andrea branzi @ carpenters workshop gallery, paris
Recently, we’ve seen bundles of birch logs being sold at delis around New York City: cheap enough for an evening’s cozy fire. Since we don’t have a fireplace, we’ve admired them as a lovely, elemental raw material – right on our doorstep – and mulled what we could do with them; we’ve been meaning to buy a pack just to have and see where they took us.
This morning we came across this shelving unit designed by architect Andrea Branzi - a simple birch log inserted into a simple black bookshelf, that makes for a charming and surprising visual.
So now we ARE going to go out and buy some logs before they’re gone with winter. read more…
We were talking about imperfection, wabi sabi, and how messy the creative process is when, out of the blue, David Saltman said “The imperfect is our paradise.” He looked surprised and then said “Wallace Stevens.” He had called up from memory the best line of a famous Wallace Stevens’ poem called The Poems of Our Climate.
We looked it up. It was a little difficult at first, until we read it out loud. O-h-h-h! It became clear as a bell.
So we looked for an audio file to post here, so you could listen to this incredible poem that is about where we humans really live. We think it is a lovely way to start the day (poems often are, as we discovered a while back, and wrote about.) We couldn’t find a recording of it anywhere. So you’ll have to read it out loud yourself, or just stick with that one true and dazzling line, above. read more…
(Video link here) We are totally charmed by this video of Salvador Dali on an episode of What’s My Line, an old tv game show in which blindfolded contestants had to guess the occupation of the special guest by asking yes/no questions. Here are all of the questions that Dali answered yes to (we’ve boldfaced ones that confounded the host):
A still from the film yves klein: la revolution bleue (the blue revolution), found via Matt Olson‘s inspired blog Rolu, which so often gives us a new view. We would see the world very differently without it.
Two cheap and ubiquitous materials seem to inspire endless improvisations and creativity: shipping pallets (our pallet posts are some of our most popular)…and duct tape. We are smitten with the colorful duct tape jewelry Michele Howarth makes and sells on her Etsy store Quiet Mischief and Company. She also thought has a pdf tutorial for sale so you can see how she does it, and use her plan as a jumping off point for your own brilliant creations.
(Video link here.) In 2008, a reader of TIME magazine asked Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson this question: “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?”
Here’s a slightly overwrought video version of his answer, along with the transcript of Tyson’s words: a stunning and essential message.
The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth the atoms that make up the human body are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them went unstable in their later years they collapsed and then exploded scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas cloud that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. read more…
A couple of weeks ago in the New Yorker, Vince Aletti wrote a brief description of an exhibition of photographer Alec Soth’s work:
Soth’s subject here is elusive; he seeks out people who’ve gone off the grid, tracking survivalists, drifters, and recluses to their makeshift lairs…
…Working through his own ambivalence—what he describes as “the desire to run away and the knowledge that you can’t”—Soth take us to a place that’s almost as seductive as it is forbidding.
Our own ambivalent ”desire to run away” — the fantasy that it is possible, the possibility of stepping out of our lives — sent us to Soth’s website to see his work. We culled some intriguing images of makeshift spaces and things from the many projects he features. They are original, eccentric, mysterious, resourceful, reflecting very improvised lives. With each one, we wonder about—and imagine— the backstory. read more…
The nine-part, 40-ton stone sculpture provides seating atop a hill with sweeping views of the Art Center fields, creating a functional spaces for personal interaction. While gathering the stones for the piece near his studio on the island of Shikoku in Japan, Noguchi managed to split a huge boulder; it reminded him of Momotaro, an ancient Japanese folk hero who was born from a peach pit. The intrepid Sarah M. patiently transcribed a handwritten letter the artist wrote describing how he created it:
Having embarked on a carving of granite so easily recognized as belonging to myth, there was nothing to do but follow the instructive and not premeditated promptings the composition came to demand. Quite different from the vague idea I had in mind. It forced its way, even to the discovery of the peach pit into which a person may crawl, there to meditate inside the sculpture reverberating with the Buddhist word OM.
A place to go to. It may also be recognized as a metaphor for man as end and as beginning, a mirror to the passage of the sun. read more…
Recently, we read that The New York Times has started an ongoing Tumblr project to post their photo archive; it’s called the Lively Morgue and it’s pretty swell. We found this treasure right away: a little bit of 60′s fashion brilliance: a dress that can become a poster. Here’s the description:
March 4, 1968: “Don’t call them paper dresses,” began a report about a line of disposable dresses that could be reimagined as posters. The one seen here features Cape Kennedy. Another? An Allen Ginsberg poem.
An Allen Ginsberg poem???? We HAD to see THAT dress with a Ginsberg Poem and found it here (it was designed by British fashion designer Harry Gordon): read more…
We are thrilled to publish some of resident photographer Ellen Silverman‘s work from a forthcoming exhibit at the Umbrella Arts’ gallery in New York City, “Spare Beauty: The Cuban Kitchen” her ongoing project.
This past year I travelled to Cuba three times; having a strong interest in food and food photography, the kitchen was a natural subject for me to focus on. I was welcomed into homes where I found sparse spaces, where time has stopped. Due to years of lack of money, supplies and equipment, many Cubans have been forced to adapt and improvise. These photographs reflect the personalities and circumstances of those who inhabit them. If you are unable to come to the gallery please take a few minutes to go to my website and view the photographs online.
In last month’s Atlantic, Sara Jenkins tells the story of her family’s annual olive harvest in Tuscany, which is, ultimately about taking risks and learning as you go. The Jenkins family has a rich history in food–Sara runs Porchetta and Porsena in New York City, and her mother Nancy Harmon Jenkins is the author of six cookbooks. Nancy and I spent some time traveling together in Italy, and I remember her always being game to drive off check out a market she’d heard of or wander into new places in search of adventure. It’s not surprising to me that Nancy and her family would take on the task of growing and harvesting olive trees, an indisputable challenge. read more…
We are big fans of the blog Mondoblogo, where we find long, beautiful, mostly visual posts that almost always expand our vision. There’s a strong leaning toward art and mid-century design, but also just the pure joy of seeing as evidenced by the category “Walks”.
Scroll through and you’ll find photographic riffs of walks through parts of Brooklyn (yesterday’s walk is a beaut!) or Manhattan that remind us that all we have to do is look around us – REMEMBER to look – as we move from one place to another, to find treasures hidden all over the place. Seeing is practice, and just taking a random walk is one of the best ways to start. Our absolute favorite Mondoblogo walk was from “somewhere in Soho”, called ‘Peepin Hole’: read more…
