Daily Monster is Bucher’s blog, his book, and his obsession. Ink gobbed on via toothbrush and splayed across the page with canned air is documented in its journey from splotch to sketch. If you want to watch a video of his process, might I suggest last year’s New Year’s monster.

You can also make your own monster using his incredibly cool app.

The point for me, however, is not the monsters themselves. It’s the regimen. Inspiration can spring out of discipline. And, note to self, these monsters teach the ever-relevant lesson that viral blogs and book deals can spring out of following your quirky passion.

In film: The Star Wars Trilogy.

In horse racing: The Triple Crown.

In sandwiches: The Three Little Piggies.

Sometimes the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Mastery of pork three ways (double smoked and braised ham, pork tenderloin, and of course bacon, accessorized with Gruyere, a fried egg, and an onion ring—Hallelujah!) is an accomplishment that rates as a creative and oh-so-fine art in my book.

I have trekked to Chicago two different times now to prevail upon The Silver Palm Restaurant to muster America’s best sandwich. Best! Who would make such a promise? Who could lure me to an old railroad dining car on my first ever foodie trip? Tony Bourdain.

And, yes, it is as good as he says. In fact, the first bite elicited such an ecstatic countenance from me that my husband accused me of looking like I was making love to the sandwich. In response, I shrugged and smiled, glazed-over with happiness that only ham and an impending cardiac arrest can bring.

One other sandwich bears mentioning in the category of great sandwiches: The grilled cheese with roast beef and green chile at Tomasita’s Restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It, too, has ties to this country’s railroading past, nestled by an old Denver & Rio Grande railroad station. Whereas I can’t finish the Pigs, I can eat two of these blessed (and gloriously cheap) conglomerations. Next time, I’ll order an extra to take on the road.

Who’s comin’ with me on a holy quest to find the third-best sandwich in America?

Driving through southwestern Kansas, I approached the berg of Mullinville, Kansas, population 255. My pea-green bus was greeted by an incredible collection of folk art that lines the property of artist M.T. Liggett along Highway 400 … and on around the corner … and back to his workshop.

The garish beauty of the scrap metal totems (some three times as tall as a man), whirligigs, and scathing caricatures of famous people jived with my mode of transportation.

I believe the sign out front says, “The World’s Largest Collection of Coffee Stirrers.” Get it? Largest stirrers, not largest collection. I’m a sucker for clever.

Most of the pieces in this collection are named (e.g., Macbeth, Romulus and Remus, Bubba Clinton, and some for the artist’s personal acquaintances). The construction and composition of Liggett’s art impress me greatly. The layers of meaning in some of the sculptures left me standing at the side of the dirt road, as agape as I’ve ever been in the world’s finest fine art museums.

If ever in your life you do make it to Mullinville, and if the old guy with the arc welder is still around, maybe you can strike up a conversation and hear him utter a gem like this: “You can make millions, and millions, and millions and have a big ranch and do all of this other kind of stuff and you’re dead 10 years and everybody forgets about you. This stuff will be here in a hundred years. So I have left a legacy. I’m going to be here.”

I know it’s another long shot, but if you someday stop off of I-70 to visit the Grassroots Art Center in Lucas, Kansas, Liggett’s work is on permanent display there, too.

Brian Dettmer’s “Altered Books” series of sculptures crafted from a single book or books in a series will alter your relationship with the printed word. The above painstakingly carved, pasted, and re-envisioned book, The Household Physicians, is one of my favorite examples of how Dettmer has given books three-dimentional expression. The books no longer hide their intent in a monotony of lines and pages, passively awaiting a patient reader behind smooth, opaque covers. Rather, the books now highlight their own phrases and connect those ideas to the world of objects, all in styles that speak to and often comment upon the subject matter.

As you browse his collection, question Dettmer’s choices: Why organic shapes for this volume but architectural styling in that series? Is it ironic that either words or pictures are dominating a particular sculpture, or is he playing it straight?

Books act upon readers’ emotional and intellectual lives in powerful ways. But us readers can act upon books in physical ways that range from dog-earring pages to hoarding to burning. Dettmer’s sculptures set books free to act back upon the physical world.

I love the entire group show “Cowboys & Indians” that just ended at The R&R Gallery in L.A., but the above piece stands out, making a particularly stark statement with deceptively simple symbols.

Someone already bought the 6′x6′ untitled diptych by CW for two grand. Would it be insulting to put such a great piece of art on a shirt? Pretty please? Such art you wear would go like hotcakes, I tell ya. Hotcakes.

This year’s Lawrence Ultimate Summer League shirt went over so well that we decided to make another, slightly different version of the same design for Lawrence Ultimate Fall League, complete with it’s own particular level of inclement weather indication. Fall is a crazy time in Kansas.

We’d like to extend a warm congratulations to Chocoveda, a higher state of chocolate,  for their award-winning LA Chocolate Salon showing. The salon is an event that highlights the products of high-end chocolate providers and judges the participants on style, taste and many other categories.

In addition to winning first place in the new product award competition, Chocoveda received the following achievements from the judges. Second Place in Most Artistic Designs, Best Flavored Chocolate, Best Presentation / Packaging, and most luxurious chocolate experience. We were lucky enough to get our hands on a batch of these specialty chocolates during the content gathering stage of their project, and we’re here to tell you that they deserve the above awards and more.

We were lucky enough to get to contribute to their project by designing and implementing their website, brand identity and packaging pieces. You can see more about the Chocoveda project in our portfolio section, in the web and identity categories.

Find out more information about Chocoveda, the Herbal Truffle at www.chocoveda.com. As with any client relationship, their success is ours as well, and we thank them for making us look so good.

- AC

Gaia 09 (a community project to raise awareness for climate change) was fortunate enough to have a contribution from Marius Bauer on this icon set for the mac. You can view more of Marcus’s work over at his online portfolio.