The Artwork of Amy Rice

posted by dennis

I am really liking the artwork Minneapolis’s Amy Rice. Amy combines spraypaint stencil, gouache, acrylic and found objects to create simple yet beautiful pieces. I love her use of stencils to create the line work and then paints in the details by hand. But perhaps my favorite aspect of her work is her use of found letters and envelopes on which she creates her pieces.


Life is Sweet for the Manifest Equality Show


Learn to Play


Dear Elizabeth

More of Amy’s work can be seen on her Flickr photostream.

Sylvia by Dennis Jacobs

posted by dennis

I completed a mixed media painting this weekend, entitled Sylvia. The piece measures 12″ x 16″ and is made of hand cut spraypaint stencils over collage on board. Below is the process by which I created the piece.


As with any painting I do, I start by laying down a base layer of collage. With this particular piece I used clippings from vintage magazines, anatomy books, old magazine ads, maps, newspaper, and photos from military books.


This particular painting required two stencils, based on a digital illustration, to complete. Rather than printing and cutting one stencil for each color I instead use the each stencil for multiple colors. For example, I will cut out the sections that for red, spray it, then tape them back into place. I will then cut out the black sections and spray them. This helps to make sure the registration of the stencil is correct and also saves time on cutting stencils. While this does result in the stencil being destroyed, I only make one off paintings, so I will never need to reuse a stencil. If i were to begin doing multiple paintings of a single image, I would then create one stencil per color needed.

See more process pictures as well as the completed painting after the break

Starred #29

posted by christina

Starred by Perfect Laughter

ingrid fabiola

Photo by Ingrid Fabiola (via PICDIT)

alex varanese

Alex Varanese (via Design Work Life)

cisco ksl

Cisco Ksl (via Hard Feelings)

Love the lighting in Jessica Tremp’s photos (via The Strange Attractor)

page tsou

Page Tsou (via OK Great)

Named after the Add Star feature in Google Reader, “Starred” is a column about things that catch my eye as I peruse the blogs I subscribe to. If you’d like to subscribe to Perfect Laughter, here’s a link to our RSS Feed.

Beautiful Angle

posted by dennis

Formed in November, 2002 Tacoma, Washington’s Beautiful Angle puts an interesting twist on the typical poster art that one would see wheatpasted around town. Every poster is printed by graphic designer Lance Kagey and writer Tom Llewellyn. The pair often collaborate with guest designers for some of their monthly releases. Printed on a Challenge proof press in editions of 120, 80 of the prints are posted around Tacoma, while the rest are for sale in their online shop.


This print is my favorite because it was printed on donated maps.

Celebrate Michigan Design

posted by christina

On March 25th, The Crofoot will host an AIGA Detroit event called Celebrate Michigan Design. In addition to some informative presentations, there will be music by Jimmy Edgar, a screen printing demo by Progress of Design, a gallery show by the Silent Giants, Michigan themed merchandise by Handmade Detroit and Angela Duncan, and motion graphics be Steve Panicara and Scott Waraniak. Hors d’ourves and cash bar immediately following presentations.

Cover is $5 AIGA members and  $10 for non-AIGA members. For more information or to RSVP, visit the event’s page on AIGA Detroit’s website.