via art of the state (where there are a TON more fantastic images from this show).
french street artist dran is featured in the new pictures on walls shop show, "marks and stencils." let's just say that i keep coming back to this website for all things amazing, and when i get to london, one of my first stops is going to be p.o.w.
dran is great. his attention to detail is immaculate, and his sense of humor and wit is sharp as a knife. art of the state shows a few pieces in which he repurposed cardboard boxes and played with their printed labels and warnings. i think this "marks and stencils" show would be well worth the stop.
and just for the heckuvit, my aunt karen's delicious vegetable pan at thanksgiving. potatoes, onions, zucchini, carrots, garlic, and so on. thanksgiving dinner this year was spectacular as usual -- bigger than usual, even. but who EVER complains about a thanksgiving meal that is MORE grandiose than last?
...another thing i like? avoiding the shopping hoards on black friday. ! hooray.
i'm going to expound on yet another bookstore find: beaton in the sixties (link to amazon) with introduction by hugo vickers (knopf, 2004). i've been on a rad mid-century art kick lately. and woe is me, i had never really considered cecil beaton worth reading about until he was mentioned -- very briefly -- in the book pop: the genius of andy warhol by tony scherman and david dalton (my entry here). the mention? one of warhol's factoryites kicked beaton out of one of their parties because she didn't recognize him. ha!
beaton is one of those names i've always heard, but never really learned much about. he was an extremely prolific photographer, artist, and designer, and he wrote the greatest diaries! he did the most spectacular portraits of socialites, celebrities, an royalty at the time. one of my favorites is a photograph of pablo picasso with some of his work in 1965. like most artists, his personality is that of someone who wanted so much to become famous. those people are sometimes the most fun, because their ambitions are so large.
and, for the girl in me...
enough said. every year i watch this at some point. i've finally gotten my hands on my own copy. maybe what makes it so brilliant is that it's sleepless in seattle, but a few years later, with AOL. not that AOL actually exists like it did then, with dial-up and the whole shebang. there's something nostalgic about it -- nostalgia! for the internet! -- something about that short wait to get online, to see if the mailbox opens, to see if anyone wants to AIM. ;) not to mention it's the best rom-com duo in the world, plus their wonderful director, nora ephron. can i say enough good things about nora ephron? no. and parker posey! and dave chappelle! and greg kinnear!
this movie is corny. but it's hilarious. and most of all, it's sentimental EXACTLY the way i want it to be sentimental. this is the only movie of its kind where i've ever really really REALLY wanted to be the protagonist. i work in a bookstore; maybe twelve years after this movie was released, i'm unwittingly trying to become kathleen kelly. this is the movie that made me want to go to new york city for the first time; new york is magical for me in this movie. i don't care; it's because i was 14 years old when i first saw it and in you've got mail, love is perfect, and life is magical. and vice versa.
it might be just another silly rom-com to most people. but this is the singular movie that on the worst day of my life, could make me smile -- through the entire thing.
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happy thanksgiving! full of family and friends, and a drive to southern wisconsin this year. oh, the food. you bet i will have plenty to report on the food. :)
i feel that to start the day off right, a a photo of my cup of coffee this morning is in order. and not just any cup of coffee. for those who have never tried coffee from a french press, you don't know what you're missing. i worked at a coffee shop for two years, and live above one now that my sister owns. i'll always be a coffee freak, i think. while having a full-service coffee house practically in my living room usually leads to more decadent beverage choices such as my typical 20oz. triple soy extra-hot toffee nut latte (...), there is a point where a good, fresh cup of made-at-home coffee is just the way to go.
i do not own a coffeemaker, however. my normal french press is a bright blue plastic thing that's something of a modern take on the classic, although i do have the minature copper one from starbucks, pictured above next to my captain planet vhs tape. :)
so, that's the part of the post where i rediscover something i have loved.
onto great british editorial:
i stumbled across this book at work. yes, the bookstore was a total treasure trove a couple of weeks ago! i left one night with a bag that hurt my shoulder to carry, and a ten-inch stack in my arms. way to go! amongst others, i found written on the city by albin and kamler [a collection of graffiti messages from around the world], jeremyville sessions [a collection of jeremyville work and collaborations], news by peripheriques architects [a compendium of their work in a splendid street-savvy little catalog], and 100 years of magazine covers by steve taylor [it is what it is]. a couple of these i'm going to elaborate on later, but as for great british editorial...
i've only just become really fascinated with graphic design. don't ask me why; i know i've studied fine art and my degree is in art history. i've studied graphic design work historically, but i've never practiced it, and in school it was always kept separate from "fine art." it was "commercial art." and pff, no. i was going to be a fine artist if anything at all, so don't give me that graphic design crap.
well. i was missing out. great british editorial is pretty much what it sounds like. it's a fat book that showcases amazing british layouts, mostly of magazines. spectacular photographs, amazing work -- some of which i've seen myself when i flipped through the magazines myself [how refreshing!] -- it's so well done. published by indexbook, it includes work from FL@SS, hat-trick, EI8HT magazine, AD architectural magazine and more. SO GREAT. so fun. inspiring, really. the talent is immense. and while looking through magazines for me has become such a treat due to their design, having the best of the best of british design grouped together in one cardboard-coated volume is basically awesome.
great british editorial on amazon.com
and lastly.
mr.frivolous. "don't draw at 1:07am."
aaand finally. this i stumbled across on facebook today, of all places. one of those little ads that pops up on the right side of the site. yes, i clicked on it! yes, i think it's cool! so... to share. mr.frivolous, a london artist who uses mostly felt-tip markers and does some pretty spot-on portraits of people you may recognize.. his work has a spontaneous, almost anxious feel to it that i like. check it out; it's pretty cool to see what markers can do on paper. and he also has a blog, frivolously tasty.
so, first, i should start by admitting that i've been a total SLACKER in the blog department. but -- i'll at least attempt to amend that situation with a couple of totally killer things i've stumbled across recently. all worth a glance. some of which i'm excited to visit in person over the next few months!
first, and maybe most exciting to me: the underbelly project. the site is apparently not totally up and running yet, but to sate our street art appetite (or mine, at least!) there are a few blogs that show images of the work. what is it? some pretty well-known street artists ("rockstars," even, if you like that term. i don't, but just to clarify) have done up some fantaaastic walls of a disused train station in new york city. i don't personally identify the subway system in new york with its abandoned stations -- the ones in london have taken on something of a cult status over the years. but the underbelly project has enlisted some talented folks to paint an underground street art gallery. it's not open all the time, and hosts pieces most of us will never see. but artists like roa, and the london police are all in there -- i've raved about these two before here, and here -- doing up the place, in some cases in collaboration with others, to make some really astounding work that's mostly hidden.
some amazing photographs via lunapark on flickr here.
that's one thing i would kill to see.
but onto another...
via contemporist
this is probably the greatest small home i've seen in a long time. it's so simple. fluid, open, absolutely made of windows. that's what i like. i like windows. lots and lots of them! everywhere! you get the idea. toronto-based GH3 designed this house for an obviously amazing landscape. i remember rock like that when i was "survival camping" in ontario several years ago -- the way that the house looks like its jutting out of the stone is so awesome. not to mention it's the minimal hyper-modern style that i lalalove. i want to spend MY weekends here. clear out!
one of the galleries on my list to check out in london, in the spring? concrete hermit. currently showing kid acne, i can't wait to see what's on when i'm there in 2011. alternative contemporary art space -- and shop!! woo!! looks like my kind of place.
and last but DEFINITELY not least: POP: the genius of andy warhol by tony scherman and david dalton. if i had to recommend one book that i've read this year, it would be this one. hands down. if you have even the most vague, fleeting interest in andy warhol, not to mention a dying urge to know absolutely everything about him (ahem, me?) this book is absolutely worth the read. because, well, it's highly readable. it's a wild ride. he was an outrageous person who did outrageous things and surrounded himself with outrageous people. one might argue that those people were what made him outrageous to begin with. there are a lot of other names to swallow in andy's world -- he surrounded himself with a huge slew of people. but all of these characters are worth knowing.
the book isn't a comprehensive b-to-d bio. it's the 1960s; it's the decade that andy warhol established himself as possibly the most famous and prolific artist in the world. at least of the 20th century. the fact that one can find warhol's images or words stamped on anything from jeans and record album covers to drink coasters and necklaces is sort of self-explanatory. it's basically warhol's dream. this book is a joy. it's entertaining -- how can his life not be entertaining? it examines his lifestyle and how it related to his work. even though i personally wouldn't mind, it doesn't go into a bunch of technical this-means-that and that-is-like-that-because sort of art historical jargon. if anything, it dispels the notion the warhol's works "mean" much of anything at all. it's objective. and it's colorful without being gaudy.
anyway. READ IT. read it. readittttt. (paperback is out 11/23/2010!)
