Paintings of steak by Vincent Kohler. Never would have found these if not for the always interesting blog over at Present & Correct. Saw some other paintings of wood by the same artist, and then promptly jumped down the rabbit hole.

In line with an earlier post about barbed wire and its many iterations…here are a couple of sketches of mine (of which a good number of the designs are aggregated from The Early Office Museum) representing just a tiny swath of all the paper clips out there. Did you know that the original Gem paper clip, introduced as early as 1892, and the one most commonly used, was never patented? Ouch. For a little history go here.

Delightful and slightly wicked drawing by the grandchild of the late H. D. Stephens, the creator of this flow chart. Talented gene pool!!

Old art supplies being dragged out from retirement. These are Blending Stumps and Tortillions, used to smear and blend graphite, pastel and charcoal. The stumps and tortillions are both made from rolled felt paper. The stumps are double-ended and the tortillions are single ended. I never noticed until now, but it looks to me as though they are mostly made in China.

A few days ago I got word that Simon Monk, whose work I featured here not that long ago, has put out a limited edition of archival prints of his “Secret Identity” paintings. The secret identity references the real-life names of familiar and beloved superheroes from our collective past. I’m not ashamed to admit that my highest personal admiration goes out to Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, even though for anyone who read the first post about Simon’s work, you’ll know that Speed Racer was the manboy who stole my six year old heart away. Anyhoo, I really love this series, along with Simon’s other work. It is subversive and funny, technically compelling and even a titch sad. So, even if you aren’t in a position to buy a print, please do check out his site.