Before it becomes a distant memory I want to put up some photos from the ‘Mid-Century Soirée’ that I attended last month. Held at the famous Walsh Street House in South Yarra,  the cocktail party was organised by Outré Gallery to coincide with US artist Shag’s ‘Inscrutable Mystery Guide’ exhibition.

The Walsh Street House was designed in 1958 by the architect Robin Boyd and is featured in two of Shag’s paintings, one of which was the centrepiece for the evening.

Shag and his painting ‘Dickie Bird’ at the Walsh Street House  Photo: John Raptis

When I found out about this event it was as if the planets had aligned. I’d get to meet one of my favourite artists and experience the Walsh Street House (something I had wanted to do for a while). On top of that it was at cocktail party with such a great theme.  Walking through the front door of the house was like stepping onto the set of a Mad Men episode.

While getting my photograph taken with Shag I learnt that this party was the first time that he himself had visited the house and that his paintings ‘Dickie Bird’ and ‘Robin’s Nest’ were both done from photographs. Shag also confirmed that his painting ‘LA Modern’ is based on the Stahl House (just mirrored) and that the photographer in the painting is the late modernist architectural photographer Julius Shulman.

Sheradyn and I with ShagThought I’d try out one of the Featherston Lounges

It was great to be able to walk through the house (drink in hand) and experience it as it was intended – as an entertaining house. Often when visiting architectural icons in a tour situation it can seem a bit clinical having to follow a ‘Bee-Line’ through the space.

The view of the children’s wing from the courtyard

The view of the parent’s wing and living area from the courtyard (with Bertoia Diamond Chairs in the foreground)

I was in my element with all the amazing detailing. From the cables supporting the roof  and balustrade-less balcony through to the built in joinery and brick floor. I also really loved the lighting both inside the house and in the courtyard – definitely something you can only experience at night time.

To commemorate this event and the ‘Inscrutable Mystery Guide’ exhibition Shag and Outré have released ‘Dickie Bird’ as a limited serigraph print. I think after such an amazing evening I’ll definitely have to get myself one.

Thankyou Outré for organising such a unique and once in a lifetime experience.

Other related posts on My Design Fix:

• Shag Exhibition – Inscrutable Mystery Guide
• Josh Agle (aka Shag)

Below are some more photos from the evening taken by John Raptis. via Desktop Mag 

‘This work is playful, but I’ve tried to throw a couple spanners into what people might expect from my art.  I’ve created 99 small, colorful paintings of tikis, but each tiki bears a symbol.

"Inscrutable Mystery Guide" is actually the little book that accompanies each small tiki painting.  It’s my hope that the books won’t be seen by anyone except the person who owns one of those paintings. I want to bring them into my own little cult and tell them some secrets.

In addition, I’ve created several large, panoramic canvases which will give further clues as to what the whole thing is all about.  In the past year my work has gotten darker and moved into new themes and imagery, but I’m trying to reconcile my old body of work with my new work, and trying not to be as manic depressive and serious as I was in the last year or so.’  - Josh Agle aka Shag

It was also a nice surprise to see Artist’s Proof prints of most of my favourite Shag paintings from previous exhibitions on display. Above Left: ‘Dickie Bird’ (the centrepiece of the Walsh Street House cocktail party) Top Right: ‘An Extraordinary Evening’ (the first Shag painting I ever saw and fell in love with) Above Left: ‘The Relentless Party’, Bottom Right: An original Shag painting from the 90’s

I love the stairs in this one (Hey! I’m an architecture geek – give me a break!) Funnily enough it’s titled ‘The Stairs’

Above Top: ‘The Marauder’ (I’ve got this one hanging proudly on my wall at home) and Bottom: ‘Rose Seidler’s House’

The exhibition is showing in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth:

• Outré Gallery Melbourne: August 14 – September 3
• Outré Gallery Sydney: August 21 – September 10
• The newly opened Outré Gallery Perth: August 28 – September 17

For an in depth review of this exhibition check out the Shagwatch Blog or for more info on Shag and Outré visit:

• www.shag.com
• www.outregallery.com

I’ll follow up this entry shortly with some photos from the Mid-Century soirée with Shag at Robin Boyd’s Walsh Street House so stay tuned…

For those of you that have been following the progress of Dabe Alan’s camera tattoo sleeve  things start to get a bit digital in Part 3…

“So for this video the main two things that you’ll see are my very own Canon 5d Mark ii, and my favorite mouse I’ve ever owned, the Logitech MX518 (I TOLD you this was gonna get nerdier). With the addition of the glowing mouse, all the green that was glowing on the other cameras makes sense. You’ll also notice the 35mm film turning into pixels as it gets higher. Oh but it’s not gonna stop just there…” – Dabe Alan

For more info on the tattoo and stop motion film check out Dabe Alan’s flickr page here. His website is also looking pretty cool these days – www.dabealan.com

For more great work and other impressive nerd sleeves check out Tony Touch’s flickr page here

If you haven’t seen the previous parts of this stop-motion film check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here

“The themes in Audrey Kawasaki’s work are contradictions within themselves. Her work is both innocent and erotic. Each subject is attractive yet disturbing. Audrey’s precise technical style is at once influenced by both manga comics and Art Nouveau. Her sharp graphic imagery is combined with the natural grain of the wood panels she paints on, bringing an unexpected warmth to enigmatic subject matter.

The figures she paints are seductive and contain an air of melancholy. They exist in their own sensually esoteric realm, yet at the same time present a sense of accessibility that draws the observer to them. These mysterious young women captivate with the direct stare of their  bedroom eyes.” audrey-kawasaki.com

Hit the jump below for more images and check out Audrey’s blog Okonomide for more photos of her process and close-ups of her latest work.

Keith studied automotive design at the Art Center in Pasadena and has worked in the animation industry creating background designs for the likes of Bruce Timm’s Batman, Superman and Justice League as well as Power Puff Girls and Gary Baseman’s Teacher’s Pet.

I really love the attention to detail and the texture that is created in his paintings from the reflections in the car bodies to the mid-century modern architecture, décor and signage.

To check out more of Keith Weesner’s work visit his website and myspace page.

For the Australian readers – his artwork is also available at Outré Gallery in Melbourne and Sydney.

Above: check out the mysterious hand lying on the rooftop in the bottom left corner

If you haven’t seen Part 1 check it out here.

Part 2 – The Sleeve Continues… the follow up to the extremely popular stop-motion film by Dabe Alan, which he filmed while getting his camera tattoo sleeve by Tony Touch.

For more info on the tattoo check out Dabe Alan’s flickr page here

For more great work by Tony Touch check out his flickr page here

Check out Part 3 of Dabe Alan’s tattoo in stop-motion here

Joey Maas is a musician and pop artist hailing from Portland, Oregon.

Following a blog entry I did back in October on Sam Haskins’ 1962 photographic book ‘Five Girls’ I received a comment from Joey, letting me know that he was inspired to do a painting of Gill, one of the Five Girls.

I was pretty stoked to find out that My Design Fix played a small role in bringing this painting to life so I wanted to put it on here to share.

The image to the the right is the finished painting:

Notice it’s been done on laminate flooring rather than canvas which is pretty cool (I imagine it must take a bit longer to complete).

Below is some of Joey’s other work that I quite like as well.

To see more of Joey’s paintings (some of which are available to buy) check out his blog here. 

Here’s an awesome video by Dabe Alan that he filmed in stop-motion while being tattooed by Tony Touch.

This is cool on so many levels so I couldn’t help but post it onto My Design Fix. I love the vintage cameras, the cool tattoo, the insight into the detail and seeing the process from start to finish. The effect of the stop-motion looks awesome in its own right too.

For more info on the tattoo check out Dabe Alan’s flickr page here (Be sure to check out some of his other photos – he’s a great photographer)

For more great work by Tony Touch check out his flickr page here and his website pitheory.com.

Check out Part 2 of Dabe Alan’s tattoo in stop-motion here and Part 3 here

Following the movie posters and book, Kevin Dart has further brought to life the world of Yuki 7 via a theatrical trailer for ‘A Kiss From Tokyo’.

Made in collaboration with animator Stephane Coedel and music composer Cyrille Marchesseau the resulting animation (set in 1964) is every bit the vintage spy film complete with faded logo, film grain and audio pops.

Video via Stephane Coedel’s Vimeo page.

For a really insightful interview looking into this collaboration process check out artofthetitle.com here.

To accompany the Yuki  7 film posters (check them out here) Kevin Dart has produced a very slick looking book titled Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7.

The book contains artwork by Kevin Dart along with contributions from a number of his friends and colleagues to create a pseudo “Art of” book with production artwork, movie stills, posters, and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the Yuki 7 movies.

Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7 is available at Kevin Dart’s online store here.

Also click here to check out the third element to this cool project: the theatrical trailer to ‘A Kiss From Tokyo’ .