Anne Smith is an artist who began her career as a potter and more has been working as an artist and illustrator. Her early pottery work has come full circle in her 100 Cups illustrations. We are excited to launch four of those cups at The Working Proof today – Four Cups, by Anne Smith.

At one point I realized that I was much happier painting images of cups than actually making them out of clay. This is my way of staying connected and paying homage to a significant aspect of my art making life and self.

15% of the sale of this print goes to the Médecins Sans Frontières. Read our interview with Anne here, and buy the print here.

Guess what? Today marks The Working Proof’s one-year anniversary (time sure flies!)! To date we’ve raised $5000 for charity and released 51 editions by 51 different artists. To celebrate our birthday, we are offering free shipping in the US and Canada, and a $5 flat shipping rate for all international orders, through the end of the week. Thank you for supporting The Working Proof, our artists, and our charities!

On to this week’s print release: I’m super excited to launch Wildlife of Vietnam by Brendan Wenzel. I am a huge fan of his work (check out his website for his amazing wildlife portraits), and really appreciate his commitment to endangered animal species. He is a frequent collaborator with conservation groups throughout South East Asia and is currently involved in Fauna, Flora International’s efforts to save the critically endangered Siamese Crocodile from the brink of extinction. He is also attempting to create a visual collection of the planet’s species circa 2010.

Brendan’s print, Wildlife of Vietnam came from a series of images that he illustrated featuring Vietnam’s threatened wildlife. The illustration originally ran on the cover of AsiaLife, in an issue focused on threats facing Vietnam’s species – in particular the illegal wildlife trade, which has unfortunately been growing to meet the demand for bush meat and animal products for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

15% of each print sold will be donated to The Jane Goodall Institute, which Brendan admires for their work and for empowering people to make a difference for all living things. Buy the print here, and read our interview with Brendan here.

We are so thrilled to welcome Lisa Solomon to The Working Proof’s roster of artists. This week’s print is somewhat different from our usual offering, in that Lisa created three beautiful doily designs that you can install in your own home (on the wall, window, floor, a piece of furniture – the sky is the limit!).

Lisa’s Pilot Wheel Doily Wall Decals were inspired by a large installation that she did in the Fine Arts Building at San Francisco State University. Lisa has been doing doily installations for quite some time, usually silk-screening or hand painting them onto walls and windows herself. In making these Pilot Wheel Doilies, she wanted the designs to look hand-drawn, as this is a huge part of her thought process and execution, creating a nice tension between the machined process that produces the doilies and the handmade appearance of the designs.

Each wall decal set includes three doilies made from Exhibition 631 Orcal vinyl (two in a sky blue color and one in key lime green), and includes a signed certificate of authenticity. 15% of the sale of this print goes to the 826 National, which Lisa chose because she believes that fostering creativity in children is crucial. Buy the doily decals here, and read our interview with Lisa here.

Blue Water is a gorgeous new print by Sarajo Frieden, a LA-based artist and illustrator. Sarajo is fascinated by the ocean, and Blue Water was inspired by photos of bioluminescent phytoplankton.

All marine life relies on phytoplankton, which also “fixes” carbon dioxide by removing it from the atmosphere. Recent studies suggest a decline in phytoplankton, and warming seas threaten their populations. These amazing creatures that inhabit the seas, so crucial to life, made me think about all the beauty and wonder that often goes unseen. This piece is a humble attempt to paint an imaginary slice of the sea; like shining a flashlight in a hidden place to illuminate what is there.

Blue Water is printed on 365gsm 100% cotton rag paper with archival pigments. 15% of each print sold will be donated to American Forests. Buy the print here, and read our interview with Sarajo here.

Ana Botezatu created this great print for The Working Proof after being asked too many times as to why she and her boyfriend were getting married. Ana felt it was a hard question to answer – you are in danger of neither being romantic enough nor rational enough in your answer. Instead, she responded by reducing her answer to this drawing, called Test. I love the print – the two beings standing intimately together, reaching for one another, auras intermingling. Ana describes it as a “soft gesture of love; it’s not much – no big words, just a touch that transmits a moving affection.” She also feels that “this is the kind of gesture one makes when choosing to help the Pablove Foundation through this print” – a soft gesture of love.

15% of the sale of this print goes to the Pablove Foundation. Test is a three-color letterpress print printed by Polychroma onto 300gsm cotton paper. Buy the print here and read our interview with Ana here.

This week’s new print over at The Working Proof is by Natalia Czajkiewicz, a Seattle-based artist who is inspired by women, human interaction, and internal alarms. I think those inspirations are evident in her print, The Messenger, which depicts a woman who is carrying around a dark secret, but who is attempting to release this darkness, in order to move forward.

15% of each print sold is donated to the Kids In Need Foundation. Read our interview with Natalia here, and buy the print here.

In 2008 Tsilli Pines made a series of collages called “The Figures” which explored the topography of money in human consciousness, and the constant parade of numbers in everyday life. This past May, the New York Times Magazine asked her to revisit the themes from that series for their money issue. Balance Sheet was one of the unpublished pieces that emerged from that exploration, and we are super excited to debut it as a limited edition print at The Working Proof!

Balance Sheet is an archival ink jet print on 100% cotton 300 gsm Moab Entrada natural paper. Each print was signed and numbered by the artist. 15% of each print sold will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Read our interview with Tsilli here, and buy the print here.

I was immediately smitten when I saw this print – Disguise, by Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir. The original artwork was a collage made after Ingibjörg had watched too much of Poirot, a British television show about a Belgian detective in the 1920s. Disguise is just a little thought about appearances and identity.

15% of each print sold will be donated to Doctors without Borders. Read our interview with Ingibjörg here, and buy the print here.

I am super excited to launch Flying Geese by Sharon Montrose over at The Working Proof. I have been a huge fan of Sharon’s photography ever since I first saw it a couple of years ago. Sharon’s work is really about the animals she shoots – she lets them direct her, with the aim of featuring animals outside of their environments and “capturing a moment that will last as long as the viewer needs to absorb their charms.” In this case, two geese caught simultaneously flapping their wings. Sharon said she was “totally shocked at how loud geese are. They actually beat out the bass of the hip hop music in the studio next door.”

Flying Geese is an open edition, signed by Sharon. It was printed on super thick Fine Art 285 gsm luster finish paper with archival inks. Sharon chose to pair her print with the Pablove Foundation, a charity dedicated to funding pediatric cancer research and advances in treatment, educating and empowering cancer families, and improving the quality of life for children living with cancer through hospital play, music and arts programs. The Pablove Foundation was created to honor Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz, the son of the founders. Pablo was six years old when he lost his battle with bilateral Wilms’ Tumor, a rare form of childhood cancer. Imbued with his spirit and inspired by his strength, Pablove is dedicated to the daily, global fight against childhood cancer and the suffering that comes in its wake.

Buy the print here, and read our interview with Sharon here. Sharon also has an awesome new shop – check it out here!

Pass, by Intersect, is a collaboration between artist couple Shannon Rankin and Justin Richel. I have always loved their individual styles – Shannon’s map collages and Justin’s composition and the whimsical nature of his illustrations. Intersect merges their two very different styles in a beautiful way – abstract, colorful, compositional. Pass is a giclée print of an abstract collage composed of gouache painted elements, loosely exploring the idea of surpassing the ordinary in search for a transcendent level of knowledge.

Pass is printed on Hahnemühle’s Photo Rag 308 gsm archival fine art paper, with pigment-based Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks. It is an open edition and was signed by both artists. 15% of each print sold benefits American Forests, chosen by Shannon and Justin because living in rural Maine, they see a lot of trees being hauled away daily and want to protect these forests.

Buy the print here, and read our interview with Intersect here.