Nathalie Lété

I was honoured to receive an email from Parisian artist Nathalie Lété recently. I had seen her work on various design blogs and was taken with its unabashed exuberance. Through her website and photos of her studio, I immediately fell in love with her lush, feminine, eclectic style. It is an aesthetic so different from my usual design sensibility and just looking at these images and her paintings gives me a boost of creative energy. I'd love to do a profile and studio tour for a future issue of the magazine. Shall we all go to Paris and pay her a visit?

Nathalie Lété was born in 1964. She lives and works in Paris. She works in many ways, mixing different techniques and mediums, illustration, ceramics, textile and painting… She is inspired by her travels, but also by the mixing of vintage toys and old engravings of flowers and animals. Her work is colourful, naive and poetic, sometimes strange, to the point of tending towards art brut. Her world is nurtured by popular and folk art. She produces children’s and graphics books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also postcards, ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, rugs and jewels in limited edition… both for herself and for commissions.

Nathalie has collaborated extensively with Anthropologie. To view her collection of rugs, ceramics and even painted dresses, visit an Anthropologie store.

Studiocanoe: Temujin Doran

I was really taken with the Facts on Projection film (posted below), so I clicked through to find out more about Studiocanoe. I discovered many interesting and intelligent films created by Temujin Doran, who also narrates and composes the music for his films. Multi-talented, Temujin is an artist whose line drawings are quite beautiful. (How serendipitous that the black lines and red balloon echo my previous journal posts!)

Temujin Doran is an illustrator and filmmaker based in London. He graduated from Falmouth College of Arts in 2008, and the years he spent by the sea were perhaps the best of his life. His drawing work is stylistically detailed, often displaying a penchant for historical subjects, high-seas adventure and delightful nonsense. When not too busy drawing or making films, he projects 35mm movies in a lovely old single screen cinema.

Eric Hanson

Pencil drawings are the closest re-creation of thought.

—ERIC HANSON

Illustrator Eric Hanson shared this recent project with us, a book cover in which the work-in-progress became the finished piece:

"I've discovered (after years of painted illustration for many magazines and design clients) that pencil drawings are the closest re-creation of thought. The discovery came while working on the cover of John Waters' new memoir ROLE MODELS, for Susan Mitchell at Farrar Straus. I went about the usual sketch/approval process, Mr. Waters picked one of my sketches, I painted it, and then an interesting thing happened: he said he liked the drawing best. So the art on the cover of the book is what I drew in pencil, with all of its rehearsals and second thoughts intact. (I owe a lot to the percipience of Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Waters.)

I've since developed the pencil style into a very usable line for the op-ed pages of the New York Times and LA Times, as well as a few design clients. There is something more personal and more immediate about pencil. It really is thought on paper."

Eric is working on a a continuous drawing, above, inspired by the suburban landscape. He hopes to develop it into a children's book: "One page will leave off where the next one picks up and the child will follow along with his finger, scrutinizing, as I did, the variety of domestic landscapes along the way."

Blanca!

The best part is that my work was on the cover of a fantastic magazine, but I feel honored more than proud.

—BLANCA GOMEZ

There's an excellent interview with Blanca Gomez of Cosas Minimas on Grain Edit today. (She even takes us through an illustation from start to finish.) UPPERCASE is forever grateful that Blanca's work graced our first magazine cover.

"Cosas Minimas got its start several years ago in a very curious way. I was working for another graphic design studio at the time and was in the habit of constantly drawing on post-its. Most of the drawings ended up in my wastebasket and my boss would tell me that I should do something with those drawings, but I never paid much attention. One day he simply told me that he had chosen a name for my website and purchased it for me. So it just naturally morphed out of what was once merely a hobby at work…"

Jane Mount at The Curiosity Shoppe

This Friday is the opening of "Ideal Bookshelves" at The Curiosity Shoppe in San Francisco. It features paintings, prints, and postcards by Jane Mount. (what a diverse and creative portfolio!)

"Many of the pieces in the show represent Ideal Bookshelves submitted by friends, both from San Francisco and around the country. It's an amazing and beautiful collection, and it's been endlessly fascinating to check out all the great books people are into these days."

Fresh talent: Amy Adele Seymour

UPPERCASE extends our congratulations to UK illustrator Amy Adele Seymour who has been accepted into a masters in illustration program. We've included Amy's work in two issues of the magazine: as part of the "What I Wore Today" article and in the "Gallery of Foxes" in our current issue.

Downtown pigeons

Calgary's downtown cultural district has a new identity, thanks to TAXI and local illustrator Byron Eggenschwiler.

"We're rebranding the image of the pigeon," says their marketing director. A funny statement to make, but I like the illustration. Read more at the Calgary Herald.

Byron is a very talented artist who has participated in UPPERCASE gallery shows and is part of the first Work/Life: the UPPERCASE directory of Canadian Illustration & Photography (flip through the book here). His recent personal series about haunted houses is looking intriguing:

Matte Stephens at Rare Device

San Francisco design store and gallery, Rare Device, is proud to present: I Wish I was on Holiday: New Paintings by Matte Stephens

May 7 – June 1, 2010
A reception for the show will be held Friday, May 7, 2010 from 7 - 9 pm.

Call for Submissions: Draw your workspace

A reminder about this one:

Call for submissions: Draw your workspace

For the subscriber profiles in the upcoming issue, we'd love to see where you are creative — and how creative you are! Please draw, collage or otherwise illustrate your studio or workspace. Submit it along with a brief 150 word bio about yourself — include your full name, location and website url. Please note that this call is open to subscribers only.

Files should be at least 5" wide at 300dpi and labelled with your last name. Please upload them here. Submit the bio as a text file via the dropbox or send it as an email to janine [at] uppercasemagazine [dot] com.

Submissions are due by May 17.

Please leave a comment or send us an email if you plan on participating. Space is limited and we'll select the best ones for print and compile an online gallery for all submissions.

{The image above is by Mat Phillips who recently emailed us a link to his portfolio. Thanks, Mat!}

Lilla Rogers Studio

In our current issue, Aaron Leighton interviews artist rep Lilla Rogers. Lilla has an amazing roster of talent and I was thrilled to be able to include images by a few of the artists. Matte Stephens created an original illustration for the fox cover, and above is a photo of Sarajo Frieden's work (left, with embroidery by Marci Boudreau) and Amy Blay (right).

Thanks, Sarajo, for sending me the picture of the magazine in your studio. Looks like your cat is quite fond of it. And thank you, Lilla, for graciously lending your time for the interview — and for the lovely bouquet this week!

Congratulations to Sarajo on the release of Noonie's Masterpiece, a children's book she illustrated. Find out more about the book on Chronicle Books' website.

Weekend Reading with Renata

Congratulations to Renata for the incredible success of her latest illustrated book: It was in the top 100 of books on Amazon all last week and is sold out in the USA.

Renata will be having a book launch and reading from THE QUIET BOOK this Saturday April 17 from 1-3 pm at Monkeyshines Childrens' Books in Marda Loop. #113 - 2215 - 33rd Ave SW, Calgary, AB

The Quiet Book is written by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by
Renata Liwska and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

There are many kinds of quiet:
Quiet can be delicate.
Quiet can be thundering!
Quiet can be sweet,
and cozy,
and can most definitely help you fall asleep.

An Amazon Book of the Month for April
Starred Review - School Library Journal
A Junior Library Guild Selection

Nose to nose

Blanca Gomez (she provided the illustration for our very first cover) has some new cards available through Red Cap Cards. This sweet couple in the always-stylish turquoise + orange colour combination is on its way to this sweet couple. Thanks, Kirstie and Kevin!

Our next cover artist...

... is Matte Stephens! He's working on the cover for issue 5 and I can't wait to see it. Matte's retro-style and colour palette is such a good fit for our magazine (and he shares a fondness for foxes). The next issue also features an extensive interview with his rep Lilla Rogers. I'd love to work with everyone in her roster!

You can visit Matte's blog for his current work and links to his shop and exhibitions. And click here for a tour of his home and studio. See even more on Design*Sponge.

(If you've purchased a single copy of issue 4 and would like to start subscribing with issue 5, that option is now available in the shop! Issue 5 will be shipping in April.)

Type Tuesday: Valerie Roybal's collages

Valerie Roybal has a new collection of original collages available through Enormous Tiny Art. I personally own one of her collages and their surface appeal and finish in person is quite exquisite. (Valerie participated in our Old School exhibition/book and is contributing an article on collecting vintage photographs for the next issue of UPPERCASE magazine.)

Valerie's artist statement: "My work is primarily composed of and/or inspired by vintage, salvaged, and collected materials. I enjoy the process of finding materials and the possibility of re-purposing them: reinventing use, intention, or aesthetic, and the transformation into something dissimilar or unexpected. Much of my work frequently consists of layered surfaces: bits and pieces from discarded books and magazines, found vintage pottery and glass, antique postcards, handwritten letters and recipes, obsolete reference material, thrift store textiles, and mysterious random objects, especially objects of the natural world. Order, association, and reverence emerges from the collecting, sorting, arranging, and placement of each accumulated piece into a whole."

Couch computing

I'm at home most of this week (crazily, we're getting a new ikea-installed kitchen just weeks before the baby is due... must be that nesting instinct!) So the couch is my office today, while a new floor and cabinets are in progress.

I was doing some image research for issue 5 and came across the dog reading, part of a set of Rand McNally Elf books from the 50s. There are some interesting photo collages/illustrations, particularly of dogs and cats in clothing... slightly more strange than cute.

Mike's show online!

Thank you to everyone who came out last night! What a busy First Thursday it was here in UPPERCASE. I've just finished posting the remaining letters from Mike Kerr's show of letters. You can view them all in detail in the online shop.

Here are some images of the paintings; the majority are original acrylic works painted on square boards. There are also a few framed prints.

Mike is a VERY prolific sketchbook artist and he let us leaf through his books, much to the delight of all!

New show TONIGHT!

Please come down to Art Central this evening for First Thursday festivities! Mike Kerr's Show of Letters was hung last night and it is looking great. (UPPERCASE will be open from 3pm - 9pm today.)

I've got one month to go before the baby is due, so I will be working from home more and more (it is getting more difficult to walk/waddle/breathe these days!) So tonight is really the best time to come see the show (and purchase some affordable, original paintings) in person. There are plenty of First Thursday festivities (plus the opening of my landlords' newest development project, Fashion Central, just a block away.)

The show will be posted in the online shop by the weekend.

In the details

Our beautiful cover was illustrated by Leigh Wells.

Nick Dewar

I was very sad to read that illustrator Nick Dewar has passed away. He was an illustrator that I admired. When organizing The Shatner Show in 2007, I had list of dream participants and I was delighted that someone as talented, busy and well-known as Nick accepted our invitation with such enthusiasm. His humourous silkscreened poster was one of the most popular images of the exhibition. I'm honoured that I had the chance to exhibit his work.

My condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Preview of the next show

Mike Kerr has been busy getting the artwork ready for his upcoming show in UPPERCASE. When you set out to create a show based on the alphabet, you automatically have your work cut out for you! Here are some pictures of his work-in-progress and a finished piece below. Click here to view more images from the upcoming show. (We'll be putting all the pieces in the online shop, so that link will be posted following the opening next Thursday.)