Images from here, here, and here.

Recontextualization of the found object. Louise Nevelson 1900 – 1988.

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.

Every decade seems to have had a defining interior aesthetic, with the exception of the 1990s, which seemed to be the most bland and boring era of them all. The 2000s are too eclectic to really be able to pinpoint anything definitively exclusive.

Mostly what’s been catching my eye and appealing to me personally lately have been interiors photos from the 1970s, and I’m not talking about avocado green, ugly wood paneling, and burnt orange shag carpet. I’m more about the 70s interiors that mixed a bit of mid-century, with the crafts revivalist movement, and a splash of futurism. They certainly weren’t shy about using colour and graphic elements, and I like how popular houseplants were too. Our place is full of them, much to Brannan’s chagrin!

There are some nice photos reflecting this aesthetic on a flickr group I recently discovered. All of the images except for the second one (found on pinterest via tumblr, and I’m not sure if it’s really from the 70s, but the look is very much reminiscent) are from this group. Click over to see more

Whoa. Via Designboom. Click over to view larger, see more, and read about Nacho Carbonell’s inspiration for these lamps.

Snake jug.
Wow.