Typewriter Art

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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Inspired by the story of aviator Amy Johnson’s flight from London to Darwin, Australia in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth biplane, animator Lizzy Hobbs created this charming film using an old Underwood 315 typewriter.

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I am curious yellow

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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I recently had a scintillating conversation about pencils with two artists. I only wish that I had seen this neat video beforehand so that I could have contributed some pithy pencil trivia.

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Speed Reading

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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Even if you have never visited the New York Public Library’s famed Rose Reading Room, its likely that you have seen it in films or on travel shows. The stunning Beaux-Arts hall just reopened following a two year restoration project. After the renovations, 52,000 books had to be carefully re-shelved. The little video below compresses the arduous process down to two minutes.

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Is It Wrong

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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I haven’t quite made up my mind about these new takes on the New York City subway map from the Brooklyn-based Triboro Design team. The duo explain their design choices by saying, “we chose the most inappropriate colors that we could think of. Meanwhile every inch of the poster has been redesigned to make it more refined, precise, and (to our eyes) beautiful.”  You can see more detail and purchase prints at Triboro Design.

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Officially Nobody

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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When I was in Reykjavik last month, I stumbled upon Greek street artist INO working on this mural for the 2016 Wall Poetry festival in Iceland’s capital. On a break, he told me that he was planning to title the piece “Officially Nobody”. If you’re in town, the mural is on Grettisgata by Klapparstigur.

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Paris Re-Tale

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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I’ve been following photographer Sebastian Erras’ wonderful projects for a few years now. You may remember his brilliant series that focus on the floors of various of European cities. Now he has turned his camera upward towards the beautiful storefronts and facades of Paris. The video below provides a window on Paris Re-Tale and you can see more of the photos here.

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Dispensing Culture

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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Distriboto is a brilliant project in Montreal that re-purposes old cigarette vending machines to dispense comic books, zines, poetry, stories, mini-CDs, pins,and assorted original artworks. Collaborating with more than 1,000 local artists and writers, the project loads old vending machines with items that all sell for $2.00, with $1.75 going to the creators. The machines are found around Montreal and Quebec City in bars, clubs, libraries, performance spaces, and cafés.

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Not Dead Yet

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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I continue to be amazed by the endlessly imaginative ways in which book artist Brian Dettmer transforms discarded books. His latest series Dodo, Data, Dada plays with the concept of the changing place of the printed book in our culture. Dettmer says, “The physical book no longer has the monopoly and authority it once had. They now lie like furniture, hidden in basement boxes, or displayed on a shelf to signify intellect while they collect dust”.

 

 

 

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Film Meets Art

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

Britain-based, Azerbaijan-born photographer and filmmaker Vugar Efendi has created two terrific videos pairing scenes from films with paintings that provided the inspiration for the shots.

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How Dickensian

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Brian D. Butler

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Tom Gauld created this brilliant print for the London comic book store Gosh!s 30th anniversary celebration. Prints are available on their website.

 

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