24 Hours of Whimsy

It was Pam's last full day in Boston yesterday, so we decided to make it as adorable as possible. 

...I think we did alright. 

those pictures i promised...finally

Incidentally, it turns out I am the worst at updating about trips...remember how I said I would be posting these pictures? Almost over a month ago?? Well here they are. Finally. I apologize for the delay.

SEINFELD CAFE!

Dressing Like Truman Capote

Since my previous features on my fashion icons seem to have been well liked, I'm going to start posting a "dressing like" segment every week in which I will largely ignore famous people's accomplishments in favor a superficial celebration of their sense of style.

I feel like I can speak for both Carly and myself when I say Truman Capote totally gets us. He could be fancy (look up pictures of his Black and White Ball for a treat!), but I much prefer the mental image of him I have hunched over a typewriter in a basic tee with a kitty in his lap. Maybe it's the fact that I'm kind of overwhelmed with all the junk I've acquired in the past four years that I don't know what to do with as I prepare to move, but I'm definitely into simplifying everything (especially my wardrobe) right now. These photos of Mr. Capote make me think that all I really need is a few items I can throw into a suitcase.

by Carl Van Vecht

Rag & Bone Boyfriend Scoop Tee

by Cecil Beaton

truman capote style by ventriciaular featuring sleeveless shirts

by Henri Cartier-Bresson

A.P.C. Heathered T-Shirt

by Irving Penn

Karen Walker Grandpa Dinner Coat

time for another giveaway!

A few weeks ago,  we launched a  Facebook page (here!) for Ventricular Projects to help us spread the word about our upcoming projects and updates. We'd love if everyone who's interested in participating or contributing to our zines, along with our other projects, to "like" us so you can stay updated about deadlines and announcements.

Right now we have two zine projects underway, Great Outdoors and Female Musicians (name to be changed!). Both deadlines for submissions for the projects are late August and we're currently looking at mid-September for distribution. If you're interested in being involved, please don't be shy! Send us an email at ventricularprojects@gmail.com and we can give you more details.

To help promote all of this, we're doing a giveaway! All you have to do is leave us a comment here with a title suggestion for our upcoming Female Musicians zine project and/or like us on Facebook leave us a comment on the page with your favorite summertime activity (so we know you liked us).  If you do both, you'll be entered to win twice! We'll announce a winner on Monday, July 18th.

Prize Pack includes:
- Two Kodak Fun Saver disposable cameras
- Ring pop posicle mold
- Postcards with original art by Caroline Knowles
- Issue #2 of Tilde Journal: Fanciful Fun and Furry Friends

Good luck!

Caitlin Shearer

To my knowledge, there isn't some sort of international championship for the illustration of dreamy ladies (and why not? that would be awesome!), but if there were, I would not want to be up against Australian artist Caitlin Shearer, although.  Not only does she come up with some of the most stylin' ladies I've seen, but she also has an impressively large body of work - just check out her Flickr and her blog.  There's no way I could keep up!


Caitlin was nice enough to answer a few questions for us about her creative process, developing your own artistic style, and people she wishes would move in next door to her.  

Can you elaborate at all on your creative process? (from the idea of a project to the final piece)  Do you have a narrative in mind when you create a piece? Or do you draw what comes to mind? 

The way a painting starts and continues usually varies - it's usually a mish-mash of what I'm feeling or obsessed with that week, (kind of like a diary - gotta let these emotions out of my brain) but that being said, sometimes I will leave a painting for months and change it dramatically when the right thing pops into mind. I do all the outlines in lead pencil first, which allows for spontaneous change.

We always love to here about people’s creative spaces – do you have a studio or office that you work out of, and if so, what’s it like?  Do you have a favorite time of day to work?

Well, I moved house exactly one week ago, so I'm currently living and working in Sydney in a sharehouse. I'm minding a friend's room for six months, so am using her furniture. I've got a dark brown desk under the window and out of it I can see lots of rooftops. I wish I had a spacious white studio filled with fresh flowers, but that might take another five years. My favourite time of day to work is after lunchtime, all afternoon till it get's dark - and perhaps far into the night if I pick up momentum and there are no friends knocking at the door.

What are your favorite tools? Is there a medium you haven’t explored yet that you would like to get into?

I'd love to try oil paints - I imagine they would add a completely different dimension to the work. I'm a bit intimidated by them at the moment though! I just started working in an art supply store and it's all too tempting - now I want to spent all my pay on marbling kits and fabric mediums and huge sketchbooks and fancy papercutting scissors.At the moment my favourite tools are masking fluid, smooth cotton paper, watercolour paints, waterproof black paint and teeny tiny paintbrushes.

Caitlin's collaboration with fashion designer Karla Špetić.

What are your dream collaborations or projects, however ridiculous or unlikely they may be? 

All unlikely- but here we go...I wish I could be an in-house illustrator for Lula mag - and also chat about clothes and fancy things with Leith Clark. I wish Vivienne Westwood was my patron/teacher/wise owl.I wish the Rodarte sisters would have me over for tea.I wish David Lynch and I were neighbours so we could have pie baking competitions every weekend.oh and add Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, James Mercer to that list.More to do with fun than work... but good work comes from loving the people you work with, right?

Any advice to anyone just getting into illustration and drawing on how to develop their own personal style?

Speaking personally,  I found it took a long, long time to be entirely pleased and entirely comfortable with my own work. It's not something you can rush - it just takes a lot of practice, experimentation and commitment. I guess, the more honest you can be, the better. That goes for everything in life.

If you could have any fictional character or historical figure as a client, whom would you choose?  What would they commission?

I'd squeal if Bettie Page commissioned a life size boudoir portrait to hang above her bed.

Thanks, Caitlin!

summer jams

Over at  Ripped Knees,  Ana shared some her favorite summertime tunes (a+ choices btw!) a few days ago which inspired me to put together a summer playlist and finally get around to downloading some new music. So without further ado, here's what I've been jamming out to the past few weeks. Enjoy!

This entire album from Craft Spells is fantastic and perfect for dancing around in your room...which I may or may not have been doing all weekend.

My favorite song off of John Maus's new album, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. Confession: I usually don't buy albums off of iTunes but this one was well worth it.





What are your favorite songs and artists for summertime? I've also been digging the new Beirut album.

P.S. After some interest in the drawings I posted a few weeks back, I had a few postcard sets printed which are now available in my personal etsy shop. Use the code "FREESHIP" for free shipping on all purchases! I'm also available for cat portrait commissions. 

confessions of a pavement fangirl

I had a casual Pavement appreciation for quite a while before it blossomed into a full blown obsession in the past few years - possibly a side effect of my time as a college radio DJ, because I'm pretty sure it's really common thing those kids go through.

Fortunately, Pavement was nice enough to go on a reunion tour that stopped in Boston last autumn right as my love for them was at a peak high. Better yet, my pal Sara was able to visit the weekend of the show, so I didn't have dance my little heart out without someone super pumped right next to me. I believe the exact words of my incredibly professional concert review that night were, "my face got rocked off".

Anyway, there's not really anything I can say about Pavement that hasn't been said before many times, but here are a few images that make me a happy girl:

Stephen Malkmus by Moses Berkson

A handy chart.

Reunion tour shot by Cory Schwartz

Stephen Malkmus by Juergen Teller

And just in case you haven't given Pavement a fair chance to infect your brain with pure, unadulterated awesomeness, I put together a mix of ten of their songs I love dearly featuring some hits and some seriously underrated jams.

10 Songs By Pavement

1) Texas Never Whispers

2) Easily Fooled

3) Stereo

4) Greenlander

5) Gold Soundz

6) Summer Babe [Winter Version]

7) Cut Your Hair

8) Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse)

9) Shady Lane/ J vs. S

10) In the Mouth of a Desert (Live)