Well, this is simultaneously depressing and awe-inspiring. Lester Hutt of BevShots had the brilliant idea of creating photographic prints of booze droplets as they appear when magnified 10,000x. The resulting abstract masterpieces are enough to make any creative type want to curl up in the fetal position, lick the booze right off the slides and cry, because honestly — how can we possibly compete with nature?

(Via Telegraph.co.uk)

So, those of you who read my blog regularly (all ten of you) may have noticed that I was MIA all last week. I wish I had a good reason for my lack of communication, but I don’t. The fact of the matter is, my wife was out of town (Way out of town. London, to be precise) last week, and if I’m being honest, it’s very difficult for me to stay on-task when she’s not around.

Tempting as it is to do the revisionist history thing and post a bunch of entries time-stamped for last week, let’s just pretend that it never happened (which is, in itself, a revisionist undertaking. Tautology! Look it up, kids. Also, what’s up with all the parentheticals today?)

Since only TWO of the aforementioned TEN readers have taken me up on my Meet the Fans Monday feature, I’ve decided to ease us back into the swing of things by interviewing myself. This exercise is two-fold: it give me a chance to mention Chuck Klosterman’s latest book Eating the Dinosaur, which examines the nature of the interview from the quasi-philosophical angle that Klosterman does so well, and it also allows me to talk about myself, which I love doing.

How did you first discover Ex-Boyfriend?
I started designing some stuff. It needed a name. And “The Beatles” was taken.

5 10 desert island musical artists?
Yikes! Idlewild, The Smiths, Waylon Jennings, The Who, The Beatles, The Cure, Miles Davis, Wilco, Elliott Smith, and Blur. I will rue this list on the days when I crave some Johnny Cash, Radiohead and/or Oasis.

Tell us about your pop cultural guilty pleasures.
I don’t ever really feel guilty about the stuff that makes me feel good… but I suppose the stuff that is the most incongruous with my persona would be my appreciation of certain Britney Spears singles, Jane Austen novels, “good” romantic comedies (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, etc) and Gossip Girl.

What kind of tees do you hope we design next?
The kind that sell a lot! Ideally, stuff with monsters and robots and critters. You know, the usual.

Favorite haunts on the web?
Alright, time for some true confessions… I’m a bit of a sports nut. Not exactly the sort of thing you’d guess based on my job, wardrobe, haircut, listening habits, etc. But I LOVE baseball and football. So a lot of the places I visit deal with sports. Pretty much every one of the Yahoo! Sports blogs is choice. Fangraphs.com. CamdenChat.com. All are pretty entertaining reads. But I also love to drop in on chromewaves.net, because Frank Yang and I share a lot of the same taste in music (and I like free mp3’s), videogum.com is excellent because Gabe is one of funniest bloggers I’ve ever read. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention andiamnotlying.com, which is partially contributed to by my friend David William, who is an amazing artist “living the dream” in hipper-than-hip Brooklyn. And of course tastespotting and liquorious!

Do you have any pets? What are they, what are their names?
I think this is pretty well-documented, but I’m pwned by two cats, Oliver and Bigby. And let’s not forget the seemingly never-ending parade of foster animals.

If you had a time machine, where in history or the future would you go?
The future. To paraphrase Brian Fellows, I don’t do dinosaurs.

Beer, liquor, or wine (be specific)?
Beer and wine are more or less in a dead heat. I love a good Belgian-style wheat beer, but I also like a nice, flavorful copper, amber or red ale. As far as wines, I’ve graduated from the “I only drink whites” camp to almost exclusively reds. I tend to shy away from the drier stuff—no merlots for me, thanks. I like a nice full-bodied shiraz, cabernet savignon, malbec, or pinot noir.

What’s the first thing you notice about the ladies (or dudes if you prefer them)?
Teeth/smile. I can look past a lot of physical flaws, but bad teeth are pretty egregious.

Cake, pie or cookies (ice cream and candy are also acceptable, but be specific)?
This is tough! I love Starbursts. I like cupcakes a lot (though I’m pretty no-frills; plenty happy with vanilla-on-vanilla), and certain pies really get me going (key lime, blue berry, pumpkin, pecan). I appreciate a well-done cookie, but they’re more of a stop-gap dessert in my book—a sort of “well, if there’s nothing else around” treat. My wife’s cherry cheesecake is pretty awesome, as is her pumpkin cheesecake topped with toasted pecans and caramel-bourbon sauce.

I happened upon these portraits by Holly Norris today and thought they were pretty cool.

From the artists’ statement:

“‘American Able’ intends to, through spoof, reveal the ways in which women with disabilities are invisibilized in advertising and mass media. I chose American Apparel not just for their notable style, but also for their claims that many of their models are just ‘every day’ women who are employees, friends and fans of the company. However, these women fit particular body types. Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture. Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context.”

See the rest of this series on Holly’s website.

Call me old fashioned, I like to work with my hands when I create. I’m a southpaw, but that’s not so unusual for artists. Pricasso on the other hand, he likes to create with his manhood. This artist paints portraits, landscapes and nudes (of course) with his wee wee, and if you don’t believe it you can see video tapes of his, uh, creative process at work.

Aussies can hire Pricasso to entertain at parties. He’ll do portraits for a mere $50-100 a piece. Can anyone say bachelorette party?

Personally, I can’t imagine abusing my own member like this. Sounds like it would chafe. That said, I’ve got to hand it to this guy for originality and a pun-tastic moniker.

We just passed the new year but my local Rite Aid tells me it’ll be Valentine’s Day before too long. (Yes, the chalky conversation hearts are already on the shelves.) My girl’s taste in baubles is less than traditional so this little shop might be just what I need. Piggy’s charming, offbeat selection is unlike what you’ll find at Zales or other local mall haunts, and the price tag is even starving-artist friendly.

See more of Piggy’s creations in her Etsy shop. Be sure to use promo code PIGGYINLUV10 at check out for 10% off on your order. Sweet

While not exactly on the same brilliant level of Tampon in a Teacup from Ghost World, The Robert uses old books to create very cool art, both stand-alone and installation pieces. Definitely check out his online gallery or stop into one of his shows if he’s exhibiting in your ‘hood.

Hank Scorpio wants his familiar back!

And a quick congrats is in order to Sir Patrick Stewart, who was knighted in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year Honors list. While most famous for his roles as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D and Professor Charles Xavier, we all know that his greatest bow came in episode 12 of season 19 on Saturday Night Live.

Are you mad?! Do you know what you are flirting with?! I will feed your steaming organs to all the hounds of Hell! I will watch your eyes burn... til the cows come home!

All of Sarah Haskins’ videos on Current TV are pretty amazing. Here’s one of them:

I guess it’s obvious by now that I like weird weird art. That’s why this collection by Chrissy Conant caught my attention. This woman’s commitment to her creative projects makes my relationship with art look like a one night stand. Homegirl got 6 weeks worth of fertility shots and underwent egg harvesting surgery for the sole purpose of creating and packaging “Human Caviar.” You can read more about that here.

I think the piece I find the most interesting is this human skin rug.  Conant made this piece “to exorcise a part of my psyche that feels powerless and objectified.” To me this speaks to how humans regard animals though. (I know it’s not what she intended, it’s just how I reacted.) It’s mundane to see a bearskin rug but really shocking to see the same suggestion made about human skin. Why shouldn’t we react the same way to any once living creature splayed beneath our feet?

I love this photo series by Dina Goldstein. The artists writes “These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘…happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues….I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.”

I started posting about artists I like because, well, to be perfectly honest, there are a lot of artists I don’t like. The ones who blow me away are hard to find and when I do discover them I want everyone to know about them and like them as much as I do. Because of the nature of my work, I spend a lot of time around art and artists, and most of the time, I feel like I’m living in this scene from Art School Confidential:

I digress though, work like that of Simmons makes me feel excited about art again and restores my faith in the ability of artists out there to do something creative and interesting. You can read more about Simmons on her website, or just admire her portfolio on her Flickr account.