Emma Hanquist Illustration 

Hästhandlare (Horse trading)

Illustration in Hippson, published 2010
I like her characters, you can recognise her work by their features. She mixes flat collage cut outs, with human eyes and other facial features. Her work is a mix of 2d and 3d elements. There are different markings suggesting the way the horses main falls and yet some textures have completely vanished. 

Olaf Hajek 

Limited edition prints at Lumas Gallery.

Olaf uses layers in his work, they are textured and highly patterned, the colours are beautiful, luxurious and almost vintage. He is influenced by the Indian culture. I have done some research on Hinduism and the Ganges and there are many interesting illustrations of gods and monsters. You can see he is influenced by some of these, i think his work is beautiful and mysterious. 

Fantastic Mr Fox

Andy Gent and team of 25 others helping him created all the characters for the film. They used real hair, created all the tiny costumes, built the sets. I chose this image because i think it shows the amount of detail , texture and movement that was put into creating each scene. There is a kind of naivety about it all  which is charming, like the bagpuss tv series. It seems crafted and handmade which is very successful. 

Ernesto Neto

Brazillian artist.

I went to see one of his exhibitons at the hayward gallery last summer and came out exited and inspired. Ernesto Neto works with abstract installations which can often take up the entire exhibition space. He creates unknown worlds. What I love about his installations is that he feels its important for the viewer to  actively interact and physically experience his work by feeling, touching and smelling it. The materials he uses are stretchable, they suck you in and cushion your body. They are also filled with spices in areas. My main interest in his work is that it relates to the human body. He describes his work as an "exploration and a representation of the body's landscape from within." Im really interested in the magnified shapes and mechanisms in the human body. 

Illustrator Graham Rawle created a reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz. There were so many images taken from this book that excited me, it was very difficult to select one. Its the handmade fabricated quality of the picture that makes it so successful. The book is fantastical and magical, and his illustrations match this world perfectly, nothing looks completely real and it shouldn't do. The lighting is clever, the mixture of 2D and 3d objects, he created scenes and then adapted some on photoshop until he was happy with the outcome, but its clear he has kept the unpolished look which makes this book so successful.

 Graphic designer David Duval smith and Architect Michael Frank joined partnerships and became "Namaiki." Both now living in Japan, they exhibited "Kinky muff land." Their philosophy is concerned with playing and being humorous. They like to bring the communities in together when producing art as Duval quoted "Everyone has a voice, and everyone can be involved." In this project they started to grow an edible jungle in their back garden where people would come and swap seeds and help plant. They began to plant all around the streets, growing daikon radishes and broccoli next to roadside trees. I like this idea of "green graffiti." This was then playfully exhibited in Osaka for 4-5 months as an instalation, with their objects placed within the natural worlds. They would continue to grow and create fresh intricate worlds. 

Sophie Blackall- Illustrator

This piece comes from a collection she was working on called "missed connections". I like this image because it illustrates the potential of an unfinished story. You receive a flash of someones thoughts, and you then find your own trail off. It also makes me think of missed opportunities, or how your experiences could be different if only you had chosen a different route. Therefore this image injects a little darkness but i feel there is also hope. The painting is delicate and feels fleeting, she hasn't spent too long on it, it isn't too detailed, it is a snippet of a thought. 

The dune house
designed by practices jarmund/vigsnaes Architects- Norwegian company.
I came across this house after researching about "living architecture." I like the idea that it gives ordinary people the chance to live in extraordinary houses. Its placed in suffolk, you can walk straight out directly onto the beach. I think this house becomes lost in nature, its turrets in the roof mimics the sea. It is traditional and natural and yet has all the advantages of modernity with its sharp glass. You could become a different character living in another world once you enter this house.

The Seed Cathedral

Designed by architect Thomas Heatherwick

Heatherwick designed piece for UK Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 expo. Its made of fiber-opic lights which glow, its overwhelming and yet silent and soft and so has a magical presence which attracts people like flies to a sticky plant. To me its like walking up to a magnified particle of our body because it has fleshy qualities. 

Blu 

Street Art/Animation

Walls for Lisboa crono festival 

Blu's painted the figure into the building, using the features as part of the face and the crown. The colours are vivid and fresh. He has transformed this closed building a brought life to it. The scale is huge and his style is obscure. Its inspiring because it makes you look at buildings and objects in different ways. The figure looks like an alien thats been dropped into a city, its interactive and imaginative you could keep drawing and adding to the picture.