After falling down a flight of stairs in 1991, Fukase to this day remains in a comatose state. His book of raven photography, Karasu, unbeknown to him, has grown in strength and popularity, and has gained him representation by the Robert Mann Gallery in amongst such photographic luminaries as Ansel Adams and Robert Frank.

Claire Scully’s illustrations should be regarded as second to none. An intricate methodology combined with love for the art of illustration produces such examples as Wolf above.

Claire describes herself:

I have a geeky obsession with science fiction books, TV and films. I am fascinated by the play of ideologies in the utopias and dystopias of science fiction, the creation of landscapes and societies where the impossible is made possible.

My work displays a mix of strange utopian worlds and parallel universes with juxtapositions of the unexpected, playing with scale and narrative.

Check out her website here, and don’t forget to catch up with her work at Pick Me Up at Somerset House.

Believe it or not, the above piece of paper is an offcut of a stencil by Rob Ryan, literally picked up off the floor at the Pick Me Up show at Somerset House. Maybe a little sad, but nevertheless…

Born in Cyprus in 1962, Rob Ryan studied at Trent Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. His work is the result of the painstaking hand cutting of delicate papers. These intricate works are either sold in papercut form or developed as limited edition screen-prints.

He has a shop in Columbia Road called Ryantown not too far away from our friends at Supernice, and you can check out more of his work at his site here.

Deanne Cheuk is an Australian-born artist based in New York City. Having worked across many mediums as an art director and illustrator, she has established herself as a renowned, talented creative known worldwide for her illustrative typography.

Whilst known for her typography, her watercolour and charcoal composition (See Untitled Cloudy Mountain Watercolor and Charcoal on Paper above) is very alluring, exuding sullen depth and moodiness and drama.

Check out her website here

Siggi Eggertsson is a designer and illustrator from Iceland, and is one of the artists slated to appear in ‘Pick Me Up’, a contemporary graphic art fair at Somerset House in London.

Eggertsson, alongside other designers such as Hvass&Hannibal, Mr Bingo and Pierre Nguyen, will be commissioning exclusive prints for purchase at the show. So buy a ticket, attend the event and get your grubby mits on a future treasure…

Read more about Siggi Eggertsson here and check out Pick Me Up here.

By trade, Tim Biskup was a draftsman working in animation across the States. Since hitting the fine art world, he has honed his craft creating fascinating, dark images delving into different areas of what he interprets as ‘baroque modernism’.

Check out Tim’s site here for more information.

Who is BNE and what do the BNE stickers represent?

Apparently this question has been on many a tongue for some time now, but in a similar style to Banksy, this graffiti artist has now added traditional exhibits to his guerilla methods. Check it out at the New York Times.

Doze Green is a member of the Barnstormers art collective. A highly talented artist, Doze is reputed to have an element of premonition in his pieces; a foresight of things to come.

The Barnstormers are a collective of New York/Tokyo-based artists who create large-scale collaborative paintings, films and performances. The group formed in 1999 after a pilgrimage to the rural town of Cameron, North Carolina. During the trip, twenty-five artists painted dozens of barns, tractor-trailers, shacks and farm equipment. Consequently, the tiny tobacco farming community became the unlikely Mecca for the urban collective.

Read more about Doze here, and check out the Barnstormers here.

Skineart is a site dedicated to the collection of sketches, doodles, illustrations and fully-fledged fine art pieces rendered beautifully in Moleskine notebooks.

The piece above, by an artist with the handle MattiasA, is a great example of what inspirational designs can come from spending time with a pen and pad.

But to what extent is the author inspired by the history of the Moleskine itself? Picasso is often cited as a Moleskine adopter; does this link with a master of art inspire all moleskine users to produce feets of design to the best of their ability?

Having discovered the above necklace at the Diana Porter Contemporary Jewellery shop in Bristol, and shortly after, purchasing, I thought it was necessary to branch this blog out into jewellery as an important strand of contemporary design.

Justin Duance is a contemporary jewellery designer based in Newlyn, Cornwall. Operating from a small workshop, the pieces created by Justin and his team are organic, textural, and highly tactile. With wooden elements adding an all important differentiator, in commercial terms, in an overly metallic an disposable age, Justin’s pieces offer a feeling of longevity and natural disposition, something quite appealing to city slickers and countryside dwellers alike.

Read more about Justin Duance here.