art + architecture
[3.20.10]
Oliver Peoples
Videos like this make me wish that I had gone to film school. Either that or owner a really nice camera so I could shoot little stories like this all of the time…[more]
[3.17.10]
Wood Loft
It might be a little minimalistic for my tastes, but you gotta admire the consistency and creativity of this London loft…[more]
[3.16.10]
Song in Flight
This installation from Celeste Boursier-Mougenout is simply fantastic. I have to admit, I find most modern/conceptual art to be indulgent and completely lacking in charm, but this falls into the category of “magical”…[more]
[3.9.10]
All the Green Bits in London
What an interesting concept – a picnic blanket illustrating all of the green spaces in London in a sort of “map”…[more]
[3.8.10]
Artistic Tatoo
When I first saw these abstract tattoos from Amanda Wachob, I thought that they were simply finger paint on people’s bodies. Nope. They’re real tattoos…[more]
[3.8.10]
LOST Posters
I’m entralled with these LOST posters from Mattson Creative. SO clever and just a hint of mid-century design. A perfect combination…[more]
[3.4.10]
The Monster Engine
My lovely friend Amy sent these over to me because she thought that I would like them. She knows me so well…[more]
[2.21.10]
Parkitecture
I enjoy visiting the National Parks for their natural beauty most of all, but I also really enjoy the type of architecture that is present there, from guard stations to amazing hotels. After talking to a Park Service employee, I discovered that the architectural type is generally referred to as “parkitecture”…[more]
[2.8.10]
Fernando Forero
His illustrations look like something you’d discover in a naturalist’s journal 200 years later in some far-off land. Imaginative, precise, and a little bit eerie…[more]
[2.8.10]
Betsy Dunlap
She has some of the most gorgeous calligraphy I’ve seen in quite some time…[more]
[1.28.10]
Shimmering Installation
I had seen this years ago and completely forgotten about it until my friend Sheasy pointed it out. A room-size installation filled with strung up brightly painted ping pong balls. They put fans in the room so that it vibrates, ever-so-slightly. I think that if you could see things at a sub-atomic level, it might look something like this…[more]
[1.25.10]
Egg House
How would you like to live in a super ultra modern trailer that was shaped like an egg…[more]
[1.19.10]
Paper Cuts
Can you believe that these amazing, intricate little vingettes are made from old toilet-paper tubes…[more]
[1.14.10]
Stolen Ideas
I have to post about this because the more I think about it, the more it upsets me.
My friend Robyn is one of the most creative, talented, and wonderful people I know. Her work spans a number of disciplines but I’ve always admired her ability to really show off her own style, no matter what she does…[more]
[1.12.10]
Jordan Gray Creative
I am in love with these posters. I wish I could wallpaper my walls in this style…[more]
[1.10.10]
What Midcentury Should Look Like Today
I LOVE this house. Love the furniture, love the bookcases, love the walls, love everything about it. Especially that bathroom. It’s like a spa. I’ve been dedicated to the idea of trying to find midcentury house plans and re-configuring them…[more]
[12.16.09]
Floating House
Not quite a houseboat, but not quite a house – wouldn’t it be nice to live in the middle of a lake? It’s like your own private island…[more]
[12.13.09]
Places I Have Never Been
These prints by JHill Design are amazing to me. Fantastic patterns created to reflect a variety of exotic (and domestic) locales, with some sweet information about the place. Aside from being a great concept, the execution is just amazing. I think that these would make a great gift for the traveler in your life, real or imagined…[more]
[12.10.09]
Getting There
I spent some time in Australia when I was a kid so I have a real soft spot for anything vaguely Aussie. These screenprinted panels are reminiscent of old trolley-car destination lists, or what they call “bus scrolls”…[more]
[12.9.09]
Miami Valley Pottery
I’ve always been fascinated by pottery, mostly because it’s the one art form I’ve never really experienced much of nor been particularly good at. For me, the idea of spending a ton of time on something only to have it explode in the kiln is more than a little frustrating…[more]
[11.17.09]
Lennon Michalski
Lennon is an amazingly good painter. And he also happens to be a friend of mine. I’ve had the fortune of being able to see a lot of his work up close (including one incredible painting hanging in my dining room) and let me tell you, the pictures don’t do his paintings any justice. They are expressive and colorful and just downright interesting. His work would look good in any circumstance and any location. Don’t believe me? See for yourself…[more]
[11.14.09]
Robert Motherwell
I was just in DC doing the museum tours and I got to visit the National Gallery of Art. Let me just say first of all their collection is amazing. I remember sitting in Art History lectures looking at where all of these paintings resided and an overwhelming majority of significant pieces that we discussed found their home at the National Gallery. If you ever get a chance to go, it’s quite the learning experience. They have a good mix of every major artistic period and you can see some really substantial pieces from each…[more]
[11.5.09]
Floorplans
I keep driving past this gorgeous 60’s modern home in Savannah and I really want to knock on the door to ask to see the inside, and maybe to see if they have an extra set of blueprints lying around. It’s a little bit dated but I think that a design like that updated in modern materials would be a knockout. I found a great resource yesterday to fulfill my need for mid-century floorplan porn…[more]
[10.29.09]
Anne Hardy
There is something about her photographs that is supremely eerie. They’re like little windows into memories of a childhood that never existed, like if your imagination was allowed to sit and gather cobwebs over the years of disuse. I feel like if I walked into one of these rooms in a haunted house I would be more creeped out than if something tried to jump out and grab me…[more]
[10.28.09]
Youssef Nabil
I typically think of hand-colored photographs as being something that you see in saccharine children’s photography, or cheesy Hallmark cards. Youssef Nabil, however, manages to create a dreamy atmosphere with his hand colored silver gelatin prints…[more]
[10.15.09]
Russian Architecture
These really interesting examples of Russian wooden architecture have been preserved due to the fact that they are out in the middle of nowhere. A Print a Day pointed them out, for which I am forever grateful, because these buildings are seriously cool…[more]
[10.12.09]
National Park Posters
I’ve always loved the style of the old-school WPA posters, so when I saw these recreations of National Park travel posters done in the same style, I totally flipped…[more]
[10.7.09]
Cristobal Schmal
I’m totally enamored with the work of Cristóbal Schmal. It’s very mid-century and swinging, and a little bit raw while still being sophisticated and playful. I really wish that I had the confidence in artistic vision that he clearly has. Check out more of his work here…[more]
[10.5.09]
Watercolor Portraits
I never used to paint small, but I’m finding it really appealing lately. You can get a lot of detail without spending too much time working on any one thing. I’ve been painting some portraits of old men from pictures that I’ve found from the Library of Congress…[more]
[10.3.09]
Asylum
How cool are these pictures of abandoned insane asylums by Christopher Payne? I’ve always had a soft spot for broken down industrial areas (there are a lot of them out west, especially old mines and such) but we sure don’t have many abandoned insane asylums, at least that I know of…[more]
[9.9.09]
Public Art
I was looking at this slideshow of public sculptures and it got me thinking. First, about how hilarious some of these big sculptures are, but mostly about how the public perceives these works…[more]
[9.7.09]
Cityscapes
These cityscapes are like sculptures gone made. Little environments made totally with jello, or cooking utensils, or eggs? Magnificent. The amount of patience required not only to put something like this together but to find all of the materials is simply astonishing…[more]
[9.2.09]
Eric Carle
Did you ever read the Very Hungry Caterpillar? It was one of my favorite books as a kid, and Eric Carle is one of my favorite illustrators/artists to this day. His collages are so colorful and joyous and fun…[more]
[8.29.09]
Design Crush
I’m totally in love with the awesome work of designer/illustrator Erin Jang. She works for Esquire Magazine during the day doing awesome layouts and spends her night designing wicked invitations and posters…[more]
[8.25.09]
David Hockney
I’ve always thought of David Hockney as a truly American artist (even though he is originally from the UK). His subject matter is the pinnacle of midcentury consumerism in a lot of ways. His swimming pool series is among my favorite – infinity pools nestled high above the hills of civilization. And I love the way that he combines very flat areas of color with an unexpected splash of texture…[more]
[8.17.09]
Radial Cartography
I’ll admit that I’m kind of a map nerd. There’s something about being able to see something in front of you and then take an image of a map in your head and transpose it onto real life. I also like old maps, since it’s always interesting to see an actual interpretation of what the world looked like to people 500 years ago…[more]
[8.16.09]
Liu Bolin
I’ve always admired Liu Bolin’s work. I find that many performance artists tend to make themselves the focus of their work, and he does, in a way. Yet he removes himself from any and all recognition by blending into the city around him. I think that it is an interesting perspective on Chinese society – the whole matters far more than the individual…[more]
[8.13.09]
Green Roofs
As if I needed another reason to want to buy a house.
Not only are green roofs environmentally sound, they look really cool as well. I like the juxtaposition between the extreme modernism of a lot of contemporary architecture and the earthy, wayward nature of the plants….[more]
[7.31.09]
Creative Wedding Invites
These wedding invites by Promise Tangeman are simply amazing. They’ve got such texture and depth, they look like mixed media pieces but it’s all just graphic design. I love the colors and the mix of different fonts and decorative elements…[more]
[7.31.09]
Green Graffiti
A Brooklyn-based artist places installations of moss and other living plants in the shape of natural forms all over the city, notably in construction sites and other areas that might be considered blighted…[more]
[7.28.09]
Vintage Invasion
Combining vintage European postcards and modern friendly invading robots? Pure genius.
There’s something about these that is simply charming. Find more at illustrator Franco Brambilla’s website…[more]
[7.22.09]
Jason Thielke
Every month, Denver has an event called First Fridays where all of the galleries open their doors and throngs of people line up to see the art. It’s usually pretty fun to go and be snarky, as there is a wide variety of talent presented. That being said, I do admire the gumption that it takes to get yourself into a gallery show anywhere, so kudos to the artists for that…[more]
[7.20.09]
Drop City
I stumbled across pictures of this commune and they really caught my eye. Geodesic domes are interesting (somewhat) but a pretty typical sight in the hippie-prone west – however, I’ve never seen them so colorful and out of what looks like stained glass…[more]
[7.17.09]
Wooden Installation
I’m not sure what the story behind this is, but the idea is so compelling on its own I just had to share pictures of it here…[more]
[7.7.09]
Old School in Oregon
I had heard about these legendary buildings turned into modern cafes and restaurants all over Oregon, but I never really looked into it until fairly recently when someone I know was going to Portland and I wanted to recommend something cool…[more]
[7.7.09]
The Influence of Form
Frank Gehry has always been one of my favorite architects. I remember watching a documentary about the man and his career, and in one scene, he takes a piece of paper, crumples it up, cuts a piece off of it, and sticks it on a model building. This is how the man does architecture…[more]
[7.1.09]
Into the Woods
If you were out for a walk in the woods and happened upon this from the wrong side, you might not even notice it. Even if you did, it would just seem like perhaps a greenhouse. In reality, it’s a stunning piece of modern architecture. The way that it is integrated into the landscape while still maintaining the integrity of the natural environment is inspiring…[more]
[6.30.09]
Missed Connections
There’s something poignant about the missed connections section on craigslist, but I’ve never really been able to communicate exactly how it makes me feel. I think that these illustrations do it for me…[more]
[6.28.09]
Brilliance in Glass – Dale Chihuly
His work has always fascinated me. When I was younger, I remember being in Hawai’i with my parents and stumbling into an art gallery. Here, on the walls, were these gigantic, fantastic abstract shapes that reminded me of corals and anemones and all sorts of interesting sea creatures…[more]
[6.24.09]
Into the Wind
Every New Year’s Day, George Peters and Melanie Walker trek out into the cold Colorado winter to fly kites. It’s a good omen and brings good luck for the rest of the year. But they don’t fly just any kites – they fly giant, monster kites that they build themselves…[more]
[6.17.09]
The Most Beautiful Movie I’ve Ever Seen
I had heard about a movie called The Fall only casually. One day while searching through Netflix, I just happened to add it to my list. I’m not terribly picky about movies – I just see something that looks like it might have the potential to be interesting, add it, and then promptly forget about it until it lands on my doorstep. I open the envelope, stick it into the player, and i am……astounded…[more]
[6.9.09]
Bizzarchitecture – Antoni Gaudi
Antoni Gaudi is one of my favorite architects, and I find though people have occasionally heard the name in passing, they don’t always know what he was all about. He’s most famous in his hometown of Barcelona in Spain, where the vast majority of his works can be found…[more]
[5.3.09]
Favorite Arist of the week – Rex Ray!
Apparently the guy’s from Denver, and I’m town, reading the paper (which I never do) and I see an article about this guy. I tear the sheet out, because it instantly grabs me, and of course, promptly lose it. I even forgot the name of the artist, and I’m too lazy to try to track things down on the internet, so I thought it was all over for me…[more]
[3.26.09]
Library Love
I’m an avid book collector. I’m not ashamed of it – if I had all of the money in the world, I would buy all sorts of books and have a house full of big beautiful bookshelves filled to the brim with volumes of all shapes, sizes, and subjects. However, I don’t have all of the money in the world, and so, I love the library. I mean, it’s a great place to check out books and CD’s and all, but libraries are also beautiful in an architectural and design-related way. My sister sent me some awesome pictures of “library porn” so I thought I would share…[more]
[2.9.09]
Wallblank
Wallblank is a great new thing that I don’t know if everyone has heard about. Perhaps I’m just behind the curve. One of my craft friends’ work was featured on there a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been excited about checking back every day to see what they have come up with…[more]
