1. Instasham

via here

A note from Nessy: 

Hey guys, you’ll have to forgive I’m feeling a little under the weather this week. Remember how I mentioned that I broke both my arms the other week and I said that  just going to get on with it and be brave? Well … I take it back. Paris is in the middle of a heat wave and I spent most of my morning sprawled out on the bathroom floor trying to keep cool (as you do), feeling sorry for myself, and then proceeded to make a vigilante attempt at having one of my casts removed … which failed… miserably. Anyhoo, since I’m not getting out much at the moment, the internet is sort of my best friend. Here’s a few things I’ve come across that I’d like to share with you…

2. The iPad: David Hockney’s (and possibly art’s) New Canvas

In 2008, the ever innovative David Hockney (only one of the most celebrated ‘pop’ artists since Andy Warhol) discovered the brushes application on his iPhone. Using only his thumb, which without thinking, he would wipe off on his clothing as if he were smudging real materials on a canvas, Hockney drew vibrant still life flowers and backlit dawns from the comfort of his bed.

It pleased him to e-mail a dozen or more of his iPhone creations to close friends and relatives. “Everyone opened my e-mails first,” he says, “because they didn’t contain any demands or requests– only pleasures. My flowers don’t need water, but they do need batteries.”

In 2010, Hockney has moved his new-found idiom for the digital age onto Apple’s latest and most coveted gadget– the iPad. Now using his index finger, which he admits is more challenging because “you can’t fudge it,” Hockney has created over 1,000 digital works.

This week at the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in Paris,  in what will be the world’s first art installation of its kind,  iPad and iPhone screens will  replace the traditional canvas and exhibit David Hockney’s pixilated paintings. The retrospective exhibition is appropriately named, “Fleurs Fraîches” (fresh flowers) because the  world-famous British artist will regularly refresh the installation’s devices by adding his latest and ‘freshest’ images. Don’t be surprised if his art is soon being simultaneously streamed into various art museums around the world, streaming at a museum near you! Mr. Hockney sees the irony in his incorporation of technology into his art remarking that on his new digital canvas, “you can only view these high-tech drawings one at a time. To see a group of them together, you have to go back to an old-fashioned exhibition.”

The financial side of the art world might detect a ‘problem’ with Mr. Hockney’s unassuming and no doubt, influential new line of work. While a David Hockney original pop art painting can fetch for over £1 million at auction, how is a digital painting, accessible to own at the click of a mouse on Google images, ever going to make the art establishment any cash? Well I suppose they won’t have to look much further than the tempting little icon pre-installed on all of our latest Apple gadgets, the AppStore. “The iHockney”– his greatest works collected into an app available to millions of modern art aficionados. I see dollar signs.

Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with that eye-rolling question, “But is it art?”

While the ‘artificial’ brush strokes are something to get used to, I’m rather fond of how very brazen and unpretentious the works are. Pop Art at its best in a long time, MessyNessy thinks! Fun and accessible.

Fleurs Fraîches opens on October 20th at the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in Paris, marking the opening of FIAC– International Contemporary Art Fair Paris (21st-24th October

3. Parisians in their Parisian Pads

Vanessa, designer, Métro Fourche, 18th arrondissement, Parisienne

“Paris wouldn’t be Paris without it’s parisians” says celebrated Franco/Anglo photographer Baudouin, who captures Parisians in their homes all over Paris, along with all their little quirks– or rather, their “je ne sais quoi”.

Yann, art director, 10th Arrondissement, Parisien

Emmanuelle (no occupation listed), 16th arrondissement, Parisienne

Pier Paolo, fashion student, 3rd arrondissement, Parisien

Colombe, stylist, Métro Saint Sulpice, 6th arrondissement, Parisienne

Archibald, 16th arrondissement, petit Parisien

Blondine, editor, métro Saint Placide, 6th arrondissement, Parisienne

Bob, photographer, 16th Arrondissement, Parisien

Sandra, massage therapist, 17th arrondissement, Parisienne

Michel, psychologist, 20th arrondissement, Parisien

Irène, tv journalist, 11th arrondissement, Parisienne

Michael, art director, 11th arrondissement, Parisien

Lilli, student, métro Saint Sulpice, 6th Arrondissement, Parisienne

Sacha, photographer, 14th arrondissement, Parisien

Manon, stylist, Métro Saint Germain des Pres, 6th arrondissement, Parisienne

Angèle, Métro Barbès-Rochechouart, 18th Arrondissement, petite Parisienne

To see more of Baudouin’s work, click here to visit his website.

4. James Dean before Hollywood

(18 years old):

James Dean after Hollywood:

via here

5. A tip that may save your life at the beach this summer:

6. This kid’s ball-breaking note to the tooth fairy:

7. The Oatmeal

It’s time to get acquainted with the funniest man on the web. The Oatmeal a.k.a Matthew Inman, designs, writes and draws everything on his site. The first time I visited the Oatmeal, I remember feeling like I had found a kindred spirit; one that shared my belief that all cats are plotting to kill us and that there is no torture more cruel than calling customer services. I’ve selected a most general example of his work as a taster below (how to such at Facebook), but please do consider his varied comical offerings such as the Six Crappiest Interview Questions, 7 Things you Don’t Need to Take a Picture of and delightful quizzes such as How Many Justin Biebers Could You Take in a Fight.

8. The Caribbean seashell house (available for rent):

9. Einstein at the beach

10. The Bendy Phone

Designed with women in mind, the “Gabler” phone ‘solves’ the problem of digging through a deep bag to find your tech, it also features a built-in clock, calendar, address book, camera… BLA BLA BLA. If it ain’t the iPhone or Blackberry, who cares? Created by Paz Brouk via Designboom, I’d say the buzz on the ‘bendy phone’ will be pretty short-lived. Especially since they’ll all get stolen by hanging on the outside of people’s bags…

11. Facebook Privacy

Why are they so damn difficult to manage? Zuckerberg, we have a bone to pick with you…

12. Hipstamatic (my favourite new App)

This wonderful little application which essentially makes a picture of dog poop look edgy and retro, made it difficult to take photographs in any other way this year…

The hipstamatic app spread like wild fire and soon appeared on Facebook albums and yup, you guessed it, on MessyNessyChic.

13. Behold, Panda Bread

I must not forget my friends who might not be sitting in an office, aiming at the clock with their fingers in the shape of a gun. Some of us ‘creative’ types do work from home and by golly does that open doors to the realm of procrastination. Take your office into the kitchen on Friday afternoon and try out this Panda bread recipe with green tea and cocoa

Proving procrastination can have quite an adorable result… find the recipe here