I love this cover for Susan Mills “Garden Ledger“.

And the inside is pretty great too. Below are 2 inside shots. See a video of her paging through the book here

The Rijkmuseum in the Netherlands has a competition called Make your own Masterpiece where people submit work inspired by art at the museum. The winners this year are Lyske Gais and Lia Duinker. Their design, below, of the Rembrandt Book Bracelet was voted as the best design inspired by the Rijksmuseum’s collection. More about the competition here and the artwork that inspired the bracelet here.

A week ago we went out for pizza and the couple next to us, having finished their dinner, spent 10 minutes drawing a portrait of the other person on a napkin. They clearly had done this exercise before, and were having a great time. The next day I read a good article through Etsy: How to Rekindle Your Creative Spark in 30 Days. The writer talks about using a daily challenge for a month to recharge your creative practice and gives 5 tips: Embrace imperfection, Make a Fool of Yourself, Engage With Other People, Practice, Practice, Practice and Keep Your Eyes Open. Worth reading. (The photo is from the “Make a Fool of Yourself” section where he says “play with your food.”)

Two Tone Press‘ Un-Profanities Letterpress poster. See it here.

Christian Faur uses a color alphabet in his art. He’s used it in these striped paintings, where each stripe is a letter (thickness connotes the duration of the letter in the word, and white denotes the end of a word). First the key, then a close up of “Rules Can Create Artwork” and then several of the works on the wall I saw at the Kim Foster Gallery. The theory behind the color choices is described here. Also check out how he uses the alphabet to make portraits from crayons here.

Several of my books have come out of projects that started badly — or at least off kilter. So I really enjoyed Harriet Bart‘s description of how her book Ghost Maps happened.

In 2010 I was a Resident Fellow at the Virginia Center for creative Arts in Amherst, Virginia where I had time to research, and develop new work. I brought a few basic art materials and several books to read, among them Italo Calvino’s fantastic and evocative tale Invisible Cities.

Settling into VA5, my assigned studio, I noted the light was good, the ceiling high, the white walls ample, but the paint-splattered and stained concrete floor was a distraction.

I requested—and was denied—permission to repaint the floor. That seemingly insignificant chance encounter marked the beginning of a series of new projects.

I started to see the encrusted floor as a palimpsest, a cartography of the creative process, even an archive. Attending to color and repetition, I marked off sections of the floor with tape, scrubber the spaces between them and took aerial photographs.

See her other books on her website.