The Artful Home: We = Trouble

Last fall, the print-release site Tiny Showcase put together a group show at Brooklyn's Secret Project Robot gallery. Called We = Trouble, the show featured collaborative works (as well as several solo pieces) by a international group of 32 artists. (Above: Three Cranes and a Deer by Nigel Peake and Holly Rice.)

The exhibit "was designed to showcase communities of artists that do not subscribe to traditional art world values of egocentricity and competition, but rather foster communities of trust and encouragement. Sixteen artists were given complete freedom to invite a partner that they would most enjoy collaborating with. Responding with an avalanche of marathon drawing jams, long-distance parcel post, fake feuds, spying, empty threats, pseudo sabotage, and curiosity, the participants spent the last six months oscillating between forgetting about the show altogether to pulling all-nighters just trying to out-trouble one another, or simply trying to trouble to their maximum extent."

A few of the artists are familiar names -- there's a significant Bay Area contribution, for instance -- but many of them are new to me (and several of those were love at first sight). Now these original artworks are available through the Tiny Showcase website. Some of my favorite pieces:

Slutty Plan by Riikka Sormunen

Pony by Riikka Sormunen

Sex Grill by Jaakko Pallasvuo and Riikka Sormunen

Caves, Telescopes, and Slides by Nigel Peake and Holly Rice

Acclimation Blast by Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch

North by Caroline Gaedechens

Secrets by Caroline Gaedechens and 1911 (aka The Good Machinery)

Bird Series V by Matt Furie and Aiyana Udesen

Ghost in the Graveyard by Jen Corace

We Were There by Catia Chen and Danni Meyerson

Boglight by Michelle Blade and Marci Washington

The Wanderer by Michelle Blade and Marci Washington

Moon Mouth by Michelle Blade and Marci Washington

Moon Bathing by Michelle Blade, Jay Howell, and Ferris Plock

Bones by Jay Howell, Deth P. Sun, and Ferris Plock

Lost Marbles by Ferris Plock and Kelly Tunstall

Untitled by Erin Althea and Drew Beckmeyer

Purple Panties by Mike Bertino and Daniel Gibson

Check out all of the featured pieces here, and contact Tiny Showcase for info and pricing on available works.

Etsy Find of the Day: The Good Machinery Softies

Italy's The Good Machinery makes some amazing art, and I was delighted to discover that she recently added a collection of oddly lovable softies to her Etsy shop. (Above: Set of Three, $45.)

Each handmade, hand-washable creation is a character from the artist's sketchbook, brought to life via a heat-transferred print onto 100-percent recycled cotton. They'd be a lovely Easter basket surprise for a little one in your life, or even a quirkily winsome addition to a couch, chair, or shelf for an imaginative adult.

Take a look:

Heartbroken Wolf Man and His Lucky Tree, $24

La Duchesse Lola, $17

The Witch of Good Luck and the Yuta She Keeps Her Magic In, $24

Decko, $17

Circus Bear, $17

French Ghost Abandoned by His Maid and His Castle Burning in Jealousy and Flames, $24

See all of the offerings in The Good Machinery's Etsy shop right here -- and check out more of her work here.

The Artful Home: Tuesday Print Releases

Tuesdays are big days for fans of limited-edition print sites 20x200 and Tiny Showcase, since that's the day each reveals its latest print release from established and up-and-coming artists.

I really like both of the new prints on offer today: Daisy, at top, by L.A.'s Christina Muraczewski, is $20 from 20x200. Don't snooze on this one, since more than half of the limited-edition run of 200 8.5-by-11-inch prints are already gone.

And Lucky, by Italy's amazing The Good Machinery, is $20 at Tiny Showcase. There are only 100 copies of this 4.25-by-5.75-inch print available, so grab yours fast.

Cool Tool: Etsy's "Shop Local"

Etsy rolled out its new Shop Local tool right before the holidays -- when, presumably, we were all scrambling for last-minute gifts that we could actually pick up in person instead of waiting for the overloaded and backlogged mail service to deliver them.

It's a great idea: Not only can you discover and support the talent right in your own backyard, but you may also be able to save on shipping charges and prevent all that packing material from ending up in landfills.

When I gave Shop Local a test drive recently, I was delighted to discover more than 100 Etsy sellers in Oakland alone, offering more than a thousand items -- including this sweet Basement Mice collage print, $18, by RISD alum Karen Ondracek.

By expanding my search parameters a bit to include neighboring Berkeley, up popped this pretty letterpress calendar ($30) from ©&@.

San Francisco? Why, it's blogger sfgirlbybay's custom-colored Keep Calm and Carry On posters ($25 each).

But here's the thing: You can also use the tool to browse wares from vendors who are decidedly not local.

Say you're into Scandinavian design. Simply type in "Sweden" (or "Finland," or "Denmark") and see what turns up:

Ms. Ursula Buttcrack Character ($56), from Gothenburg's Smosch

Now let's try the Netherlands:

Handfelted Pebbles ($24 for eight), from Geleen's Reya Veltman

Italy: I'd Rather Be Happy With You Again print ($13), by The Good Machinery

Argentina: Patterned Birds print ($15), by Pequinio Craft

South Africa: Pink Stamens blockprinted fabric ($20 for about a yard), by Cape Town's jezze

Japan: Sakura Woman ACEO, $10 from Gallery Juana

Australia: Hey Little Birdy print ($12), by Perth's Little Red Bicycle

See how fun (and potentially addictive) it is?

My only complaint -- and I have a similar quibble with Etsy's Shop by Color tool and general search form -- is that you can't further narrow the results by category or keyword. So if I'm looking for local ceramists, it'd be nice not to have to wade through all the jewelry designers who are based in my neck of the woods. (Are you listening, Etsy wizards?)

But still, it's a really nifty little feature. Give Shop Local a whirl -- whether to keep it local or to drastically expand your shopping horizons -- right here.

The Artful Home: Val Britton

As with so many good things lately, I first encountered Berkeley artist Val Britton's work at Oakland's Johannson Projects Gallery during one of the Oakland Art Murmur's First Fridays (if you're around, don't miss tonight's event).

I was transfixed by her delicately traced and layered, softly stained, and intricately cut and stitched paper map collages, which seemed to evoke some strange, unknown -- and unknowable -- geography.

"The impetus ... was my longing to connect to my father, a truck driver who drove eighteen-wheelers across the country hauling industrial machinery. He died over ten years ago," the recent California College of the Arts MFA writes. "Based on road maps of the U.S., routes my father often traveled, and an invented conglomeration, mutation, and fragmentation of those passageways, my works ... help me piece together the past and make up the parts I cannot know."

Call it the terrain of the human heart.

See more of Britton's work here. (And if you're in the area, you can see her pieces in person at the group show There's No Place Like Here, being held at the Sonoma State University Art Gallery through December 9.)