The Seafarers is a fun little online series that Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock have been animating together. Elevating simple tales of the sea with deliciously rendered illustration an unexpected humor, The Seafarers is the type of irreverent, bizarre, and yet somehow tender entertainment that kids could use more of these days. I was alerted to the existence of this awesome cartoon by Michelle at Giant Robot, who notes: “Kelly & Ferris are busy new parents and still managing to find the time and energy to develop their work, be in the studio, and strengthen their ties with family, friends and colleagues.” Hey, let’s all be inspired by that example and make even more awesome stuff to share with the world! Yeah!

Renee Adams makes sculptures of creatures that resemble UFOs, wedding cakes, early 19th century industrial machines and koosh balls. “Using both natural and artificial materials,” the artist writes in her statement, “I create imaginary hybrid species that are delicate, alluring, and sometimes awkward or disturbing. I am interested in blurring lines, creating the indefinable, and manipulating the senses; leaving the viewer without a point of reference.”

Mission accomplished. Adams points to the drawings of German biologist Ernst Haeckel as visual inspiration; Haeckel’s fiendishly detailed studies of jellyfish and other creatures have a color sense and adherence to detail that pops up gloriously in Adams’ work. Both influencer and influencee are worth a long look.