There is snow on the ground tonight, a full moon in the heavens and the air is bitterly cold. So, this evening I think I shall curl up with a cup of hot chocolate, look at my twinkle lights glisten, listen to some music and just be. Have a lovely weekend…
(Image from The Sweetest Occasion)
I adore Kinfolk magazine and when I saw this film it made me smile. This just makes me want to run in the kitchen, get out my loaf tins and start baking! How about you? There is something very calming and therapeutic about creating bread by hand.
the art of making bread from tiger in a jar on Vimeo.
Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.
(Found via The Swiss Miss)
I found this on the SwissMiss today and it made me very happy! Wouldn’t it be nice if we had something like this at work, in our neighbourhood, on Main Street, just so we can make people smile, laugh, feel good about themselves!
P.S. Besides the Buzz LightYear shout out, I loved the lady who said she like the other lady’s umbrella. Kindness is contagious, so spread it around!
Tranquility itself cannot be scheduled, but empty, quiet spaces can be reserved in ink. Such spaces ought to be defended, prioritized and guarded as vehemently as any commitment and obligation. Lest they be guarded, they will be lost; swallowed by the tyrannical magic of urgency. For the sum of the matter is this: there is not a place on the planet where stress finds cessation, but only the discovery that tranquility comes in the midst of chaos, not merely as the consequence of its demise. For indeed chaos, beautiful chaos, is the order of life itself. So chisel, carve, etch — make ritualistic bulwarks, high towers from which you can view the chaotic world from an Adirondack chair, sip on a piña colada, and revel in the enlightened awareness that tranquility runs concurrent to chaos, not linearly after it.
Found via Mr. Michie via:Ideas, Footnotes & Revelations by James Shelley on 7/26/11
(image by: Sandra Dieckmann)
What is it about the magic of a swing? I don’t care what age you are, those two ropes and a board, hold something very special to them. They conjure up memories of being a child, your hair streaming behind you like ribbons, the breeze hitting your face, your palms becoming sweaty from holding on so tight.
Races with each other to see who could go the highest, or who could jump off their swing at the perfect moment and land the farthest. Pumping your legs harder and harder so you were swinging so high, you knew that if you let go, you would sail into the tree tops.
There is a park near my house with a nice little playground and some evenings when we go on walks through the woods, we stop there on our way home and just swing for 5 minutes or so. I find that there is something very therapeutic in that! Just letting go.
This is a very interesting and wonderful project, so I thought I would share it with you:
Creature Comforts is a blog I look forward to reading daily! Some of my favourite posts are her “Inspiration Daily” images and they really do always seem to inspire me! I hope they inspire you too!
I was creating a sign today to describe the artwork that was being put on display for a particular class and in searching for a totem pole image, I came across this:
I think these are just amazing, the time that must have gone in to creating these lilliputian sized artifacts. They were sculpted by an artist named, Diem Chau, and I love their rainbow happiness. What a true little piece of art. The personality that they each appear to have for something so minuscule is quite astounding.
The girl reminds me of the soap carving that Boo Radley made of Jem and Scout in “To Kill A Mockingbird”. They have that air of vintageness about them with the styling of the girl’s hair and dress. Maybe these would be the modern version of what Boo would carve?
The smell while carving them had to be heaven. I love the smell of a fresh pack of crayola crayons, that waxy scent that is distinctive to them. It is not the aroma of a candle or of any other crayon brand.
There was nothing better in the world when you were little, then when you got a new pack of crayons and a coloring book and your entire afternoon was spent lying on your belly deciding which color you would pick for the ballerina’s slippers. Oh, to be little again!
(Images found here)
One aspect of not only being an Art Historian, but also an Artist and appreciator of Art is the opportunity to continually discover new Artists.
I am constantly making suggestions to the Art students to look at this Artist or that Artist and they in turn open my eyes to Artists I am not familiar with.
While flipping through the Illustration Now: Volume 3 book one afternoon in the department, I was inspired to do a little online research on an Artist I had come across. Her name is, Catherine Campbell and her work is hauntingly beautiful, I fell in love with the girl and owl in the teacup. Her work is colourful and imaginative and I like her use of mixed media.
I endeavour to always make new discoveries and continue to explore, that is what life is about, just keeping yourself open to something new.
(All images copyright Catherine Campbell)
When I was in College, they installed one of these in our Art Department. It was there on a trial basis to see if something like this would work! Well, we all loved it! What is it? It is a refurbished cigarette machine that sells art instead of cigarettes. I adored the fact that in keeping with the style the design was still very much the “old cigarette case” look, that very 1960’s-esque edge to it.
I don’t know if they have changed this part or not, but we had to use a special “token” to get the art out. You handed in your money to the Art office and received a chip that you would use to collect your chosen piece.
You really had no idea what was going to be in the boxes. The images used to “describe” it, was either just the Artist’s name or a very brief line, like, “man in a box”. You didn’t know what was going to pop out and that was half the fun. There was all sorts of things from mini oil paintings, to a book of photographs that told a story, to miniature statues, sometimes it was just typed text that had been pasted down and decorated.
I love the idea of “Art for the Masses”, and I mean this in the best possible sense. Not mass produced cheap art, but the Andy Warhol idea of mass production, in the sense that you were creating 20 or 30 of the same thing and quite possibly something to never be created again, but for $5, everyone had a chance to own a little piece of Art. It made it accessible and Art should be accessible. (I know I stray here a bit, in that Andy Warhol was mass producing to make a point about Art, but I think you get my point as well.)
I have the very lovely Sherry to thank for tweeting out this pic to me, it made me smile!
If you don’t already follow this gal through twitter, you certainly should, she is a sweetheart! Thanks for sending me this image, Sherry!
(Image Copyright: MerrieSherrie “Art dispensing vintage cigarette machine, Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas”)
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