Derick Melander

Derick Melander makes sculptural pieces from folded used clothing. I'd love to see him work with Jean Shin:

Chemical Heritage Foundation Kaleidoscopes

These kaleidoscopic images are blowing my mind! I wish I could show the close-ups - you can zoom in on the images on the CHF website to see each individual Bakelite button, light bulb and miscroscope. I wish every museum would sift through its collections to do something along these lines. It's fun and instills curiosity about some of the more mundane objects in the CHF's immense collection of scientific ephemera. Way to go, guys!

Anneke Jakobs

Just read this article in Dezeen about a recent project by Anneke Jakobs, in which an old, broken chair is sliced up into a few thousand buttons and distributed to people around the world.

What lovely images!

I'm always interested in what people have to say about the concepts of HOME and GLOBALIZATION, and this one is a nice iteration of the desire to share one's private space with strangers. Jakobs' approach seems more earnest and less voyeuristic than other projects which may infiltrate our lives via the internet or TV. But it begs the question: why do we so badly want to connect with strangers, especially those who live so far away? What does it mean to give someone in China or Kenya or Canada a piece of your chair, and what does it mean to them to receive it? Do they get as much out of it as you do? Or is it strange to assume that people want to accept a piece of you into their lives?

I think back to my childhood pen pals - it was a sort of forced interaction piqued with mutual curiosity. Come to think of it, I guess is how any friendship begins. I wonder whether this chair project will bring people into Jakobs' world the way she hopes to be a part of theirs.

Sound and Image

I haven't watched music videos in a while, so the other day while sewing I clicked around on Pitchfork and found some I like:


Tortoise - Prepare Your Coffin



You can tell, almost instantly, that this is San Francisco. The wires, the bumpy BART walls, that church in Japantown. I like the mix of action and still photography - it works well with the song and helps you to see the photographer's perspective. Nicely done!

Royksopp - The Girl and the Robot (feat. Robyn)



Robyn always wears the craziest things...things that inspire me to branch out a little. Look at those earrings! Ah! I also like the part where the scientist/salesman winks at the other guy. Oh yeah.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

Two Weeks


I saw this on stereogum. It's so strange, and so beautiful. Unco!

Stop Motion Videos

I can't get enough of this stuff - stop motion is so simple and yet, with a little ingenuity and some time you can make amazing videos. My recent favorites:

Wolf and Pig / A Wolf Loves Pork (via designboner)




Shapemaker (via Tas-ka)

Showing Up

I just watched Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk about creative spirits and genius, and I thought it was really touching and funny. She talked about how in ancient Greece and Rome, people believed that spirits outside of humans were collaborators in the creative process. Daemons, also known as geniuses, would hang around and help you out. As she noted, it humbled the human because his work was not entirely his own. Also, if he screwed up and the work wasn't so great, it wasn't really his fault. Nice!

I won't spoil the rest of it in case you want to hear it in her own words. I like the way she talked about creative people having a potential "out," a way to circumvent the pressure our closest allies often lay on us, even if accidentally. Just show up - just do your part and screw it if it's not so great. Keep going. Next project. Don't worry if your best work is behind you, because there's no way to tell that something even more amazing won't happen.

J.K. Keller's Insecurity Envelopes

This guy is awesome. These laser cut envelopes by J.K. Keller are based on the patterns printed inside of those mundane office envelopes. I wish I got some mail in one - it's so lacy and delicate, less insecure and more dainty than one might expect.

Insecurity Envelopes

Lauren Parent

Postcard for 2008 Open Studio

I saw Lauren Parent's recent work at CCA's open studio day a few weeks back, and it's beautiful. I've been lucky enough to see her work slowly evolve over the past year or two - from her initial sculptures in foam core to abstract line-based works on vellum, and now to these newer charcoal drawings - and each step seems like a movement in a long song. I see the main theme, the deconstruction of that theme, and its greatly abstracted inverse, and despite these very different tempos, I see a constant perspective. I guess I am arbitrarily deciding where the song began (with the foam core sculptures), but stick with me here.

Duck Island, 2007

If you've ever worked with foam core or done any modelmaking for architecture, you might understand the technical skill and unbending patience required to make "Duck Island." My favorite part is the bird in the air - it's crazy to see all of the perfectly placed layers. I like the relation of the animals to the landscape, and the pixelization/stratification that comes from using linear building materials. Lauren's background in landscape design really shows here, from her material choice to her subject matter. I especially like the uniform color - a stark white, a sterile and hard-edged interpretation of nature. Foam core might be the least natural material out there, but when you see this piece you immediately say "nature scene" in your head.

Postcard, 2007

Here's the second movement in the symphony: a deconstruction, a hint at how the initial piece was made. I think this is my favorite part, because the shapes form these amazing positive and negative spaces. The nature scene is broken down into an entirely unrecognizable form, clinically dissected into its components. This image also gently pokes fun at the DIY trend...who would want to make a foamcore duck at home? What would it mean when taken out of the context of art?

How to Make a Sculpture of a Pile of Foam Core, 2007

The image above shows a composition of all of the scraps left over from cutting out the ducks. This is where Lauren's work shifts its focus from the object to the waste, playing on the inverse of her abstraction. These shapes are unintentional, and maybe they're more engaging because they weren't formed consciously. They are just as precisely cut as the duck landscape because they are the other half of the puzzle - so this isn't a matter of sloppy scraps being tossed together. I like how many pieces there are, and their range of size and shape keeps my eye moving around the image. I am reminded of abstract textile designs, of the playful experiments of the Bauhaus gang, and of the order one can create from chaos. Even cooler, the photo above represents only one aspect of this piece - as Lauren placed these pieces on the floor in the Knave area of CCA's San Francisco campus, people gathered around to watch her and it became an impromptu performance. It's always engaging to see another person making decisions and working on a puzzle with no distinct parameters , but I think it was especially interesting because her audience was entirely made up of artists. I can imagine them all having opinions about where the pieces should go, trying to justify why one piece belonged in a spot. It may have not been a spoken conversation, but I'm fairly sure the whole group was involved in the disussion in some capacity.

Remnants of Sculpture (Foam Core), 2007

The foam core scraps moved back into Lauren's studio and cluttered up a corner, not ready to be dumped. She sketched the pile, starting off with identifiable pieces tumbling and tangling amongst themselves, and later abstracting them to curves and lines floating in cloudy areas of charcoal.

Remnants of Drawing (Tubing and Handprints), 2007

I really enjoy watching the back-and-forth play of 2-D and 3-D within her work: dimensional piles drawn flatly and abstractly, 3-D objects flattened into pattern pieces and then cut and assembled to make different 3-D objects, 3-D scraps photographed to flatten them back into a 2-D plane. Lauren's final pieces, a series of 16 large drawings hung at the CCA grad show, continue the 2-D abstracted theme of "Remants of Drawing." In my mind these abstract shapes echo the clutter in my life - the voice mail messages, old batteries, loose change, unworn socks in the back of the dresser drawer, piles of paperwork, traffic sounds, flickering lights - all of the things left in our minds at the end of the day. These cluttery bits are striking because they are complex, approaching all senses. And in the end, I'm not sure that I want these things out of my mind - they're so comforting and familiar, regardless of their girth or volume or intensity.

I'll Wait in the Car

I got this image from this guy's blog, which has many interesting things to see. I googled Marios Perakis, the artist who did this piece, but nothing really came up. Bummer! I guess I'll wait in the car till he shows up.

Kite Season

Today it's sunny and breezy, the perfect kind of day for flying kites. I thought this image matched my feeling of lightness - I'm that little girl on the right being swept away by her kite.

Stefan Sagmeister

I just got the new Stefan Sagmeister book, "Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far," which I had seen on some other blog recently. I didn't really read the article, but I stared at the cover art for a really long time. I found the book the other day at a bookstore in Potrero Hill and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I like everything about this guy - his perspective, his execution, the way her writes - and the lovely chapbook-style packaging is an added bonus. Each booklet talks about one or two of his recent projects (he creates sentences out of unusual materials or circumstances), and the backstory adds a lot to each of the pieces.

Here's one of the pieces on his website: Being Not Truthful Works Against Me.

And here he is at the TED Talks!

I don't know what it is, but this man's work has profoundly changed me. I hope you'll take a look.

Steve Lambert

While eating sandwiches and basking in the sunshine last weekend, my friend mentioned the work of Steve Lambert, a UCD grad student from a few years back. I checked out his website and I really like a bunch of his projects.

Simmer Down Sprinter is my favorite: it's a video game where you have to relax more than your opponent to win the race. Your hands are resting on sensors (similar to the kind used in lie detector tests) that monitor your heart rate and temperature. If you stress out, the video - which features Steve running on a track - slows down or starts playing in reverse, so you're essentially running backwards. The video on his website is definitely worth seeing. I wish they'd make this for Playstation.

Wesley Willis

(via the Art of Wesley Willis website)

The other night I went out to ATA to see a film called "Wesley Willis's Joy Rides." Wesley may be better known for his music (and his claims of rock stardom), but what I really liked was hearing more about his drawings.

Wesley was schizophrenic, but in the film his friends talked about how he wasn't a victim to his disability. He took all that he could out of life, and his interactions with people changed them forever. Someone in the film likened him to a mast, or a person who is so intoxicated with God that he may appear insane. In the film, there were shots of Wesley on the bus and at Kinko's, shouting at the voice in his head. His friends knew he wouldn't hurt anyone, but outsiders shied away, ducked their heads down, and backed up. It made me wonder about all of the people I see on the street: are we in the presence of masts?

Wesley knew what he wanted: he wanted to be an artist and a rock n roll star. The thing is, by introducing himself as those things, he eventually became them. I sometimes roll my eyes at people who tell me they're great artists, but I'm starting to think they might just be following Wesley's lead. Where's the line between arrogance and force of will?

Stuart Haygarth

Optical Chandelier (2007?)

Disposable Chandelier (2005)

Tide Chandelier, 2004 (detail)

I had seen Stuart Haygarth's work before, but this new piece from eyeglasses prompted me to check out his website. I like the detail shots on all of the pieces - you really get to focus on the colors and textures. Look at all that junk! I wish I had higher ceilings.

Olafur Eliasson

Room For One Colour, 1997 (seen here in the Malmo Konsthall, 2005)

I went to the opening for Olafur Eliasson's show at the SF MoMA, but it was really crowded and we were shuffled out the door before I got to see the whole show. This week, a friend and I went back to take it all in again. This time around I got to see more, feel more, think more. I especially like "Room For One Colour," which turns all objects under the fluorescent yellow lights into black and white. It's one of those pieces that could be right at home in a science museum. I desperately want some of these light bulbs.

We also saw the Douglas Gordon exhibit, sweetly titled, "Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work From About 1992 Until Now." A darkened room, dozens of TVs scattered around the perimeter, and a clump of people in the middle, just watching. It took a while to look at everything - you're drawn to movement on screens near you, but you also want to find out what happens on this tense, slow-moving piece. I am not always patient with video art, but Gordon's work was really engaging.

Bo Young Choi

My friend Bo came over today and showed me some of her recent work, including this awesome piece on her website. She told me about the process of making it - how she waited around for another grad student to help her with the photography, and then how she decided to do it on her own with the camera's timer. She said a crowd of people came to watch, and they asked her questions and took their own photos. She even brought them down to her campus studio to see her other work. In a way, her whole piece changed. It became more than the still photographs of her in midair...it was also a nice hyggelig moment, a connection with the outside world. Grad studies can get tricky - you get all tied up in your work, in your studio space, and sometimes you need an afternoon of jumping around to make you remember what lies outside.

Joana Vasconcelos

Clementine, 2007, ceramic and cotton (hand-crocheted)

We got a postcard for Joana Vasconcelos' show at the Rena Bransten Gallery several months ago; this striking piece was on the front. I like so many elements of this piece - the contrasting colors and textures, the symbolism of wrapping and adorning, the shapes and patterns. This crocheted doily pattern is insane - she has some serious engineering skills.

Salesmanship

Tobias Wong, dreams

Holger Beisitzer, balloons

I'm slowly setting up an etsy site, but I keep getting stuck. Why do I make things? Should I be adding to the consumer haze? Sure, my stuff is mostly made from recycled and repurposed materials, but does that make it better? I guess I should stop worrying about it. I make things because I like to; it makes me feel calm. But I thought I'd share some salesmen with a little more panache than myself.

Tobias Wong has done a number of interesting projects, and this one is especially nice. I would totally buy a dream from him. Would it be one of my dreams inside that bag, or one of his?

The second image is Holger Beisitzer; I think this piece is called "What Set You Free (Rebel Yell)." I came across it while doing a bit of research about recycling and rethinking materials. I think it's funny because even though we all know these are bags (not so glamorous), we can accept them as balloons (magical!). And everyone knows that balloons are worth a buck.

Changing Viewpoints

Last night I had a dream about turkeys that were all rainbow-colored. It was magical. Here's another magical image, courtesy of artist Mark Jenkins. I wish more of these existed.

It makes me think of how I tend to look at life just one way, kind of forgetting that there's always another way to take it.