Miss Mess is Montenegro artist Marijana Zebeljan who goes by the moniker because as an artist, life is often a big mess on different levels. On the one hand, things are messily complicated when you are waiting for someone to buy a piece of work so that you in turn can buy more paint, but on the other hand the mess also refers to the whirl of creativity inspired by the mess of life itself.

Artist: Marijana Zebeljan
+ missmess.net

Digipop by designer Karim Rashid is a compilation of almost 200 graphic patterns and designs that Rashid created for possible use in his prototypes, products and installations. The graphics are separated into five themes: SYMBOLIK, IKONIK, GRAPHIK, OPTIKAL, and INFOSTETHIK. Apart from a few pages of introduction, this book is primarily eye candy – great inspiration from a master who says, “I believe that the aim of design is to shape a contemporary world – Design is not style.”

Paperback, 200 pages, Taschen 2005, $20.39 at Amazon.

+Digipop at Amazon

Simone Moriondo strikes a balance between the concrete world of his marble sculptures and the digital realm inhabited by his hard-bodied, yet fluid, characters and creatures.

Those Nanospores are back with their own newsletter, aptly titled The Nanospore Agenda, which includes some mention of a new glow-in-the-dark edition.

A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, Richard Sarson has embarked upon the Circle Project, a series of drawings created by using felt-tip markers in a compass. Sarson’s goal was to produce something complex by using very simple tools and a mathematical approach. This results in over 1000 circles per drawing. Sarson admits to having a keen sense of organization and the pieces are precise compositions of symmetry and pattern. Not a circle out of place.

Artist: Richard Sarson
+ richardsarson.com

Okay, here is a new one. Artist David Payton drinks a can of Diet Coke. Then he paints it on a 4 x 4 in./10 x 10 cm. canvas. Payton has been doing so since October 2002 and even though he has more than 1000 cokes-on-canvas, seemingly has no immediate plans to lead a Diet Coke-free existence. If, by chance, Payton is unable to drink his pop on any given day, he simply dates a blank canvas.

Artist: David Payton
+ coldebruselas.com

Julia Hechtman has a lot of neat ideas that she applies towards her photography and video projects. Empty Plates is a series of photos taken after Hechtman had finished her dinner and Glory Days is a video showing some of the autographs in her yearbook, the text slowly scrolling down over generic landscapes as background. Contact is a set of pictures created with contact paper to recreate photos of the artist with her friends. And the piñata? Well, it’s our favorite Julia Hechtman photo.

Artist: Julia Hechtman
+ juliahechtman.com

Suejin Chung’s paintings are chock full of people and objects, but none of these are necessarily related except through the common canvas. At first these characters may appear to be participating in the same narrative, but upon a second glance, it would appear that they are all acting as individuals, not part of a group. So in spite of a tendency to crowd the canvas, Chung actually leaves adequate space around her subjects. It is up to the viewer to make the decisions as to how the players and playthings should be linked.

Artist: Suejin Chung
+ ararioseoul.com

Galerie Xippas in Paris is holding a retrospective of mixed media works by Vik Muniz till the end of July. These are photographs of pictures created with an interesting array of materials. The Cathedral at Burgos is reproduced in chocolate while Dracula appears courtesy of the Caviar Monsters collection. Muniz also delights his audience with reproductions of other artists’ famous works, but done in coloured pigment or with circles cut out of magazines.

Artist: Vik Muniz
+ xippas.com

Stencil Pirates: A Global Study of the Street Stencil by Josh MacPhee is a comprehensive look at one particular area of street art. MacPhee presents a basic history of the genre and its place in the larger scheme of graffiti-style expression. The political context of stencil art is examined and on a lighter note, instructions on how to get started are included, along with 20 templates.

Paperback, 191 pages, Soft Skull Press 2004, $13.00 at Amazon.

+ Stencil Pirates at Amazon

One of the striking themes amongst the works of Vancouver sculptor John Clair Watts is their verticality. Watts uses a variety of materials for his pieces, but their link is to be found in the constant reaching upwards. Wider at the base, the pieces taper, as though they are stretching to their utmost in the quest for ever more. Some elements cannot stay the course and are distracted, bending to the side, but still reaching outwards.

Artist: John Clair Watts
+ johnclairwatts.com

Colour Reading and Contexture, an installation by Jacob Dahlgren, is so gloriously colourful and physical that it is tempting to speak of, and show, nothing else. However, Dahlgren has created so many lively and wonderful installations that it would be a shame to not mention a few more. Like the thousands of yoghurt containers attached together or the 32,000 silk ribbons that were hung side by side. Or even the 350 people who were dressed in striped shirts (from Dahlgren’s personal collection of over 800) and sent to carry on throughout a Swedish shopping mall as a living installation. Art that makes us feel excitedly alive.

Artist: Jacob Dahlgren
+ jacobdahlgren.com