Nestled high up in the verdant hills, gazing across the grassy plains that stretch across the horizon below, Our Hero stands, hands on hips, nostril hair wafting in the refreshing breeze and fresh beads of sweat crawling down, smiling. Small, friendly, multi-legged creatures celebrate their own proportionally amazing achievement of summiting the toes of Our Hero, relaxing at the base of Our Hero's ankle with a contented sign. Suddenly, a sonic boom engulfs the senses, making the nearby saplings shiver with fear and anticipation. Our Hero smiles. Friday Props has arrived.

I love my house. Its cozy, big enough for my cats (The Cheat and Chick Pea), and affords me plenty of opportunity to modify it in strange, fantastical ways. Between my imagination and a healthy array of power tools, I can do some serious damage in the constant quest for "home improvement" which frequently lead to a "learning experience." Henrique Oliveira goes further. He moulds and crafts discarded wood into unbelievably fantastic structures that bend the mind. Props to you, sir.

"And what do we burn apart from witches?"

"More witches!"

And matches, by gum! And where there's fire, there's smoke. And clichés. Sorry to fall back into that. I won't let it happen again. Our next Friday Props specimen uses smoke and matches to reinvent the world around him in miniature. Before you delve too far into the body of Stanislav Aristov's photographs and then string me up by my toe thinking you've caught a tiger, I'll holler and let you know that some of his stuff resembles prismatic trinkets you'd find in a glass case next to the nacho stand at the mall. Some of his stuff? Pretty darn snappy.

Our final Friday Prop goes to a person. A person I came across 10 minutes ago and now I want to explore his work. To tell you the truth, I was scouring around when I ran across the picture below of him setting up an iPod fish. Now I fish! I fish a friggin' LOT! I never seen one-a them fish before! That's John Maeda. He's smart. He's wicked creative. In fact, he's president of the Rhode Island School of Design. Basically he's a computer scientist with a graphic designer/artist streak. He's also a bit of a philosopher. Because I don't know enough about this guy to give you the whole scope of his work, I'm going to leave this final prop to you....complete the picture while I go and read about this fella. Post a comment and let us know what you find artistic and inspiring....or adequately geeky.