I recently shared on my blog where I get my prints made and what I use to package them. And today in my inbox I receive an email from IO Labs, Inc, the very folks I adore, explaining a new project. Here’s the idea:

WHAT IS IT
Our spring edition will be a renewable bamboo fiber
paper print. The print will be mounted on a bamboo panel with a 3/4-inch depth that highlights the bamboo fibers. A nice, smooth, natural approach to your art. 

WHEN + WHAT TO SEND
Please send submissions to papercuts@iolabsinc.com 
by Friday, March 9th. To submit your work email us
ONE jpeg image (660 px width, 72dpi). 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Our iolabs family of artists and professionals will select a winning image in early March, then announce and sell the limited edition mounted print on our website. We will contact the chosen artist to obtain higher resolution files and discuss appropriate sizing for the selected image. 

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU
Experiment, exposure, profit, and philanthropy.
Paper Cuts projects are innovatively presented and smartly promoted; 25% of sales goes to the artist;
and 25% goes to the artist’s charity of choice.* 

*Pricing to be determined in consultation with the artist. 

Visit their site for more info.

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Caitlin McGauley lives and works in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, where a typical day might include dreaming up a whimsical wallpaper, painting a giant giraffe, or researching vintage jewelry sketches for inspiration. She starts the day at her clean white desk, but usually ends up sitting on the floor surrounded by a haphazard pastiche of paints and brushes.

Caitlin worked as a textile designer for Ralph Lauren Home before striking out on her own in 2011.

Check out her site here, blog here, and shop here.

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Tom L shares his work/doodles/drawings on his blog.

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Richard Neutra is considered one of Modernism’s most important architects. Like other modern architects, he designed buildings using simplified shapes and forms. Some of his most famous structures are the Kaufman Desert House in Palm Springs, California and the Cyclorama Building in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Little Richard was born into a wealthy Jewish family in 1892.

His family lived in Hungary before most of them moved to the United States. His sister, Josefine, was an artist. Her drawings inspired Richard to study art. He went to school in Vienna before moving to America in 1923 and becoming a citizen in 1929.

Neutra was admired for his beautiful watercolor drawings. They were an architect’s response to the work of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Unlike those artists, Richard preferred to draw his travels. He drew people he met and the places he visited. Particularly during his trips to the Balkans in World War I.

In the United States, Neutra worked for Frank Lloyd Wright before moving to California to live and work with a college friend. In the early 1930s, Neutra trained several young students who also became successful architects.

In his own architecture business, Neutra earned recognition for his geometric but airy buildings. But he was especially respected for his ability to understand the real needs of his clients. Unlike other architects who liked to impose their own ideas on a client, Richard Neutra used detailed questionnaires to discover his client’s needs. The houses he built were a blend of art, landscape, and domestic comfort. They represented a West Coast variation of the mid-century modern houses that were becoming popular elsewhere in the country.

Richard Neutra died in 1970.

His son, Dion, kept his father’s office in Silver Lake, California and Neutra’s widow donated the Ven deer Leeuw House to the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. It is used today by the college’s Environmental Design students. Unfortunately, many of the other buildings that Neutra designed were destroyed after his death.

Modernism was revived in the 1990s though, and the respect of young architects gave new value to Neutra’s work. Some of those artists have even restored Neutra houses that had been falling apart. Thanks to those architects, historical associations, and thoughtful home owners; You can still see Richard Neutra’s work throughout California.

As an art teacher, I love teaching my students about architecture. I’ll seize any opportunity to prove that their art skills can be used outside the art room, and architecture is a gateway to furniture design, fashion, industrial design, and hundreds of other “unseen” art professions. Richard Neutra is an ideal artist to teach these things because (1) his amazing drawings prove that, YES, architects ARE artists, (2) he also designed some REALLY cool furniture, and (3), as a Modern architect, the simple shapes that he favored reinforce the most fundamental art skill: everything you see, no matter how complicated it looks, is made up of simple shapes. Oh, and (4) did I mention that he used to work right down the road from our school?

Portrait of Richard Neutra drawn by yours truly based on a self-portrait by Neutra and a fantastic illustration of him from the cover of Time magazine.

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Mariusz Mierzejewski is a painter from Poland. Check out his blog here for more work.

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Nidhi (pronounced nitty, rhymes with kitty) Chanani is a freelance artist and designer. Born in Calcutta and raised in suburban California. She currently draws and dreams in San Francisco. She creates art because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too.

Check out more of her sweet work here, a short Q&A here, and her blog here.

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Nicoletta Ceccoli has illustrated many books, mainly in Italy, the USA and the UK. Her work has been exhibited at the Bologna Children’s Book fair seven times. She has also shown her work among the others in ‘Roq la Rue’ (Seattle), ’Magic Pony’(Toronto), ’Dorothy Circus’(Rome), Richard Goodall Gallery(Manchester).

In 2001, Nicoletta was awarded with the Andersen prize as best Italian illustrator of the year. She is also a four time recipient of the ‘award of excellence’ from Communication Arts. In 2006 she received the silver medal from Society of Illustrator (New York).

Visit her website here for more of her outstanding work.

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Anna Walker works in a basement in Melbourne, shared by other friendly souls and a dog called Sunshine. She likes to draw, knit wooly animals and tell stories. Look at her site here, books here, and blog here.

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Alex Mathers has put together a comprehensive guide for creatives and other freelancing heroes on how to use Google+ for winning projects and clients. The course becomes available on February 7th 2012.

Alex asked Philippines-based illustrator Dan Matutina to create the artwork for the course and to add some further depth to it. The results are sampled in the beautiful images below!

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Fabio Barilari is an Italian architect, painter and illustrator. As an illustrator, he has collaborated with music and comic-strips magazines such as “Follow That Dream” and “ANIMAls” and with the English-speaking theatre companies “ The Rome Savoyards” and “Eternal Lines” in Rome. View his blog here. And find more gorgeous works here, here and here.

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