Vincent Leman's Warped Sense Of Style: Dust Furniture

I have written not one, but two, posts on furniture that has a 'cartoon' style to it. Judson Beaumont's Straightline furniture and the Porter's Cartoon Furniture®

Vincent Thomas Leman's line of furniture, Dust*, steps that up a bit with more adult styling, yet is still delightfully whimsical. So, here's your third cartoon-like furniture line:

Dust Furniture is a collection of studio furniture from craft artist Vincent Thomas Leman. Vincent has built one-of-a-kind pieces for years, but released this line to accommodate the demand for reproducible versions of his work.



A key part of Vincent Leman's creation process is the integration of function into the form. The artist strives to create furniture that is functional to the degree that it may be successfully integrated into daily life, yet--equally important--provides a spark to brighten the routine of daily life. He finds joy in discovering new ways to mix art and life and to make art more accessible.



Leman's work has been described as 'abstract traditional furniture.' Each piece is essentially a traditional furniture form that is stretched, curved, stacked, and stepped to fit his design intentions. While he works in wood, Leman considers his actual medium to be 'traditional furniture.' The classical root of each piece helps maintain its identity as furniture and keeps the work familiar and approachable despite the unusual shapes.


Above: a take-off on Manet's "Olympia"



Above: some of his painted baltic birch pieces


Above: some of his unpainted oak pieces

Above: his limited edition grandfather clock, 10 pieces made




He has many more fun pieces to choose from.


See his personal site here.

See his Dust Furniture site here.

You can buy his furniture here at The Artful Home.

Be sure to see these, too!
Judson Beaumont's Straightline furniture and the Porter's Cartoon Furniture®

An Inside View of Jason Freeny's Unusual Art.

Jason Freeny of Moist Productions, Inc. is a self proclaimed artist, illustrator and crazy person (his words, not mine). He draws, sculpts and creates some very unusual digital artwork. First, I'm going to share with you some of his digital illustrations that have, say...a different point of view.

I bet you never gave much thought to the skeleton of a Dunny, or the innards of a balloon animal, or even the musculature of a Gummi bear, but Jason Freeny has.


Above: Visible Vinyl

Above: Pneumatic Anatomica

Above: Immaculate Confection

Above: Anatomy of a Gummi Bear

The above 12" x 12" prints sell for $59 a piece and larger ones may be available upon request. He sells many more digital prints as well as some originals.

Below are some of his graphite drawings:




And some of his fabulous sculpted figures:




See all of Jason Freeny's art on his Moist Productions website here.
And his myspace page here.

It's a Plane! It's A Boat! It's The Freakin Rad New Icon Amphibious Aircraft: The A5

ICON Aircraft, a privately held startup based in Los Angeles, has just unveiled the latest addition to the powersport category. On June 12, it unveiled the A5, an amphibious sport plane. At the cost of $139,000, the plane is intended for recreational flying and will be available in 2010. The A5 is one of the first aircraft designed specifically for this market, which ICON expects could be worth as much as $2 billion annually.





The A5 is part sports car, part Jet Ski, and part airplane. The aircraft's folding wings tuck neatly under a slim rear tail so it can be towed behind a car. It's relatively small - about as long as two compact cars parked bumper to bumper, with a wingspan of 34 feet.





From the Icon website:
Introducing a new dimension to sport flying.


A new, light sport aircraft manufacturer, ICON Aircraft, started with the vision that planes should be designed with the consumer in mind first. Founded out of Stanford Graduate School of Business by Kirk Hawkins, an accomplished engineer and former U.S. Air Force F-16 pilot, ICON Aircraft conducted years of thorough research to develop an industrial design that has evolved to become ICON’s first model, the ICON A5.


Above: CEO and Founder, Kirk Hawkins

A long-time powersports enthusiast, Hawkins’ dream for the potential of sport flying became possible when he first heard of the FAA’s rule changes for light sport aircraft in 2004. As he witnessed what the Yamaha Waverunner did for personal watercraft in 1980’s, Hawkins believed a consumer-oriented sport plane could do the same for recreational flying.




Early on, Hawkins began assembling investors and world-class design and engineering talent to bring the vision to reality. ICON Aircraft eventually set up its headquarters and development facility in Southern California, a region known for having the world’s largest concentration of aerospace resources as well as the world’s leading automobile design and development resources.



Advising along the way have been top academic professionals, business leaders in aviation and powersports, and directors of award-winning product design firms like IDEO and BMW DesignWorks USA.



Leading the charge to bring the design into production is an engineering and fabrication team that previously worked on such notable projects as the Virgin Global Flyer and X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne, among many other significant aircraft and aerospace projects at Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites in nearby Mojave, Calif.

Specs and features:
ICON A5 — Amphibian Special-Light Sport Aircraft (S-LSA)
*BASE PRICE (A5 Amphibian): $139,000 USD

SPECIFICATIONS
- Seats: 2
- Maximum Weight: 1430 lbs
- Useful Load: 430 lbs (minimum)
- Baggage: 60 lbs (maximum)
- Fuel (Auto Gas or Av Gas): 20 gal
- Maximum Speed (Vh): 105 kts (120 mph)
- Range: 300 nm
- Takeoff & Landing Distance: 750 ft
- Engine (Rotax 912 ULS): 100 hp

Performance specifications are estimates only.
Final performance specifications will be verified during flight-testing.

DIMENSIONS

- Interior Cockpit Width: 46 in
- Wing Span: 34 ft
- Aircraft Length: 22 ft
- Trailered Width: 8.5 ft
- Trailered Length: 28 ft

DESIGN FEATURES

- Folding wings (manual or automatic)
- Retractable Landing Gear (on ICON A5 Amphibian)
- Seawings, platforms for easy access and docking
- Custom aircraft towing trailer (optional)
- Headlights and flood lights

PERFORMANCE FEATURES

- High-performance composite airframe
- Amphibious design (flies off land or water)
- Custom, patent-pending, high-performance airfoil
- Rear mounted, 100-hp Rotax 912 ULS Engine
- Runs on auto gasoline or aviation gasoline

COCKPIT FEATURES

- Intuitive, sportscar-like cockpit
- Comfortable, side-by-side seating
- GPS moving map
- iPod in-flight music port
- High-visibility canopy
- Flight with removable side windows
- Multiple storage compartments
- Glass cockpit for night VFR (optional)

SAFETY FEATURES

- Predictable, docile flying characteristics
- Complete Airplane Parachute, CAP (optional)
- Patent-pending PropellerGuardâ„¢
- Wing Angle of Attack Indicator (AoA)
Seaplane only version, the ICON S5, is an available model, and will not include the Retractable Landing Gear. Options and price will vary on the ICON S5.

The countdown to EAA AirVenture 2008 has started. ICON's launch product, the ICON A5, will shed its cloak at Aeroshell Square on Monday, July 28 at 10:00 am local time the first day of AirVenture 2008 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This represents the first time for the public to will see the ICON A5 amphibian model in person. ICON's exhibit will be located at the main entrance to the AirVenture grounds. Attendees will have the opportunity to view the aircraft all week and place orders in person.

ICON Aircraft officially opened its order book on June 12 with the launch of its website. Consumers are now able to place reservations for early positions to buy the ICON A5 amphibious sport plane or ICON S5 seaplane with a deposit of $5,000. Limited-edition planes are available for $100,000 deposit. Go to buy your model to secure your A5 now.

UPDATED IMAGES:




UPDATE, 2009:
THE ICON A5, The trailer and pilots lessons for two are an offering in the Neiman Marcus 2009 Christmas Book. price? $250,000.00 USD


Visit their site here.

Flip Floppin' For Charity: Limited Edition Havaianas By Celebrity Make Up Artists

Saks Fifth Avenue has begun Beauty Splash, a program that sells, exclusively, these limited edition Havaianas designed by celebrity make up artists Bobbie Brown, Trish McEvoy and Laura Mercier with a portion of the proceeds going to Charity Water, a non profit organization.



For the entire month of June, Saks Fifth Avenue will be offering its customers these special edition Havaianas on saks.com and, from June 8-22, at all store locations for a retail price of $15, with any two cosmetics or fragrance purchases (while supplies last). $1 from each purchase up to $200,000 will be donated to charity: water - a non-profit initiative bringing clean water and basic sanitation into impoverished communities.




Buy them here.



Havaianas
Since their creation in the 1960’s, Havaianas sandals have been coveted the world over for both their function and fashion. A top-secret rubber recipe created exclusively by Alpargatas S.A. is what sets the Havaianas experience apart from others in the category, offering authentic comfort and quality benefits that can’t be replicated.


Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the world’s pre-eminent specialty retailers, is renowned for its superlative American and international designer collections, its expertly edited assortment of handbags, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics and gifts, and the first-rate fashion expertise and exemplary client service of its Associates. Today, Saks operates 54 full-line stores in 25 states, 3 licensed stores in Mexico City, Dubai and Riyadh, 49 Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH stores and saks.com, the company’s online store.


charity: water is a nonprofit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water into impoverished communities. Since charity: water was founded and began activity in August 2006, they have funded the construction of more than 474 water projects in 11 developing nations that, when completed, will provide clean drinking water to more than 200,000 people.