The design blogs (Lost in a Supermarket, Minimalismi, Curated + many more) were all over this Stretch Shelf, even Urban Outfitters. I like it b/c it’s functional, has an element of DIY, and totally fits into the “why didn’t i think of that?!??” category. made of cast rubber and machined aluminum, the shelf is essentially like having a giant rubber band that sturdy enough to hold and fit oddly shaped items on the wall in a connect-the-dots type of fashion. living in a cramped rowhouse, i’m begining to realize how useful storing upwards on the wall is, this would be perfect for spaces in the hallway or my room. one blog posed the question of what happens when the rubber dries out and it cracks, I’m hoping the shelving kit comes with some sort of sealing solution to prevent this. design schools are supposed to teach design, but also practicality and sustainability, right?
Oyler is a RISD graduate, you can check out more of his work here.
oh how i can relate to this article. when i first started this blog, i did do it out of a small wish for fame and notoriety, not so much that people would be logging on to read about the party i went to last night, or the amazing cardamon bread pudding i made over the weekend, but i had hoped the idea behind this blog would catch on. people would start using the “no postage necessary” envelopes to send in poetry, love letters, or intellectual articles to the credit card application collection centers. soon, i’d have to created another blog to just post the responses and reasonings, something more along the lines of PostSecret with substance and commentary on social disconnect and loneliness, rather than just community picture submissions like upsidedowndogs or look at this fucking hipster (as entertaining as it is to scan through that site every now and then). i want commenters, i want more people saying “hey, cool post”, or sending me emails about paper goods they’ve sent in to the collection centers and why.
but also, i know of the ease to start something and not complete it: diets, workout routines, fictional novellas, etc. blogging really could just be the internet fad of the 21st century, and the thought of all the abandoned blogs out there pains me to think of all the WWW space they’re uselessly and inefficiently taking up. [certainly not to say, nopostagerequired is contributing to the greater good and worth however much GB it’s using). plus, i’m reminded that i’ve got to go and delete that embarassing, old LiveJournal I wrote back in high school. another reason i started this blog was the hope that it’d encourage me to write more. if i was writing, however informally, on a consistent basis> that can only help me practice and perhaps make all the papers in graduate school much easier to complete. but alas, i’ve fallen too often into the “sorry, i haven’t posted here in awhile” trap, and sometimes this blog becomes a nagging chore that’s always in the back of my mind to work on, much in the same way of starting art projects, that Census Bureau application, or that morning workout. i will write here that I am attempting to write here at least 4 times a week until it becomes routine. it’s taken me more than a year, but i’ve at least gotten to 100+ posts, it’s somewhat reassuring that nopostagerequired won’t be listed on One Post Wonder, i’ve jsut to be more diligent in keeping it up. onward >
guess which is the joint effort attempt of DF and me at a mobile, and which one is the calder.
where did we go wrong?
we failed to make it viewable from all sides -> probably the very first rule of mobiles
the painting of a bird that turned into an abstract peacock/upside-down rainbow, along with the happy meal hello kitty watch dangling below it pale in complexity, and stability to the calder standard
i need a couple more visits to the Hirshhorn for further inspiration, but the more i look at our ‘work of art’, the more i see the potential to add more on to it and make it a more LEGIT mobile. hopefully this creative crafting itch is here to stay, i need something new to keep me occupied.
peep dioramas – people are just so creative. the winner: Hopper inspired ’NightPeeps’ is so good, especially when you hear the story about how it was created. some of my other favorites include ‘Mrs. Peepcock, In theConservatory, With the Revolver’, ‘R-E-S-PEEP-ECT’, ‘Purple Tunnel of Peeps’, ‘Peeptown Cupcake’, ‘Steve Jobs Presents IPeep Nano’, and ‘Sweet Revenge’. Finally, Peeps have more of a purpose than just to be stretched out and blown up in a microwave. those 3 dots on their face give them such a humanistic quality, i wish real humans came in purple, pink, yellow and blue – our art would (perhaps?) be more endearing and colorful. in the pagan, consumerist American sense of the holiday word -> Happy Easter!
one thing missing in DC’s city life is street art – musicians, performers, or physical pieces. someone told me it’s because getting a permit to perform is fairly difficult. DC has a reputation for being cold and dreary, a place just full of suits and Hill staffers, i know it makes me happy to hear an urhu playing as i’m exiting out of the metro.
with this mexico city example, why isn’t there something similar in DC? there isn’t the performance space? billboards generate ad revenue, leaving no area to post artists’ works? the book exchange is particularly interesting to me. the DC SmartBike program is slowly catching on, but it still has many skeptics. the logistics of a book program would seem even more complicated. but it’s been done! and according to this video – works well.
its sad to hear the reporter say that for some Mexicans, this is their only ‘exposure’ to ‘culture’ they can afford. if anything, perhaps they are already more ‘cultured’ because they have realized the importance of and made such art available to the general public.
tonight was the opening reception for DCist EXPOSED photography show. there was a constant line around the block outside of the Flashpoint gallery in Chinatown, and it was packed inside all night. 45 images were chosen from local photographers for their visions in showing a unique perspective of DC to fellow DCers. there wasn’t much chance of taking your time to look at each shot, it was more look, read the title, tilt your head for a second and get pushed to the next photograph. DJ TEN was spinning, and they were giving out free redbull and glasses of wine, pretty sweet. except for the groups of people who decided to stand in a circle right in front of the photographs just to drink their wine and talk ‘art’. do that at a different art exhibition opening where it isn’t shoulder to shoulder packed with people and free. there were some striking shots, some ‘untitled’, and others of famous DC monuments and events but a more intense or focused spin on them. going to shows like this, and seeing familiar faces or names around has started to make me feel like a DC-er, more than i was ever a Northampton-er. it felt like a huge bonding experience b/w everyone in the gallery as to guessing where a shot was taken, or where we were when we heard about the fire in Mt. Pleasant. while i can’t speak from the perspective of a native, DCist Exposed was illuminatingly comforting in that it showed the city from the eyes of locals have found a beauty and a calm in not just the everyday life, but what makes this place great to the ‘not-tourists’ that actually live here. check out the rest of the winners here.
image of ‘mass baptism’ shot by andyharnik, who also had ‘kiss‘ in the show, too.
wow, as if quilts weren’t complicated and layered enough. i love the seemingly abstract, but completely logical and practical look of Ian’s work. like the gee’s bend collective that had an exhibit at the whitney, quilts aren’t necessarily ‘kitchy patchwork, they are and can be beautifully complex. if only i wasn’t such a slow hand sewer, or i could borrow my parents’ sewing machine – think of the creations! the possibilities!
i stole this from kanye’s blog, and click on it immediately because it was so different from everything else that he posts: models, new urban buildings, modernist design or inventive new artists. Beejoir – LV Child Sculpture: this little African child tagged with the louis vuitton logo all over like one of the famously expensive purses. the thing that struck me was how, even at the most basic analysis level, this piece is about mass consumption in this global economy – Louis Vuitton = luxury, physically branded upon like an object, an emaciated African child in fetal position (though looking up… at what?). but not every reader saw it that way.
kanye’s love for LV is not a surprise. he’s a big fan of and worked with takashi murakami, and lyrics to Stronger include “Cause this is Louis Vuitton dime night, So we gon do everything that Kan like“. some of the comments to this post are surprising, if not a bit alarming: “These are dope!”, “MAN, YOU DON’T KNOW ART. THESE SHITS IS HOT, SON; & MAD EXPENSIVE! FUCK YOU MEAN?, or “they look like baby Obama’s”. -> OMG, really? they look like baby Obama’s?
but luckily there are just as many commenters who write: “I actually really hate these, it makes me kind of feel like they are slaves and they are just being look at as if they are property and not human…..seems kind of disrespectful to me.”, “If you stamped/or dressed all the hungry children with louie vuitton shit–would they be worth feeding then?..would that get your attention?”, “If we have a fancy logo on us, is that enough for you to care about us?”. they also come in gold. beejoir’s work definitely revolves around the new global, overindulgent consumerism. while the artist was successful in getting his message across, what does it mean when he’s also made 100 copies of the sculpture and selling them for $500 apiece?
i hadn’t heard of barbara bosworth, and googling her name didn’t come up with many results. i’m not big on nature photography, but decided to go and be enlightened. not just seeing a slideshow of the photographs to be exhibited, but to hear their stories directly from the artist made a huge difference. bosworth’s photographs of yellowstone national park, a meadow in the spring time, or an oregon forest became more than just landscape shots. she talked about lofty themes in her photographs: circle of life, impact of humans on the earth, sustainability, the wonder and capabilities of nature. i’ve always thought about the artist process, if when they are making their art, whether it be painting, photography or writing, do they have an awareness of the symbolic themes they are creating? sometimes symbolism is on purpose, but what about when to the artist, the sundown really is just a sun going down, and not the impending cycle or end of light and a life or lack of hope. so while it almost seemed ridiculous that bosworth speak of the symbolism of life and death in very blatant symbolic ways of a fallen tree, or a new flowering bud, perhaps it was the setting of the auditorium, and the grandness of the photographs, i didn’t mind the obviousness, and lack of mystery at all.
it was almost dreamy to just sit and listen as she described to take on projects of a meadow, or of the moving stars, or of people hunting. what made her art stand out from just a normal shot of a forest was her method in the creating and developing process. she uses multiple large-format negatives in a single print, which sometimes result in lines that chop up the image, but other times they are seamless. her photographs have a majestic, but also quiet, and dreamy quality to them, sometimes looking like paintings, or completely timeless. my favorite was her “National Champions” series – where she sought out the largest and most famous of trees. her “birding” series of people holding birds and releasing them is also beautiful. i’m glad i went, i walked out of the dark auditorium in kind of a haze of admiration and awe. as someone who is not a big outdoorsy person, this lecture and exhibit was a reminder of how grand and resplendent nature can be. i’m always struck by artists who create alternate realities that are magnificent and surreal b/c nature seems so common place, that i almost forget that the world outside my door is not ordinary, but amazing and awe-inspiring in itself already. the exhibit is up until November 11th.
in Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from My Favorite Literary Gurus, Susan Shapiro tells of her relationships with several of her most important writing mentors to outline her own story as a writer. she starts with her high school modern lit teacher: Mr. Zucker, her older best-selling author and columnist cousin: Howard Fast, her very first boss at the New Yorker: Helen Stark, colleague, conspirator, and realist Ian Frazier, the unassuming legend Ruth Gruber, the fastidious editor Michael Anderson, and the unrelated poet Harvey Shapiro. in chronicling her partnerships with each, she describes the ups and downs of being a freelance writer: pressures to find the next assignment, dealing with unaccomodating editors, writing about things you don’t necessarily care about, or in the writing medium that is not your particular specialty, and the seductiveness of a full-time, salaried, but potentially very boring office job.
Shapiro writes of mentor/mentee relationships between writers but her coming-of-age story to be a prominent and prolific freelance writer is more about the lessons learned from the relationships that we all seek out – either for advice, companionship, out of admiration, convenience, or necessity. there are people who are always pushing you to stay true to your craft, not to sell out, or there are those who are realistic when you get idealistic. there are some relationships that seems to be less mutual admiration, and more one-sided, those that just fade b/c one person decides to just cease contact – there are these life lessons about people and relationships, that you can’t keep them all, and they aren’t always on your terms, or any sort of mutual terms. it’s something i’m still struggling with as i realize how true and frequent to the world this scenario exists.
“Hadn’t I been a promiscuous protege myself? i’d cast a wide net, juggling many editors, older colleagues and superiors simultaneously, deserting a few gurus gone wrong, always searching for more gurus gone right. (more…)
reasoning:
party i went to last night, or the amazing cardamon bread pudding i made over the weekend, but i had hoped the idea behind this blog would catch on. people would start using the “no postage necessary” envelopes to send in poetry, love letters, or intellectual articles to the credit card application collection centers. soon, i’d have to created another blog to just post the responses and reasonings, something more along the lines of 
Conservatory, With the Revolver’, ‘R-E-S-PEEP-ECT’, ‘Purple Tunnel of Peeps’, ‘Peeptown Cupcake’, ‘Steve Jobs Presents IPeep Nano’, and ‘Sweet Revenge’. Finally, Peeps have more of a purpose than just to be stretched out and blown up in a microwave. those 3 dots on their face give them such a humanistic quality, i wish real humans came in purple, pink, yellow and blue – our art would (perhaps?) be more endearing and colorful. in the pagan, consumerist American sense of the holiday word -> Happy Easter!
DCers. there wasn’t much chance of taking your time to look at each shot, it was more look, read the title, tilt your head for a second and get pushed to the next photograph. DJ TEN was spinning, and they were giving out free redbull and glasses of wine, pretty sweet. except for the groups of people who decided to stand in a circle right in front of the photographs just to drink their wine and talk ‘art’. do that at a different art exhibition opening where it isn’t shoulder to shoulder packed with people and free. there were some striking shots, some 
