Ana Beltrá‘s Conjugar Jungla is stunning. This series of paper collages are heavily influenced by her travels to Borneo and explorations of the country’s lush jungles, while the deeply saturated colors add to the mysterious layers and energy.
That saying about the eyes being the windows to the soul? Yup. Jone Bengoa, at the ripe old age of 19, captures this and more through her stark watercolor paintings. Everything she’s trying to say comes across beautifully and unmistakably.
Really pretty home goods (and jewelry, clothing, art, etc.) are coming out of Australia these days. Mornington Peninsula-based designer Emma Cleine loves to experiment with dyeing and printing techniques that result in touches of painterly perfection or graphic sophistication in the pieces she creates at Lumiere Art and Co.
Adrian Esparza draws on his bordertown El Paso, Texas roots to create his colorful installations. Each is formed from a sarape blanket that’s pulled apart thread by thread, then wrapped around nails hammered into the walls of the gallery it occupies to create a multi-dimensional linear structure. Esparza’s deconstruction and transformation of this cultural symbol reflects the displacement of identity that many Mexican-Americans experience as a result of migration.
Sunglasses are my main accessory come summer – forget the armful of bracelets, the layered necklaces, and the fingers stacked in rings. I want simple, I want minimal, and I want interesting. That’s one reason I’m digging Mosevic‘s denim sunglasses. The Cornwall, England company seals six to ten layers of the stuff together to create their Solid Denim line.
Laura Berger‘s recurring characters are spritely, adventurous, and fun in every single painting she creates. The Chicago-based artist mainly works in gouache and acrylics and experiments in sculpting and animation on the side.
It all started with a challenge from Ford and their Switch It Up series to step out of my comfort zone and try something new, something inspiring or challenging or just plain crazy. It ended with what is now a monthly dance party fundraiser that continues to collect donations for worthy causes in my city of Pittsburgh.
But let me back up for a minute.
My friend Matt Buchholz is a fantastic DJ who never fails to fill the dance floor to the point of spilling over. After an event a few months ago he and I started talking about how rad it would be to make these dance parties a more regular sort of thing. We, along with most of our friends, are in the 30- and 40-something range, everyone still likes to go out and have a great time but no one really wants to wait until 11pm for the party to get started. Ideally we’d all be in our pajamas by then watching Netflix.
Event planning is something I’ve been interested in the past few years, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get my toes wet. One sit-down meeting later and Matt and I were partnered with Spirit, a newly opened space in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of town. We quickly got the event on the calendar for the last Friday in May – no cover charge, just three hours of straight-up dancing and letting loose after the workweek was done with.
We created an event on Facebook and invited all of our friends. And they invited their friends and they invited their friends. Soon nearly 300 people had RSVPed. Matt and I were thrilled, but had no idea what to expect come the day of the event.
When we arrived for setup that Friday the air conditioning was broken and it was absolutely storming outside, buckets of rain being dumped from the sky kind of rain. At that point if fifty people showed up we were ready to call it a success.
So what happened next can only described as sweaty magic.
The people showed up in force – 150+ of them – and danced their hearts out in the sauna that was the dance floor. Everyone was dripping sweat, clothing was soaked through, but no one cared. It was like dancing when you were a kid, everyone was in their own zone just smiling and laughing and feeling it. Living in the moment. It got to the point that Spirit brought out cases of water to pass around because they didn’t want anyone dehydrating or passing out!
Before the night was even over everyone was asking when the next dance party was scheduled. We knew we could do something with this, something GOOD. Matt and I had started with the intention of raising money for causes we believe in, but wanted to get people in the door to see what the dance party – what we christened In Bed by Ten – was all about. The next time we knew we wanted to gather a suggested cover charge as a donation towards something bigger.
We’ve since had another IBBT dance party in June that result in over $450 in donations to a local animal rescue, and more events are scheduled throughout the rest of the year! Each month we’ll be donating cold hard cash to different local charities in the name of having a good time and letting our hair down.
Since stepping out of my comfort zone to create this monthly for good event we’ve even had interest from other cities, which blows my mind. Just a reminder that taking a chance can pay off in more ways that you ever imagined.
On that note, I’m excited to share a new YouTube series presented by Ford: Switch It Up! The latest episode features Blogilates‘ fitness expert Cassey Ho stepping out of her comfort zone to create a gallery of her own photography. Take a peek below:
A big thank you to Ford for pushing me to do something out of my comfort zone and sponsoring this post. Thank you for supporting the brands that help keep Design Crush going!
D Iris Sigmundsottir‘s collage work is inspired by the endless battle that happens between a woman’s mind and body – something I think quite a few of us can relate to. (I know I can.) She cuts and pastes, adds pen and pencil drawings, magazine and book pages, gouache, acrylic, fabric, and everything and anything else necessary to create the final outcome.
