1 Artist / 1 Piece: Britt Bass

I spotted this mixed media piece a week or so ago and I was (and still am) smitten. The colors and movement make me think of summer and childhood. It's so vibrant and cheerful that I'm fairly sure I produce just a little bit more serotonin when I look at it. Britt is a very recent graduate of UGA with a BFA in art education (awesome). Head over to her website and pop in for a look at her Etsy shop!

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.

Sneak Peek: Venice

Here's a little peek from my Venice photo-escapades. Everything was shot with either my old polaroid camera or my Lensbaby pinhole optic. I love the results! Gotta get scanning on those polaroids...


Image by Maureen Price

Broome Street General Store

Last weekend we discovered another little gem close to home. I'd been hearing some chatter within the blogosphere about Broome Street General Store and when I realized how close it is...well, no excuses not to visit. It's an absolutely charming little place tucked away on Rowena Avenue in Silverlake. I love the patio area out front complete with a white fence and lavender. Inside you'll find all kinds of goodies from tasty treats to vintage bits and pieces. Everything from old to new is so beautifully displayed that you just want to spend a good hour looking around the place. I was all over the vintage letterpress paraphernalia. We tried the verbena mint iced tea which was delightful and you shouldn't leave without one of their chocolate custards (with caramel on the bottom...ooo!). It's such a great place for a little summer gathering.


All images by Maureen Price

Proof Bakery

How Luke and I had not eaten at Proof Bakery in Atwater Village is a real mystery. We're right down the road and it is seriously tasty. One bit of advice: go early in the day. We showed up a little late in the game so most of the goodness had already been snatched for the day. Fortunately, there were still a few goodies to be had! Luke got the lemon meringue cake and I got a little fruit tart. Mmm! The orange juice was also very delicious. We're going to head back over there one morning when the place is packed full of new treats.


All images by Maureen Price

1 Artist / 1 Piece: Alexander Calder

Today is the birthday of Alexander Calder so it seems only fitting to feature him. Calder started out as an engineer and then made the switch to art in 1923. I think his background definitely shines through his work. This particular mobile was created out of scrap metal and piano wire. All of the shortages during World War II prompted Calder to use scrap metal and bits of wood for his work. Fun fact, Calder also worked with Martha Graham. He designed sets for her ballets and created a moving stage construction to accompany Eric Satie's Socrate in 1936. Want to learn more? Check out the Calder Foundation.


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Sad day...

Such horrible news coming out of Norway. My heart goes out to the people who found themselves in a nightmare today. Here's to the beauty of Norway.


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B/W

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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)!

Color and texture

This afternoon I snapped a few pictures of some of my favorite things around the apartment.

1. Detail of one of my watercolor paintings
2. Agate slice that I bought in Palm Springs
3. Geode agate pendant from Etsy
4. Detail of a vintage postcard


All images by Maureen Price

Dwell on Design: 1

I've been meaning to post my pictures from this year's Dwell on Design convention for a few weeks (yikes!). Here's a post from my adventure at last year's convention. It's always more fun to go with folks you know (last year I flew solo). This time around I met up with my friend Beth. She worked some magic on one of the exhibits and then we ran into Abby who had also been working behind the scenes. We had some champagne at the Miele booth, checked out some very modern chicken coops, toured a luxury Airstream trailer, and I got my heartbeat made into an air brush painting. Yep. One of my favorite parts of the convention was Sasaki's Heartbeat Drawing Project. He began the project in 1995 and now travels the world listening to and painting heartbeats. At the convention, the proceeds were going to Architecture for Humanity's rebuilding efforts in Japan. It was too cool for me not to participate. You sit in chair in front of the giant canvas and Sasaki places an electronic pulse monitor on your finger. The sound is then amplified and he paints based on the speed and rhythm of your pulse. It was kind of surreal to know that everyone in the convention hall was hearing your heartbeat in real time as you watched someone methodically paint to its sound. Stay tuned for a bit more from Dwell! I'll share my own painting project and some very cool, new, eco-friendly paint.


All images by Maureen Price

1 Artist / 1 Piece: Denise Nestor

Denise Nestor's delicate and thoughtful portraits have such a quiet beauty to them. Denise is a Dublin based graphic designer and illustrator. Lepus is definitely one of my favorites. It goes beyond traditional portraiture and I see it as a melding of moments, multiple reflections. It's almost like stream of consciousness journaling...visualized. Be sure to have a look at Denise's website!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

How great are these envelopes?! I'm loving the illustrated return addresses for the different business. Stay tuned for some fun posts from the Dwell on Design convention and our Long Beach adventure (complete with very cool jellyfish pictures).


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One of those days...

You know those days? When you wake up and just don't feel "right"? The not-feeling-right usually doesn't bode well for the rest of the day. I've been having one of those days today. You feel sort of fuzzy, like a shadow of your usually self. A weird blip on the radar and then the next day things feel normal again. An out of sorts day. A disconnect. A funny reflection. That's today. Dragging along. Need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables tomorrow. Things somehow sort themselves out overnight while you dream. Nothing terrible going on, no need to really complain but bits and pieces are out of place. A slow whirlwind. Tomorrow...


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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.

Pierluigi Maco

I guess this week's 1 Artist / 1 Piece got me into a Renaissance mood. This fashion shoot by photographer Pierluigi Maco with model Vlada Roslyakova is one of my all time favorites. It was featured in Vogue China in January 2007. The mixture of period and modern is spot on and the styling is gorgeous. Roslyakova was a perfect choice as she really does look like she jumped out of a Botticelli painting. I wish we would see more fashion spreads like this one.



Originally found here

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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Adventure calls...

I'm really itching to go on a smallish trip sometime soon. Feeling spontaneous. I need to get out of LA in a big way. Well, I guess there's still time to possibly book some train tickets out of town for the upcoming Traffic Armageddon (the 405 freeway will be closed next weekend and LA will come to a grinding and totally miserable halt...get out of town or stay home). There's so much I want to see in California and in the South West. Sometimes you just have to walk out of the front door and GO. I need to stop putting it off. Let's just go and figure it out!


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Photochrom Travel

It's easy to spend a lot of time looking through the Library of Congress Flickr photostream. That's where I found my Rosie the Riveter pictures last week. Well, I couldn't help myself when I found their travel set with over 1,000 photochrom images. "Published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, these prints were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. The richly colored images look like photographs but are actually ink-based photolithographs, usually 6.5 x 9 inches." The locations for three of my favorites here are Blue grotto, Capri Island, Italy, then Kongen og Dronningen, Bispen in Norway, and the pier and shore in Blankenberghe, Belgium. If you're a history of photography buff like me then you will go nuts over this collection on Flickr!

1 Artist / 1 Piece: Sofonisba Anguissola

We're heading a wee bit further back in time with this week's artist. Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 – November 16, 1625) was an Italian painter from Lombardy. She came from a family of seven children (six of whom were daughters). Her parents encouraged all of their children to develop their talents and four of their daughters became painters. Minerva, one of the girls pictured here, became a writer and a Latin scholar. When Sofonisba was 22, she went to Rome and met Michelangelo. Upon seeing her work, he recognized her talent and she was then informally trained by him. She was eventually invited to join the Spanish court to serve as painter and lady-in-waiting to the Queen. She lived to the remarkable age of 93. I chose this painting because I see it as a departure from her other work. There's a wonderful sense of whimsy and play between the sisters. She has translated the relationship between these girls in a charming way. This piece is also an excellent example of her skills as painter.


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Bright Spots

How amazing is this first photo?! I found this today and immediately decided to design a post around it. That is some classic (and kind of treacherous looking) summer fun right there. Add in some roller skates and a cool pattern and we're off!


1. Vintage promotional photo for Cypress Gardens, Florida (original photographer unknown), 2, 3, 4

Ariko Inaoka

A few weeks ago I found this first image and traced its roots back to photographer Ariko Inaoka. With this project, Ariko will travel to Iceland every year to photograph eleven year old identical twins Erna and Hrefna. The project will continue until the girls are 16. Ariko is interested in the relationship between identical twins and the period between childhood and adolescence. I focused on the subject of adolescence through photography quite a bit during college so these images really struck a chord with me. I love the combination of innocence and eeriness.

Simple

My interior design principles usually consist of two quotes. "Simplicity is the key to successful living." and "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." The second is from William Morris...wise words. In the past three years of my life, I have done some major downsizing. I went from a storage-abundant apartment with a closet the size of a Manhattan bedroom to a 1920s apartment with 29" of closet rod space and NO other storage besides kitchen cabinets. Yeah, I had to get inventive and I had to make some epic trips to Goodwill. I donated boxes of books, 70% of my shoes, and bags and bags of clothing and various other bits and pieces. Yes, it helped that I was on a major minimalist kick (and still am just not to the same extent). I've been very happy with the reductions and I don't miss anything that I've given away. I'd like to take it even further when the time is right. So, yes, I guess I'm a rational, soft core minimalist at heart? I like it that way. I also like (ok, love) clean, simple, living spaces with clear surfaces, and concealed storage. Ahh, calm. I tend to get very uncomfortable and depressed in cluttered areas so these spaces are a true breath of fresh air. Many people may think these interiors are too cold or stark or bland but I would move in faster than you could bat an eye. Enjoy the breathing room.



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Next year...

I don't know about you but I've had a bit of a lonely holiday today. I spent most of the day inside and out of the heat. What I wouldn't give for a nice swimming pool. Like many people, I tend to get nostalgic on certain holidays and the 4th of July is usually one of them. Until I was in college, my family and I celebrated the 4th on the coast of South Carolina. We'd spend the day on the beach, walk home, have a summery dinner and a dessert that typically consisted of whipped cream and blueberries. Once the sun went down, we'd grab some chairs and head back to the beach for the fireworks. When my paternal grandfather was alive he was known for his impressive fireworks. It would be a huge show for everyone at the beach and all the kids would light up their sparklers and run around in the sand. I would always mentally "mark" 4 July as the half way point of my summer vacations and wish I could rewind back to June. I've been out of the loop when it comes to this holiday in recent years. I spent two 4th of July's in London which I always thought was ironic and I haven't really done much of anything for the day since moving to California. Oh well, maybe next year...


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Rosie

How fantastic are these photographs? I found all of them through The Library of Congress flickr photostream.The original images are color transparencies ranging in size from 35 mm. to 4x5 inches. They complement the better-known black and white FSA/OWI photographs that were made during the same period. I love seeing color images from this time period. I somehow feel more connected to these folks. If you look around in this album you'll find that the photographers recorded the names of these women and what they were doing before working as mechanics and engineers and how old they were. Very inspiring. It's just too bad that most women weren't given the chance to continue working in these fields after the war.

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Have a safe and happy weekend!

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1 ARTIST / 1 Piece: James Wainwright

I discovered this image while I was looking around on Flickr awhile ago and I just stopped in my tracks. Mesmerizing. There's a beautiful painterly quality as well as a sense of timelessness. I feel so transported when I look at James Wainwright's photography. You must have a look at his work here. James is based in Cornwall, UK.


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