These Model Chairs by Andrea Branzi and Nanda Vigo

I am slowly trying to check out all the new designs from Milan Design Week 2008 - I love getting excited about a new form or idea... I think these chairs from Andrea Branzi and Nanda Vigo are really fantastic. I think these are just tiny models - so I am not sure if they will build them people-size or what - but I hope they do! They have a real rustic-y, Fred Flintstone thing going on which I really like. And I also really like that part where it is painted bright blue where the wood ends. I hope that was intentional! They look really cute in the little model museum...

If I see anything else interesting - I'll let you know!

Cool Shoes

(...click here if you want to see them in action...)

My little brother got me three pairs of white sneakers and fabric paint for Christmas this year - it was an awesome gift! We painted these way back then and I have just started sporting them in the warmer weather here. The perfect part is that there are three pairs - so I can completely trash this pair and then paint up the next pair and I'm set! I feel like I will probably end up wearing them the whole summer because they are great with no socks and they look good with jeans AND skirts. And probably shorts too for that matter but I haven't tried it out yet. Anyway. Thanks J!!!

A Tote Bag!

(...larger photos here or if you click on the images...)

Hello tote bag! I have been sitting on a handful of bag designs for months now and I finally had the time and the money to try a couple out. I think this one looks really sharp! I am also excited about the other designs, but again it will be a slowish process to get them out there...oh well - no rush - right? Just for fun.

I actually think canvas tote bags like this are so great because they really do last for years and years and they are that great kind of minimal fashion statement. Like, "Hello I am eco-friendly and am expressing my individuality with this awesome graphic tote..." Anyway...silliness...if you like - they are for purchase here.

This weather is incredible - so warm and beautiful. I don't even know what to do with myself - it is throwing off all of my normal rhythms. I hope I can get it worked out! Hope you have a great Friday and a good weekend coming up...

Vintage National Geographic

(...images from here...)

I love National Geographic magazine (see the first number 5. of my tag session...). The vintage ones the most. Something about that certain colour of the photographs from the 50ies, 60ies and 70ies - it makes all the photos look so beautiful! In terms of design I don't think it can be beat. Totally reductive, giving itself over to the essays and the photographs - the only place it splashes out is in that great yellow frame which is now such an icon. I don't know if anyone can ever it use it again because of that! I also like that additional decorative black and white frame on the older ones - it kind of balances out the shocking yellow.

Anyway. It's great and a real inspiration for me. Even the ads! Here and here are two good old ones. This is a cool collage made from old National Geos and lastly - using the magazine as decor - which is exactly what I am doing in my apartment right now. I will try to get a good photo to show of that later...

Hope your week is going okay - half way through it now already...!

Shadow Portraits

It has been so sunny and nice here lately I keep seeing my shadow everywhere...it is good company on my walks around the neighbourhood...

Here is a great set of Louise Dahl-Wolfe photos - they are really stunning...did you know that Richard Avedon and Irving Penn were influenced by her first?? Wow.

Peter Doig is My New Hero Hands-Down.

(...I took a bunch of photos before I realized that you weren't supposed to - there are more over here...)

So I got to see the Peter Doig retrospective at the Tate when we were in London last month and I am so glad that I did! I have been interested in Doig's work for awhile now but had only ever seen one before in real life, so it was really mind-blowing to check out all of his best peices in one exhibition.

There were a couple of things that I thought were really interesting about the show - the first being one room which included a collection of drawings and sketches for the final paintings. The drawings of course were equally as beautiful and engrossing as the larger paintings, and it was cool to see how a certain group of drawings led up to the final piece. I also found out in the video recorded interview with Doig that was playing out front of the exhibition (and they put it online too - awesome!!) - that he often makes etchings of the drawings to use as a reference when he is working on the final painting - which I thought might account for all the really interesting textures and tonal values of the finished paintings.

I think it's this kind of technique that adds to the magical look and emotive quality of some of his best work. His most recent paintings are starting to move away from that technique (I think he talks about that in the video), which I could understand, but there is something really special that happens in those peices where he includes all the different levels of ummmm..."painterly communication", for lack of a better word. Maybe coming from a print-making background I also have a real soft-spot for those kind of speckly, tonal shifts in the surface...

I know this is getting long-winded but the last thing I wanted to mention was my real appreciation for this type of work that is almost a throwback to the late 19th century, so refreshingly honest, romantic and emotional in nature, concerned with formal elements like composition, colour, painterly control and release, (though with enough conceptual back-bone to not be sentimental). Compared to the kind of endless pseudo-teen-angsty and tiresomely ironic gestures that most artists are making these days (check out the Whitney Biennial for example), Doig's work seems so confident and mature - and along with friend and contemporary Chris Ofili, I am hoping maybe pointing towards a new movement in art-making. Perhaps more reflective and formally self-aware than insecurely posturing.

Alright - I dredged up almost every link I could find - just to make sure you were fully on the up-and-up with what I would consider to be one of the most important living painters of this century - and did I mention he is partly Canadian?? Anyway. So here you go:

...Here are a few more pieces from the exhibition (on someone else's flickr)...
...Here is his wiki page...
...Here is an article and an interview with Doig and Ofili in Bomb Magazine...
...More work here at the Victoria Miro gallery...
...even more work, a video, and an interview on the Guardian website...
...Here at Contemporary Fine Arts...
...One last interview at Time Out magazine...

...Books you should get (and me too) - here and here...

Okay. That is it. Sheesh. I'm tired now...

Bye!

A Lazy Friday Post Again...

Hello. Just dropping by really quickly to tell you to try to go to this if you are in the neighbourhood (the super-awesome Valerie of Dear Birthday fame will be present), and to post a few flickr favorites again. It is kind of turning into an addiction. It is so easy to press that little star at the top! I never really got it before but now I have no control....

...colour symphony and blue socks...
...amazing vintage Vogue covers here and here...
...so so great (!!) postcards from Casino de Paris...
..DB's awesome logo and printed underpants...
...the Unknown man...
...Wendy Bevan...
...hockney love...

Have a great weekend!

Hello Hello

I received this little zine from the lovely and talented Robin Cameron the other day. I looove getting real mail in the mailbox. It is such a treat, especially in these e-days...I really like that last page - with all those book covers - I wonder if she has read them all? It looks like she is busy trying to develop her third eye...maybe I should give that a shot too one of these days...

I also snagged this great artist link from Robin too (as usual): Ricky Swallow. Cool name. And very inspiring!

Friday tomorrow - can you believe it??

New Camera and Some Spring Blossoms. It Can't Get Any Better Than This...

Hi! I am so thrilled about my new camera! I have already taken a zillion photos and videos with it...I am still hoping to one day get something more like this guy, but until then this one that I bought will do the trick nicely. It is seriously half the price of my old camera from 2005 but ten times better. I can't get over the video quality! Those movies I had been taking lately (a way to work around the broken light meter on my old camera), were set at the highest setting and they are nothing compared to the new videos. Unbelievable!

Girl Guide Badges

(...all images from here...)

I don't have really anything profound to say about these - I just think they are really cute and a nice idea. It would be fun to make some of my own - maybe online somewhere? I really like the flower and bird thing too - really sweet. Hope your Monday was okay!