Holi: Celebrating Spring

A Hindu festival to celebrate spring, Holi, looks like a magical way to usher in the new season.

"Experiencing the festival of Holi, in all of it’s magical and polychromatic glory, has been at the top of my bucket list for years. To celebrate the beginning of spring, Hindus of all ages and statuses throughout India light bonfires and joyously throw scented powder and perfume at each other. I love this mesmerizing video, which captures the beauty and essence of Holi so beautifully. One day . . ."~Erica via Honestly WTF

Happy Valentines Day!

M I N E from Thanasis Tsimpinis on Vimeo.

Watercolor Mirrors by Constance Guisset

Oh how gorgeous are these! Watercolor mirrors by French artist, Constance Guisset.

Via Honey Kennedy

Atelier Katsumi

Beautiful ceramics from Atelier Katsumi.

International Snow Sculpture Contest

My folks were super, super generous this past Christmas and got me a Kindle which I kinda love...and being the dork that I am, I subscribed to Martha Stewart on it. She's not always known for being in the know on cool cultural events, but she did have me hooked on this one in Colorado. Hosted in Breckenridge, Colorado every January 24-28th, the International Snow Sculpture Championships look awesome. Maybe someday we'll go see it in person!More photos here.

Paper Puppets from Crankbunny on Etsy

Recently I have been completely and utterly sucked into Etsy; people around the world are making beautiful things and it's so easy to wile away the hours on this website. I've been using my Favorites page as an inspiration board for me and Conner's new apartment, although now he's been having dreams of buying a house of our own...maybe one day. Anyhow, I'm totally taken with Etsy seller, Crankbunny's paper puppets, and their pop-up cards, and their total aesthetic. Love!

Missed Connections With Sophie Blackall

Illustrator Sophie Blackall is brilliant. She scours the Missed Connections section of her local NYC paper, or maybe craigslist, and creates whimsical illustrations to accompany them. Adorable to the nth degree.

-w4m
You admired my wooden legs and caught me in your sticky wings. Wish I'd stayed a bit longer.
Number 2 Pencil 4 Batman

Monday, March 23, 2009
-m4w (Harlem)
Remember? Uptown A train. Sunday at around 9pm. I was the black dude reading Bukowski's Post Office. You were reading the Arts and Leisure section. You passed wind rather loudly and started chuckling. I'd like to see you again. The flatulence wasn't a turn-off.
Hipster chick Who Passed Gas

Friday, January 22, 2010
L Train
Hey, guy that got on at 1st Ave dressed all in black with the throat tattoo. Thanx for existing.

Throat Tattoo

~~~

She recently released a book of Missed Connections that is now appearing on my literary "Wish List" and has begun a new project that looks equally as entrancing, Drawn From My Father's Adventures.

East Austin Art Tour

The East Austin Art Tour, or referred to as the EAST tour by locals, has been going on for six years now however, this past weekend was the first time I have ever attend myself. In the past I've had to work every weekend and missed it entirely but not this year. Along with SXSW, the EAST has got to be one of my favorite events in town--oh, and along with the city-wide Christmas caroling/tree lighting event at the Capitol and hosted by the public radio DJ John Ailey-a man who you either love or hate here in Austin.

So at the EAST tour I met two very cool ladies that I hope to meet up with again soon.

Lady #1-Denise Prince. Right after I worked on the multi-media project, Don't Bring Me Down: A Hypothetical Band, I found her work and loved it. On account of her theatrical and staged quality of her work, and how similar it was to DBMD, I had grand dreams of working with her in the future. And now what do you know, she and I talked at her gallery and she asked me to send her the link to DBMD, which I promptly delivered. (Smile!)
Lady #2-Sarah Wilson. Another photographer who takes rather staged-looking photos for magazines. I sure would like to be friends with her too. She created a photo, that I can't seem to find online, that was in Texas Monthly several years ago which was part of the HAMM Foundation's naked musicians calendar: Kinky Friedman sitting above an old-fashioned dunking booth with the bullseye right in front of his crotch, a cigar hanging from his lips, under a circus tent. Sarah said that she got the news that she had been assigned Kinky for the naked calendar and was distraught about having to shooting him naked. So she devised this dunking booth scenario so he wouldn't actually have to be naked and had to have the whole scene built...I thought that was pretty funny. She has done a series of photos on the annual prom thrown by Austin's School Of The Deaf. The one below is from that collection.
EAST will also be going on next weekend and you should totally go if you're in central Austin-it's great!

Richard Saja of Historically Inaccurate

I truly began sewing in high school when I would read fashion magazines, fall in love with the clothes, and in no way being able to afford the $400 skirt or shirt. After many years of trial and error sewing, I finally began to get it and begin to make clothing that hinted at what I saw in the fashion spreads. Throughout all those years however, I have never been able to master the art of embroidery; the time required to complete one piece far exceeds my attention span. But when I saw New York artist Richard Saja's embroidery I wish I was better at staying focused.

Images via Historically Inaccurate Decorative Arts

Kathleen Rabe of Clay And Labor

A good friend of mine, Miss Kathleen Rabe of Clay And Labor, is a super talented ceramic artist and for a local Austin boutique, Finch, we had a chat about her work via email.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself--where you're from, what you're up to, etc.

Hi Rachel, thanks so much your interest in my work! You guys at Finch are the greatest. Ok, so here goes (!). Two years ago I moved from Austin up to small town Alfred, NY to go back to school for ceramics. I still have a home base in Austin, and absolutely consider myself an Austinite, just taking a bit of an extended vacation. Currently I am working on my thesis show, which will be shown in Austin next December!

2. You used to use a lot of white in your ceramics, are you now employing a bit more color in your pieces? What motivated the change?

My most recent work was made this summer in my studio in Alfred. This was the first time I had ever experienced a real season change from spring to summer, and the flowers were amazing! I realized all that color made for a very good mood, and I wanted to bring that good energy into my studio.

3. Where do you get some of the ideas for your imagery?

Most of my imagery is found. I pull from old children's books or books on nature or animals or machines or really anything that catches my eye. I don't know there is a really clear common thread, but I think in general I like imagery that reminds me of things I have experienced and like to remind myself of; they almost act like photographs in that sense.
4. Why did you choose to pursue ceramics as opposed to anything else, non- art related?

There is a familiarity to the ceramic object that I find really powerful. It is non threatening and approachable. I find that people are more receptive to my ceramic work because they have a point of entry; we all have our individual histories with ceramic objects (like a family's holiday china). As for my ceramic table ware and functional objects, I really enjoy the idea of my work being used, and enhancing ones daily experiences. I love the ceramics I have collected over the years. When I eat from my Mud Australia bowls I feel indulgent and sophisticated, and when I take my perfume from my Diana Fayt plate I fell fanciful and nostalgic. I love that the objects we surround ourselves with can enhance our daily lives.

5. Are there any other artists that you admire? Or whom you get inspiration?

Right now I am really into Pueblo Wedding Vases, I love the idea of the heirloom and ceramics being central to cultural traditions. I have also been looking at Valeria Nascimento's work lately; she uses simple components to create complex installations, love! I look at blogs all the time too, Copenhagen Style Blog is one of my favorites!

6. What do you have going on for the future? Any projects you're excited about? Traveling plans?

Lately I have been working on a few lighting projects that have been really fun. Currently I am making pendent lights that are inspired by paper bag hot air balloons. This will lead right into my next project which is actually going to be done in Austin in December-January; I will be creating a lighting installation for the Gypsy Wagon Stages studio space, a craftsmen-style portable stage business started by Conner and Denny Finn. Super exciting!

All images via Clay And Labor.

Stanislava Pinchu

Purely stunning street art from Melborne-based Ukrainian artist Stanislava Pinchu (aka Miso)

via iiiinspired

Anna-Wili Highfield

Anna-Wili Highfield is a Sydney based artist currently making sculptures of animals from paper and from copper pipe. The paper sculptures are created from archival cotton paper, that is painted, then sewn together, to create the figure of an animal. The copper pipe is bent and manipulated to create sculptural forms reminiscent of line drawings.

Anna-Wili was born in 1980. The daughter of a puppeteer, she spent her childhood exposed to people making wonderful creatures. Anna-wili has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School. She worked for two years for Opera Australia as a scenic artist and has exhibited in small artist run spaces around Sydney. More recently her work was exhibited in the Anthropologie Gallery in New York.

Amy Poehler Rocks

I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled.” — Amy Poehler
Via vortex dot net dot en zed

The Imperchorstra Project

So we're almost five months into this music documentary project and we've made it all the way to upstate New York by way of Colorado and you know what, we have done absolutely jack-shit with this whole thing. It's so disappointing. We've lost Dan too; he moved in with his girlfriend and it's probably a good thing for everyone. He and I weren't exactly getting along very well...the enormity of the project mixed with the difficulty of living with a couple in a very small space would make anyone crazy, at least that's what I like to tell myself to feel better--for goodness sake, we got in a large argument over a spice rack. I mean, who the hell argues about a spice rack?! He also had some medical bills to pay and needed a steady job. So now it's Conner and I and we've run out of money. We're quickly making our way down to Chapel Hill, NC to stay with my folks, get jobs through the holidays, and figure out how we're going to pull this off. We're hanging out with a lot of art students in Alfred, NY and they keep telling me that projects never go the way you want; if it's easy then it's not really worth it in the end; projects only seem to really come together at the very end, otherwise it's a whole lotta mess during the interim. So I'm trying to keep that in mind and realize that's it's not over yet and the fat lady hasn't sung, etc, etc.
The plus is that we did get the one and only grant that I applied for! First one I ever wrote! Now we totally have to follow through with this for sure.

Austin, TX

Christina took this at the Waterloo Killed The Video Store party...Waterloo Records and Video decided to close the video rental store where I worked the first year I lived in Austin. Aww, it's totally how I remember Austin now, all these people. Love, pure love.

Ores & Minerals

Via For Me, For You

Fairy Tale Illustration

Going through old emails and found these.

Lomo Groupies

I got a new camera! Hahaha...to be fair, it was on sale on the Urban Outfitters website and I thought it'd be fun to take on our cycling trip. I was going to get disposable cameras along the way and then send them home to Conner along with the CDs I'll pick up as we go (more about that soon), but then I found this camera. I googled Lomo cameras and there seems to be all these Lomo groupies--it's like Vinyl Groupies but for photography--with hint/tip blogs and it just seems like it would be fun to play around with. I can't wait for it it arrive!

Robert Longo

I was trying to remember who did the "Men in the Cities" drawings that I vaguely remembered from college. I just think these are amazing--from the skill of drawing, to the idea, to yes, the fashion. I'm a sucker for them.

And I still couldn't remember his name until I came upon this post in a new blog that I absolutely love. Black*Effiel.

She wrote about a music video, directed by Bienvenido Cruz, by CircleSquare that uses the Longo project as inspiration. I dig it.

Things I like

I really like the aesthetic of the 70's. I know it's super in fashion right now but I still love it. I like having a semi-pared down look that has a "painterly touch" (ie. The Sword and the Stone cover). Not too frilly. Is this helpful at all? Or do you need more?