I’ve always loved the work of Amy Doan (aka Shrinkle) and a recent visit to her website I found she has been selling on ETSY. After checking her profile I noticed she started in November of 2007 - and has been selling online on eBay since around 2002 - eek where have I been! ETSY is an online marketplace to buy and sell things handmade - and has attracted many Indie designers to set up shop there.

If you have never seen Amy’s creations take a look as I think they are very well crafted and have a unique style.

—-+—- Shrinkle on ETSY —-+—

Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week runs from April 9th to the 11th, 2008 [Distillery District - Fermenting Cellar - 55 Mill St. Building 6].  The annual festival combines art, fashion, photography and performance.

This year Goblin and Crumb designed a few pieces for Breeyn McCarney’s collection Sweet which will be showcased in a runway fashion show beginning at 9:30 on April 9th [at the above address]. The theme for the show is sweet dreams and happy beds, mixed with eerie atmospheres. All the clothes are made from vintage and antique home decor.

Tickets are $15 in advance, available at The Rage 13 Kensington, Magpie 884 Queen West and Urban Textures 44 Gerrard St. West. They will be $20 at the door. For more info check the link below.

—-+—-+—- Alternative Fashion Week —-+—-+—-

Tara McPherson just launched her first solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Lost Constellations, featuring a new series of oil paintings and resin-cast sculptures. The show consists of 17 paintings on birch wood panels, ranging in size from 24×36 inches to 30×40 inches and fiberglass sculptures of Skull Flowers and Wiggle Balloons - recurring characters in McPherson’s work. Below is a piece from the press release:

The painted portraits in Lost Constellations depict adventurous super-heroines from an alternate universe, crossing dimensional planes of time and space. McPherson considers the idea of parallel existence through the use of multiple views or angles on a subject, inspired by the Einstein cross (a phenomenon caused by gravitational lensing) while her series of bodily transfigurations convey principles on the physical manifestation of thought. A reoccurring cast of female characters appear in various states of action—fighting battles and growing toward self-discovery.

The Show runs from February 23 to March 22, 2008. Click below for more info on the show or visit Tara’s site for her other work and bio.

—-+—-+— Tara McPherson —-+—-+—
–+–+– Jonathan LeVine Gallery –+–+–

I’ve always been intrigued by the alt fashion line of Freyagushi and a recent visit to the site I’ve discovered that the line has been split into two: High fashion and medical wearable art and the more simple wearable line. The designs mix feminine shapes and materials such as corsets, ruffles and bows with more hardcore elements such as medical tools and bandages. The website is under construction at the moment but you can still visit it and take a look at a series of photographs introducing part of her 2008 line.

Freyagushi will be at the Torture Garden tonight February 16th, 2008 for a fashion performance titled “Animal Hospital”, should be a lot of fun! A video clip of the show will be posted on the Freyagushi site soon and I will link it here when its up.

—-+—-+—- Freyagushi —-+—-+—-

Goblin and Crumb will be collaborating with Morph Clothing in the upcoming months. More information will be posted in the near future. For now check out their website posted below.

Founded in 2005, Morph Clothing is an original clothing line inspired by the underground subculture. Arlene, the designer, was featured in Gothic Beauty Magazine as one of the up and coming new fashion designers and quoted from her site:

“I am the type of person where I am changing all the time, so do my designs. I see my clothing line as a reflection and extension of myself. I take great pride in that.”

Morph will also be offering a small selection of eco-friendly clothing. At the moment, Arlene’s main focus lies in producing her clothing line and building a solid network, marketing her designs worldwide.

—-+—-+—- Morph Clothing —-+—-+—-

I first came across Scott Radke’s work years ago when he was almost exclusively making stringed marionettes, since then his work has evolved to free standing doll and sculptures. I love his use of color, the earthy tones give his work an antique look while the deep wide set eyes have become part of his style. The imaginative expressions give each piece such a unique personality, for some reason I feel sad when I see them. Each one seems to have a story buried deep within them and their eyes draw you in closer, and give me the feeling of wanting to help them.

His work is often compared to Tim Burton and others but I find that it resembles the work and style of Dave McKean. Most of his work is commissioned these days but some pieces are available, just send him an email if you are interested. Scott will also be showing his work in the Project Room at Think Space Gallery in Feb., 2008. You can check out his site below as he recently added some new work.

—+—+—+— scottradke.com —+—+—+—

I recently stumbled upon the site Lost Fish owned by French illustrator Elodie (aka Rusty). I love her style and instantly sent her an email to find out where I could purchase one of her prints. She let me know that she was working on putting up a store sometime in the near future and that it will be posted on her MySpace page when finished.

She lists many things as interests on her page where she draws inspiration from such as dreams, macabre art, scary dolls and puppets, fairy tales, ferrets, unconventional clothes, sad stars, summer rainy days, Tim Burton, and Terry Gilliam expressionist movies.

She is very busy these days and recently made the cover of the final issue of Lanfeust Mag pictured above. I suppose I will have to be patient and wait for her store to open. Until then we will have to be satisfied with her site, blog (in French) or MySpace page.

—-+—-+—- Lost Fish —-+—-+—-
—+—+—+— Rainy Days Blog —+—+—+—
–+–+– Myspace Page –+–+–

Formed in 2002 the Royal Sarcophagus Society, is a Toronto-based group of artists who share the vision of - as they put it

“liberating magic, art, whimsy and idle daydreaming and setting it free from the shackles of mass produced, predictable, modern day, dim-witted, dunder-headed profit orientated sameness.”

Their online store features such things as hand printed black and white photographs, art books, hand made jewelry boxes, postcards, paper ephemera, games and clothing. Or how about The Nasty Clown toy. It’s one of those roll the small little balls back into the holes games and it comes in a coffin shaped container with a lovely inked illustration as the background. Check out the site for all kinds of oddities.

—-+—-+— The Royal Sarcophagus Society —-+—-+—

Mixed media artist Elizabeth McGrath has a few new curiosities on her “Toykiller” section of her site including two (old but new) limited edition prints, a special limited edition of 200 signed and numbered book case set- which comes with gold and black embossed slipcase, hand screened (yes its real) butcher knife with a velvet anchor bunny bag and an anchor bunny canvas tote bag. Also check out the cute hand silk screened print of a two headed bat snatching away the head off a surprised little girl!

McGrath draws inspiration from such things as roadside attractions, nature, alt fashion, architecture, punk, churches, folklore, Edward Gorey and poetry. Her site features her disturbing yet beautiful art, stitched dolls, dioramas, bags, art cards and yes - hand-painted and rusted butcher knives. You can also still buy her book - Everything That Creeps, which is her first collected work.

Her upcoming exhibition “The Incurable Disorder” opens December 15 and runs until January 5th, 2008 at the Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery, and will feature her new works.

—–+—– Elizabeth McGrath {ToyKiller Section} —-+—–
—+—+—+— Billy Shire Fine Arts —+—+—+—

If you like unique, rare, or old spooky things then you might find something you like on Natalie Meza’s site Gloomy Goods. The site features found items - antique paper goods such as funeral and vintage cards and old photographs, accessories including pins and hats and odd things like a vintage homeopathic bottle and x-rays.

Also for sale are her lovely handmade lace-nested brooches and pins adorned with morbid and spooky images such as the Munsters, a witch and cat image, Vincent Price, a vintage poison label and a coffin child to name a few. Only thing is with these are that there is only one of each one! Prices for her pins range from $10 - $15.

More DIY items are planned for the future as well as continuing to stock the site with cool vintage & antique gloomy items.

—-+—-+—-+—- Gloomy Goods —-+—-+—-+—-