Beautiful & Haunting: James Jean (Artist)

 James Jean produces some incredibly stunning paintings, full of imagination and wonder, with such skill that you're immediately immersed in his world the moment you set your eyes on them. I first fell in love with his work when I saw some graphics he had done for Prada, and at that point he hadn't made much of his personal work public as he had for commissioned pieces, but at the time his sketchbooks (which are still on his website) were enough to blow me away. James Jean took a hiatus from commissioned pieces to work on personal projects some time ago and from there blossomed a whole side of his artwork I had never seen before. His sketchbooks have a lot of figure renderings and the like, but his paintings have so much more depth and narrative that you can't help but fall in love with them. I received a copy of his book Kindling, a large book of poster pull-outs of a few of his recent works (which are currently displayed along the entire length of my apartment), and they are mind-blowing. Take a look at some of his work to see for yourself, and I highly recommend picking up a copy.

Young Once: Pt. II

 Jeff Bridges, 1991

 Steve McQueen

 Mickey Rourke

 Tony Curtis

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise

Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen and Art Garfunkel (on the set of Carnal Knowledge, 1971)

Meryl Streep

MALE MODELS FOR THE WIN

Boys of Milan & Paris FW2011 from Justin Wu on Vimeo.

Can't Wait For: Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

Ohhhh myyyy..... I really get excited for this film when I see the movie poster (NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF DANIEL CRAIG'S AMAZING ASS - marketing for this film was smart, and is clearly targeting a specific audience with this image). I love science fiction and action movies are always so much fun; the two of them combined with that ass will definitely get me to the theatre opening night. It looks badass. And Harrison Ford is still cool in my books.

Saturday Night Fever: Earl Norem

Take a look at these great illustrations. Earl Norem illustrated countless comic book covers during his 50 year career, as well as multiple short stories in men's magazine during the '60s and '70s. Although his depictions of women are less than appropriate, they're pretty fucking hot, and there's no denying he's a talented artist.

Lust - Camelot (1967): Movie Poster

 

Camelot (1967)

Vintage Erotica (NSFW)

 

 Mostly old photographs, as late as the 90s, of mostly nude women. Enjoyyy

Gluttony: Saturday's Shopping Excursion for Tea and Fine Foods

These two beauties came from About Cheese on Church street (just south of Wellesley) - one of the best cheese shops in the city. The one on the left is Mapledale 7 year aged cheddar; it crumbles just right and melts amazingly in your mouth. The one on the right is a basic Gouda (soo smooth, and 50% off this month!) that has been smoked by About Cheese's neighbours, the equally-amazing Cumbrae's meat shop (if you are looking for meat in the area, only shop here). Let the Gouda rest after removing it from the fridge so that it gets a little warm and soft.

A stop in Kensington resulted in some stellar soup from one of the independent Organic grocers on Augusta. Cashew carrot ginger soup - heat and serve and love it til the last drop (and only like $3).

 Silver Star Tea from Golden Mint on Yonge at College

This tea was wonderful. It's adorable, to start. Secondly, it's delicious. It's a very light tea (a white tea, to be exact) and once it's brewed, tastes like a smooth, warm hug in your mouth (sounds lame, I know, but if you try it you will agree with me).

These are a couple concoctions from the past week or so that have made my tummy and my tongue very pleased:

 

Sweet Potato Fries (sweet potatoes baked with rosemary, olive oil, smoked paprika and some smoked salt) with my homemade Mayo (mayonnaise with dijon mustard, smoked paprika, smoked salt)

Mini Bagels from Loblaws are incredible! They're basically half as thin as a bagel and have a texture more similar to a flatbread... better for making sandwiches that won't fill me up only a third of the way through; I can actually finish this one.

  On this badboy I've got some prosciutto (ughh, love love love), alfalfa sprouts, spring mix of lettuce, tomato, aged cheddar and pear slices, and a little dijon to spice it up a wee bit. Grilled on both sides to warm it up a bit and it's a pretty amazing sandwich (ALL THE FOOD GROUPS ARE THERE TOO, MOM).

Young Once

I'm feeling a little nostalgic this evening, and instead of posting pictures of my past, I'll show you some old photos of people you may recognize. You'll get old, too.

Bob Dylan

Clint Eastwood

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

Marilyn Monroe

The Rolling Stones

 Sam Cooke and Muhammad Ali

 Chet Baker

Marlon Brando

BROOKLYN

I'm heading to Brooklyn in February! A little while ago I joined a Sketchbook project run by Arthouse Coop in Brooklyn. The basics are: you're sent a sketchbook, decide your theme from a list and "sketch" away, send the sketchbook back and have it tour across the US for a few months as a huge, international project. There are about 28, 000 artists that signed up this year! So now I'm heading to Brooklyn to check it out.

If you have suggestions for places to see and visit in New York, shoot them over. So far I have only a couple of guides to help me out. I'll be staying for a few nights so I'll have a lot of time to explore Brooklyn and maybe a bit of Manhattan.

Design*Sponge City Guide
BrooklynNow.com: Williamsburg Guide

Parts of my sketchbook:

For When You're High: Charleston Mirror

FYE: Dolly Parton - Jolene

I cannot get enough of this song, Jolene by Dolly Parton:

I've been on a bit of a blues/country trail lately... more to come soon.