garden of delights

These fantastic little worlds are the creation of artist Kathleen Lolley.

Besides the folk/fairy tale aspect of the characters, woodland settings, and rustic details, what really interests me about her work is the historical color palette, and the (perhaps deliberate?) many nods to both Hieronymus Bosch in both rendering style and creature/object design, and the desaturated stacked landscapes of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

That similarity gives an ancient, otherworldly feel to her work, that seems to tell a definite story....even though you may not know what the story is.

More artwork and information about prints and other items at her website.

Hearts Day

Love and ventricles from Darkened Forest!

Go West

In the Short North Arts District of Columbus, Ohio, there is a wonderful little store called Collier West. I often make it a point to go look around whenever I'm in the neighborhood.


The website has an online store where you can buy goodies, but the best experience is to actually visit the store, if you can. The décor is basically what I want my house to look like - a little cluttered and a lot antique and intriguing. You feel like everything you look at is part of the whole of the store's aesthetic...like an antique store, but curated.

Antlers are everywhere (and for sale), as are branches, nature-inspired lighting fixtures, and lots of local and not-local original artware (like ceramics, plates, and jewelry). I even spotted the ceramic art of Laura Zindel, that we blogged about last year!

If you ever find yourself among the fab restaurants and art galleries of Columbus, make sure you drop into this jewel of a store; you will be very glad you did.

Mysterious Packages

So it seems that being a blogger pays off sometimes. In this instance it paid off in a big way for 50 lucky bloggers. The makers of the newest stop-motion feature film CORALINE, have been kind, wait, no...AWESOME enough to send out 50 handmade mystery boxes to blogs of relevance. Now it's not often that we get INSANELY JEALOUS here at DF, but this is one of those times, this is why...

~
These boxes are nothing shy of masterpieces in of themselves, containing actual production props, scrapbooks and items of mystery.

While I have not yet seen the film (10 demerits for me) I still find this act of kindness on the filmmaker's part to be one of the most inspiring things I have seen in a very long time. Kudos, and congratulations to everyone who received these amazing treasures.