Vacation-time

Be back in July....

The Matter of Everything | Film Trailer

THE MATTER OF EVERYTHING Extended Trailer from Riverchoir Feed on Vimeo.

"The Matter Of Everything is a feature documentary that challenges us to see beyond our everyday sense of experience into the unseen universe. From the quantum to the cosmos, The Matter Of Everything journeys deep out of the foundations of nature to reveal what we are, at billionths of the human scale. At that level, physicists at Fermilab, one of the largest particle research facilities in the world, describe a universe that is more unified than ever imagined. We all matter." —from The Matter of Everything website


Anything quantum always catches my eye. I'm always interested in anything to do with String Theory, M Theory and the Theory of Everything...

A Cut Above: Altered Books

Altered Book: Science in the Twentieth Century

"Brian Dettmer is a sculptor, but he doesn't carve wood or marble. The preferred targets for his scalpel are encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, and atlases. For the sake of his art, he is not shy about wreaking havoc on books. He bends their covers back until they touch or shears them off entirely. He then glues the pages together and bores into them and sorts out their innards. Dettmer, thirty-three years old, has exhibited at art fairs around the world and, over the last year, has had shows in fine art galleries in Chicago, San Francisco, and Barcelona."

That great introduction is from an article in Fine Books & Collections, 2008. You can see more of Brian's work on his Flickr page.

His artistic choices of what to cut away and what to leave in really shows the essence of the book itself. Love it!!

Cut Paper Scenario

I love music videos that use hands-on art as a backdrop. This cut paper scenario was created by the Irish artist Maeve Clancy for Lisa Hannigan's "I Don't Know" video. Maeve is an illustrator, animator and creator of a web comics series called Flatmates. Don't you just love the intricate whimsy?

YouTube Link

Chihuly in the Desert

Spent a lovely day at the Desert Botanical Garden in Scottsdale on Saturday. The Chihuly exhibit was simply stunning. His colorful sculptures were in perfect harmony with the blooming desert plants. It was impossible to take a bad photo...nearly every angle highlighted a special scenario.

And how relaxing to spend an whole afternoon just wandering from one beauty spot to another. (Not the mole-on-face "beauty spot," just to be clear!)

The exhibit continues through May, so by all means go if you get the chance.

I've just returned from Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. The lake is surrounded by dormant volcanoes and tiny highland villages. There are 27 separate Mayan languages spoken around the lake, some change within a mile of one another. And in each village the women wear a differently embroidered huipil (shirt) to designate their own village.

Hotel Casa Palopo, in the village of Santa Catarina Palopo, was my home for the week. With only seven rooms, it was a cozy homebase. Such care had been taken with the colors, textures, furnishings, art, architecture and landscape that everywhere you looked—from every angle—there were picture-perfect vignettes.

"The World's Smallest Postal Service (WSPS) is a teeny tiny transcription service and roaming post office based in the San Francisco Bay Area and also available online."

Call it performance art...or just art...Lea Redmond's "world's smallest letters" are precious. She transcribes your personal letters and messages into tiny script and seals it with a mini wax seal...finally, packaged in a larger glassine envelope, your tiny letter is sent via regular mail. She started the service in 2008—first only at cafe's and boutiques—now through an additional online shop.

Web link

Have a look at Jen Stark's fab paper sculptures—all done with simple paper stock. Just a reminder that it doesn't take expensive supplies to create real beauty!

Web link

Crayons always made me feel creative: so much potential! And though I was very eager to please my teachers and color "inside the lines," there was something so wonderful about starting with a completely blank page and no lines at all...there the colors could blend into each other and totally new things would emerge.

Christian Faur has taken the crayon to a whole 'nother level. Check out his creations "composed of tens of thousands of individually stacked crayons-tips."

Link

"Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.

Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.

On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it." —from ArtofRacingintheRain.com

Garth Stein Link