Guest article by Ink and Media

Instead of throwing away used ink cartridges have you ever wondered what else you could do with them? Wickford based ink cartridges retailer Ink and Media Ltd with the help of Midlands based artist Faith Pearson have fused a love of sci-fi and film with ink cartridges. The result is a series of recycled art pieces that recreate a range of cinematic moments - including King Kong, Godzilla and even a model of the Star Trek enterprise. The scenes were all created by hand and a series of background installations were designed before the final pieces were complete.

A friend passed this top 50 article along to me, it’s chock a block full of links to interesting websites featuring everything illustration from new and inspiring styles to marketing tips. Enjoy!

We might be reading Hera too many books (just two or three a day) as she has started narrating what she is doing! The last couple weeks, Hera has been ending most things she says with “said Mommy.” She says things like: “Have a glass of water, said Horton the Elephant?” or “I go to the library, said Mommy?” Hmmm, might have to crack the playdough out more often.

I was thrilled to snag this vintage Tala icing set at a garage sale last weekend for $1! I love the 1950’s era style illustration, just makes me want to paint my nails red and ice something. I think a lot can be learned from looking at what illustrators did during that era, from retro colour choices to the over-the-top perfection of the scenes illustrated. The illustrations from this era really capture the unreal expectations on house wives of that time to achieve perfection, right down to how elegantly they decorate cakes.

This is a piece Jason MacKay has been working on for the last couple months for the CGSociety B-Grade Movie Challenge… I loves it.

The much awaited Tiny Art Director Book is finally available online! I just ordered a copy at Amazon.ca (for like $7), can’t wait for it to arrive and enjoy more of this little girl’s big artistic personality.

This will be the third year I’ve supported Earth Hour... last year we met up with the rest of our family here in Adelaide, and spent our hour by candle light celebrating my birthday and playing cards! Don’t forget to pledge your support here and be counted among the millions turning off their lights for one hour during Earth Hour, 8.30pm, Saturday 27th March 2010.

Just stumbled across Eco Emporia, a UK company selling handmade gifts from all reclaimed materials, such as Beas Beasties (above… so cool!)

Last week Hera & I went to see Amococo, a luminarium by UK’s Architects of Air on here during the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Was really beautiful walking barefoot through the inflated labyrinth of colourful tunnels, we caught it at the best time of day when the sun was overhead. Hera thought she’d gone to heaven and didn’t want to leave the “tent,” despite the fact it was around 30 degrees that day and very hot inside the tunnels! We cooled off by putting our faces in the air conditioning fans throughout, and enjoyed getting lost doing several laps of the structure.

Yeondoo Jung creates incredibly surreal scenes inspired by children’s drawings in this collection titled Wonderland. I love this piece titled “Cinderella,” especially the crooked lights! I came across Yeondoo’s work through this article about artists who take a grown-up look at children’s drawings over at BrainPickings.org