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Phoneblogging from athens.
I spotted this beautiful knitted Mongolian Yurt in the student gallery at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia over the weekend. Who knew the Mongolians had such an appreciation for rainbow patterns? Imagine the bitchin' shelters they could make out of your parents' couch cushions.
James Victore is an amazing graphic designer--you'll probably recognize a lot of his images if you visit his website. He has a way of balancing wit, controversy, and amazing design.
Now, it seems Mr. Victore has dipped his pinkytoe into the art/craft world with his "Dirty Dishes" project. I can't find a website for the gallery, or a single image of his plates, but the invitation to his new show, sponsored by Design Within Reach, is shown above. Supposedly, the show involves 100 plates with racy drawings on them. "Acts of Dining Disobedience"...that sounds okay by me. The opening reception is on Thursday, Nov 10th, 6-9pm. Design Within Reach, 408 West 14th Street, NYC (Between 9th & 10th Avenues). For other dining disobedience, check out Sarah Cihat's "Fifty-Cents" dinnerware, and yours truly's humble Pottery Liberation Front.
Nobody does Halloween like Midwesterners. You have the entire year of scheming in your grain silo about what you're going to wear. Then, when Halloween rolls around, it's harvest time, and celebration is in order. My friend Eric's sister made this amazing John Deere Combine costume for his nephew. Note the attention to detail! I'll bet money that the head in front actually rotates. If Bobby Brown's special techniques for removing impacted fecal matter from his wife's wazoo constitute "Black Love", then this is the epitome of 'Husker Love.
The Bare Hands Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama celebrated Day of the Dead yesterday with installations by Birmingham's Collarmoth Collective. My friend Merrilee just sent me these images of work from the show by herself, Andrea Paschal, and Tonya Santa Cruz. Some of the work in the picture above looks suspiciously like things we saw on the "what not to crochet" website, but Collarmoth can always be counted on to put on their Mexican Wrestling masks and execute flying scissor kicks on boring craft.
What the craft world needs is more snarkiness. I'm not talking about bitchiness--there's already more than enough of that to go around. I'm talking about some sarcastic, opinionated moxie, which "What Not to Crochet" has in spades. The good folks at What Not to Crochet go beyond playa hate, and dish some real bile. To wit:
I know some of you may disagree but why do afghan stitches have to appear on clothing?? I look at this picture and think, cool, she’s slung an afghan around her shoulders…oh oops, no, I’m wrong…it’s actually a blazer! And let’s not even mention the colours…ugh! With so many different stitches out there and coloured yarns, why make your blazer look like an afghan? An afghan is an afghan and a blazer is a blazer…please don’t mix them up…no matter what age you are, this is a universally applied principle!You may not agree with everything that they say, but you have to applaud the
When I was tooling around Nebraska in a rented Ford Focus last weekend, I ran into this little gem. You may call it the apex of industrial design if you wish. It's a glow-in-the dark pull tab in the trunk of the car that lets you know that you can pull the tab and run away if you get locked in the trunk. Apparently, somebody else is riding the same wavelength, as evidenced by THIS Flickr link. The next time you find yourself locked in the trunk of a rental car, just look for the luminescent glow of salvation.
Halloween is over for another year. Sigh. Don't get mired in depression, though--it's All Saints Day! Think of all of the Saintcraft out there. It takes a pretty awesome reliquary to house a few bones from the wise men, or the shriveled kidney of Saint Peter. One towering monument to the saints is the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama. Brother Joseph Zoetti, an obsessive, pint-sized master Benedictine Monk built 125 miniature buildings at his monastery over the course of 24 years. The miniatures, which are replications of biblical and religious buildings, are adorned with seashells, miniature sculptures, and functioning light bulbs. I've had the pleasure of visiting the Grotto, and I have to say that it delivers big in the wonder department. The construction is deliciously low-tech--the ornaments on the building are amazing, but make no effort to disguise their materials or construction.
My grandfather posessed a similar gift, and built dollhouses for my sisters that were replicas of the houses he grew up in, and a model barn for me. He detailed the buildings down to the lightning rods and weathervanes, which, in the case of my barn, used a rubber grape for its body. I guess what I'm saying is that you should start cultivating artistic stalkers here and now. You're not as cute as Jodie Foster, so they might not try to off the president for you, but you might just garner a papier mache shrine or miniature city.
