Images from here, here, and here.

Spring Sale now on at the shop. 20-25% off select items from Rachel Comey, Lina Rennell, A’N'D, Erin Considine, and ffiXXed. Also, a couple new arrivals from A’N'D and ffiXXed

Top to bottom: Earthenware sugar pot on the Live board; Pearl person brooch on the Wear board; Stem chair on the Live board; Grace Hartigan painting on the Art board; Dust monster on the Live board; and Pottery sculpture on the Art board

My latest pinterest compendium seems to be full of abstraction and weird anthropomorphic creatures. Come visit! I believe I still have some invites left if you want to get in on it yourself

Sound the trumpets ’cause not only do we have new items from Slow and Steady Wins the Race (sunglasses), but we’ve a brand new designer. Kelly Reid’s reid.damnit line is full of the kind of bags you use until they fall apart. We’re lucky enough to have three of her newest clutch styles in juicy summer colours, and a classic leopard print suede. They’re easy and comfortable to carry too – just the right amount of slouch.

We’re also slowly adding back final sale items, so be sure to check out our sale page to stay on top of the latest additions. And most importantly, we now accept final sale item returns for exchange or store credit

I find most contemporary illustration to be too gimmicky these days to be appealing, so it’s had me doing a little poking around looking at illustrators from the past. (Of course, that isn’t to say that there wasn’t plenty of artifice in past illustration.) Anyway, illustration doesn’t get the respect that fine art does because of the primary intent of illustrative work, but it’s silly when you think about how heavily reliant the contemporary art world is on commodification and yes, gimmickry as well. Superficiality can be found across all mediums of artistic expression. This subject warrants a deeper discussion, but that’s not the point of this post.

Robert Weaver, born in Pittsburgh, PA (home sweet home-ha ha) in 1924, was a dominant illustrator in the 1950s and 60s whose work was regularly published in Life, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and other major publications. Weaver’s work has a depth that goes far beyond performing simply as colourful accompaniment to text. There is a freedom and expression in his line that moves it beyond being flatly representational that I find impelling.

There’s a quite bit of discussion about Weaver’s work and his contemporaries scattered across the internet. If you feel like doing some reading, check out the write-ups here and here. Interesting stuff.

You can see more from this great flickr set, and the NYT has a slideshow of his baseball illustrations. All images from the flickr set, and the first blog link listed in the preceding paragraph.