I know it must seem like every time my sister posts something I blog about it*, but it can’t be helped if she keeps posting great stuff.

Ok, I won’t post about her next couple of posts, I’ll just assume you’re checking them out yourselves - but I had to post about this one because I was surprised at the style - it caught my eye because it’s a new style for her. Or at least it’s new to me.

Check out Janies post to get a link to a biger version.
Love to see more in this style. More please.

Oh and just in case you’re not familiar with it, Janie did this for Illustration Friday:

My sister Jane’s creations did not make it to the finalists of the Softie Awards, as she explains on her blog.

Maybe I’m biased, but I would have chosen them over some of the other finalists.

Well, of course I’m biased, so what do you think?

Not that there aren’t some great finalists, there are. The ‘Creepy Yet Cute’ category is my favourite. Well, it would be wouldn’t it?

Check out ‘Grundig’, the green check guy pictured below - and check out some of his friend’s at Taniapat’s Flickr account.

I’m sure Jane’s pals aren’t the only ones feeling hard done by - Gerald, pictured below (who Jane pointed to on her blog) doesn’t appear to have made it to the finals either. More like Gerald can be seen on Sarah Bourque’s Flickr account.

On a late night random-blog-browsing session I stumbled upon Raymi’s blog, which looked like the type of blog that I usually take one glance at and move on. When I landed on some random page of the blog it appeared to be full of teenage angst, except the author Raymi seems to be in her 20’s. But there was something oddly compelling about the writing.

After reading a few posts I gathered she suffered from depression - it turns out she is manic depressive bi-polar, and she has written a book about her depression, called Marketable Depression under the name Lauren White - which I assume is her real name, but I haven’t a clue really - and she publishes/sells it through Cafe Press.

Here’s an example of a Raymi story from her blog - please note it’s all one sentence:

one time at a walk-in clinic (i was there cos i was paranoid i had a tape worm or some kind of parasite from mexico i’m the best) and this dude about my age maybe younger anyway super tool wearing a death metal shirt super skinny bad hair very insecure and there is this lady waiting and they strike up a conversation i gather they know each other you can tell this lady has a babe daughter and is only pity-talking this guy and then he starts talking to her about messageboards and perl script and basic html shit and he can see me watching and listening and he gets this I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY bravery to his speak meanwhile he isn’t telling the lady anything she couldn’t just find on google herself and she is egging him on by saying wow you’re so “knowledgeable” and “technologically advanced” and i am by this point openly shaking my head at him and he is probably thinking this hot girl is just stupid and doesn’t know anything about computers typical GIRLS i don’t get a chance to say anything cos soon enough i was called away but before that the kid stops nerd talking a bit and casually asks about this daughter of the lady’s what’s she up to this summer hoping for an in and the lady goes OH WELL SHE’S IN CUBA WITH HER FRIENDS.

B!U!R!N!

Anyway, whether it was the lateness of the hour, or the odd car wreck quality of the writing, I felt oddly compelled to read on, through bizarre stream-of-angsty-consciousnes-posts which was when I discovered another odd thing about Raymi’s blog - she thinks her readers are geniuses and rewards them with pictures of her tits. She also uses her breasts to increase her hits, with post titles such as ‘my hits have decreased slightly so here are my breasts‘.

One reviewer wrote:

raymi the minx gets naked on her blog visually and lyrically.

But finally we get to the real reason for this overly long post - her artwork. I love it. I know a lot of you won’t like it, already some of my family members have stared incredulously at me as I showed them her paintings, but I think her odd paintings of celebrities are fantastic. At the top of this post you will see her portrait of Pete Doherty, and below are Tom Cruise, Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie. You can see more of her paintings on her Flickr art set.

Alessandro Bavari is an Italian artist who works in a variety of mediums.

Since 1993, he adds digital manipulation to his art, developping a personal artistic language using industrial and organic products from nature before incorporating photographic process, then computer digitalization, which leads to “a kind of contamination among the arts dissolving the boundaries which distinguish them”.

While I do like several of his illustrations, photographs and paintings, it was his film ‘Headcleaner’ that caught my attention. This is probably the video that Hieronymus Bosch would have made if he was about now. Watch the YouTube version below, or visit his site to see a better quality version.

Jon Beinart’s Toddlerpedes have been popping up all over the place recently, according to the artist himself - however I only spotted them today when doing a spot of aimless browsing.

Kinda reminiscent of the disfigured toys in ‘Toy Story’ with a bit of Tim Burton thrown in, I reckon - good stuff.

The artist also specialises in what he calls Obsessive Compulsive Drawing - insanely detailed drawings which he does off the top of his head and just keeps going where he feels it takes him.

The drawings aren’t really my thing, but you have to admire the - well, the obsessive compulsiveness of them!

As for the toddlerpedes, well they should be in all reputable toy shops if you ask me.

Beinart also founded the ‘beinArt International Surreal Art Collective‘, so Beinart.org features more than just his work, but a whole range of crazy art - worth having a poke around.