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.

My sister Jane has just started a blog where she intends to blog her artwork, including paintings like the birds shown here, and soft toys she makes.

She’s just started this whole blogging lark and she said to me the other day she doesn’t know how we do it coz her eyes are killing her. I have to admit I noticed my eyesight is getting worse recently and also I notice I get dark circles under my eyes after a few hours of work… but I’m going off on a tangent now…

Anyway, hopefully she’ll be blogging new stuff fairly regularly – I’ll certainly be hassling her to keep it updated, so keep an eye on it. Also the blog might feature videos in the future of some of the soft toys because photos just don’t do justice to such highly original crazy creatures as this guy, or even this guy.

They’re incredibly full of character, I’m sure you get some idea from the photos, but you really see them come to life when they’re waggling their wings or tilting their heads and being given a voice by their creator… hopefully we’ll sort out some YouTube stuff soon.

More traditional type toys are easier to relate to from photos because we’re more used to seeing stuff like them, such as the doll (pictured) Jane created recently called Mopsie, but Jane still gives even traditional type toys far more character most.

Jane may even begin to take commissions for the soft toys, so leave a comment on her blog if you are interested. So far she has produced them as presents and for her own enjoyment, but if you offer her enough money…

I’d love to see some of the crazier creatures mass produced and in the shops…

You’ve got to like the cleverly surreal work of Ellis Nadler and not just because I tell you to. Often when you look at absurd stuff like this, it can come across as contrived but, somehow, Ellis manages to create something that if you twist your head around the right way, it actually could possibly make some sort of sense.

He’s also a bit of a multi-talented bastard, able to turn his hand to cartoony stuff, portraiture and even photography – all with just about enough aplomb to mean you’d probably want to hit him if you ever met him but you would buy him a drink afterwards to apologise. If you still felt bad about it you could even buy one of his prints at Imagekind. And while we’re on the subject, I’d be curious to know if anyone has had any experience with Imagekind, or similar services, because I’ve always thought that a couple of our toons would make nice prints.