Wish I could be there...

My poor mom has had a terrible week. She's in agonizing pain in her lower back and leg. It's mostly likely a nerve problem and we're hoping to have some answers tomorrow. It's always hard when a family member is having troubles and I'm 2,500 miles away. Please send some good vibes, prayers, and happy thoughts her way! XOXO.


Drawing by Ana Montiel

Tasty

The other day, Luke and I decided we wanted some treats so we made our way over to Le Pain Quotidien. They have the most delicious (and legit) Belgian waffles. Mmm! I always get their lightly sweetened lemonade with mint leaves. The tartine pictured below is also very tasty for summertime as it's served cold and it comes with a spicy tahini sauce that is glorious. Their desserts are pretty irresistible too. I'm partial to the fruit tarts but they also have cookies the size of my head. I kid you not. Luke and I tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to ordering at restaurants so we almost always get the same things here but there are lots of tasty-sounding options on the menu. I also love that LPQ labels their vegan/vegetarian option as SO many restaurants don't do this. Anyway, they have locations worldwide if you want to get in on some of the waffle goodness. How could you not!?



All images by Maureen Price

Art Smith

These pieces by Art Smith are exquisite. The beauties seen here were created between 1946 and 1962. I love the mixture of silver, turquoise, amethyst, prase, and rhodonite. He crafted such fantastic movement with silver. Smith was inspired by surrealism, biomorphicism, primitivism, and even Alexander Calder. These live in the Brooklyn Museum but I definitely wouldn't mind having a replica of each. Want to learn more about Smith? Read up on him here.


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"Ellington" Necklace, circa 1962, "Half & Half" Necklace, designed by 1948, "Lava" Bracelet, circa 1946

It's enough...

These are definitely some words by which to live. I need a lot of reminding in this area lately. The fact that nothing in the universe is perfect is relieving and a bit sad at the same time. I keep telling myself, "Do what you can with what you have." Also, don't forget to breathe (or eat your greens).


Poster design by Lisa Barbero

Monday Dose of Color

I guess I'm still in a midcentury kind of mood after the Mark Shaw post yesterday. This morning I rounded up a few more of my favorite fashion/lifestyle images from the time. Get a load of that pink convertible! Of course she's dressed to match. Have a colorful week!


1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Erin Jang's Stop Motion

I'm really loving these little stop motions gems from Erin Jang. She created these for Martha Stewart Living. The photography is by Johnny Miller. You'll definitely want to have a look at her other design work for Martha Stewart Living and Esquire. She's also created some great letterpress wedding invitation suites for Bella Figura (one of my favorites).

Stunning

I've had my eye on these fashion shots by Mark Shaw for a long time so I decided to put together a small sampling of his work. He's probably best known for his photographs of the Kennedys but he also worked for LIFE, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle. He was actually one of the first photographers to use color when shooting runways and backstage images. These gorgeous black and white shots are from a Vanity Fair ad campaign that took place over a ten year period. Stunning!


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Cool down

And now it's hot. I've been burning up all day. Turning the window unit off and on. Working with a piping hot laptop on your body doesn't help either. I actually grabbed an ice pack from the freezer, wrapped it in a dish towel and laid it under my computer. Ahh, refreshing. This is only the beginning and I'm dreading the rising temperatures. Everyone thinks LA has marvelous weather year round but I'd prefer to head north in the summer. It gets pretty sweltering and the sun is merciless. It's no wonder we have so many yogurt shops everywhere. I'm craving nothing but cold foods. Sushi, sorbet, lemonade, potato salad. What are your summer weather cravings?



1,2, 3, 4

Sounds Like Summer

I just discovered the site 8tracks via Anna of doorsixteen awesomeness and I love the idea of sharing little mixes with everyone. I whipped up this summer mix today and it's full of songs that really make me feel like it's July and I'm lying on an old dock at the lake with a mint julep. This is a pretty eclectic mix...Cat Stevens, Feist, Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, and more. I'll post any future mixes here and I hope you enjoy the tunes as much as I do! Is anyone else craving a mint julep now or is it just me?


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1 Artist / 1 Piece: Gustav Klimt

I've decided to do some alternating with 1 Artist / 1 Piece. Contemporary artist then artists of the past. This week I chose Attersee by Gustav Klimt. I think every freshman art student at my school had a Klimt poster in their dorm room (myself included *cough*). Usually The Kiss or the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer but this is my favorite of Klimt's. I'm immediately drawn to the color and feeling of calm. It seems like an early morning. I love that it's such a departure from Klimt's more well known pieces from his golden period (lots of gold leaf). I hope you enjoy it!


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My Malachite Box of Amazement

When I posted the chalk festival pictures I mentioned that I found a little something special in the antique mall. Well, here she is. I scored this little malachite box. It's about the size of a standard business card and maybe an inch and a half tall. It's just the right size for holding everyday jewelry. I finally got around to taking a few glamour shots of it today and by that I mean I set up my ghetto-tastic white box made out of bristol board on the front steps of the apartment. Very professional. Anyway, they turned out decent enough for you to really see the detail. Malachite is one little piece of the natural world that blows me away. The shape and detail and color is stunning. If you look close enough, it almost looks like cells separating in their own little universe. Wow. Before you ask, yes, I am sober as I type this...I just really love malachite.


All images by Maureen Price

Hollie Chastain

I recently came upon these mixed media illustrations by Chattanooga based artist Hollie Chastain. She writes, "I seem to be addicted to the most complicated form of recycling and in Tennessee you're never more than a few minutes from an antique store. On the best days I'm found up to my elbows in steamer trunks piled with scraps of crumbling paper, dusty, tattered books stacked to the ceiling. I bring it all back here and give it a second life. I always have the forest, fairy tales and music close to me so that comes out the most." I really love the layers and movement in these pieces. The characters seem to take charge of the page. Here are a few of my favorites! Be sure to check out Hollie's shop for more.

BLOGSHOP LA

B L O G S H O P 2 - Los Angeles from Son of Shark Pig on Vimeo.

Last weekend I did the second BLOGSHOP with Bri and Angela! It was definitely the most fun I've had in a workshop in a looong time. Good food, good company, good goodies! If you want to learn more about designing in Photoshop then I would say this class is a huge leap in the right direction. I was already very familiar with Photoshop but I am thrilled to have learned so much. My confidence has really multiplied and now I just want to keep going!

Wanna see more? Check out the pics here and here!

First day of SUMMER

Summer is upon us! So far, the air conditioner hasn't been used (really). We've had such a nice spring here in LA. Although I know the heat is coming. What are your summer plans? I'd love to take a trip or two. We'll see if that pans out. No matter what, lots of lemonade will be consumed!


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Double Merrick

I've been loving these giclee prints from Double Merrick for awhile now. La Lune is definitely my favorite. The simplicity is beautiful.


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Monday morning

I have been getting to bed way too late this weekend. It's good and bad. Lots of ideas and have been floating around in my head which is such a refreshing change of pace but can really keep me up at night. I've always had trouble getting to sleep because my brain just doesn't like to settle down when the rest of my body does. Without other distractions, my brain goes crazy with all of the attention. Anyway, what a groggy morning. I needed this waiting on the side of the bed for me when I woke up. Not just today but, um, everyday. Ok, thanks.


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Norton Simon Museum visit

This weekend Luke and I also went over to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. They are having an exhibit on abstract and color field painting in the 60s. But I found myself drawn to my permanent collection favorites instead. I had my camera and my 50mm-f/1.4 lens (thus the really shallow depth of field) which is great for museums. I quickly snapped a few close ups of my favorites.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Dad's Day to all of the dads, pops, grandpas, papas, etc... Thanks to my dad for always believing in me and for hot glueing the shingles to my doll house roof one by one at 3:00AM on that Christmas morning. They still look good 20-ish years later!
PS: We'd just made it out of the 80s in this picture so I'll pretend you're not smoking *wink*.

Pasadena Chalk Festival

Yesterday I fought my way to the Pasadena Chalk Festival. Seriously, it took me almost an hour to turn off of Colorado Blvd. (which was completely closed), get on the detour, enter the parking deck, drive to the roof, wait for someone to leave, park, walk the 4 blocks to the Paseo area where the festival was going down. That should have taken 15 minutes tops. Nightmare. Anyway, I obviously made it! I really like going to this festival because it is so great for photography. Colors, texture, interesting looking people. There's also a really fun antique mall there and I can spend ages looking around at the crazy stuff they sell. I'll show you the little treasure I bought once I get a chance to take a good picture of it. Apparently this festival made it into the Guinness Book of World Records last year for the largest display of chalk art. Here are some of my favorite shots from yesterday.




All images by Maureen Price

Thanks for the advice...

This is my new favorite thank you card from Greenwich Letterpress. If you're in the NYC area, they have a shop in the West Village full of cards and gifts (they also do wedding invitations). You can find a selection of their greeting cards at Urbanic in Venica, California as well! Now I just need an advice-giving-architect-friend to thank.


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1 Artist / 1 Piece: Martin Johansson

I've decided to start a weekly column called 1 Artist / 1 Piece. Every Friday I will choose, you guessed it, one artist and one piece of their work. While I was laying out yesterday's color post, I came across that beautiful ocean image and during my search to credit the work I found the portfolio of Martin Johansson. My eye immediately went to this incredible illustration titled Fossil. It reminds me of the Umberto Boccioni sculpture, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. There is so much movement and texture here. It's almost like a Rorschach test from nature. What do you see?
Martin is a photographer, illustrator, and graphic designer (triple threat). You can find him here.


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My favorites

Sadly, I don't believe in magic. But if I did (and if it was a particular color) then I'm pretty sure I would see it as a stunning mixture of turquoise, teal, sea foam, aqua, and ultramarine. These colors have a real magnetism and I find that I surround myself with them. Art, clothing, oven mitts, and, umm, even my sofa.



Images: 1, 2, 3, 4 (unknown), 5, 6 (unknown), 7

...wandered lonely as a cloud

Luke and I went to see The Trip tonight and it made me really nostalgic for the Lake District of the UK. I spent some time up there in 2006 and it's just a stunningly beautiful area. I stayed around Keswick, Braithwaite, Grasmere and Lorton and took a dip in the coldest water I've ever felt (and this was in July). If you're ever in England I highly recommend it. Enjoy some eye candy from the land of William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.



Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Steppin' Out

Images: Angela Kohler, image 2

Krafty

I absolutely love working with kraft paper. It's so versatile and it looks good with EVERYTHING. You really can't go wrong. Plus, it has plenty of uses outside the realm of gift wrapping. I did all of my Christmas gifts in found kraft paper (mainly from shipping packaging) that I ironed for crispness. It worked out really well and I didn't spend any $$$ on wrapping paper. Try it with twine or washi tape or old pictures. Send some love!

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8

Working on it....

Hi...
I'm currently working on some design elements within the blog. So, if anything looks wonky (or just plain awful), I'm on it!

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New VISUAL NOTES coming soon

Some new VISUAL NOTES will be here shortly! Details to come...

The Amazing Work of John Frame

Luke and I went to The Huntington last week and found a real gem in the John Frame exhibit. I couldn't believe I had never heard of him before this! He is a sculptor, animator, photographer and storyteller who has been working here in Southern California for decades. He meticulously carves figurative sculptures from wood, metal, fabrics, and various found materials. In 2006 he began to create moveable sculptures with articulated joints, eyes, fingers, etc. and placed them in stop motion short films. The concepts for these films originated in Frame's dreams. He explores "the meaning of life, the inevitability of death, and the nature of good and evil". You know, the basics... Anyhow, his current exhibit at The Huntington is comprised of the actual sculptures, films, and still photographs from the stop motion process. We were completely spellbound and extremely impressed and inspired! His work has such a timeless and theatrical feel to it. Eery and gorgeous. If you're in the Los Angeles area I highly recommend the exhibit. If you're not, then check out his website for some amazing work!

Here is the film that is showing at The Huntington, "Three Fragments of a Lost Tale". Stunning!

Three Fragments of a Lost Tale from John Frame on Vimeo.

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