buy this.

This website is not for the Kindle-loving kind. Its all about us who drool over books as the sexy objects they are and how they are displayed.  Images from bookstores and private collections around the globe form the content here. It will be an inspiration for your own personal library.

Laurie Anderson:  Sharkey's Day

This is a recent unpublished illustration for a book dealing with the theme of constructive arguing.

I was just notified that my illustration titled Scream was recognized as a runner-up in the Creative Quarterly 20 competition.  The piece, which was created for a promotional calendar my illustration rep sends out each year, will be reproduced online in August coinciding with the publication of CQ20.  The artwork is acrylic and gouache on paper and not a very large scale painting at all.  Due to requests, my intention is to reproduce the piece as a limited edition archival print at a fairly large size. I love the idea of this simple image as something big!  Once I get the chance to get his done over the summer (between moving and such) I will post the print for sale on my shop page on this site.

As I sift through more ‘stuff’ in preparation for my move I am reminded that some of these things would make great subjects for posts to this page.  I don’t consider my ‘stuff’ of great importance, yet some things are great conversation pieces and I keep them not for their value, but more for the uniqueness they offer.  My Kraft Dinner Phone was found in an antique store in Toronto’s Leslieville neighborhood back in the early nineties.  I think I bought it for ten bucks and it was the thrill of finding out that indeed it actually works that sold me. (the shop keeper plugged it into a phone jack and I called home for messages on the KD phone!)

I used it for years as an extension in the kitchen (how appropriate), yet don’t use it anymore due to the highly irritating ring tone.  I love how Canadian this is….it includes the obligatory French side….and the packaging is definitely from an era gone by. I’m not sure of the story behind this phone. Was there a time when Kraft had phone give-away’s?  I’d love to know more about this!  I think this beats the Hamburger Phone anyday.

I am moving house and studio this summer and it is requiring a great deal of sifting through possessions and collections to see what stays and what goes.

As an artist I tend to collect or amass things because of their aesthetic value more than their practical importance to me.  One object, which I will not part with, is this vintage blue Eaton 400 typewriter which was given to me back in the eighties.  I actually used to type all my invoices using this machine because I love the look of typewriter text and I also simply love the functionality of these old machines.  I was from the generation where learning to type correctly was a part of my school curriculum, and those old machines really needed some finger strength!  No, the Eaton 400 is not an Olivetti, yet I love the sleek small shape and size of it and I think it has a bit of flare. It is also portable, with the black case simply slipping over the top like a shell. I used this machine in a performance-art piece several years ago and many collectors went ga-ga over it.  I think it will be a handsome object in my new office/studio.

I’d like to think this machine will become a collectable in the years to come as the Eaton’s Department store is now defunct. I don’t have information on when this typewriter was introduced so please share if you know something about it!

Project Thirty Three is a blog that celebrates the simple design of vintage vinyl record jackets. Most of the designs shown are focused on how the message for music is conveyed through simple shapes. Love these.

This is another image from my recent trip to NYC.  It was just such a perfect merging of pop and science fiction.  

When I was kid I loved to play with my spirograph kit.  I remember the multi-colored pens and the large plastic cogs held in place by map pins on a piece of cardboard.  A couple of years ago one of my former students gave a new small travel version that he found in a store somewhere.  It’s a decidedly different version from the deluxe early ‘70’s kit pictured above that I once had. I’ve recently started to play with it again and want to explore using it’s graphic and linear properties in some sketchbook doodling and collaging.  Silly fantastic non-digital fun!  I will post some experiments in near future.