Continuing on yesterday's theme of cool stuff I've bought online, I'm going to let the cat out of the bag on a site that I check religiously, every single week: Tiny Showcase
Jon Buonaccorsi and Shea'la Finch created Tiny Showcase in 2004 as a way to help share the talents of their artistic friends, and get some affordable art in the hands of art enthusiasts. Each week they pick a new piece of tiny artwork and turn it into a limited-run print production, donating a percentage of the money from each print to a charity chosen by the artist. Usually the pieces cost just $20 and they often sell out of the runs of 100 or 200 prints before the week is out.
I've been stalking the Tiny Showcase site for months, eagerly anticipating Tuesday afternoons when they update the site with the art for that week (I have a reminder in my calendar to tell me exactly when to check in). I even read through Jon and Shea'la's weekly emails, which are very conversational and entertaining, and really should be blog posts. They sort of have a blog on their homepage, but you can't comment on what they write. (Jon and Sheal'la - why not archive those emails as a blog & get some comments going from your community of art patrons? I work for a blogging company, I'll totally hook you up.)
About a month ago, it finally happened -- they featured a piece of art that I had to have:
Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch's "Of Stars and Other Somebodies" fits perfectly with my art collection, echoing my themes of small animals, nature scenes, gramophones and humans with antlers growing out of their heads. I sent in my PayPal payment and got my gorgeous print in the mail a few days later.
In doing a bit of research for this blog post, I just realized Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch lives in San Francisco! How about that. *waves to Maxwell*
Thank you, Tiny Showcase, for all that you do.