Recap: Natural Resources 3 @ Lift

We’ve been playing catchup after our World Tour of Ohio ended in Cleveland this past weekend. A full month ago now, we visited Lift Detroit to see Natural Resources 3. Artists customized Mike Burnett’s Neighborwood and Average Joe Schmo wood toys for this traveling show. Detroit was the last leg of the three city tour.  Check out the gallery behind the cut to see renditions of these toys from many artists, including Detroit faves Kill Taupe, Heather Hansma, Audrey Pongracz and Carl Oxley III.

READ MORE: Ginormous gallery of pics from Natural Resources 3

Detroit Urban Craft Fair Artist Preview: Part 1

It’s almost here! The 5th annual Detroit Urban Craft Fair is this weekend. If you’re planning on coming out for it (and we hope you are!) you’ll want to get the details on parking from Handmade Detroit. While you’re in the city, Always the Forest has a great post on where to eat and what else to do. And don’t forget to stop by Noel Night on Saturday night, which features our esteemed contributor, Heather Hansma. Finally, if you can’t wait for Saturday to get here, warm up on Friday night at 323 East. It’s the opening of Snowflakes and Candy Canes, a show that’s priced for nifty gifties, and includes one Mr. Dennis Jacobs.

As we did last year, we put together a preview of vendors who focus on art and illustration. Behind the cut, you’ll get a sneak peek of who you’ll be seeing at the Detroit Urban Craft Fair.

Detroit Urban Craft Fair Artist Preview: Part 1

People’s Art Festival 2010

We had great time at this years People’s Art Festival. It was amazing to see how much the festival has grown over the past three years, both in quality of artists exhibiting as well as the amount of attendees. Below are some of the artists whos work really stood out.

Chad Davis

Laura Macintyre

Much more behind the cut.

The People’s Arts Festival and An Announcement!

Perfect Laughter will be at The People’s Arts Festival all weekend! The PAF is pretty special and meaningful to us. Two years ago, it was our very first event, ever. It was the first time that Dennis debuted his paintings in public, and I was starstuck by the positive feedback that he got that day. A few paper goods were sitting on a table with no display, not even a tablecloth. And our business cards were made last minute on tea stained paper, screenprinted and cut by hand. It was a humble beginning to be sure.

Many of our faves will be there, including Audrey Pongracz, Sloe Gin Fizz, All Things Grow, Nerl Says Design, Emi Slade and Kill Taupe (who snagged this week’s cover of Real Detroit!) There are so many booths this year, I’m really looking forward to discovering new Michigan artists to blog about. Are you going to be there? Let us know in the comments!

An Announcement…Spoiler Alert

We’ve been working really hard behind the scenes, and I can safely say now that our new online shop will open for business by September 1st! We even got our prints and paper goods professionally photographed. No grainy iPhone photos like you’ve been seeing from us on Facebook and Twitter. Everything that we’ll have at the PAF will be in our online shop next week. In the meantime, here’s a crappy iPhone pic of our newest screen print, “Moonstruck”. Hope to see you this weekend!

323 East’s Two Year Birthday Party

323 East, along with CPOP, is celebrating their two year anniversary by inviting local street artists to paint a mural on their building over 72 hours from June 11th-13th. Additionally, Kobio Solomon, in celebration of the release of his book: “My First Graffiti Coloring Book”, will be curating a group show. The list of artists who were asked to each interpret page of the book includes: Tom Thewes, Mark Arminski, Matt Eaton, Dan Armand, Kill Taupe, and Sintex. Festivities begin at 6pm.