Wild Life

Roa is the talented street artist behind these extraordinary paintings of wildlife.  Originally from Ghent in Belgium, he would use dilapidated buildings he'd find in the industrial outskirts of his hometown, as canvasses for his work.  Now he's started painting buildings in London around Brick Lane where the bird above is to be found and he has a show at The Pure Evil gallery.  He also paints on other objects like old metal locker doors.  See here for more: http://roaweb.tumblr.com/

Nocturama

Alexander Chaskielberg's pictures have a haunting quality about them.  I think these are the ones I read about later on another site and they are the shots he took of various Paraguayan immigrants at night on long exposure.  He then ran around with a light whilst the film was exposing to help create this eerie beautiful light effect.  http://www.chaskielberg.com

Shadowy skater boy

Love this series shot by Jean-Yves Lemoigne. http://www.jeanyveslemoigne.com/

Hijabizing

Just read about Princess Hijab, a mysterious Paris-based grafitti artist who paints black Muslim veils on fashion advertising posters found on the Paris metro.  Her identity is a secret as is her religious persuasion (the journalist who she deigned to meet wasn't sure she was even female).  Whatever it is, I admire the audacious courage of her work.  The French government is currently trying to make wearing the hijab illegal in public places citing the state-endorsed secularism France has lived with since the Revolution but in parallel to this is the fact that islamophobia is rife in France so it smacks of something undemocratic and faintly sinister.  Her work is irreverant, gets people talking and more importantly strikes at the heart of the debate on multiculturalism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/11/princess-hijab-paris-graffiti-artist

Terrific typography

Sean Freeman is the man behind these.  Simple & brilliant!
http://www.colagene.com/en/illustration/sean-freeman#2317

Cool paper sculpture

Henry VIII reappears in papertastic form by Gail Armstrong, paper sculptor extraordinaire.  She can do anything it seems - complex compositions, worldscapes to dogs and something more simple and graphic.  Gail Armstrong @ Illustration Web

Malkovich

Love this - shame Malkovich has never been cast as Henry VIII.  He'd be perfect.

Sandro has shot him numerous times.  This one's great too.  His website is here

Great collage

Some great examples of collage I've seen recently.

This one is by Mario Wagner - see more at Mario Wagner

This is James Dawe represented by Pocko - James Dawe at Pocko

And my absolute favourite, Matt Maitland at Big Active - Big Active

The Guarantee

Adrian Samson has shot this series of people he's spotted through windows on the streets of the City of London.  It's an intriguing study of people en route lost in thought reminiscent of Philip Lorca di Corcia's street work although the reflections of the glass and cigarette smoke give a more ethereal feel to the work.

See the whole series here:

Adrian Samson shot this haunting series of city workers going about their business.

Black Swan

This is more of a memory note for me to remember someone who might do stuff in a vaguely Soviet 20's/30's style... Saw these gorgeous posters done by La Boca for a film directed by Darren Aranofsky starring my favourite actor Vincent Cassel on La Boca's agent's website Debut Art.  Can't wait to see the film...

Remember remember...

Slightly belated this but just remembered this fab card which actually arrived on 5th November from Emma Kelly. 

I have it perched on my desk next to my phone - love the flurorescent type over the simple line drawings of various-sized fireworks.

Here's Emma's website for more:
Emma Kelly

Molly Schiot

Molly is one of the incredibly talented people I get to meet.  She was in town and showed me a few things she's been working on.

Her films are incredible and she's keen to do something which would work across moving media and print which would be so fantastic.  Her characters are genius - look at the Cookie film on her site and the little peanut characters.

Molly Schiot

Beautiful project by Michael Danner & Vanessa Karre

Gorgeous paintings of birds daubed onto trees in Northern European forests as created by Berlin based photographer Michael Danner and his illustrator collaborater Vanessa Karre.  Reminds me of an old Russian fairytale, The Bird of Paradise.

Check it out here:
Michael Danner