The Craft Begins

Brian Jungen‘s work is created from such everyday, mundane objects that the end result is even more amazing.  His craftsmanship is stunning – it seems as if his pieces came that way from the factory, as if there were a template made and machines to do his bidding.

Carefully disassembling Nike sneakers and turning them into Pacific Northwest-eque tribal masks?  Genius.  I find it’s rare that an artist can meld the conceptual and the craftsmanship of a visual artist, but Jungen has this skill in spades.

I’m particularly enamored with the whale skeleton composed of stackable plastic folding chairs.  What sort of crazy vision compels someone to create at this scale?

How sweet and unusual are these paintings from Nancy Bass?

I always find myself drawn to images of cows (there’s something about their faces that is so playful – either that or it’s the farm blood in me) but I rarely see them juxtaposed with more modern art in such a compelling way.  Aside from that, her rendering of the cows themselves is simply artful, and she’s got an amazing eye for color.

I am totally enamored with Harmony Scott’s delicate, intricate wire-wrapped jewelry.

She has such a great sense of color and composition.  When I heard she was based in Aspen, CO I was sure that everything would be totally overpriced but I think that everything is more than reasonable, especially given the amount of work that goes into each piece.  She’s got a lot of designs ranging from the simple and elegant to the wonderfully ornate – so, something to appeal to everyone!

As if I needed another reason to love Santa Barbara.

The El Capitan Canyon Resort is my new dream vacation spot.  Yurts and tents and gourmet-camping like experience.  How could you not want to go there?

Where are you dreaming of going lately?

I had a chance to go to Berkeley a few weekends ago to see some friends, and we had a great time!  My friends usually live in Spain but they were living in the US for a bit so I’m really glad I got to see them before they went back home.  The last time I got to see them the kids were just babies – now they’re all grown up and speaking English!  Amazing.
First off, can I tell you how amazing that slide was?  It was super steep and there were bits of cardboard boxes lying around that you could slide down on.  I ended up losing my box but thankfully my jeans were plenty slick!  In this day and age where everything is wrapped in bubble wrap it’s awesome to see some old-school amusements.  Plus this slide was particularly cool because it looked like something out a Southeast Asian ruin.  In the same vein, there was this other amazing playground where you could go and run around and build, paint, or destroy anything.  No supervision, no real rules, just fun.  Some of these structures were really big – second stories, some were old boats and cars, and so on.  If some place like that had existed when I was a kid, I would have never left.

This might be a little food geeky, but yeah, I took pictures of the fresh morel mushrooms.  Sauteed in a little bit of butter and wine – astounding.  Wish Colorado had markets that were anything like the ones in California.  We went to a little farm market that made me want to move to Berkeley right that very instant.  I’ve never seen so much produce in my life.

The last one is a little impromptu family picture – these are some of my favorite people in the whole world!

I’ve always been a big fan of aboriginal artwork – I love the dots, the colors, their expressive nature.  I’ve been fortunate enough to see some really great exhibits over the years, both in Australia and the US, of traditional aboriginal artwork, but what always stood out the most for me was the bark paintings.

I feel like they boil down the artistic genius of this style to its very basic elements.  Something about them just grabs me.  You can read more about bark painting here.

I’ve been working on fixing up my backyard and garden (which is turning out to be a little difficult, what with the massive hail storm today and everything) so of course I’ve been looking at all sorts of fancy outdoor furniture.  Restoration Hardware has some of my favorite furniture as of late.

I love the subtle colors and the classic yet modern design elements.  Could be a great find at a flea market or an 18th century French antique – who knows?  My poor backyard doesn’t look anything like this but maybe, just maybe, one day…

I’ve been dying for an Adirondack chair for about as long as I’ve been looking at houses.  I was having a really hard time finding a finish or color that I liked so I bought unfinished chairs and had a hard time figuring out what do with them, but I finally found a finish that I really liked.

Here’s a little before and after to show you what a subtle semi-opaque stain will do.  I went for a gray to match the grout in the sandstone.  It looks a little intimidating when you’re facing a big, unfinished project like this but it’s really super easy, and you’re left with a completely unique project.

I’m dreaming of a ridiculous, ostentatiously over-the-top vacation (that I’ll probably never be able to take) but if I could I would beeline for the Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, India.  I love the mix of Indian and European styles.  Seriously, couldn’t you imagine yourself here?  I’d never leave.

This being the first summer I’ve spent in this house, I’m continually surprised by what pops up in my garden.  The ladies that lived here before me were really quite amazing gardeners.  Of course, I’ve been taking lots of pictures with my awesome macro lens.  Here’s some of my favorites that have blossomed lately.

Hello everyone!

I’m sorry that I’ve disappeared for a few months.  Been working on the house a lot and everything’s been really crazy.  My computer died, and it took them a month to replace it.  All of my files may or may not have disappeared, but it’s ok!  I’ve got a new computer and lots of blogging material so we should be good to go!

I want to say thanks to everyone who has sent me emails or texts or etsy messages or what have you over the last few months – it’s really touching to know that there are people out there who care!  It really means the world to me.

Also, I did a little bit of a redesign (as it’s almost been an official year since I started the blog!) so please let me know what you think.

I’ll leave you with a picture that I’m recently enamored with.

How is everyone else doing?  I feel like I’ve been gone forever!