ysb

Brian Willmont's skinwalker

inspiration: Le Creative Sweatshop

Viral Paper + / Le Creativ Sweatshop ENGLISH SUBTITLES.

Beautiful words and paper shoes. Sigh.
I'm going to practice with some post-its.

reality is subjective

We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear.

Keri Oldham: Listening Collection, 2009 Photographs, mixed media

Subjectivism

Imagine, art instead of billboard ads!

Pablo Picasso's Guernica as billboard

Daniel Borins and Jennifer Marman, In Sit You, 2007. Image: torontoist.com

Great campaign from The Department of Culture and beautifulcity.
source: view on Canadian art

my world is pretty small

I haven't traveled to too many foreign destinations. Exploring the world is definitely on the top of my agenda before it "gets too late". Next up on my itinerary: Peru, Spain, Prague, Iceland & Scotland. I absolutely love this Francis Elliott map project. My personal globe would be about this blacked out.

dark globe, self portrait 2008
Francis Elliott
Dark Globe was first published in April 2007 for the Bristol Artists' Bookfair. The book is in 2 halves; the first features a form which lists every country in the world. The prospective buyer is then required to answer a series of questions about where they have, and haven't, traveled to. Foundry then uses the information given to create the second part; a unique atlas that records the owner's personal experiences of the world by blacking out every country that the owner has spent less than one night in, rather than the more normal use as a teaching aid.

Dermot Flynn's adorable map illustrations are also giving me the travel itch:

writers map

good article

Todd Forsgren; Columbina passerina - Common Ground-dove, 2009

Proximity Magazine: In Defense of the Philosophy of Art

"There is a saying, attributed to the painter Barnett Newman, that “aesthetics is for art what ornithology is for the birds.” This quip sums up the divide between those who make art and those who think about art. Neither birds nor artists need their academic counterparts to do what they do..."

textures

Gunta Stolzl 1927

head of weaving at the Bauhaus
One of the many highlights of my recent trip was visiting the comprehensive Bauhaus exhibition at Martin-Gropius museum. If there was ever any doubt that the Bauhaus school has influenced everything we deem "good design" and cool it's definitely been eliminated. Of the 100o objects exhibited, one piece that surprisingly stood out to us was this Gunta Stolzl tapestry (jpg doesn't do justice). Among all the furniture, innovative text and material studies this ridiculously bright textile was one of the most relevant to today's neon art aesthetic.

An other piece that keeps floating around my empty little head is this handmade tapestry from starsyling I spotted at their boutique. It's so texturally interesting and would look great as a floor mat or wall hanging.

While I couldn't justify spending over 300 € on this I so desperately want it and would certainly make use of it. I love this treasure purposed as a picnic blanket:

Even though Stystyling is a tad busy (flailing hand motions and hissing sounds if you were hearing me say this) for my taste, I did pick up a gorgeous hand dipped fringe necklace. I can't wait to incorporate this into an outfit. I'm miles away from endorsing an all over print but touches of flair are oh so necessary.crafting the fringes
Seeing that I can't afford a large textural piece at the moment this little bit of color and motion will have to do. Unless I purchase my own loom and have a sudden folk streak I don't see a Gunta Stolzl inspiration in my future.

weekday links

Chris Cobb
Adobe Books Installation “There is Nothing Wrong in this Whole Wide World”
rearranged 20,000 books in the Adobe Books shop by color

• embroidered budgies
• Cricket's polaroids
• who doesn't?
• "Britto’s work, the artistic equivalent of musak"
• shelves make a huge difference
• cat v. dog diary
• Julia Pott sketch book
  
• vintage letters
  
• thirty six bikes
  
• WHOA!
• Heirloom T-Shirt essay
  

carnations & hatrid

If I were into Betsey Johnson & happened to be in the ku klux klan:

Postcards from Home
This work is tied to the realization that often hatred doesn't wear a white hood. In all of its subversive manifestations; it presents it-self in pinstripe suites, and floral dresses carrying Gucci purses.

Susan Harbage has a moving and diverse body of work. I suggest checking her out. I like that these pieces were patterned from original Klan uniforms from the 1920's.
Resources: blog; website

What I'd rather be wearing:
the brilliant Yayoi Kusama
&
Where I'd rather be:

Abraham Storer;White Tent,2009

Oil on canvas,60 in. x 60 in.

fabric & leather lust

"Our lives are now mediated through the aesthetics of consumerism, through images so commanding that we imitate their inanimacy and deadness, which have become crucial components of the glamorous woman's stylishness, her photographic remoteness and serenity."-Daniel Harris

There isn't much I wouldn't do to have both of these pieces in my possession.

Even after reading Cute, Quaint, Hungry, and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism by Daniel Harris I am still a fully addicted consumer. This Isabel Toledo dress and Louboutin's Dillian heels make my head spin. If I were getting married anytime soon I'd certainly chose these two pieces to wear. Unfortunately, I have nothing looming in the distance worth ever shelling out thousands of dollars on these gorgeous bits for.

who wants to move in with me?

Tequila Sunrise by Hannah Havana

truisms

I love revisiting art, books, and films. You often grow and interpret things differently or catch some subtlety. Jenny Holzer's truisms are a perfect example of work that reads way differently to me than when first introduced. I'm more of a jaded cynic now than I was in art school.

My desk jockey days have changed my perspective on several of these trusisms.

A LOT OF PROFESSIONALS ARE CRACKPOTS

ABSOLUTE SUBMISSION CAN BE A FORM OF FREEDOM

ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE

ACTION CAUSES MORE TROUBLE THAN THOUGHT

ALIENATION PRODUCES ECCENTRICS OR REVOLUTIONARIES

AT TIMES INACTIVITY IS PREFERABLE TO MINDLESS FUNCTIONING

BOREDOM MAKES YOU DO CRAZY THINGS

CONFUSING YOURSELF IS A WAY TO STAY HONEST

DREAMING WHILE AWAKE IS A FRIGHTENING CONTRADICTION

EXPIRING FOR LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL BUT STUPID

HUMANISM IS OBSOLETE

HUMOR IS A RELEASE

IT IS MAN'S FATE TO OUTSMART HIMSELF

LACK OF CHARISMA CAN BE FATAL

LOVING ANIMALS IS A SUBSTITUTE ACTIVITY

MUCH WAS DECIDED BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

MURDER HAS ITS SEXUAL SIDE

OFTEN YOU SHOULD ACT LIKE YOU ARE SEXLESS

PEOPLE WHO DON'T WORK WITH THEIR HANDS ARE PARASITES

ROMANTIC LOVE WAS INVENTED TO MANIPULATE WOMEN

SLIPPING INTO MADNESS IS GOOD FOR THE SAKE OF COMPARISON

SLOPPY THINKING GETS WORSE OVER TIME

TAKING A STRONG STAND PUBLICIZES THE OPPOSITE POSITION

THE IDEA OF REVOLUTION IS ADOLESCENT FANTASY

THE MOST PROFOUND THINGS ARE INEXPRESSIBLE

TIMIDITY IS LAUGHABLE

WISHING THINGS AWAY IS NOT EFFECTIVE

spot on

Keri Smith
artist survival kit

weekday link wrap up

Yays! We made it!Prof Dr Kong Sr

Felieke van der Leest

• hunting trophy decor
• cherry blossom viewing in Tokyo
• The coolest shirt on earth
• Andrew Bush business cards & envelopes
• DONUTS.
  
• Don't know why I want these things but I do
• hit and miss makes me long for shooting with friends
  
• rock made candies
• I ♥ my friend's etsy shop: Gold Teeth Brooklyn
• Consumed waaaay too much of this yesterday
• These stoneware pieces look satisfying to touch
• Hi, can I have your fancy shorts please?
• cute teenie workspace
• Fortunate teens party with Morrissey
• Super spaz happy chiwa
• Have you lied about reading a book before?
• Design boom & bust 10 years to go
• I never got over wanting a vintage bug:
  

inspiration: mondongo

The Argentine art collective Mondongo inspires me. Their highly tactile pieces don't inspire me to actually create anything by hand, but looking at this work encourages me to get off my lazy ass and start focusing on my real job so that I can one day afford to buy a piece.

I've seen a few pieces IRL and they're awe inspiring and slight folkish. They create these large scale fantasies by collaging feathers, cotton thread, plasticine, hair, freeze-dried slabs of meat and biscuits. As unsettling as it sounds, their work still manages to be reminiscent and beautiful.

resources:official site, artnet, smartartpress towel

I ♥ John Baldessari

John Baldessari

The Pencil Story 1972 – 1973

Colour photographs, with coloured pencil, mounted on board

Resources: official site; Wiki

I know I've said it before but, If I had to wear one outfit for the rest of my life it would have to be this sparrow suit:

How cute is this? I love everything: equestrian tweed, high rise shorts, slim jacket, ruffle chest, bird headdress, black gloves and those tights!

Please check out the Amazingness that is Andy Jordan.

resources: flickr page; andy jordan

inspiration: Gala Dali

I am absolutely fascinated by this woman.
I want to be the Gala to my hubby's Dali (minus the extra marital affairs). I have been searching for a biography on her with no luck.

Salvador Dalí, Galarina, 1944
(I'd love for my partner to paint my portrait like this)

"She was a muse for Dalí, who said that she was the one who saved him from madness and an early death. Salvador Dali stated it was Gala who acted as his ruthless agent, the interface between the genius and the real world. She aided in redirecting his focus. Many of the works he is now famous for, were created with Gala as his muse."

"Dali's love for Gala, a woman 10 years older than him, exploded; he realized numerous extravagancies to capture her attention; such as waxing his armpit and dying it blue, applying goat excrements upon himself and wearing a red geranium on his head. His emotion was such, that every time he tried to talk to her, he suffered uncontrollable laughing attacks.
During a stroll in Cabo de Creus, Dali fell on his knees laughing, he declared his love for her, and holding his hand Gala said "... my boy, let us never to be separated..."


Salvador and Gala born from an egg

lover's eyes

Do you remember that scene in Mad Love where Drew Barrymore's character has a crazy episode and glues pictures of eyes all over the walls? No? Well if you weren't a highly impressionable tween in 1995 then you probably have no idea what Mad Love is. That freaky obsessive meltdown scene was very influential; many girls I knew back then had random magazine cutouts of eyes in their rooms.

(can't find appropriate film still)
This Lover's Eye series by Tabitha Vevers is a beautiful and less nuts and way of displaying a bounty of eyes.

These tiny painted pieces based on the eyes of well known classical paintings speak to me in that same way. They comment on privacy, the woman's gaze, modern portraiture and dissociation.