Between Nature & Geometry

illustration for Diner journal

Martina in front of her mural at Creature Festival 2009

Martina Merlini aka P0na is a young and gifted Italian artist-illustrator from Bologna.

I really enjoy her very personal style, elegant sense of color and strong graphic compositions. 

And also her love of Constructivism! Of course I am not the only one, and Martina's  artworks, 

often featuring a combination of enigmatic animal forms and abstract geometric elements,

 have started to increasingly appear in various blogs, exhibitons, record covers, 

magazines and walls around the country.

illustration for Qbick free press magazine

Bull God 

poster and cover illustration for Edgar Ep

illustration for Link magazine 9

cover from My Awesome Mixtape's Day after day Lp

Crow

Pelican

Scafandro #2 and Scafandro

My own loop limited edition screenprint

illustration for MIAMI mag

illustration from the Vodoo series

 Catch more of Martina's creatures at her blog and flickr... 

And don't miss her interview on fashion blah blah.

Monday Matticchio - Play it again, dog!

Sunday Safari - Animal Orchestra

poster by Rolf Knie, 1996

These past couple of weeks have been strangely quiet around here, as you may have noticed. 

I have been in Viareggio working with my friend Pierluigi of airbag design on the layout of an art exhibition catalog, 

and we had so much to do and such a tight deadline that I wasn't able to dedicate my time to anything else. 

Luckily the project was interesting, and I'll be showing some of the artworks exhibited soon. 

But first, let's celebrate my return to Florence and to Animalarium with some happy music!

illustration from Animal Orchestra by Tibor Gergely, 1958,

thanks to flamenconut

Jonas Bergstrand for Gruppe Gut, Bolzano

Michael Robertson, Samba for Rats

Calef Brown

Józef Wilkoń, Blues Nosorozca

Franco Matticchio, Thelonyous Kat and the Black Hats

poster by Franciszek Starowieyski, 1960

cover of Tooters, Tweeters, Strings and Beaters by Art Seiden,

1964, thanks to Curious Pages

pattern by Nate Williams

Groovy grubworm, uncredited record cover, 

thanks to Groove Is In The Art

Karine Bernadou, thanks to Words and Eggs

Michael Gillette

Check out Pet Sounds for more animal music!

Monday Matticchio - Strange Bathroom

Sunday Safari - Elephant in the bathtub

written and illustrated by Roger Bradfield, 1964 

thanks to Eric Sturdevant's Old Children's books on flickr

and that's only the beginning...

everyone else wants to take a bath today!

from Pantaloon by Leonard Weisgard, written by Kathryn Jackson, 1951

thanks to Eric Sturdevant's Old Children's books flickr set

from Alexander by Tom Vroman, 1964

thanks to art.crazed's Badly behaved flickr set

William Bee

from Bear and Honey by Ron Brooks

thanks to flamenconut's Domestic bliss flickr set

from La Petite Famille by John Alcorn, written by Sesyle Joslin, 1964 

thanks to art.crazed's Vintage children's books flickr set

from Hippu by Oili Tanninen, 1967

Happy cat in its bath unaware that the house is on fire,

from Ronald Searle's Cats 

cover of Waar is mijn sok? by Marijke ten Cate

from #1 (one) by Vladimir Radunsky 

from Emile by Tomi Ungerer

from The Little Boy and the Big Fish by Max Velthuijs,

thanks to Hazel Terry's Classics of Childrens Illustration flickr set

from Puf a Muf by Viera Gergel'ova, 1972, 

thanks to A Journey Round my Skull

Domenico Gnoli, Bestiario Moderno drawing, 

thanks to Giornale Nuovo's archives