1 Artist / 1 Piece: Brett Weston

Brett Weston (1911-1993) was the son of Edward Weston and was called a "child genius of American photography" by a former curator of the San Francisco Museum of Art. He was credited by renowned photographic historian Beaumont Newhall as the first photographer to make negative space the subject of a photograph. I love how he's captured the lines and the sculptural quality of this tree. Beautiful in its simplicity.


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Charleston in September

I flew home to South Carolina in September and we drove down to Charleston for a weekend to visit family and friends. I hadn't been to Charleston in several years. After living in Los Angeles for quite awhile it's refreshing to get away to a place with some serious history. My mom and I toured a few historic homes (Nathaniel Russell House and the Aiken-Rhett House) and I highly recommend both of them. We couldn't believe that we'd never explored the properties before this trip. We spent an afternoon just walking along The Battery. We also took a trip over to Wadmalaw Island to tour the tea plantation there. It's the only tea plantation in North America! Sometimes it feels good to go back to my roots (lots of Charleston in my blood). All in all, it was a lovely (and HOT) weekend escape.


All images by Maureen Price. Please do not use without permission.

An afternoon at Joshua Tree

Just before Christmas, Luke and I made a quick trip over to Joshua Tree. I had been meaning to go for ages. We got a bit of a late start out of LA so we didn't have that much time to explore before we started losing light. I think we hit some of the main highlights though. We had a lot of fun climbing around on the rocks and exploring all the nooks and crannies. As the sun went down, we drove further into the park so I could try to take some pictures of the joshua trees against the sky. The moon was nearly full and it was amazing to see it way out in the desert! Once it was dark, we were making our way back to the park entrance and we passed someone slumped over on the side of the road. We immediately turned around and went back for them. We found a girl who had gotten separated from her friend and had been walking for miles and trying to find help. We took her to park entrance and left her with a ranger. I hope they found her friend.
On our way out, we stopped by the welcome center where they were doing a cool night sky talk. The ranger had a really great telescope that we were able to look through. It had a GPS so you could just input the coordinates and it would point itself in the right direction. Really interesting but it was so cold out there and we decided to move on. We stopped over in Palm Springs for dinner at The Ace. If you find yourself there then I would recommend the black bean burger! All in all, it was a fun little departure from the usual.


All images by Maureen Price. Please do not use without permission.

Wow

Who knew that every grain of sand on the planet is this stunning and unique?! Dr. Gary Greenburg did when he magnified grains of sand and fragments of shell 110-250 times. The grain in the first image (the blue piece in the center) is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a foram (a type of protozoa) and volcanic material. The second image displays grains from a beach in Maui and the last pictures star shaped sand grains from Okinawa. I thought back to these pictures after seeing a show at the planetarium at Griffith Park about the universe. Carl Sagan said, "The total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on the planet Earth." Incredible. If you're as blown away by these images as I am, you can get Dr. Greenburg's photography book here.
PS: I had a great post written for this and then Safari went berserk. This is what materialized after a frustration fueled cookie binge.


All images by Dr. Gary Greenburg. Originally found on InspirationGreen.

Long Beach Adventure

Last weekend, Luke and I took a little day trip down to Long Beach. I'd never been and I wanted to check out the Aquarium of the Pacific. We made our way there and walked along the coastline across from the Queen Mary. I want to go back and have afternoon tea and a walk around on the ship! It was interesting to see a Carnival ship boarding right next to the Queen Mary. After a stroll, we went in search of food and, of course, the one vegetarian place I wanted to try was randomly closed (??). We ended up at the aquarium later on which was a pretty big deal for me as I'm deathly afraid of certain marine life (the toothy, predatory variety). Going to the aquarium was a step towards facing my fear. I did better than I thought I would but I definitely had one minor freak out along the way. My favorite part of the aquarium...jellyfish! Having been brutally stung by one as a kid you'd think I'd want to nothing to do with them but they are fantastic to photograph! I hogged the prime real estate in front of the tanks to get some decent shots. Such amazing creatures. I was hoping to see the sea otters in action but they were totally not having it. Most incredible sight there? The weedy sea dragons! I have never seen anything quite like them. I didn't leave empty handed (I'm not usually a sucker for gift shops). I bought a great watercolor print of seahorse species. Lovely. All in all, it was a fun day. We'll have to head down there again for tea on the Queen Mary!



All images by Maureen Price. Please do not use without permission. Thanks!

Dwell on Design: 2

...and we're back with more from Dwell on Design. This time I want to share one of my other favorite parts of the convention. Yolo Colorhouse had such a great interactive booth! Before I show and tell you about what I did at their booth, let's talk about their awesome paint. Yolo has created a line of paint with no carcinogens, reproductive toxins, mutagens, hazardous air pollutants, ozone depleting compounds, formaldehyde phthalates, or VOCs. They also use 100% recycled plastic containers and 100% PCW labels with soy based inks. Nice. They've also got some pretty great color palettes to choose from. Anywho, I loved the way Yolo made their product so much fun to experience at Dwell. They took a bicycle and added a tub to the front with a spinner inside. Then you just place a piece of paper on the spinner, have a helper start pedaling, and get to squirting the paint to create a cool design. I loved it and I will definitely be picking up some of their paint whenever the day comes that I can, umm, actually paint an apartment. I highly recommend it as VOCs and the like are not something you want to be inhaling. Check out these little masterpieces created by convention goers!



Images 1, 2, and animation by Maureen Price. All other images are from Yolo Colorhouse
PS: I wasn't perked in any way by Yolo. I just really enjoyed their booth (and they've got a great product)!

Amazing!

These two pieces are absolutely remarkable. I can't even imagine the time and effort that went into their creation. Both are by the artist BLU (with a collaboration with David Ellis on this first one). I don't really know what else I can say other than...watch them!

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The world inside...

These illustrations are stunning. I found them today and had to share. They are botanical microanatomy plates by Frederik Elfving. He was a professor of botany at the University of Helsinki. "Anatomia Vegetal" was published in 1929. I could spend so much time looking at the details of each plate. These really are a designer's dream. I find loads of inspiration for shape and pattern, line and scale. Beautiful and humbling.



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Dwell on Design Convention!

As I mentioned a little while ago, I made my way down to the L.A. Convention Center on June 26th to check out the Dwell on Design convention. It was a huge exhibition space with loads of architectural and interior design vendors, booths, and displays and plenty of great ideas for environmentally friendly and sustainable design. I spent several hours exploring the space and chatting with a few vendors (more to come about that). There were also lectures and a design competition or two. All in all, a fun, exhausting, and informative day. Here are a few images!!

Finally! After parking on the wrong side of the convention center and walking 37 miles.




Nice banner set-up here.


Some amazing vintage posters (the real deal) that were so far out my price range, we're talking thousands of dollars. Really fun to look through and the staff could tell you ALL about them.


Design contest! Winner got a Wacom tablet. I'd love a Wacom tablet as well *wink, wink Christmas list*.


Lovely pottery pieces! Wouldn't this make a gorgeous collection!?


Wasn't expecting to see laundry detergent at the convention. Look at them being all hip with their Eames chair!


The model IQ haus. Pretty nifty...


The new Dyson fan that is so far out of my price range that I can't even see it on the horizon.


I'll go with along with this...


Jealous of this playground set...


The fireplace for the woman (or man) in your life who doesn't have enough Swarovski Crystals.




These lighting fixtures were very cool!


Absolutely gorgeous surfaces from Soli Architectural Surfaces


I love this Italian tile. I don't want to think about having to clean it all the time, I just want to think about how lovely it's going to look in my imaginary bathroom.


Bad picture on my part, but coolest hammock EVER!


While most of the goods at the convention were pretty spot-on, I seriously have to question this rug. Why did this happen? This pug needs medical aid.


Hah, on that note, I will ride off into the sunset...and by sunset I mean Burbank.
PS: Congrats to all hard working folks who made it all happen!

Is it me or is the wallpaper glowing??

Continuing my theme of eco-friendliness today, here's a new idea from UK based company Lomox. Glowing wallpaper to replace light bulbs. Sound too weird for you?? Here's some more info from Gimundo, "Unlike the glare of most light bulbs, the wallpaper’s light is soft, and mimics sunlight. You’ll be able to use a dimmer switch to control how bright you want the room, just as you can with traditional bulbs". Lomox snagged a pretty healthy grant from the Carbon Trust to develop this new technology and they say it should be ready by about 2012. "The special coating which can be painted onto your walls or implemented into roll-up screens is two and a half times as energy-efficient as LED lights, and will be extremely budget friendly. Because the wallpaper only requires three to five volts, it can be powered by solar cells. Thanks to its portability, the system could also be used to illuminate signs and important notices in areas without power lines." It all sounds pretty cool to me, now they just need to get some fantastic designers to help out in the art department and I'd say they're cooking with gas, or solar power.

*Ok, I just have to let you know that these aren't the wallpaper designs from Lomox as they aren't available yet. But, just imagine... These are all from Graham & Brown but, in my fantasy world they've teamed up with Lomox to create these stunners. Just dream, my friends (and enjoy the eye candy)!









How cool would this paper be in a kid's room?! Go ahead, draw all over the walls, honey!

Notes on a Visual Life is going carbon neutral, folks!

I recently came across a great idea originally started in Germany by the "Make it Green" program. Long story short, they will plant a tree for you to offset the emissions of your blog. Yes, indeed, blogs emit CO2. Here's a better explantation from the people who run the program, "Assuming an average blog gets 15,000 visits a month, it has yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 3.6kg (8lb.). This can mainly be tracked back to the immense energy usage from (mainframe) computers, servers, and their cooling systems." As far as the tree goes, "The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) assumes a yearly absorption of one tree of approximately 10kg (20lb.) carbon dioxide emissions." So, hopefully, it about evens out after a little time. While I'm not exactly taking any MASSIVE strides to help the planet, I like to think that every little bit helps...a little and why not add another tree?? Oh, and if you're curious about when and where the trees will be planted, here ya go, "The trees are planted in Plumas National Forest in Northern California this year by “Arbor Day Foundation” a non-profit conservation and education organization with the goal helping reforest 5,500 acres of Plumas National Forest with 792,000 trees. The Antelope Complex Fire started on July 5, 2007, and burned nearly 23,000 acres of Plumas’ timber in less than a week. The Moonlight Fire struck just two months later, destroying 65,000 forest acres and requiring more than three weeks to contain." In a nutshell, the Plumas National Forest is still in need of some care. So, I'm proud to say that I'm supporting this effort. Good work, guys!