Artist Love - Shiori Matsumoto

 I found Shiori Matsumoto when I was looking for "Zig Zag Girl" images. You know the image. The lady who is the magicians assistant (of course the assistant and never the magician [eye roll]) gets in a box and then the box is separated into a zig zag pattern. The illusion insists that the female assistant has been turned into three separate pieces. In any case, I was looking for this image because it holds a special symbolism for me. 

And what I found in my search was this morsel of goodness. First of all, the color theory is fantastic. But the imagery is tops. The dwarf baby child monster has such a cute tiny butt. Look at that little tushy! The round room, the tiny Fez, the realism of the girl. I love the whole thing.

Look at the creeper here behind the curtain. The imagery is great in an of itself. The bear engaging with the audience. The girl in the mirror. The bird with the lollipop. It's all so crazy!

And this one...so pretty! The title is "Door of Boundary." You can learn more about Shiori and see more of her work here.

Shiori's pop-surreal expressions are reminiscent of Mark Ryden who I recently learned was the cover artist for the late great King of Pop Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" album. Mr. Ryden has a great instagram post about the 5 days that were required to come up with the concept. You can see it here. Juxtapoz Magazine covers more on this piece here.

In a future post I will cover more of Mark Ryden's art. When I was in art school (a long time ago) he was whispered about. 

I can't wait to cover more art. Stay tuned! 

XO, Gwenny

Crustless Goat Cheese Vegetable Tatin

Before going in to the oven.

This one is not just a pretty face. She packs a wallop of health and tops it with a cherry of exceptional taste.

There are certain vegetables my husband does not like. Summer squash, like Zephyr, Zucchini and Crook Neck are on the "I won't eat them, so do not cook them," list. Unless I fancy them up like in this amazing and super easy crustless "tarte."

Frabjous Finds - Fab.com

'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know what they are!" Alice in Wonderland 

Frabjous: Possibly a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous. Definition from Oxford English Dictionary, credited to Lewis Carroll.

Listen, I hate giving free advertising to giant corporations. For a few reasons really: #1 I feel like I should receive a tit for tat...I advertise for them they should mention P & P!! #2 They're huge...do they need little old me to mention them again? They pay millions to an advertising agency to promote them. And last #3 The Book. That's right...if everyone is out there liking them and they are doing still more supplemental advertising on "The Book," then why do I need to tell people how great they are?

However, there are some companies that are so great, that I love so much, that I visit online so often, that I must must must mention them! And Fab.com is one of those companies! It is a veritable shopping Mecca that cannot be ignored and the best thing about their treasures is that the items listed are modern, chic, enticing, enviable and most importantly more often than not, affordable! Talk about a frabjous find!

Every time I go to this marvelous shopping site, I learn something new, find something sensational and want to shout it to the world. So world, here it is...FAB.COM!

Look at some of these treasures found only at Fab! at reasonable prices.

This first treasure is by a midwestern artist whose eye is fresh and uber cool! His name is Ryan Kapp and his paintings are on sale on Fab.com right now. I also think you should peruse his website to really get the flavor of his thumbprint. I just ordered one of these!

Look at this! This is a sweet dress from Sub_Urban Riot. I found this on Fab, too! Their clothes are natural fibers and very fashion forward all at the same time! Go look at their website! Although I've shown a dress, they have lots of clothing for both men and women. And they have a blog and they totally love "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," an irreverent hilarious show- which I love too! They are super modern if not a little bit hipster (their current give away is for a "fixie" bike) but very cute, cozy and comfortable.

Who doesn't love this? Your kitty as King Kong! I love this too much, and it's on sale right now at Fab.com! It is created by an awesome company called Luckies of London. They have a clever tea diffuser in the shape of a yellow submarine, barbeque swords, and wallets for car documents.