Momus, everybody's favorite Whitney Biennial tour guide ran around the Whitney Museum yesterday announcing that CNN was reporting that postmodernism had ended at 3:00 pm, only to be replaced by hairstyles. The eyepatched one documented some great current hairstyles at the SVA open studios. I've been wondering for some time about who would win if Momus and Dale Chihuly were pitted against each other in a fight. A "no-depth-perception" battle royale would doubtless be a treat.
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April 2006
April 28, 2006
April 27, 2006
Wal-Drugs!
One of the architects that I work with alerted me to THIS monstrosity being perpetrated on the (already monstrous, admittedly) city of Pella, Iowa. Pella, which is known for its windows and faux-Pennsylvania Dutch culture (which basically means that Iowans are too wussy to eat scrapple). The design geniuses at Wal-Mart HQ in Arkansas cooked up a little 7-Gabled wonder that they will plop down into a Pella strip mall. Does the Smoothie King down the block double as a has bar? According to the Des Moines Register:
The facade of the store will include some architectural features that will fit well with the community's Dutch flavor, Mayor Darrell Dobernecker said.We can only hope that the nearby town of Amana, Iowa will counter with a windmill-shaped K-Mart."We were very impressed with the way Wal-Mart stepped up with a design to keep the building in step with our Dutch architecture," Dobernecker said.
April 26, 2006
BeauVines
I'm sooooooo over the cows. I remember seeing them in Chicago the first time, and being mildly amused. Now that every city has felt the need to pick their spirit animal and decorate them, it's starting to get a little old. Atlanta did cows. Yawn. Athens has creepy little bulldawgs everywhere...my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska did the most godawful bicycles. Perhaps thinking that cozying up to some crazy American customs might get them out of Freedom Fry Hell, the French have brought the cow concept to Paris. God bless 'em, though for kicking it up a notch. Witness the above photo of "Time for Seduction" by lingerie designer Chantal Thomass. A freakin' lacy udder thong? Wait until the folks at Chick-Fil-A get their hooves on this one!
Woodworking
I've been meaning to post this picture for a long time now. Witness the amazing bed of my good friend and D.I.Y. God Bob McKemie. Bob made this bed with his own two hands...along with the house he was living in at the time. When he's not busy being the Gaudi of bed design, you can usually find him building his own Paintball tanks (or defeating paintball insurgencies with said tanks as a part of his team, the Blackhearts).
Derby Day
The Austin Craft Mafia is my #1 friend on MySpace for a reason. With a new show (Stylicious) on the D.I.Y. network, insane exhibition schedules, and the level of sass one would expect from a bunch of Texans, I can only hold onto my hat as they roar by. Jenny Hart, skateboard embroidress and member of the ACM crew has officially released her new Roller Derby embroidery patterns. Granny has given you so much over the years...crocheted Barbie Doll toilet paper covers, embroidered days of the week underpants...why not give back for a change, and embroider some sweet gear for her new Roller Derby team? Grandma, and all of the other members of her team will clamor for more.
LINK via BoingBoing
April 24, 2006
Voting With My Wallet
This weekend, The Little Friends of Printmaking, masters of the Silkscreened Rock Poster Universe, did the visiting-artist-thingy at the University of Georgia. They brought their slides to share...not to mention their love & patented brand of HI-larity. I also bought this fabulous wallet from them. Wallets are a funny thing, and I'm pretty frumpy about them. I hate most over-pocketed Trapper-Keeper-esque manwallets, so I always default to the tried-and-true $5.99 from T.J. Maxx models (I tend to do the same with shoes for some reason). This Little Friends wallet jolted me out of my torpor, providing me with fun and frivolity, alongside the durability and function that I crave. Their secret? It's apparently their unholy alliance with Poketo, who partner with artists and rock bands to produce these amazing wallets. Nothing could get me to trade my Little Friends wallet in, but Miki Amano unicorns? Raptor races? There's no reason to let your money languish in an anonymous wallet any more.
I digress. The Little Friends are a husband-and-wife team of printmaking Ninjas from Madison, Wisconsin. Their illustration techniques are unstoppable, but their true genius lies in the geekazoid printmaking details that they pack into each piece. Parlez-vous SPOT VARNISH? Get ready to soil yourself when you witness a Little Friends poster up-close and personal. In these days of online illustration, it's refreshing to see people putting old-world craftsmanship into something as normally disposable as a rock poster. In addition to my wallet, Claire and I invested in a lovely print to be installed in our upcoming lovenest. THANK YOU, LITTLE FRIENDS!
April 21, 2006
Life is Unfaire!
If you're reading this from the San Francisco Bay Area, how come you're not in line for MAKE Magazine's Maker Faire? OH RIGHT--you are, but you're reading this from the WiFi enabled Roomba robot display that you hacked using some duct tape and the aluminum from a chewing gum wrapper. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish that I was there right now. Here is some of the goodness that MAKE's weblog promises:
Come see... a flying Pterosaur replica, a flock of whale blimps, a giant painting machine, DIY RFID implants, model rocketry, breadboarding, trailer-glass blowing, The Crucible's welding workshops off the back of fire truck, pinhole photography, soldering, spud gun building, bubble machines and a bubble guy that appeared on Johnny Carson in the 70's, Bunnie Huang, Joe Grand, William Gurstelle and his Backyard Ballistics, The Exploratorium, Zeum, The Lunar Society (rocket builders), Graffiti Research Lab, Squid Labs biodiesel, electric cars, a Linux supercomputer cluster running on veggie oil, neon art, circuit bending, VJs, slide rules, pinball restoration, the Phenomenauts, Satan's Calliope .... and much, much more. Quite an eclectic collection. That's not to mention Diana Eng of Bravo's Project Runway and the fifty craft booths in Bizarre Bazaar and the Swap-o-Rama-Rama.Diana from Project Runway! Why does Priceline have to suck so badly right now? Maybe we can lure her to the Extreme Craft Expo '07 at the Georgia Dome.
Knit Motorcycle!
Theresa Honeywell is tougher than you. You're just going to have to accept that fact. She lives in Pennsylvania, where knits, cooks, embroiders, and otherwise kicks the everloving shit outta the domestic arts. Theresa has an eye for the masculine arts, knitting tool belts, jackhammers....and yes, a MOTORCYCLE! The knitted motorcycle pictured is on view through April 30th at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, along with some of the other lovingly created objects in this FLICKR photo album, brought to you exclusively by your pals at Extreme Craft. Honeywell also embroiders tattoos, which serve as heirloom-quality samplers that will last for generations, long after that celtic cross has been lasered off your ass.
April 20, 2006
The Cozy Wars Escalate
Bit by bit, the world is being covered in cozies...and the world is much better for it, I can tell you. The latest escalation in the cozy race (I've seen various weapons, a missile and a humvee so far) is this TANK COZY! This is an adorable way to tell your favorite weapon that you love it. Wrap your arms around some arms. Screw all of this, though, I'm going to start knitting cozy cozies...because cozies need love too.
LINK via BoingBoing
April 19, 2006
What a Crock!
Esther Derkx has a little problem with silkscreening. Give the lady a squeegee and screen, and she'll cover the world in her particular brand of mayhem. Derkx travels a reckless path along the ridgeline dividing art, craft, and design, covering her work in humor and visual puns. In particular, I love her rehabilitated dishes, which seem to come from a daintier place than Sarah Cihat's 50Cents work. The crockery in her collection combines cheesecake male and female forms with ever-so-familiar floral decals. Cheeky. Eat your cheesecake off of some cheesecake.....or beefcake, whichever the case may be.
"Orientation" - New Work From China
- This body of work was created during a Summer 2010 residency at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. These porcelain vessels explore traditional Chinese iconography as refracted through a decidedly Western point of view.
