Cultivating Thought

I love how the internet can be a rabbit hole that takes you to something you never quite expected. An article on my newsfeed with a cute illustration led me to an illustrator’s website, which led me again to a project (Cultivating Thought) put together by one of my VERY favourite authors, Jonathan Safran Foer, with Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Jonathan met the CEO of Chipotle when he was writing one of his recent books, “Eating Animals.” The purpose of the book was to take a good hard look at where our food comes from and educate the choices he wanted to make for his new son, and the resulting book was very illuminating.

Jonathan noted that the restaurants had all these surfaces which could be used to give people something, rather than be filled with, say, marketing information. So he sought out authors and curated a collection of essays that have been beautifully rendered onto some of the restaurant’s single-use products, like the cups and bags. A number of fantastic artists and writers contributed, including Judd Apatow, Toni Morrison, Sarah Silverman, and Steven Pinker. Their short works range from the literary to the hilarious to the thoughtful, and are coupled with eye-catching illustrations. This is the kind of “senseless art” that makes my heart a happy place.

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“It is better to learn something than not to learn something. It is better to laugh than not to laugh. It’s better to have your mind provoked than not to. Everyone agrees with this. I think it’s kind of a fundamental human value.”

The Archies Do Expo ’86

Thanks to the fine folks at Vancouver Is Awesome, I discovered an Archies comic set during Expo’86 in Vancouver. That IS pretty awesome!  This goes out to all those folks from my neck of the woods over in British Columbia. Represent.  I must have owned at least 200 Archie double digests and regular digests during my childhood, so the knowledge that this even exists makes my day in a way you cannot know! ❤

Tim Leong Infographics

It all started with a book on Superheroes.

I bought this book about six months ago, and it satisfies the best of nerd worlds for me.  I love   infographics (I’ve already posted about Pop Chart Labs and how bloody excited I was to find out that they existed).  It is also full of all sorts of factoids about the comic book universe!  Tim Leong has also done infographics about other, non-comic-related things.  They’re so colourful and creative, and fabulously intricate.  Cheers!

Spirit City Toronto by Aaron Leighton

Another Canadian homeboy has done good!  I found out about Aaron Leighton in a rather roundabout way.  When I first discovered Uppercase a few weeks ago, I bought my current copy of the magazine and devoured it at home.  Two days later, I went into Intrepid Theatre (a local theatre company which produces the Fringe Festival I’m heavily involved with) to pick up a cheque and to pass along some information.  I started telling our highly creative and lovely Artistic Director about this new magazine I found, and she turned out to have a pile of out-of-print back issues sitting on her desk! She was in Calgary at the time the magazine first started coming out, and has every issue of the magazine.  Creative minds flock together!

So! My friend happily loaned me her copies, as well as one of the books released by the company (Work/Life).  While flipping through the book, I saw some art that just leapt out at me, by an illustrator named Aaron Leighton! I recognized his style immediately, as I was 99% certain he had designed the promotional materials and programs for our 2009 Fringe Festival (and yes, I remembered the year right away too. I guess I’m a savant for this kind of stuff now).  While poking gleefully around his lovely website, I found that he did a combined photography/illustration book called Spirit City Toronto, chronicling the lives of adorable homeless nature spirits about the city.  I was sad to discover that the book was sold out (which happens with independent things I discover around 3 years after they come out), but I could find many of the pictures online.  I would like to get my mitts on the book for my newly growing art book collection, but if not, hey! I can still admire the art.

Julia Rothman’s Farm Anatomy

I remember seeing this book on feature at Chapters, right up near the front doors a while (six months? a year? does it matter?) ago.  I was drawn in by the cover, which was just a little treasure trove of hand-drawn illustrations:

Farm Anatomy is the brainchild of Julia Rothman.  Her husband, Matt, grew up a child on an Iowa farm, and Rothman, a native of New York City was thoroughly enchanted by all the tales of his youth.  Over time, a great many trips were made to her husband’s parents’ farm, and this book is a gold mine of illustrations and explanations about life on a farm.  The book is a great opportunity for people to find out all they want to know about farm life, from types of angora rabbits, to typical crop rotation cycles, to commonly grown vegetables, to the many varieties of farm machinery.  The whole thing is detailed, colourful, thorough, and utterly beautiful.  Julia Rothman has done a great many designs, and has a huge variety of products available that she designs for.  Be sure to check out her website; the variety is fantastic.  This book is going straight on top of my coffee table so that people can page through it when they’re over.  It’s things like this that make me wish I had studied graphic design instead of healthcare!