objects are our history

Went to a show of Katherine Gray's work at the Acuna-Hansen Gallery in Chinatown on Saturday evening. Katherine is a glass blower, and here she has created an installation 'built' out of drinking glasses (above, right), the effect of which is beautiful and lingering, as is her artist's statement that accompanies the piece: "Because skill is a trap, because the promise has faded, because no one told me about that trap, because our society is increasingly about the simulated experience, because creating is destroying, because we haven't learned from our mistakes, because it is all coming to an end, because I am out of sync, because objects are our history. And because glass is devastatingly beautiful."

happy valentine's day (for tomorrow)

I love this quote from an old copy of Natural Health magazine (February 2004). I scribbled it down in one of my journals, and it's stuck with me ever since: "This is the time of year when it's easy to succumb to the symbols and trappings of feelings, to love as defined by others. The rituals of romance, the rich foods and vibrant flowers, are gratifying in the moment, and we can take delight in their sensuous pleasures. But the greatest affection is tendered and received - with neither encumbrance nor expectation. It's the quieter rituals of the devoted heart, so often overlooked, that provide the security and the strength we need to embrace the wondrous opportunities of life."

quote of the day

“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive?
Love is everything it's cracked up to be.
That's why people are so cynical about it.
It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.
And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”
(Erica Jong)

i just. want everything.

I have had this song stuck in my head on repeat ALL WEEEK LONG, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's a good song, and Alicia Keys is damn fine. It's just that hook. I'm hooked. Some people want...

eco love

Surfrider have a great idea for Valentine's Day: show the ocean how much you love it. Become a member or make a donation and they'll send your loved one an e-card. This reminds me - Imax's Under The Sea 3D is out today - which I heard is like "snorkeling in the cinema."

remixing the ordinary

New York's Museum of Arts and Design has a new exhibition called Second Lives: Remixing The Ordinary (running until Arpril 19). The exhibition features work by 50 international established and emerging artists from all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose. Paul Villinski, an American, creates beautiful butterflies out of his old record collection...

right on

I'm obsessed with this video. Roel Wouters is a graphic designer based in Amsterdam. He studied at the Royal Academie of the Arts, Den Hague and at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Gradus is his son, and makes the best "B"s I've ever seen.

mix tape love

Making a mix tape online isn't quite the same as sitting cross-legged in front of your tape deck, loading tape after tape, lining up the intro to each song, hitting play and record repeatedly and then hand writing your own liner notes... but it sure is fun. Not to mention instantaneous. You can create a playlist, make a mix tape design of your own, geek out over this mix tape USB port (which, admittedly, would make for a pretty sweet and thoughtful gift), and then check out Rob Sheffield's book, Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, which tells of the relationship he had with his wife, via fifteen old, beat-up cassettes. And while you're at it, the folks at exopolis have made you a special mix tape... Enjoy.

nothing to lose

the creative continuum

I recently read a small article in the NY Times about Jeanette Winterson. Since winning the Whitbread first-novel award in 1985 for Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Winterson has had a prolific and wide-ranging literary career. Her columns appear regularly in British newspapers, and her dozen plus books include novels, story collections, essays and children's books. The NY Times notes that 'in some ways, Winterson's success is a triumph over her upbringing. Raised in a working-class Pentecostal household with only six books (including The Bible), Winterson writes that she "was not encouraged to be clever." But she persisted.' She says:

"Art is central to all our lives, not just the better-off and educated. I know that from my own story, and from the evidence of every child ever born - they all want to hear and to tell stories, to sing, to make music, to act out little dramas, to paint pictures, to make sculptures. This is born in and we breed it out. And then, when we have bred it out, we say that art is elitist, and at the same time we either fetishize art - the high prices, the jargon, the inaccessibility - or we ignore it. The truth is, artist or not, we are all born on the creative continuum, and that is a heritage and a birthright of all our lives."

seth brau

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

paper cut

I am seriously coveting this cut paper piece by Matthew Rich: “I’m trying to make paint exist as sculptural material.” Lush.

mixed tape love

Scottish artist Sandy Smith created this sculptural typography from 100 sheets of mounting board he super-glue together. Standing 2 metres tall but only 12 centimetres deep, the precarious fragility of the whole piece was intentional (indeed someone ended up accidentally knocking the whole thing over). Another installation of his read: “Every day in every way I am getting better and better."

year of the ox

I was so busy flat-hunting that I forgot to throw up a post about Chinese New Year, one of my favourite holidays on the calendar. Good thing it's a year-long celebration... 1. Paper cherry blossoms by Martha 2. Cherry blossom notecards by Peculiar Pair Press 3. Daily Fortune matchbooks by Rosebud Design 4. Cherry blossom wall decal.

stitched

Neat hand sewn card by designer Alison Shanik of King Popcorn.

dream, ferment, and dream

Beautiful illustration by design Studio K. The text is from Oda a Walt Whitman by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, which he wrote in 1930 while completing a year of study at Columbia University. The poem was not published in its entirety until 1940, more than three years after the poet was executed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s fascist troops during the Spanish Civil War.

Agony, agony, dream, ferment, and dream.
This is the world, my friend, agony, agony.
Bodies decompose beneath the city clocks,
war passes by in tears, followed by a million gray rats,
the rich give their mistresses
small illuminated dying things,
and life is neither noble, nor good, nor sacred.
Man is able, if he wishes, to guide his desire
through a vein of coral or a heavenly naked body.
Tomorrow, loves will become stones, and Time
a breeze that drowses in the branches.

knit one, pearl one

I only have one friend of mine who I know can knit. Kim's a nester. Since we've known one another I've probably moved a gazillion times, and she's always lived in the same place (although she has just made a move! To Weeeeehawken, go Kim). She started off making knitted coasters and has since progressed to incredible cable sweaters and the like. When I was in Bruges a couple of years ago I bought her some knitting yarn and a box to keep her needles in. I figure that small act of thoughtfulness may or may not entitle me to now ask her to knit a huge wall-hanging for my new apartment. I just love the look of them, they seem so malleable and cosy, and my place has been a little chilly these past few nights, Venice Beach having been consumed by rain storms and dark clouds. Would be nice to have the option of pulling it down off of the wall and coccooning myself in it. Aesthetic and functional (see Kim? it will be soooo worth the effort...!).

question:

What do you do when you've just moved into a new apartment, and you don't have a table, and you really need a table - for many reasons - art projects, dinner parties, letter-writing... and then you find your DREAM table, your maple top work table with vintage industrial base table, and you call the very nice man down at Cleveland Art on Hewitt Street, and you ask him the price, and you gulp a little as he responds "Well... I've been asking $2500, but I'd consider taking $1800," and you think to yourself, lovely as that offer is, it's still more than your monthly rent. What do you do? You daydream about asking him if he'll consider payment in monthly installments is what you do. Even though you already know the answer to that one.

zoe newsome

UK jewelry designer Zoe Newsome created this scrappy flower out of copper, cast bronze and steel. She says "Flowers inspire me. I find them exquisite and a positive symbol of life, yet they mean different things to everyone." There's something about something so delicate being fashioned out of hard metal.

the meaning of certainty is getting burned

"The meaning of certainty is getting burned. Though truth will still escape us, we must put our hands on bodies. Staying safe is a different death, the instruments of defense eating inward without evening out the score."
- Rosmarie Waldrop, Lawn of Excluded Middle

just another ghost night

Designer and calligrapher Jon Cantino has posted a polaroid series on his site, called Just Another Ghost Night. It's a bit of a lonely and creepy adventure, but the sun does rise eventually.

sparks

I've been thinking about Spoonface Steinberg recently. Lee Hall - who wrote Billy Elliott - wrote a radio play called Spoonface Steinberg (which he then adapted for the stage, to much acclaim). It is a heart-warming, funny and moving story about life, death and faith, told from the view of a young autistic girl. The voice of 9-year-old Spoonface offers a unique perspective on life. She is affected by autism, and her quirky and eloquent take on the world around her is mesmerizing, poignant, and at times, very funny. Slowly it is revealed that Spoonface is terminally ill, and that the audience are witnessing the swansong of a quite extraordinary little girl:

“because when the world was made, God made it out of magic sparks – everything that there is, was all made of magic sparks – and all the magic sparks went into things – deep down and everything was a spark – but it was quite a while ago since it was made and now the sparks are deep down inside and the whole point of being alive – the whole point of living is to find the spark – and when you meet someone and say hello – or if you tell them a joke or when you say that you love them or try and help someone who is sad or injured – all these people, all they need is help to find the spark … and when people kissed there were sparks and when people held each other there were sparks and when they waved as they were going away in a car there would be sparks and they would all be prayers – they would all be prayers for the babies and the sad people with cancer – and if only you could see the spark then there was a meaning – because what was the meaning of anything? – if you were going to die, what was the meaning? – all the trees and the bushes and the famines and wars and disasters and even pencils or pens – what was the meaning of all these things? – and the meaning was if you found the spark – then it would be like electricity – and you would glow like a light and you would shine like the sparks and that was the meaning – it wasn’t like an answer or a number or any such – it was glowing – it was finding the sparks inside you and setting them free.”