Sweet Dreams

Squirrel Spoon

I really enjoy the rich and colorful tenderness of Sandra Dieckmann's art.

She clearly loves animals, line drawing, patterns, and collage, and I couldn't agree with her more.

Coincidentally, as I was preparing this post, I dicovered that just yesterday she was informed

that her work has been chosen by Shaun Tan as the winner of the Emerging Talent category 

at the 2011 Cheltenham illustration awards. Congratulations Sandra!

Crowned crane

Dieckmann is from Germany and has been living in London since 2002.

You can read an interesting interview with her at We Love Creativity.

Hi : Bye

Found You There

This work is part of a collaborative project with illustrator Jaime Mills

portraying ten of the world's most endangered animals.

Japanese crane

Young Treasure

Dieckmann is very active on the internet and you can find her at her website and blog,

 on twitter, tumblr and flickr, and at her society6, etsy and Envelop shops.

Congratulations again to Sandra for her seemingly boundless energy!

Try a Little Tenderness

 I have recently fallen in love with Kyoko Okubo's small sculptures, 

delicately handcrafted from traditional japanese washi paper.

Okubo is a self taught artist who began playing with washi as a child, 

and in her mid-30s began making dolls for herself. After sharing 

her works with family and friends, she first exhibited them on a 

sidewalk Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Since these humble beginnings, 

she has gone on to show internationally and is currently represented 

by Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge Massachusets.

Okubo's miniature scenes realistically portray intimate moments from her poetic 

dream world, a soft universe inhabited by gentle and enigmatic wild animals

mysteriously bonding and interacting with lovely girls and young children. 

"Washi, meaning “Japanese paper”, is a crisp, sturdy material created from fibers 

from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub or the paper mulberry. 

While today the material is often mass-produced, it is still handmade 

in rural communities throughout the country."

From an article about Okubo at American Craft Magazine.

You can also read a nice post on her work at Art Found Out.

Stay tuned for more January in Japan findings!

Sunday Safari - Planet of the Apes

Today is my youngest daughter's 18th birthday, and along with many other privileges, 

she got to choose the weekly Safari theme. This picture gallery is dedicated

to the very bright and independent Julia, born on the Fourth of July 

John Reddinger, Sleeping ape

Leia Bell, Orangutans mother and child

Miquel Barceló

Celestino Piatti, thanks to One1more2time3

Charley Harper, from Giant Golden Book of Biology

thanks to Grain Edit

Lucho Rodriguez, from Qué monos!

James Mollison, Talita, from the fantastic

James and Other Apes

Bombo, La scimmia

Eric Carle, 1997

Sebastiano Ranchetti, Gorilla

Claude Lalanne, Gorille de sûreté II, 1970

Iwona Chmielewska from Thinking ABC

Graham Carter, Kong

John Kuzich/Ed Bedno Illustration from Graphis Annual 67/68,

thanks to pinkjetpack aka the fabulous sandiv999

Francesco Bongiorni, Risky provocation