HANDS

Hands hands hands.

Helmut Lang has done some fantastic campaign shots full stop but these two focussed on the hands are particularly wonderful. During the Renaissance masters had large workshops and relied upon several assistants to complete their epic works. The exception was always the hands which Masters painted themselves because they were considered to be the most challenging.

ART X FASHION?

A lot of people bang on about the way fashion and art are inextricably linked etc. For the most part I'm inclined to consider them as two separate entities but I was pleasantly surprised by these dresses. Made by Mother of Pearl in collaboration with artist John Currin, these dresses are the most literal collaboration and are a great success for it. 

I like to think my tshirt is along the same lines.

ARTIST TEGEN WILLIAMS

I would quite love this first one on the wall of my kitchen when I have my own sweet pad. 

Or lots of variations on the second made to look like a clapboard dado. 

By upcoming artist Tegen Williams, check out her blog YOUNG PAINT .

LOUIS WAIN

Louis Wain is an Edwardian artist best known for his paintings of cats. His paintings, which progress from realistic depictions of cats to anthropomorphic images to abstracted psychadelic representations are often cited as proof of his mental decline as allegedly he was schizophrenic. (Posthumous analysis tends to diagnose him with something closer to Aspergers). This notion of decline is particularly contentious issue as he produced realistic images alongside the horror vacui felines throughout his life, including the last fifteen years of which he spent at Bethlem.

Whatever the truth may be considering the recent popularity of so-called Outsider Art (Museum of Everything), this is surely the time for a reappraisal of Wain's work.

CAGED BOOZE

Shops with cages and barriers protecting the staff are the best, they remind me of Edward Hopper paintings and always look so inviting. This is my favourite one on the corner of All Saints Road where my brother claims to have found a dismembered finger when he was eleven(ish).







Josie (on the left) lives round the corner from a great one in Manchester which has an incredible set of 20p machines. Initially I was loving the gold jewellery but after five identical scratchy rings that rapidly turned my finger green I switched to a new machine, trolls are clearly so much better.

Gas, by Edward Hopper 1940 below.