Shane McAdams creates work based on rejection – the materials used repel each other to result in intricate patterns on the canvas.

Douglas Walker's new website features a wide variety of his work, but we just can’t tear ourselves away from his studies in blue.

The work of Clare Rojas brings to mind a mixture of quilting, folk art and depictions of a mythical culture. Rojas uses acrylic and gouache on wood, for the most part, as well as installation work that is site specific to the gallery walls. Her imaginary landscape is one where women’s strength and powers are much more obvious, and perhaps present, than those of the men, who seem almost to be replaced by animals.

Artist: Clare Rojas
+ kavigupta.com

Linda Rutenberg is a Montreal photographer whose oeuvre is made up primarily of elements of the urban landscape. But the gritty edge of the cityscape is softened by Rutenberg’s point of view. When viewers take a look through Rutenberg’s lens, they wonder how well they know their city at all and are compelled to take another look at what they thought were familiar places. Rutenberg’s polaroids are also beautiful perspectives with an almost vintage feel to them.

Artist: Linda Rutenberg
+ lindarutenberg.com

Richard Solomon is an artist who works exclusively with plant materials. Solomon calls himself the Seed Shaman, as everything he uses in his works derives from the humble seed. Solomon gathers seeds, grasses, pods, flowers, leaves, branches, roots and bark to use in his flat-pressed pieces and sculptures. Instead of glues or wires to hold his works together, Solomon relies again on nature’s offerings, the strips of the yucca leaf. The results can be seen in delicate works, nature's tapestries, that are poetic in composition and in source.

Artist: Richard Solomon
+ seedshaman.com

Tim Groen is a New York-based illustrator who uses vintage wallpapers for collage. Groen likens his work to “visual haikus with a beatnik twist” because he tries to keep a very minimalist theme with influences from the late 50’s. Inspired by design from Giorgio Morandi, Le Corbusier and Myron stout, Groen is just as happy to credit flea market finds, store signage and set design and advertising art from the 60’s as other sources.

Artist: Tim Groen
+ velocityartanddesign.com

George Estreich’s East River Fish was created when the artist was contemplating the life span of fauna in that river. Estreich cut up 30 tomato sauce cans and an equal amount of Coke cans to put this fish together and lost about a cup of blood for his efforts. Estreich also transforms a discarded umbrella into a carousel and a telephone becomes a bulldozer. Estreich produces creatively these sculptures and injects a healthy dose of humour, along with his blood.

Artist: George Estreich
+ georgehermanartworks.com

Some of us here at MoCo Loco have more copies of Griffin and Sabine than others, so the fine work of Nick Bantock is never far away. Urgent 2nd Class is a recent Bantock offering that shows a variety of his collage techniques. More inspirational guide than how-to handbook, this tidy little book shows how paper ephemera like stamps, old envelopes photos and postcards can be worked into collage. And even if one is not attempting to head the Bantock route of art, this book is so rich with illustration it is a cosy read for a rainy afternoon.

Paperback 128 pages, Chronicle 2004, $13.57 at Amazon.

+ Urgent 2nd Class at Amazon

Emerging Madrid artist Manuel Fernandez has an ever-changing style of abstraction. The paintings above are a good contrast between his earlier (bottom) and most recent (top) works.

And from Dutch artist Han Hoogerbrugge and American writer Paul A. Hall comes a website called Pro Stress that mixes on-the-edge musings with nifty interactive animations.

Based in Kiev, and born in Arkhangelsk, Russia, Valeriy Grachov is an artist of prodigious output. Not only does Grachov have a impressive collection of mountain photography, but an equally remarkable amount of mountain paintings, mostly tempera and oil on cardboard, as well. However, lest one is fooled into believing that nature and landscapes are the sole focus in Grachov’s works, this artist is just as drawn into the abstract world of digital imaging and mandalas. Grachov describes his style as the “synthesis of Russian romantic realism and Chinese medieval painting”.

Artist: Valeriy Grachov
+ valeriygrachov.kiev.ua

Morandini, who goes by only one name like so many of his compatriots, is a Brazilian artist and designer with a lively portfolio. Morandini has designed for Swatch among others, unabashedly using happy faces and jolly creatures throughout his works and scribbles. Some cheerful illustrations are very much à la Keith Haring, while others are heavier, both in tone and style, like the girl with the yo yo or the horse at midnight.

Artist: Morandini
+ morandini.com.br

When asked to contribute work with a bordello theme to the Room X exhibition on this week in London, Dominic Wilcox came up with the Orgasmatron 3000, a leather clad washing machine complete with a saddle on top. Talk about dirty laundry. The dial is quite simple – just choose from settings that range from oh! to oooooooh! (Who says housework can't be fun?) Wilcox has an impressive array of tongue-in-cheek sculpture and installation work, such as a glove cast from his hand, a mattress in the form of his sleeping body and a bowl made out of the toy soldiers representing the armies that fought at the battle of Waterloo.

Artist: Dominic Wilcox
+ dominicwilcox.com