hello 2011

Hello 2011 and hello my long neglected blog. I can't believe it's over 1 month since my last post. It's taken me a while to get over the mad dash to Christmas and New Year and to be honest I haven't posted here through complete lack of inspiration. Luckily today I got as little kick in the butt and I'm off and running and excited to get creative this year. The kick start came from the wonderful Color Me Pretty column on Decor8. This month the talented Leslie put together a yellow inspired post, where she mixed yellow with craft paper and soft greys. I spotted an image of a hot air balloon printed over a map and thought it was so lovely I've gone out hunting for something similar.

This digital collage,  Life's Journey1 by Crimson Circle Studios is close to the image I spotted on Decor8. This talented Australian creates other beautiful collage images from vintage books. Check out the etsy store here.

 Here's another nice graphic collage this time by Nesta Home. The above image is part of a series created for different American cities called Dark Cities. The technique combines modern photos printed over vintage atlas pages - these page are from a 1929 Atlas Book.

As well as these prints, the Nesta Home etsy store is chock full of graphic design inspired goodies. I really like the Urban Throw Pillows and this (above) Numbers hand printed pillow.

Keeping on the graphic design theme, how fantastic is this  Building Footprint Print by VisuaLingual. I like the way of celebrating a location in a non-literal way. This image combines the overview of the neighbourhood as well as coordinates of the an old German neighborhood, Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati.

I think one of the reasons 'map art' has inspired me so much is the sense of travel and adventure that a map can capture. This above print, Anywhere from the The Wheatfield embraces this beautifully.

Immediately I have started to think about nice ways to commemorate holidays using maps and graphic elements. Here is another beautiful artwork - Open Space by  LauraTwoTina - a collaboration of two artists, Laura Gaffke & Tina Hirsig. The story of this piece starts with an Italian holiday and ends here with this lovely piece. For me the ideas are already flowing about how I can use maps to create some artwork. I'll keep you posted.