Oly Oly Oxen Free

Children's Books, Contemporary Art, Comic Books, Folk Art, Illustration, and other findings compiled by Nebraska born, Brooklyn based: Kate Humphreys Find my own work at: www.katehumphreys.com katehump.tumblr.com

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Heinrich Hoffman - Slovenly Betsy - 1911

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"Book of Nonsense Verse” Edward Lear, 1845

More here. 

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“Friedrich Wilhelm Fröbel (1782–1852) originated as a radical and highly spiritual system of abstract design activities developed to teach the recognition and appreciation of natural harmony. Kindergarten has always included singing and dancing, as well as observation of the workings of nature—the growth of plants, the symmetries of crystals and seashells. One’s teacher was usually a woman and she led the class in activities that would have been considered playoutside the school. But long abandoned, and thus hardly known today, is the practical and philosophical heart of the system—Fröbel’s interconnected series of twenty play “gifts” using sticks, colored paper, mosaic tiles, sewing cards, as well as building blocks, drawing equipment, and the gridded tables at which the children sat.” -Cabinet Magazine 2002 (Childhood)

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Jana Glatt

Jana Glatt is an illustrator and graphic designer from Rio de Janeiro.  She has illustrated a few really nice children’s books and also helped with the identity for the 2016 Olympics. I find her crowd scenes particularly delightful.

Visit her website here. 

Visit her tumblr here. 

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Karel Appel

Karel Appel was a Dutch painter and sculptor. He helped in the founding of the avant grade art movement called CoBrA in the late 1940′s/early 50′s. The name came from abbreviated all of the founders hometowns (Copehhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam). CoBrA artists used spontaneity in making artworks, and took inspiration from the methods a child uses to create. These works are so fun. They feel like I’m walking into a circus that is kind of melting away even though it has just been built. I love any adult who wants to paint or draw like a child. It is truly a lost art. Something you will never fully get back is the ability to create in the moment with such ease. It is a very beautiful thing to possess as a youth. With these paintings you can see that he is nearly there, but with a more studied hand, and consciousness of his influences. 

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JD Banke

JD Banke is a painter from Washington. “I use my intuition when I paint and create installations. I don't believe in dressing simple ideas in frilly costumes to appease conventions. I enjoy what I do.” 

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Samiro Yunoki

Samiro Yunoki is a Japanese textile artist. He is a master of a traditional Japanese stencil dying technique called katazome, translating literally to “dying from a form”. He said of his work in Idee Magazine, ““Dyeing used to be necessary because all the people wore kimono. But now we are living in totally different situation. I guess there are many dyeing artists who feel difficulty in getting jobs. Existing traditional crafts are all exquisite handiwork. It means that Japanese elaborate technologies support the basis of traditional crafts. Although it’s not bad thing to appreciate those crafts as artworks, I think it’s boring. Crafts are not just a decoration. The essence of traditional crafts is the solid motivation of artists backed by genuine skills and materials. Moreover, it wouldn’t be good if ostentatious decorations covered and hide artists’ humanities and vitalities, or if the crafts became too practical. So I think we should broaden the definition of art and call all the creation “art” with no distinction between “fine art” and “crafts”.”

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Fighter Kites

Kite fighting is a competitive sport played primarily in South Asia and the Middle East. These geometric kites were traditionally made with a lightweight paper, bamboo, and line of some sort. The competition is to try to cut down other competitors kites by maneuvering in such a way as to dive under and rip their line. The last kite standing becomes the champion! The sharper the line the better. Some places will even attach knives to their lines or coat them with finely crushed glass. In some places in Pakistan it’s even outlawed because some of the sportsmen’s line tactics using metal shards or glass have lead to serious injury. It’s incredible that these whimsical geometric kites are apart of a sport that could cause injury! It is hard for me to imagine them being aggressive, but I’m sure it is a beautiful dance of color.  I find them very sculptural. I can see Bauhaus lines and traditional asian folk art in these. 

And lastly, an illustration by Charley Harper from 1962

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Matsue Maiko

Matsue Maiko is a Japanese illustrator from Kyoto. She makes these wonderful cozy prints using traditional Japanese printmaking techniques. Their simple charm comes off looking quite like Czech or Swedish folk art combined with the primary colored boxiness of the Bauhaus. The horse at the bottom reminds me of a Swedish Dalecarlian horse. I really love it when you can see what the artist is influenced by so clearly, even though they have created something entirely new. These illustrations make me want to cuddle up on a picnic blanket in a field and watch yellow, red, and blue birds fly by. 

Visit her website here. 

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Faye Coral Johnson

Faye Coral Johnson is a UK illustrator, zine maker, and comic book artist. She's one of those that I really can't say anything except, damn wish I had made that. Check out her blog via her website for lots of neat things to drool over. 

Visit her website here. 

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Arthur Wesley Dow

Arthur Wesley Dow was an American painter, photographer, and printmaker. He was an influential teacher who taught his students to take inspiration from nature rather than to copy it. He is most well known for instructing Georgia O'Keefe, who said his method of interpreting nature into lines and colors, "...provided an alphabet, so to speak, that could be arranged and rearranged, resulting in a great deal of individualism." 

I found these blue photos he did around 1900 that are eerie, and soft, and elegant. 

Take a look at all the beautiful prints and paintings he did throughout his lifetime here. 

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Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian born American artist. He was apart of the Social Realism movement that began amongst artists in the Great Depression, seeking to illustrate the turmoil and injustices occurring through-out the country. 

Shahn believed that the abstract movements of the time were useless and superfluous, doing nothing to activate people's political minds when they were most needed. According to Shahn, known forms allow the artist "to discover new truths about man and to reaffirm that his life is significant."

I was drawn to his beautiful black line drawings and the simple profound immediacy of all of his political illustrations. Quiet and understated drawing often gets more across than something elaborate, and Shahn is a master of doing so. 

Watch this great youtube video about him here. 

See more of his work here. 

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Sascha Pohflepp

Sascha Pohflepp is a German born artist, who makes mostly conceptual based work that deals with technology's influence on the environment. His projects are wonderful entities to dive into in and of themselves, but I was firstly drawn to his photography. His photos often include some bit of environment or plant life that has had to fit into the concrete manufactured modern world. He captures really beautiful non-moments where nothing is happening and maybe nothing ever will. Quietly modernity and nature exist together. They remind me of many slow lonely walks home in which you notice small remarkable details that you can only note upon to yourself. Beautiful work. 

Visit his website here.

Visit his tumblr here. 

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James Ulmer

I am really in love with this work by Brooklyn artist James Ulmer. His repetitive drawings give me the same delightful feeling that I got when I lined up all my newly acquired Halloween candy in rows except these are tiny funny characters. Though the lines in his drawings are wonky, I get a sense of geometry in all of them, all following a wonderful squirmy formula. I am easily lost in all of the strange fellows he has created, I wonder where they are off to!

Visit his website here.

Visit his tumblr here.

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The Sick Rose

The Sick Rose is a beautifully gruesome poem written by William Blake in 1789 that poetically describes a fly finding the bed of someone recently deceased. This wonderful book of old medical illustrations published by Thames and Hudson shares the same strange, eerie resonance as the famous poem. This book represents a time before medical technology rained supreme. It shows a time before the human race understood everything, which to me, displays a beautiful ignorance of the world. Life was more respected because it could be taken away so easily. Most of these illustrations are gouache paintings and are immaculately rendered. Also, in the same way that google searching any ailment shows a over dramatic version of whatever you might have, these paintings are ridiculously macabre.

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Josh Jefferson

Josh Jefferson, an artist from maybe Boston?, makes these really cool collaged pencil and crayon drawings. The different levels and layers make these really interesting to me, and I love that the manila paper makes them look so aged. I discovered Josh through looking at Danny Fox's instagram, both having a similar aesthetic approach. 

Visit his website here.