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.

The Selby

The Selby gets his share of coverage in the blog world, but this is no surprise. Todd Selby's a prolific photographer who documents interior spaces like The Sartorialist documents street style.

I purchased his new book, The Selby is in your place. His photographs of the unstyled and intimate details of the interior home spaces of eclectic people along with his naive watercolour portraits and doodle commentary is a combination full of personality and voyeuristic appeal.

The Design Files

Here's a great site for Australian inspirations: The Design Files features studio/home tours, Melbourne design and craft, and interviews with creatives. The images above are from illustrator Beci Orpin's home.

Hula Seventy Holiday Home

Regular contributor to UPPERCASE magazine, Andrea Jenkins gives us a tour of her holiday-decorated home. Look for great photography by Andrea in the upcoming issue, where she shares images from her experience at Squam Art Workshops.

New stockist: Collage Collage

Thank you to Erin of the newly opened Collage Collage in Vancouver for stocking our little magazine for the creative and curious.

"Collage Collage is a place that strives to uphold the tremendous creative abilities that children have, in surrondings that adults find equally stimulating, provoking and above all, inspiring. Collage Collage is a store, a school, a gallery and a workshop for children and adults. It's a place to find some art supplies, a story book, a small sculpture or a new pair of scissors." Sounds marvelous!

Their workshops sound fantastic: I want to sign up for this one:

Inspired by Marcel Dzama, Mixing Colors
Drawing and Painting for 5-6 years

Students will experiment with a palette based on Dzama's work. After reading a story book based on his work, and looking at some of the works of his collective, The Royal Art Lodge, children will be shown how Dzama mixes imagery from life and the imagination. Children will experiment with trying out their own dream-like creatures and then painting in their drawings. Ideas will start in a sketchbook warm up, and then move to large paper. Like Dzama, students will start with pencil drawings then layer ink and paint washes.

If you're in Vancouver, go visit Collage Collage this weekend!

Creative Adventure: Squam Art Workshops

Looking for a great creative retreat? Squam Art Workshops looks like the perfect destination.

From their website: "Imagine turning down a long drive that leads you through a grove of pine, white birch, maple and oak trees and brings you right to the edge of a sparkling lake. As you step out of your car, you can see vintage turn-of-the-century cabins tucked along the shore and smell the pine needles that cover the road. It's an ideal setting for a creative retreat and that's exactly what we have waiting for you at Squam Art Workshops.

If you are looking for an experience that will provide you with the time, space, and inspiration to recharge your creative spirit, this might be just the ticket. Join us for an event that is designed to foster a safe and nurturing environment where you can explore a range of mediums. There are a whole range of classes to choose from that include: painting, printmaking, journaling, doll making, writing, knitting, sewing, photography, crochet, sculpture, felting and some classes that combine several of those elements into one workshop."

There are a few spots remaining for the September sessions, including a class being taught the wonderfully talented Andrea Jenkins (HulaSeventy), regular contributor to UPPERCASE magazine.

"Come experience the magic of Through the Viewfinder photography from the ground up! This special technique combines old with new, vintage with modern and is truly the best of both worlds. More specifically, Through the Viewfinder (TtV) photography is defined as taking a picture of any subject through the viewfinder of any camera with another camera. In this workshop, we'll use old twin lens reflex cameras and digital cameras together to produce images with an authentic vintage aesthetic. We'll begin the day building and personalizing viewfinder devices and then, armed with our cameras and newly-constructed viewfinder devices, we'll step outside for an experiential photo shoot. At the end of the session, we'll examine and post-process the dreamy results. Spend the day looking Through the Viewfinder in this wildly wonderful and backwards way and see the world around you with completely new eyes."

[photos by Jen Gray]

Frisco Films

As a strange coincidence, both Harold and Maude and Vertigo were featured in film reviews in the Summer issue of the magazine.

Thanks again to Marigold Santos for her delicately macabre pencil-drawn movie poster for H & M. And to Janine for her colorful interpretation of Jimmy Stewart's fear of heights as pictured below.

City Films

If you can't afford a proper Roman holiday this summer, I recommend imaginary travel by way of these fine city films:

Woody Allen's Manhattan gives the big apple a glorious black & white treatment.

Watch the film's funny, sublime opening sequence here.

Visit the Trevi Fountain Fellini-style in La Dolce Vita, or tour Roma by moped with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday.

 Amelie  and The Truth About Charlie offer modern romps through gay or gritty Paris. 

Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire stages a circus-trippy Berlin.

Get lost in Tokyo as Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannsen do in Lost In Translation.

Or feel In The Mood For Love in Wong kar-Wai's Hong Kong.

Celebrate strange love in the San Fransciso Bay area in Hitchcock's Vertigo 

and Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude.

Urban Source

Urban Source is a few blocks away from The Assembly of Text and it was a fun discovery. Offering bits and bobs from various sources such as industrial offcuts, overstock and all variety of remnants and scraps, this is the ultimate in creative recycling. I coveted the empty movie film canisters; lined with some tissue paper or fabric remnants they'd make a cool package for a gift of cookies or candies.

Meet & Greet

The Regional Assembly of Text is a marvelous place! Brandy and Rebecca were so friendly and generous—I am completely inspired by their store, products and approach to business. I've taken dozens of pictures, but you'll have to wait until the fall issue for those!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by; it was so nice to meet you all. This trip to Vancouver was really enjoyable—thank you for the warm reception!

(Photo of one of Brandy and Rebecca's greeting cards.)

Persephone Books

Located on the charming Lamb's Conduit Street, Persephone Books is another great shopping destination for Londoners. Click here to find out more about the history of this small press with the clever mandate to reprint neglected classics written by 20th Century women writers.

RedBall visits Toronto

New York-based artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall travelling art project explores urban spaces and architectural history through the curious trope of a giant red ball. You can discover more about the artist and his work here.

The first two pictures below are from the Redball's tour of Barcelona and the third captures the sculpture making its way through a Sydney railway station.

The RedBall exhibition has its Canadian premiere in Toronto, June 5 -14 (sneak peek below). For more information on where to see the ball live in action in the big city, click here.

...and Spring

Kim Ki-duk's Korean allegory, 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring' (2003) offers an exquisite buddhist meditation on human morality, animal nature, and the seasons of change and renewal.

If you are craving a dose of springtime, the film also woos with breathtaking cinematography, featuring the green golden mountains of South Korea, a misty lake, a wise old monk and an ancient monastery.

Lyckliga Slingor

Janine and Glen depart on their Swedish adventure today. 'Lyckliga Slingor' -- english translation (or close..): Happy trails!

I wish you both a wonderful Scandinavian holiday. Please say hello to the Fjords of Norway for me and remember to send a postcard to the folks back home.

Safe journey.

Vintage postcard image of Hardanger Fjord from here.

Swedish Vampires

A coming-of-age vampire love story set in a snowy Stockholm suburb circa 1982, 'Let The Right One In' (directed by Tomas Alfredson, 2008) is one of the finest contemporary films I've seen in ages. If you haven't seen it already, I envy you the experience. There is plenty of bloodsucking, but the director stays tuned to the more subtle and brutal forms of emotional violence, establishing compelling characters and intricate relationships.

The Swedish winter landscapes are exquisite and chilling; almost makes me appreciate our endless Canadian winter. Click here to watch a clip.

Design in Japan

Graphic designer Nancy Wu recently contacted us via our suggestion page. She has posted an interesting visual review of "the Good, the Bad and The Ugly" of package design, signage and advertising experienced during a recent trip to Nagano and Tokyo.

Roni Horn Retrospective

If you happen to be in Stykkishólmur (a small town on the west coast of Iceland) or in London, don't miss out on a chance to see New York-based artist, Roni Horn's moody and meditative photographs of Icelandic people, landscapes, and weather patterns.

To discover more about the artist's work as celebrated in the Tate Modern's retrospective, see this review by Kathleen Jamie of the Guardian.

The photographs below are part of Horn's 'You Are The Weather' series. To see more images from her  'Library of Water' installation currently on display in Stykkishólmur, click here.

Feature Creature

One of the odd joys of living in Alberta is living in the land of dinosaur lore. This week paleontologists discovered the fossil remains of North America's smallest known dinosaur, 'Hesperonychus,' ("western claw") in the badlands of southeastern Alberta.

Cousin to the ferocious velociraptor, this creature sensation is described as 'half the size of a house cat, running on two legs, eating insects, small mammals, or whatever else it could find.' Sounds pretty sweet... For more details about the discovery and how this little critter is shaking up evolutionary theory, read the following article in the International Herald Tribune. I have a familial duty to keep up on dinosaurs as my nephew is seriously BIG on these beasts.

As well, I am intrigued by the enigmatic beauty of natural history illustration. The image above is a life reconstruction by Nicholas Longrich, University of Calgary. Hesperonychus elizabethae is pictured chasing a cicada through an Alberta forest some 75 million years ago. Cool!

Below is an illustration of Albertonykus borealis, North America's previous creature contender for smallest dinosaur. (Image courtesy of National Geographic.) These animals earned a strange reputatation as 'chicken-size dinosaurs with a taste for termites.'

Waterfall

One of the things I miss most about living in London is reading the Guardian on Saturdays. I still get my fix on line of course, and this morning I came across an inspiring feature on the Kusatsu hot springs in Japan.

The top photograph captures the sublime Yubatake 'Field of Hot Water' spring in the centre of Kusatsu. Below is an image by Katsushika Hokusai titled 'Roben Waterfall of Oyama in Sagami Province, 1830-1831.'

Japan is definately on my wish list of places to visit! Click here to read the visual essay celebrating this site of natural wonders. (Photographs by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert.)

A Creative Space in Australia

I love to get to know my customers and readers of this journal, so I really appreciated getting an email from Jodi Golding (from Canberra, Australia) that included these photographs of her new studio for bookbinding, sewing and creating. "It is a fun space and a lovely view of the garden from the window," she writes. "My 12-year-old son is using it at the moment to make a quilt that he designed so it has inspired creativity already!"

These filing cabinet wallpapers are from Deborah Bowness and the mouse decal is from Etsy seller MonkeyThreads. Thank you, Jodi. We look forward to seeing what you make in this lovely space.