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

We’re fatally enchanted by Dadu Shin’s sketchbook pages, each scanned and documented online for voyeuristic sketchbook-snoopers to page through. Delightful!

Svartkonst— the Swedish curators of art and culture whose magazine and website we refer to constantly for inspiration—has now released Grim Pseudonym, a zine by artist Patrick Kyle. The full-color publication comes in a numbered edition of 99 and is available for order from the Svartkonst page. Another thing: it looks rad.

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.

Whatever you think of the term “outsider art” (it’s a fraught one), there’s no doubt that Henry Darger is the consummate outsider.

A recluse in his Chicago apartment, Darger (1892-1973) spent his life writing and illustrating an original epic adventure titled “The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.” The confluence of sheer visual genius, galaxy-sized ambition and wacked-out imagination doesn’t happen often, and in Darger’s case its lucky that his paintings even came to light.

Those interested in any of the above could definitely spend a productive hour or two scoping out Darger’s work online (it is well-represented). For those who develop a deeper interest, Klaus Biesenbach’s book of scholarly essays and biography and key texts will be one to add to the book list.

Jeff Scher is an artist and filmmaker who creates small heartfelt animated pieces using individual watercolor and pencil stills set to simple music. The pieces are released every few months and his latest entitled ” he Parade” can be viewed via Sher’s Animated Life column for the NY Times. Below is an old gem Sher put together with a nice poem by Billy Collins.