If the kitschy brushstrokes of Miles Thomson don’t transport you to a beachside speakeasy staffed by monkey waiters serving cocktails in tiki heads, well, something must be very wrong. The Californian effortlessly blends elements of surf art, jazz iconography, cowboys and injuns, vagabonds and drunks, life and death—all that...

Raising funds for cancer treatments for copywriter Aislinn Andrews,The Fundraislinn exhibition at Helen Gory Galerie features the work of more than 100 artists from around the world, including Lily Piri, Ian Mutch (pictured below), Paul Meates, Yok, Jaqui Stockdale, Rinzen, Gary Seaman (pictured above), Laith McGregor, Justin Williams and...

Offering a point of difference in the very overcrowded graphic tee market, Ivory Skies base all their shirts on rare ancient artwork. The London outfit prints the images on nicely fitting white tees, making for a line that co-founder and designer Carlo Salanitri describes as "a rare style representation...

OuTable, a collection of conceptual plastic utensils for outdoor dining, brings the poetry of nature to such humble items as the spoon. Designed by the clever Israeli-based firm d-Vision, the "neo-naturist" project takes inspiration from the simple beauty of eating outdoors with friends or family. With varying shapes and...

Comedian and children's book artist Sara Varon teamed up with potter Ayumi Horie to create a one-of-a-kind series for Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana. The dinosaur-embellished pieces sold out already, but the show runs through the end of the month. (See details below.) Dinosaurs Through 31 August 2009...

Portland-based artist Amelia Santiago uses needle felting to create wool fiber sculptures of dogs and other animals commissioned by pet owners. A technique that uses nothing but a barbed needle, Santiago has laboriously sculpted more than three hundred sculptures in the past three years, each taking 20 hours to...

While in Austin recently, I spent a couple of nights at a beautifully designed new hotel called the Kimber Modern, located in the happening SOCO area, just a short hop, skip and sideways roll to the bustling hive of restaurants and cafes along South Congress. The hotel features more...

Award-winning photojournalist James Mackay’s latest project comes at a time when the world’s eyes are fixed on Burma and the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi. By photographing former political prisoners displaying the names of their colleagues and friends who remain behind bars, the series "Even Though I'm Free...

Toronto-based Timber Timbre's third self-titled studio release keeps a soft and moody vibe with eight simply structured songs that seem meant for listening to in the dark. Taylor Kirk, the man behind the project, has a singing voice that’s both folksy and restrained. He calls on other artists to...

What's in the Australian water that keeps producing all these t-shirt brands? Junior Massive is the latest, a newly launched boutique label making limited edition tees using only Australian cotton. It's street meets indie; design meets durability; edgy fashion meets…well, edgy fashion. We like it already....

Designed by and named after the iconic architect Frank Gehry, Toronto's Frank makes a tasty complement to the beautiful buildings of the Art Gallery of Ontario that houses it. The stunningly chic interior design is a work of art in its own right, featuring modern Danish furnishings and an...

Chicago-based RISD graduate Lauren Nassef has some unimpeachable skills as a draftsman, but I appreciate her work for its restraint and elegant minimalism. Check out her A Drawing A Day blog to keep up with her current illustration projects....

Next time you fancy a good, strong cup of tea, check out Kusmi Tea’s addictive collection. Founded in St Petersburg, Russia, the famous teahouse has been churning out celebrated Russian teas for more than 140 years. Now headquartered in Paris, its Eastern roots remain with Russian blends of black...

Japan certainly takes its giant robots seriously. As reported by Moe Passion , a blog by an American sailor stationed in Japan, a life-sized replica of a Gundam RX78 Mobile Suit was recently built on the artificial island of Odaiba in Tokyo Bay. It's up until 31 August 2009,...

We’re pleased to welcome the legendary pop culture artist and father of the Agit Pop Movement Ron English as a contributor to Lost At E Minor, writing about his favorite creative and cultural discoveries of recent times. English has just completed a successful showing of new works called Lazarus...

For a holiday spent taking in Barcelona's seamless blend of old and new architecture, food and sounds, the sublime Chic and Basic Hotel couldn't be more well-suited. Located in the trendy Born area, it's an ideal jumping-off spot for wandering the many narrow, meandering streets of the city's neighboring...

Free Bird is a handmade line of customized military boots applying recycling to fashion in a new way. Created by young New York-based designer, Stacey Howard, the boots were originally collected from military bases in the South. As Howard says, "It felt most natural to my aesthetic to use...

Tired of seeing imported water from the other side of the world on tables of their local restaurants, the Melbourne-based founders of Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs Co. decided to act. Today, the team bottles and distributes water from the heart of Melbourne's mineral springs capital. Not only are...

The premise behind the Lomographic Amigos program is simple. The Lomographic Society International equips selected photographers, musicians and other creative types with a Diana F+ camera and some film, asking them to shoot the film, which Lomo then displays on their website. Lomo Amigos alums include Radiohead, Modest Mouse...

Finding inspiration from childhood doodles, artist and furniture scion Loren Kreiss is moving his solo show, "Say Hello to My Little Friends," from his Tribeca apartment to NYC's Fuller Building. Kreiss brings the quirky creatures to life using a combination of sketches, hand painting and silk screen printing, each...

Nashville-based folk artist Abigail Washburn, long-known for her interest in China, recently collaborated with The Shanghai Restoration to produce a benefit album entitled "Afterquake" for the survivors of last year’s Sichuan Province earthquake. Created to raise awareness and provide financial support for the Sichuan Quake Relief, the album consists...

Dutch bedding designers Erik van Loo and Peggy van Neer recently came up with their line of Le Clochard sheets and pillows that look like cardboard. Named for the French word for "bum," a portion of the proceeds go directly to SZN, a foundation for homeless youth, who will...

Taking Surrealism back to its roots, Denver-based painter Christian Rex van Minnen has a less direct approach but similar style to that of Giuseppe Arcimboldo's sixteenth-century portrait heads. Playing with finely-rendered textures and visceral components suggesting organs, skin, meat, crustaceans and plant life, but also including more literal elements...

Cote d'Ivoire-based photographer Paul Sika created the environments in his wonderfully colorful and vibrant African series using actors and carefully staged sets to convey a powerful sense of social narrative and open the doors of imagination. The fashion and advertising photographer lets his ideas flow organically, but in the...

This very sleek, designer-esque chair is the work of Dante Bonuccelli and Lamm for the 2009 Use More Use Less Project. Created from discarded keyboard keys, it looks amazing but we can't help but wonder about its comfort factor....

Minneapolis is usually know for being cold, but as the music scene there intensifies, it's beginning to be known for stellar indie bands like Solid Gold. We can't stop listening to the cheeky synth-pop trio and their most recent album, "Bodies of Water." The repeat-worthy tracks are sharp but...

This set of photos by Romanian-born photographer Alin Dragulin belongs to an ongoing series documenting the changes that occur when boys enter their teens. Taken in February 2008, when they were all age 11, Dragulin will shoot the next series of portraits in February 2010, when they will be...

The third album for Papercuts, You Can Have What You Want, highlights a strongly maturing Jason Robert Quever, who's still a nostalgic songwriter but is bringing a new level of mastery to his trademark sound in good form. Looking back to the first impression of the SF band in...

Artist Amy Crehore's work feels like a Gauguin version of "Where The Wild Things Are," with her nudes hanging out in the jungle alongside monkeys, cats, lions and little kids dressed like clowns. Her paintings on ukuleles sing a softer tune than her work on canvas, which seems to...

Following the success of their Red Hummingbird on Russell Street in Melbourne (famous for its hummingbird wallpaper), the owners recently opened The Emerald Peacock bar and restaurant on Londsdale Street. While I'm sure the food and drink is fantastic, it's the sumptuous interior that's creating all the buzz. It...

Last month I saw Brown Wing Overdrive open for Black Pus (the solo project of Lightning Bolt's Brian Chippendale). The band—which formed in DC and relocated to NYC—uses electronics, found objects, banjos, duck calls, jaw harps and whatever else they can get their hands on to make jerky, syncopated,...

This photo essay by Jeff Barnett-Winsby looks at a program through which inmates at a Kansas correctional facility were given sick or injured dogs to raise for a period of time before they were adopted out into the wider community. Barnett-Winsby says, "While taking the photographs of the interiors,...

Painter Dan Sibley appropriates the Aboriginal technique of dot painting for his contemporary creations of idyllic luxury hotels and homes on fire, particularly resonant considering recent events in Victoria. The use of dots gives his work a computer-generated bent, while the bright colors are reminiscent of the pop culture...

These Village Pillows by Brooklyn illustrator Rachael Cole are a set of cushions that work like a puzzle to build a country town, including houses, trees, a car, a horse, a dog and a duck. They paint a beautiful picture as a group and work just as nicely as...

The photography of Brisbane-based artist Kate Bernauer contains a narrative and that's no accident. She constructs her pictures with theatrical lighting and props in specific locations to construct a story. For example, the intention of her Sydney exhibition, "I’ll Be Home For Dinner," is to "address the contradictions and...

Recently coming across the smart skiwear made by Mover, I realized how completely deprived I was of snow this season—which is what's great about the brand. Their classically chic designs work just as well in city streets as they do on alpine slopes, making for a perfect compromise. Pairing...

Ynki and her magical and intricate world of imagination is the creation of Berlin-based artist, Zoe Keogh, whose pastels and brightly colored love injected into her artworks is such a joy. She draws, scratches, prints, inks and presses, making delicate delights, which were on display as part of her...

I feel deeply for the body language in Natasha Law's ladies. Body and movement have always been an interesting subject matter to me. Body language can speak such an intimate, potent language. Using gestures of form, a person can share what lies underneath their exterior and in one small...

Vancouver-based artist Edward Kwong makes quasi-retro, noir-ish illustrations that reference old comic books, art deco, and other classic looking aesthetics. Full of angular, expressive figures, high-impact typography and often sepia-infused colors, Kwong’s work captures entire narratives in single, meticulously-rendered images....

They say a change is as good as a holiday. In Lost At E Minor's case, a new logo is only as good as the designer who creates it, so the website's turning it over to you to shape the look of the new Lost At E Minor logo....

We asked Brooklyn-based artist Kim Herbst to tell us about her distinctive illustration style. It's usually described as an organic looking graphic novel. Recently, I've had pieces accepted in CMYK Magazine and the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators. I hope to have a few short comics printed together in...

We asked Vancouver-based Scott Pommier which photographers or eras he looks to for inspiration. I feel like I've picked up little lessons, or perhaps truisms is closer to the mark, from a lot of photographers. I've never studied the history of photography. I only really know what I've tripped...

Henrique Oliveria is, at the least, an artist affected by his surroundings. As a student in São Paulo, Brazil, Oliveira harvested the remains of the fence outside his window, which had begun to peel and break in layers of color, and turned it into a hurricane of art for...

What began as a joke—twenty tiny presents enclosed in matchboxes mailed anonymously out to friends—is now a full-on project with matchboxes left randomly around the world for strangers to discover. The initiator, a 24-year-old journalist and freelance photographer originally sent gifts so personal that they could safely be tracked...

Miru Kim is known as the "naked urban photographer," a fearless artist who walks around naked in abandoned urban locales in cities such as New York, Paris and Berlin. She has photographed various familiar urban settings, such as abandoned subway stations, tunnels, aqueducts, factories, hospitals and shipyards. Her series,...

Nebraska-based artist Jake Gillespie makes huge graphite-and-chalk drawings and black and white murals. His sparse lines (often just gestural) and dark, smudgy fields of color make for expressive, impermanent-seeming images that read like thoughts and memories scribbled in a notebook....

If a bunch of monkeys had a bunch of typewriters, they might come up with Shakespeare, but if they had drum machines, broken synths, out-of-tune guitars and old Casio keyboards, they might end up with something that sounds like Human Host. The Baltimore band channels the languid sneer of...

If you've ever wondered how the Eskimos do it, try sleeping in a one-of-a-kind ice hotel in Kemi, northern Finland. Experience the world's largest snow castle at 30,000 square feet in temperatures around -5 degrees Celsius. Within the icy walls are restaurants, an art gallery, a chapel and hotel....

Recently formed hip-hop duo, Rootbeer (Pigeon John and Flynn Adam), have just dropped a super fresh piece of audio pie right in your kitchen. Influenced by artists such as MGMT, N.E.R.D and A Tribe Called Quest, Rootbeer offer up an edgy and unfeigned lyrical style. Turn up their debut...

Australian illustrator Sarah Carter-Jenkins creates luminous, sensual artwork which practically glides across the page with its elegance, subtle coloring and intricate detail....