Category: Arty sparks

Posted in Arty sparks, Sparky gifts

Brainiac

Posted on by Cate

This Jumping Brain is one of a series designed by Emilio Garcia at the “secret Lapo laboratories”, wherever they are. And they might be secret, but presumably they’re paved with gold – an extra large Jumping Brain costs 1500 euros. But imagine how handy one could be…

When you’re in a meeting and Sucky Suckinson is trying to impress the boss with a jargon-filled speech, the brain jumps across the table as a very subtle sign that he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. Or when the 12 year old boy running the McDonald’s drive-thru gives you the wrong order, ol’ Brainy could jump up to the window as a reminder to stop chatting up the chick making the sundaes and actually serve the customer. Or at extended family gatherings, the brain could sit in the middle of the table as a warning to Great Uncle Charlie and Second Cousin Babs – no one wants to hear dumbhead rants about how much better things were in the olden days. Or if you see a Kardashian or a Snooki or pretty much any reality tv star…

Honestly, think of all the people you’ve met and discounted as idiots – and if you’ve worked in the corporate world in particular, I’m tipping you’ve met plenty – or the people that you suspect are either off their heads or heavily medicated when you speak with them. Maybe, just maybe – like a weird twist on old Pavlov’s dogs – when the Jumping Brain appears, everyone in the room gets a little bit smarter. If so, 1500 euros is looking like a great investment!

Check out Emilio Garcia’s brain(s) here.

Posted in Arty sparks, WWWhat?

Draw Something. Anything.

Posted on by Cate

I think I’m very late getting on the bandwagon, so you’ve probably already seen the Draw Something app. Essentially, it’s online Pictionary with random strangers. Or, Words With Friends in picture format, if you like. And I’m hooked. I can’t really draw – a fact that is becoming more and more apparent with each game that I play – but there’s some satisfaction in your scribble being identified as your intended image. Basically, you choose from one of three options to draw (for your team mate to guess). And then you get awarded coins, depending on the alleged difficulty of what you chose to draw. An everyday plodder drawing equivalent – say, HAT – will get you one coin, while the nimble Russian gymnast drawing equivalent – say, PETSHOP – will get you three coins. (For the record, I have drawn both hat and petshop and they have been identified correctly by the person on the other side. How, I do not know, but that is beside the point.) You can use your virtual coins to buy additional virtual paint colours to brighten up your drawings, or to buy additional virtual bombs to blow up some of the letters that you choose from to name what the other person has drawn. People use bombs to help them decipher my drawings quite frequently – but I like to think that, like Picasso before me, the hidden depth of my work is not immediately obvious to everyone. I am also comforted by the fact that Picasso never had to try and produce a masterpiece using a canvas half the size of a phone screen, with an index finger as a paintbrush. The virtual artist’s life is not an easy one, I tell you.

However, there are some amazing people out there and I am regularly in awe of the quality of their drawings. Others, and I include most of my own drawings in this number, are either intentionally or unintentionally comical and I find myself shaking with laughter as I look at them on my way to work or waiting in line at the supermarket. For an app that is either free or upgraded to a 99c version, Draw Something definitely gives me my money’s worth in entertainment on a daily basis. Judge for yourself…

     (Ok, that last one is mine. CMM4. See what I mean?)

Posted in Arty sparks, Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

Too cool for school

Posted on by Cate

These amazing fine art prints from Angela Rossi in LA make me laugh. Out loud. (See kids, we used to say it like that before you lazied it into LOL.) With the animal tops perfectly matched to the old American yearbook bodies, you can just imagine these dudes roaming the halls of the local high school back in the day. Not wishing to stereotype, but I reckon Andrea the Giraffe (all animals named by the artist, I have just interpreted the characteristics) would be the studious library-at-lunchtime geek; Hunter the Hound is either smoking in the bathroom or saying dopey things at the back of the classroom; Ryan the Raccoon is the cool jock (with a beard); Timmy the Alpaca would be all about music/drama/dahnce; Heather the Persian Cat would be the uptight teacher’s pet and Rachelle the Cockatoo would just be annoying (with a cute blonde ponytail).

Check out more cool prints, plates and postcards at Angela’s etsy shop Beat Up Creations.

Posted in Arty sparks, Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

These boots are made for readin’

Posted on by Cate

I love etsy, the online world of arts and crafts people – some of whom have amazing talent and produce truly beautiful work…and then there are others, who hopefully haven’t packed in a lucrative day job in search of megabucks via their etsy shop. I’ll let you decide which camp this latest find falls into, but in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, I was taken by the product title: Irish boots with green clover. Legs in the book. 

Off to a good start, I looked further and found a picture, surely worth 1000 words…

Wow. What strange world had I uncovered? What are these legs in the book all about? And what happens to all the bodies? Is there another, slightly poorer selling, series of bodies in the book? Turns out they are fancy bookmarks made by a lady in the Ukraine, whose motto seems to be ‘never stop sharing your LOVE’, which is very nice. But I doubt that the Valentine’s Day version of ‘legs in the book’ were used as a substitute for roses or diamonds by many romantics this year.

Anyways, in case you still can’t quite get how this all works, here you go:

Aha. To top it all off, the legs appear to be shipped to you in a beautiful gift box, which is long and narrow – eerily like a brightly coloured coffin, to be honest. To share your LOVE with some legs in the book, check out Olena’s shop on etsy.

Posted in Arty sparks, Sparks in the wild, Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

Totally Foksy

Posted on by Cate

Wherever you stand on the whole animal fur debate, this Silver Wolf Foks (yes, that’s how they spell it, they’re from Poland) is a-ok. Whether you’re inspired by the recent Liam Neeson scary movie or you’re just an animal loving fashionista, this is surely a must-have addition to your wardrobe/menagerie. Part pet, part scarf and all felt, with a special clip so that you can curl ol’ Foksy around your neck or leave him hanging free. From the new Felt Fokses range by wacky Polish designers Celapiu, you can pick one up via their fabulous etsy store for around $150.  The designers claim that the Long Foks version is “long enough to wrap himself around you in hundreds of different ways”, which sounds at once creepy and impossible. Whatever, I am very tempted to carry one of these around Sydney this winter. And I will sidle up close to people on public transport and in bars and tap them gently with one of Foksy’s paws. And wait for the screams.

If you must have a Foks, check out Celapiu’s etsy store.