One of our Woman’s History Month spotlights has fallen on Angélica Lanzini Xavier (COLOURlovers user: angelicallxx), an Influential Woman of Today who lives and teaches in the Guarapuava, State of Paraná, Brazil. She is a graduate of music with a post graduate degree in Teaching Methodology of Art. Now a teacher of the State Education Network, she is leading the next generation toward a more colourful future with her innovative teaching methods and passion for art in all its forms.

ITSOKCOLORWAY from Multi Polar on Vimeo.

For Matthew Hoffman it's all about identity. On the casual outward glance he's a 9-5er, a career oriented young chap, probably unknown to some as...shhhh....an artist. But over wayside he runs Multi-Polar Projects, a rep house for artists Sighn, H. Mathis, Ervin Orion and Mateo. An art collective of four dudes pursing their own separate works. Which is bad-ass alone, yet is ostensibly all very straight-forward, until you learn the entire Multi-Polar Projects crew is just a single person. Hoffman. Which then begs the question, where is the artist and where is the person? And also how? And...When does the sleeping happen?

It's not really a question that needs answering, it's a delightful enough proposition on its own. It's seems to be merely the only way Hoffman knows how to be an artist. It's ingrained in his process and can't be teased out.

Better still? He's dropping a new project after a year-long art-making hiatus.

What ensued was an extensive back-and-forth between myself, Sighn, H. Mathis, and Multi-Polar Projects. Hilarious because Hoffman's playing all the parts from separate addresses.

Sighn's the moniker responsible, working in his typical text-only emotive style. ITSOKCOLORWAY is the rainbow-hued edition of his ongoing ITSOKAY Project. As the Tweeps and Facespaces erupt with millions of electronic blurbs per day and viral campaign after campaign goes zipping into internet obscurity, he's busy carving pithy witticisms out of wood with a life-long goal of 1 million wooden ITSOKs. It's a permanent snap-shot of communication, forged from materials that once grew in the earth. Part sculpture, part talisman, all parts delicious typography and wordplay, you'd have to be a cyborg not to have feeeeeeelings when taking in the work.

I shot Sighn a request to answer some light-hearted interview questions, and what ensued was an extensive back-and-forth between myself, Sighn, H. Mathis, and Multi-Polar Projects. Hilarious because Hoffman's playing all the parts from separate addresses, poking fun at himself the entire time. In the end it ended up as a snarky not-so-subtle, and entirely unintentional, jab at long annoying email chains. Oh my stars and garters kids, this email at its most artistic (and meta) indeed... For this designer, blogger and typography geek, that's the black hole of perfect.

So here you go: H. Mathis' illustrated responses to Sighn's interview questions. By Matthew Hoffman. I think.

1. Doodle a story that your son told you:

2. Make us a Venn Diagram:

3. Draw a fuck-up that you ended up liking and used in your work:

4. What is it exactly that's on the inside?

5. Draw your process:

6. A love letter to your favorite snack:

I guess this is what I call reinventing being an artist. Old schooling the new school. And there's no tells just how far this kid can go. It's mayhem! Mania! It's going to rule, bro. Someone please save me from myself, before there's ecstatic-induced vomiting like that kid in Adam Sandler's Big Daddy.

Learn more and order your own piece here. ITSOKs come in 10 colors, plus natural unfinished bamboo or basswood. $20 each.

On first glance Buff Monster and his art present a picture that's the opposite of your typical "grown-up". Giant Mohawk, heavy metal music, graffiti, heck--even a installation of porn-related art. But there's a chink in that facade though, and it comes in the most exuberant shade of pink. It's the kind of color that's hard to hate and it dominates Buff Monster's work. Loud, cartoonish, and fun, even Mohawk-haters would have to agree. So when Buff's rep emailed me to get some press out for his fall openings, I was happy to probe a little more into this interesting artist.

Seattle designer Chrissy Wai-Ching has a truly global background. With Puerto Rican, Chinese and English roots and time spent living in international locales--including Hong Kong and Nice, France--it's no wonder the shapes and colors of the world's varied natural landscapes have become her biggest design influence.

Wai-Ching stops by COLOURlovers today to chat about those influences, the general aesthetic and the processes that go into the bridal wear, apparel and accessories of her line, Wai-Ching Clothing.

Tell us a little bit about your background, and how you came to design.

I've always been interested in fiber arts, I have many artists in my family, and my Puerto Rican grandmother is an avid quilter. I've made clothing for myself since high school, and went on to study Textile Technology and Fashion Design in Hong Kong.

Today we look at an interview with the artist Francisca Prieto from Insideout, take a tour of Dave Chihuly's boat house with shelterrific, ponder the visualizations of race and ethnicity in cities across the U.S. by Eric Fischer, and take a step back with vintage inspired print series by Blue Art Studio.

Interviews

Francisca Prieto

[Insideout]

Have you always been creative, even when you were a child?
When I was little, I asked for the same birthday present over and over again: the Staedtler box of 40 felt tip pens; and instead of writing in my diary, I would create a different pattern for every day of the year. I am not sure if that means that I was quite naturally creative, or if it was a good exercise to become creative.

Studio Tour

Dave Chihuly's Boat House

[shelterrific]

Infographics

by Eric Fischer

[Race & Ethnicity]

"I was astounded by Bill Rankin's map of Chicago's racial and ethnic divides and wanted to see what other cities looked like mapped the same way. To match his map, Red is White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic, Gray is Other, and each dot is 25 people. Data from Census 2000. Base map © OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA"

Posters

by Blue Art Studio

Header Inspiration

Color Warp by COLOURlover mavel

[Color Forum]

For this episode of Local Color we travel to Milwaukee Wisconsin, a beautiful Midwestern City on the shores of Lake Michigan. While Milwaukee has a vibrant sports, art and maritime history, let's face it, when it comes to Milwaukee most people think of beer. And nothing goes with a beer like a burger.

Meet Joe Sorge, founder of AJ Bombers. This local burger joint has created quite a brand and quite a business by embracing social media in ways that few restaurants have ever done.

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For this episode of local color we are traveling to Dallas Texas home of football, cowboys and cattle. Now, craft sewing and hip might not always be two terms you toss into the same conversation, but that may change when you meet Callie Work-Leary the under 30 owner of CityCraft – a Fabric Boutique and Sewing Lounge she hopes to build into the Crate & Barrel of the sewing world.

Hip Sewin' from Library

This week's creative photographer spotlight goes to Jordan Weiland (www.JordanWeiland.com and on facebook) who I also met on the PhotoBiz facebook page and who is also a new COLOURlover, so say "hi" - jordanweiland!

This engagement session was based on the likeness the couple had with the show, Pushing Daisies. A well missed, short lived show dedicated to vibrant colour, textures and a whole lot of personality.

I wanted to pick Jordan's brain a little on how she came about doing this session with all the little details and personality...so I asked her a few questions that might actually help you pick a photographer or communicate to your photographer about what kind of style you want for your engagement (or wedding) photos; or if you are an upcoming photographer, maybe grab some inspiration!

In this video (part of a series) we visit Kansas City based gift, home and fine art retailer Stuff, owned by Casey and Sloane Simmons.

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In this video (part of a series) we take a look at some creative marketing ideas from Sarah Petty of Sarah Petty Photography and The Joy of Marketing.

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