Merry Christmas From If It's Hip, It's Here.

Original photo of Indie by Monika Hummer. Card composition by Laura Sweet.

Meet Amy J. Rowan aka Art School Girl

Who is Amy J. Rowan? Well, she's the imaginative force behind Art School Girl.

I stumbled upon Amy's work while browsing an online card store and was immediately drawn to not only the charming indie look of her vintage-fabric-on-cardstock cards, but the fact that she took the odd tradition of adding "in bed" to one's chinese cookie fortune and turned them into actual cards (see below):



So, I 'googled' her and found her site, filled with objects of fun and whimsy.

Below are two examples of her hand-crafted one of a kind stationery on her self-proclaimed favorite brown cardstock:




You can order a sampler of her items (as shown below):



She makes everything from hand sewn bookmarks.....:



Journals and notebooks made with recyclables she's cleverly named reNEWed:




Taken from her own "about us" page:
Art School Girl's origins can be traced back to owner, Amy Rowan's days as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was there that she constructed what would be the first of several stationery lines—a simple blank journal made from recycled books. Fueled by a passion for paper and a love for specialty printing processes, Art School Girl specializes in one-of-a-kind hand made paper goods. Expertly crafted from recycled materials and often sewn or printed by hand, each piece is artisan quality.

She even sells 'art, some creations of vintage imagery on old index cards:




See all her fun products here.

Lowbrow Artists do Highbrow Charity

Thanks to Corey Helford Gallery of Culver City, today's most respected and popular "Lowbrow" Artists (see previous article on lowbrow art here) have culled together a fabulous show benefiting The Alliance For Children's Rights that takes vintage paint-by-number art and transforms it into unique pieces of low brow art.

Granted, this is not the first gallery to promote and exhibit the idea of paintng over vintage art. To be fair, The Wurst Gallery did this years ago, only not restricted to paint by number art.

With fun original creations by such well known popular artists as Mark Ryden, Shepard Fairey, Joe Ledbetter, Jeff Soto, Camille Rose Garcia and Gary Basemen, just to name a few, these paintings are available for auction on ebay with 100% of the proceeds benefiting The Alliance For Children's rights (see their mission statement below).

Available for purchase on ebay, the auctions ending on Friday, Feb 16th and prices are already rising rapidly, so you'd better get your bids in now.

Here are just a few wonderful examples of the original vintage PBN and the finished pieces. Click on images to enlarge:

Mark Ryden:

Gary Baseman:

Ana Bagoyen:

Shepard Fairey:

Jeff Soto:


The bids are moving up quickly on these works already, so if you'd like to see many more (and you should) be sure to visit Corey Helford Gallery of Culver City or check out the auctions on ebay.


above: Corey Helford Gallery

Nonprofit's Mission Statement
The Alliance for Children's Rights is protecting the rights and futures of abused and impoverished children throughout Los Angeles County, in hopes of creating a world in which all children are able to have a safe and permanent family, access to quality health care, a quality education, and all of the support and services they so rightfully deserve.

Slip a letter on your finger.

We certainly see a lot of posey rings around these days.Stamped silver seems to be all the rage. But here's something new and unique:

Love Letter Rings for guy and gal. The Perfect valentine gift.For both of you.

Colleen Baran of Vancouver has created rings that can hold hand written love notes. Better yet you can customize them.

Encased in translucent plastic and sewn together, she says they are 'wearable' art.
Available on Etsy, she has received lots of acclaim from bloggers and art shows alike.

Why not get something original this year? Besides, if you ever break up, you can customize it to hold hate mail too.

Click here to purchase

If you never saw this...

In celebration of the upcoming Oscars and numerous other award shows, here's a reminder as to why you should respect the technical awards as much as the non-technical awards.

Ryan is an Oscar-winning animated documentary about the influential Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Larkin now lives on skid row following years of drug and alcohol abuse.

The film animates an actual interview with Larkin, conducted by the film's director, Chris Landreth.

Ryan won the 2004 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, and the 25th Genie Award for Best Animated Short. The film was also very well received at the Cannes, Venice, Sundance and Toronto film festivals.

Below is the entire short in two parts:

2007 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS!

So, after a long and competitive festival,
The Sundance Film Festival of 07
breaks records with sales to the motion picture industry.

Why?

Because there were so many excellent entries.

And, because I have this long complicated theory as to how the internet and streaming video sites like You Tube, Revver, Greenimation etc. have created a climate that's receptive to indie films as having commercial potential. But more on that some other time.

I was up late last night watching the Dailies on the Sundance Channel as they ended the 10 day event and had the good fortune to get glimpses of many, if not all of the following award winning entries.

It's really a banner year.

So, give it up for the following 2007 Sundance Award Winners:



Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET)
Jason Kohn, director

Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
PADRE NUESTRO
Christopher Zalla, writer/director

Audience Award: Documentary
HEAR AND NOW
Irene Taylor Brodsky, writer/director

Audience Award: Dramatic
GRACE IS GONE
James C. Strouse, writer/director

Directing Award: Documentary
Sean Fine & Andrea Nix Fine
WAR/DANCE

Directing Award: Dramatic
Jeffrey Blitz
ROCKET SCIENCE

World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary
ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS
Eva Mulvad & Anja Al Erhayem, directors

World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic
SWEET MUD
Dror Shaul, writer/director

World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
David Sington, director

World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic
ONCE
John Carney, writer/director

Excellence In Cinematography Award:
Documentary
Heloisa Passos
MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET)

Excellence In Cinematography Award:
Dramatic
Benoit Debie
JOSHUA

Documentary Editing Award
Hibah Sherif Frisina, Charlton McMillian
& Michael Schweitzer
NANKING

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
James C. Strouse, writer/director
GRACE IS GONE

Special Jury Prize Documentary
NO END IN SIGHT
Charles Ferguson, director



Special Jury Prize for Acting
(Split)
Jess Weixler
TEETH
Tamara Podemski
FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND

Special Jury Prize For Singularity Of Vision
Chris Smith, director
THE POOL

Special Jury Prize World Cinema:
Documentary
HOT HOUSE
Shimon Dotan, director

Special Jury Prize World Cinema:
Dramatic
THE LEGACY
Gela Babluani & Temur Babluani

Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking
EVERYTHING WILL BE OK
Don Hertzfeldt, director

Jury Prize in International
Short Filmmaking
THE TUBE WITH A HAT
Radu Jude, director

Honorable Mention In Short Filmmaking
DEATH TO THE TINMAN
Ray Tintori, director
THE FIGHTING CHOLITAS
Mariam Jobrani, director
MEN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER
Marjan Alizadeh, director
MOTODROM
Joerg Wagner, director
SPITFIRE 944
William Lorton, director
T.O.M.
Tom Brown & Daniel Gray, directors