We’re not clear on how we wound up at Travess Smalley’s web page, but we happily spent a solid chunk of time staring hypnotized at the never-ending wall of images Smalley has arranged for all to see. Imagine, if you will, that a Magic Eye puzzle book consumed the entire internet circa 1997, entered a wormhole, took a cat-nap, woke up and shouted “HELLO” to the world. That’s a starting description. We challenge you to come up with a better one.

Los Angeles-based Derek Albeck is 90% deaf in one ear, enjoys the belligerent and skilled music of Lightning Bolt and is most productive early in the morning and late at night. He would describe his work, if asked by a stranger, as “drawings from phorographs of family and surroundings. The drawings are somewhat autobiographical and serve as memory maps of shared stories and experiences.”

This is all gleaned from the artist’s interview at Fecal Face, which we recommend checking out as well as his website. Albeck’s got some neat prints, books and zines on sale on there, and a whole bunch of crazily meticulous drawings that we think are just great.

We’d all agree that the worst part of being a baby is the color-blindness. Fact: cones don’t begin functioning until a baby is 4 months old, which means that the world before that time is sadly rainbow-free.

It follows that as a color-seeing grown-up human we should take full advantage of our abilities and surround ourselves with interesting hues. Take Pantone, for example— the company that calls itself “the global authority on color”— which started in 1962 as a manufacturer of color cards for cosmetics companies. When Pantone recently branched out into the world of everyday goods with a collection of mugs and espresso cups— each reproducing a classic hue like 3395 C SPEARMINT or 520 C GRAPE— it gave coffee-drinkers one more way to saturate their lives with bright hues. Yet another reason to be glad we’re not babies.

Pity the soul that has never had the pleasure of playing with a rainbow parachute.

These lovely photos come from Japan/New York-based photographer Justin Waldron, whose work is unbelievably soft and warm, like perfect memories of childhood vacations to magical places. Glowing in subdued sunlight, speckled in flowers and wrapped up in blankets, Waldron’s images are eloquent poems about fleeting moments and sublime spaces.

Via Of Paper And Things.