Beautiful large format Polaroid transfers by Matt Schwartz of She Hit Pause Studios, Inc.

Matt started She Hit Pause almost a decade ago, featuring photographs of his what he calls his version of the pin-up girl. His work is meant to be paired together to create a story and has been described as "walking into a dream."

Shop the Polaroids on etsy.
See the full collection on his site.




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Beautiful photographs by Brooklyn-based artist Jennifer Causey.

Growing up in the South, Jennifer is captivated by minimalism and the homemade. She loves exploring nature and finding the beauty in every day.

See more of work on her site. And be sure to check out her lovely wedding photography and daily breakfast photos. Simple and beautiful.






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Artist Maria Britton paints on floral bed sheets - ones worn and faded from years of sleeping and washing.

The bed, as she says, is a place where one both experiences and escapes reality - a physical link between dream and awake. Using pieces of bedding as her canvas, Britton seeks to depict sleep's ability to disorientate by disrupting and restructuring the floral patterned backgrounds.

Very cool.

See more of Britton's work on her site.



P.S. Giftcard giveaway still going. Enter! Enter! Enter!




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Artist Lauren DiCioccio explores the tangible beauty of mass-produced media objects, like newspapers and magazines, as these commonplace items begin to depart from their paper form.

Her tedious handwork features these simple but intimate pieces of everyday life, hoping to describe the nostalgic beauty of these objects to her audience in the form of craft.

The pieces in her series sewnnews showcase entire issues of The New York Times encased in hand-embroidered cotton muslin. Thread outlines the images - color by color layered in a painterly fashion.

I love when artists find new canvases on which to work. So creative.

See DiCoccio's Portfolio.


 

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Unique minimalist sign designs by promopocket.

Super cool.


Shop them on etsy.



P.S. Don't forget about the giveaway!  :)


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I am incredibly excited about this new series by Dutch artist Jacob de Graaf.

An artist living and working in York, UK, de Graaf challenged himself to create at least one portrait a day for a year, under a strict set of rules. He is free in technique and material as long as the resulting work exists in a physical manner (i.e. no digital art), is uploaded to his blog Daily Portrait by midnight each day, and excuses are only welcome as the result of death, serious illness, or natural disaster.

Amazing. Reminds me a little of the portrait work I did in high school, which I really need to start up again... perhaps in the form of blog? Something to think about!

More:
See the series on Daily Portrait.
Shop the portraits on Etsy.
Check out Jacob de Graaf's other work on his site.




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How cool are these gig posters by self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades Lil Tuffy.

This artist/designer/screenprinter/bartender started on the path to poster fame in 2002 on his birthday, with a little poster drawing for the Black Keys. But Tuff's hobby quickly expanded into a full-time career designing posters, CD covers and record albums, apparel and myriad other goods for bands and labels the world over.

I have yet to find a poster I don't like - I for real want to frame them all.

Shop his posters here and here.

Keep up with Tuffy on his blog Tuff Shit.




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I'm back!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend - I sure did!

I traveled up to glorious New York City for a long weekend with my friend Amy.

I always love feeling the buzz of the city - so different than DC - and it was amazing.

We spent a lot of time walking the city: Union Square, SoHo, Upper East all on Saturday.

And even though we were exhausted, we were able to spend a moment at the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA, which was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the weekend. I know Burton has a crazy creative mind, but I was completely unaware of his artwork. I fell in love with his black and white ink and pen drawings (above: Untitled/Trick or Treat). The detail was incredible. We also got to see the full Edward Scissorhands costume. Such an experience!

Saturday night I had a beautiful outdoor dinner with a good friend and then headed out on the town with a few of my favorites, who are trying their hardest to get me to move back up to the city (enter the Harass Anna Until She Moves Back to New York Club). I haven't laughed that much in awhile.

Sunday was a little bit more relaxing, thankfully (I was exhausted!) We headed up to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx for the Orchid Show.  It was interesting to be around such beautiful flowers and foreign trees in the city. And it made for some great pictures.

The night winded down with some tasty Italian food and an early bed time, so I could head back to DC Monday morning.

A beautiful weekend all in all. Has me craving that town again.

Good thing I will be back there again come summer :)

Happy Monday!




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New York City Photographer Jeff Fried started getting into photography at age 20. But it was one color printing class years later that stirred his momentum, pushing him to transform his love of taking pictures into a full-fledged profession.

When focused in on his art, Jeff spends much of his time documenting friends and family in the spaces around him. But his shots of seemingly typical imagery are anything but mundane. Jeff manages to take everyday occurrences, like sitting in a dimly lit room, outside the realm of banality - conveying the emotion hidden in ordinary, real life moments.

As a spectator, it's easy to get lost in trying to decipher the thoughts of his subjects.

In Jeff's commercial work, he shows sensitivity to the needs of his clients, but the sort of raw, poetic qualities seen in his personal photos are still very much apparent.

I spoke to Jeff recently about his work. Here is what he had to say:

What made you decide to pursue photography professionally?
I’ve always felt extremely fortunate to have found something that I am good at and love to do. I started taking pictures when I was twenty and printing color film when I was twenty-two. I was shooting and printing pretty much non-stop so pursuing photography as a profession just seemed logical. After studying Art Photography at Syracuse University I moved to NYC, sold my car, bought a nice digital SLR, and started making efforts to put my name out as a New York City-based commercial photographer.

Tell us a little about some of your recent projects.
I've been gradually expanding upon a series of environmental portraits of young men over the past four years. I call the series "Disillusion." I started the project just before I entered my last year at Syracuse. I was seeing a lot of my male friends enter into a sort of personal funk (and in the midst of one myself). Each of us had our own reasons. Whether it was girls, family, jobs, school or whatever, for all us it was manifesting itself in a very noticeable way. We would talk on the phone or in person and the conversations would always revolve around these pretty depressed concepts. We’d often talk about how it’s a fairly common stereotype that young males, really guys in general, aren’t in touch with their emotions. That wasn’t the case with my friends and myself so I set out to embrace these feelings and try to capture them on film. I wanted to portray young men in a way they aren’t usually portrayed. I'm not sure if I'm done with that project. I say that because sometimes I still see and feel the funk. 

I've recently started another project called "The Heart." My parent's decided to move out of the house my family had lived in since '93. Even though they wanted to move and had talked about doing so for a while, the actual process was sad. I have not lived at home since 2003, yet moving brought me to realize how attached I was to that house. While I helped my parents move I kept thinking of the saying "home is where the heart is" and what moving homes means for that idea. Honestly, the more I think about that saying within the context of moving, the less I understand it.

We all have someone or something that inspires our life and work. What inspires you in your work?
Personally, the world around me. I tend to shoot what's in front of me, where I live, the people I know. Professionally, I work to understand what the client is trying to portray, then I let my imagination run. 

Favorite picture you've taken?

Without a doubt my Grandma standing outside on her balcony one spring afternoon. It was just before her 92nd birthday. I came home from school with a 4x5 and a bunch of film. I had been planning to photograph her out on the balcony for a while. The weather was beautiful on this particular day so I went up to her room to try to convince her to let me take her picture. My Grandma's lived with my family since I was 15 or 16. When I got to her room she was wearing her bright magenta button down shirt, holding a cordless phone in one hand and some crumbled tissue in the other. She said she was waiting for a call. She told me I could only take her picture if I let her wear her sunglasses. She has these incredibly suiting sunglasses that she found on a rack at CVS. So I couldn't argue with that. I went out on her balcony and set up the frame then asked her to join me. 4x5 film is pretty expensive so I only fired two frames, one of which is my all-time favorite. Both of her hands are up and she's mid-sentence. People always tell me they expect her to sound something like George Costanza's mom. It's kind of funny how many people will then proceed to put their hands in the air and put on their Jewish Grandmother accent and say "Don't fuhget to cawl ya grand-motha!" 

Favorite photo taken by someone else?
That’s not a fair question. I love too many. Some of the first that come to mind are DiCorcia’s Hollywood photos: Ike Cole, Eddie Anderson. I also really like Jeff Wall, Stephen Shore, Paul Graham, Joel Sternfeld. The list goes on. 

Favorite client you've done work for thus far?
Mbarqgo. Hands down. They flew me out to LA to shoot. That was a first time a client had ever done that.

What type of cameras do you use?
It really depends on the shoot. I bought my first camera when I was 20. It was an old Canon AE-1. I think it was made in '78 or '79. I first learned to print film with that camera. I still carry that camera with me to this day. Years later I moved to NYC and decided to sell my car and invest in a Canon 5D. I guess I was branded. When I was a student and had an equipment room full of gear I would always gravitate to the 4x5. I loved how clunky and process oriented it was. Somehow I convinced my professors to loan the gear over the summer before.

Name the first photographer that comes to your mind.
Philip Lorca-DiCorcia. Gotta love DiCorcia. 

If you could be invisible with your camera, where would you go, what would you shoot?
If I could be invisible with a camera well then I’d also like to request that I can travel through time. I’d go document my family during my childhood. If time travel isn’t available then I’d probably go to the White House.

Dream photo gig?
Midnight snack with Obama in the White House Kitchen.

What I love about your photographs is how real and contemplative they are. Is that something you aim for? What do you look to capture in your photos?
Well thank you kindly. When I’m shooting for myself I often like to stage the scene. I typically have an agenda in mind.

Thanks Jeff for taking the time to talk! 

Keep up with JFP

website.

blog.

facebook.

twitter.

Check out his recent series Getting Stranger.
I love the concept.

 

I'm inspired by all things art lately. Nothing else seems to be striking a chord with me.

You know, I was supposed to go here after high school, but ended up making a decision last minute that took me on a completely different path...

Sometimes I wonder where I'd be had I taken option one.

But rather than head down that road, I think I'll just start drawing and painting again. It's been too long.

Who's your favorite contemporary artist? I need some artistic stimulation :)




{paintings by TOMOKAZU MATSUYAMA}

ban.do sequin heart headband

This is For You by Rob Ryan

XOXO pencils by simplesongdesigns

Vast and Amazing print by FreyaArt

 B Mine gift tags from Olive Menna

key to my lock necklaces by anotherfeather

Diana F+ Mr. Pink camera

Little Vintage Hearts by sarahandbendrix

Daisy Pink and Black Silk bra by Hopeless

Mr. Darcy Proposal dish towel by Brookish

My Valentine Silver Heart Ring by Lilyja

I Heart Los Angeles Vintage Embroidered Map by Refashioned (I wish they had New York)

Heart-Shaped Valentine's Sugar Cookies by Elsylee Galetes Artesanals

Feel Like Making Love tee by Every Little Counts

Paper Heart, the movie

Love Me, Love My Dog French archival print by The Love Shop

Starry Night Adara wine (I can't find it anywhere!)

Heart and Branches card by Cabin + Cub












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