We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

Jaakko Pallasvuo has a name that sounds like a smoked Finnish delicacy and an aesthetic that blends wintry spareness with controlled riots of emotion.

Pallasvuo’s production rate and versatility are both impressive. There are the books and zines, a rewarding and oft-updated Flickr account, an alarming knack for painting beautiful scenes of distress and dischord, and an entertainingly stream-of-conscious tumblr to top it all off.

The website is set up so that it’s easy and fun to tour the premises of Pallasvuo’s impressive brain. Think of it as a mini-vacation of the mind, and eyeballs.

What a midnight delight! UCLA’s Hammer Museum is hosting a “Dream-In” on May 1st:

Dreamers are invited to camp out in the Hammer courtyard and collect any dreams that occur during their stay. The evening will feature experimental dreaming workshops, concerts, and bedtime stories, followed by a waking concert in the morning, all facilitated by a dreamy batch of local artist-psychonauts. The following day museum patrons may encounter dream reenactments, workshops, and napping music during their visit.

The event is in honor of seminal psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s Red Book, currently on exhibition at the Hammer. Tucked away from the world in the deep recess of the Jungian archives until 2009, the Red Book is a long sought-after personal journal illustrated and written by the famed doctor between 1914 and 1930, detailing imaginary encounters with biblical prophets and slithering serpents. Here are a couple of the luscious psychedelic illustrations from the book:

Remember those sticker books your parents bought to keep you occupied on long car trips? Swedish artist/designer Andreas Samuelsson’s bright, busy screenprints and editioned letterpress prints remind us of those books (but better, clearly.)

Samuelsson is fond of punchy hues and sharply-defined forms, and he works with cut paper collage, watercolor and computer graphics to create his images. Not surprisingly, he has also designed backpacks and skateboards and…well…produced sticker sheets. Because stickers never lose their appeal.

Dust & Shadow is an exquisite art book published by Duke Press and crafted by Charlie Duck. Hand-stitched and digitally printed in a numbered edition of 100, the book features aerial views of chateau, drawings of interiors, still lifes and memento mori. “Initially they appear a celebration of wealth and immortality,” the publisher writes, “Yet there is disquiet to these images; an underlying emptiness which is explored and developed in each drawing.”

So much truth in that. Witness also the artist’s blog, which is chock full of sketchbook scans and gallery news and works in progress. Cheers to you, Mr. Duck!

We love Graham Carter’s lovely, colorful silkscreens on Japanese plywood. The images are painstakingly detailed and lively, and take inspiration from Carter’s illustrations.

Along with his partner Alice, Graham launched Boxbird Gallery & Studios, which represent a passel of illustrators and printmakers. Boxbird is also a working studio with full screen-printing facilities on site. Visit the Boxbird site as well as Graham’s site to check out some of the UK’s finest young printmaking talent.

Lately we’ve been digging the work of London-based artist Hannah Waldron for its geometric complexity and beautiful palette. Her blog is a document of her work habits, experiments and obsessions: sea monsters, zoo structures, patternmaking, playing with various inks and design concepts, making silkscreens and drawing gridded rooftop patterns inspired by Berlin and Italian piazzas.

Waldron’s lovely book, Rain Day, was published by Duke Press and sold out in milliseconds, so keep your eyes peeled for the second edition.

London-based illustrator, writer, art director and lecturer Holly Wales has an amazing eye. Her website is a trove of her works (both published and unpublished) as well as a running commentary on all matters relating to design, art, and research. Highlights include scans of recent research, well-turned thoughts on authorship and sign-painting, sinister Swedish cats, the relationship between illustration and journalism, and more!

Anne Schwalbe’s photographs are often abstract, always mysterious, and occasionally puzzling. Visit her spare (but well-stocked) website for a tour of recent photographic projects and beautifully-produced art books.

Peter Nencini’s Hand Werk boxes are sets of materials and forms designed for abstract play. The components—made of wood, plastic, ceramic, rubber and fabric— are “mostly designed and cut to combine with counterparts sourced from school science lab suppliers for example, have a character that sits somewhere between board game bits, measurement tools, ambiguous accessories for clothing, for eating.”

The object of the sets is to encourage truly imaginative play; that is, play free of rules, goals, guidelines or restrictions. Nencini provides forms that beg to be touched and stacked and rearranged, then lets viewers do the rest. Each kit is boxed in a plain brown container and comes without instructions. Brilliant.

Tim Macpherson’s glimmering glossy photos of childhood imagination are a potent reminder that even against the aesthetically oppressive environment of a beige suburban carpet, you can do some serious dreaming.