Do you like to spend your mornings discussing trends and inspiration while saving your afternoons to ruminate on creative ideas? Then the PSFK Conference in San Francisco sounds right up your alley. Following on the heels of successful conferences in NYC, London and L.A., the trendspotter’s fifth meeting of the minds taking place at the Fort Mason Center this Thursday July 17th and will feature some truly innovative speakers and panelists who run the gamut from NASA to FunnyOrDie.com. The lineup is packed with Spear favorites like Amit Gupta and Jen Bekman. Bay Area JS.com readers, go forth and learn!

If a party at a car wash sounds like the perfect method to cool down during the West Coast’s forecasted heat wave, check out Sam Spiegel’s (a.k.a. hot music producer Squeak E. Clean, a.k.a. half of the NASA DJ duo) big throwdown called SUDS rolling through various Southland car washes starting this Friday at the Hollywood Car Wash before it heads up to San Fran. While there won’t be any wet T-shirt contests going on (I can hear the collective sigh right now), a mysterious “car wash ride” is promised. Spiegel will man the wheels of steel, while Girl Skateboards pro team members put on a demo and people get their hair done for free by an on-site göt2b hair salon. Aaron Rose, curator extraordinaire of Beautiful Losers, will participate with art installations as well. And there’s talk of go-go dancers in body paint. Sounds like this event is meant to make you sweat, so bringing a water balloon or 20 is probably a good idea. Hit the site to RSVP for this free party.

Lately, all we’ve been hearing is sad news about the plight of the honeybees and their declining numbers. Thank goodness for conceptual artist Jonathon Keats‘ newest endeavor. Next week (July 19th to be exact) Keats will choreograph the first ever bee ballet.

By planting hundreds of precisely arranged flowers in neighborhoods in San Francisco, Keats claims the bees will “dance according to the locations of the flowers they’ve found.” Except, well, you won’t really be able to see it because they’ll be dancing back inside their hives. Says Keats, “The bees will dance for themselves, not for us.” Dance bees. Dance like nobody in is watching.

Check out the bee lines (sorry) after the jump

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Attention Northern California art enthusiasts: If you prefer your art to be functional — which is to say classy-looking sculpture and furniture — we think you’ll be down to check out Proliferation, an exhibition being held at FiveTenStudio from now until July 29. The show is centered around the work of Bay Area artist Annalisa Vobis, whose work (like the Second Nature sculpture) is inspired by organic influences such as coral reefs, as well as her own personal childhood recollections of growing up near Odin’s Forest in Germany. The exposition also features some practical, yet artistically rendered furnishings from other well-known designers such as Mike and Maaike and Ross Lovegrove Be there for the official reception on Friday July 11th from 6 – 9 p.m.

The story of a rejected artist finally making it big time is as familiar as the tales our grandparents like to tell us: “I walked 17 miles, barefoot, through three feet of snow; I dog-walked in New York through rejection letter after rejection letter …” The similarities are noticeable, and the struggles equally ruthless. And while there's a good chance that your aging grandpa has taken to spicing up his retirement with total B.S., the stories of struggling artists are mostly true, and there are only a few that come out of the fight still holding a paintbrush.

Casey O'Connell is one artist who has prospered, and even though she is finally content in her position as one of the West Coast's most fawned over new artists, she's too fresh off the track to have forgotten how she got there. Several cities, plenty of dog walks, and even more broken hearts paved the way for this young painter. But, we couldn't be happier that she's arrived.

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Site pal and PSFK man-in-charge Piers Fawkes is at it again, this time with his Snapshot San Francisco book series. His team has taken to the streets to put together a snapshot report of what they call the most unique when it comes to events, businesses, organizations and ideas in the most inspirational cities in the world– and they’re starting with San Francisco. Grab one for your nearest coffee table in Softcover for $30, Hardcover for lifetimes to come for $60.

It’s that time of the year again, when I pop out to San Francisco and the Bay Area for a few days before going to the incredible TED conference in Monterey, California. This years speaker lineup aims to answer questions like “Who are we?” “What is art?” “What is love?” and “What is evil” in, as they describe, unexpected ways. The whole lineup can be read on the site now, and I’m jazzed as ever to see folks like friend and site mainstay Kaki King, Chris Jordan, Bob Geldof, and Al Gore (again), as they all take the stage and blow the room away, for 18 minutes each. I’ll surely be covering highlights on the blog as it happens. I can’t wait! Stay tuned.

Related: TED 2007 Highlights

Hear Ye, Hear Ye. The time has come for gamers to gather around. Mavens of Metroid, Guitar Heroes, and Big Game Buck Hunters, we are talking to you. You are charged with making a pilgrimage to San Francisco for the 4th Annual Into The Pixel Exhibition at the Art Hotel on February 20th. It's time you finally showed your appreciation for the creators of the characters who keep you glued to your game console for hours on end so that you may once in your life taste the thrill of victory and not the agony of defeat associated with the outside world.

Alas, this exhibition is not only for the dedicated gamers. We'd be remiss to not mention that this is the only juried event that invites enthusiasts from both the “fine art world and interactive entertainment industry to show their appreciation for the art of the video game”; the upcoming exhibition will also feature collection from the previous two years. If you haven't booked your flights to San Francisco while reading this post...we don't know what you're waiting for. However, if you must wait to ask your mom in you can go, the exhibition is displayed through March.

In his latest conceptual arts foray, Jonathon Keats is “formulating new miracles at a cosmic scale for gods to license and implement.” Huhhhh? The way he explains it — and I’m not so sure I could do much better — is that “In previous centuries, people were taken by the notion that the sun orbited the earth … the Copernican revolution upset all that. [He] figured disillusionment might be avoided in the future, and wonderment enhanced, by contriving planetary systems with multiple stars in orbit, all encompassing a planet in elaborate aerobatic configurations.” To elucidate his theory, Keats has designed 7 novel solar systems and made them available for licensing through S.F.’s Modernism Gallery. However, it need be known that buyers of his solar systems are highly encouraged to obtain the help of a qualified engineer — and is ultimately responsible for the construction of the system (Keats declined to comment about the estimated cost of construction of such a system). If you’re afraid that you just don’t have the money lying around to make one of these things a reality, don’t fret — you can hear the melodic appeal of Keats’ stellar musical composition ‘Sonata for Astral Organ’ on GarageBand — a much subtler miracle, but a miracle nonetheless.

As someone who has been traveling a lot recently, I can honestly say that I find little appeal in the idea of dropping exorbitant amounts of cash on a hotel room for a few nights alone in a city you would rather not call home. Even though certain people here whose names rhyme with “Gosh” and “Feather” love fancy-pants hotels, the only appeal to me is the free soap, shampoo, lotion and a variety of adult entertainment choices on spectravision that no one, save for the front desk, will ever know you ordered. If you could trade all that for stimulating conversation with a few like-minded folks, a slightly less comfortable bed, wireless internet and a place to cook breakfast at a considerably cheaper price, would you? The folks at Airbed and Breakfast are banking on the fact that you are. During a casual conversation about the upcoming 2007 IDSA conference Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, two independent entrepreneurs with product design backgrounds, had the idea to rent out extra space in their apartment to conference attendees. They then launched a website so that other San Franciscans could list their own apartments as convenient crashpads for conference-goers. The best part is that the terms of your stay are up to you. “Designers can choose which designers to meet, stay with, and at what price…” Think of it as Craigslist meets Hotels.com, but a lot less creepy.

You know, a lot of galleries find it in their ad budget to brag about their amazing upcoming openings in Juxtapoz magazine. A bunch of talented artists are getting amazing exposure this way, and I think that’s super. However, I still have to say that flipping through that magazine without getting a teensy bit bummed is impossible, because there’s too many openings with too many artists happening at too many places for me to be at once. This month issue is represents a particular bummer for me, because there is no way I will be making it to San Francisco for the October opening of Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. And, oh man, I want to be there, because the work of Kukula, Kris Lewis (shown), and Travis Louie together is the kind of thing that would make me give up gummy bears (ahem, that’s huge).

Good thing some of you live in SF, because in my tragic absence I’m going to ask you to do the next best thing: Go for me. October 13th (with an artists reception from 7-11pm) thru November 3, you can experience this ridiculous intermingling of jaw-dropping artwork at The Shooting Gallery (at 66 6th Street; say hi to Satan for me while you’re there). If you do go, I’m dying to hear about it, so keep me on speed dial, or speed type, or whatever. Ugh, jealous.

There are still a (very small) handful of tickets available for the Mashup 2007 conference presented by my friend Anatasia of Ypulse. If you’re going to be in the Bay Area July 16th and 17th and want to get the nitty-gritty on how to reach the totally wired youth generation of today with technology, this looks to be an awesome event. Speakers include Sam Altman of Loopt, Dana Boyd and many others.

Related: Go watch me talk about the Digital Youth at Google Zeitgeist in Europe!

San Francisco-based design team Mike and Maaike have added to their impressive design repertoire by stealing some bling. In their new Stolen Jewels Collection, they explore the tangible versus the virtual in relation to real and perceived value. How did they do it? They used Google, that’s how. By performing Google image searches for some of the most famous and expensive pieces of jewelry in the world, then stealing, doctoring, and printing the images on scored leather, they were able to create these wild, pixelated, and — ironically enough — unique renditions. With the expense of the jewels and the intricacy of their construction stripped away, their essence and visual intensity are extracted. Some of the “Stolen Jewels” include the Hope Diamond Broach, the Golden Jubilee Diamond Broach, the Great Chrysanthemum Necklace, and Imelda Marcos’ Ruby Necklace with Diamonds. They’re available at select galleries– contact M&M to find out where.

JoshSpear.com mainstay and friend OGIgraphics has an opening at Receiver Gallery (Valencia at 25th) in San Francisco opening on June 9th. It has been more than 2 years since Ogi had his first solo show and he’s very happy to be back. The works are entitled “My Life is Your Problem” and include a handful of new paintings, drawings and even some sculpture work. OGI actually gave me a mini-tour of Tokyo last time I was there– Pop by Receiver’s site to see a sneak peak of his new work. Welcome back Ogi! Full flyer after the jump…
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Tomorrow evening in San Francisco will be the opening of the Last Painted Rooms Art Show at the Hotel Des Arts. Artists have been painting up those rooms for about two years now, and this show will mark the end of that process. If you’re in the Bay Area, head over tomorrow evening from 7-11pm to see people like Shepard Fairey, Sugarluxe, and Jeremyville’s contributions to this incredible hotel customization. In addition to the ten new painted rooms being unveiled tomorrow night, the halls of the hotel will be filled with hundreds of affordable pieces of art available for purchase.