Sep 1, 2012 | inspiration
It’s the back-to-school time of year, and for kids my age, back to school usually means away from home. To me, home is where your dog is or at the very least where most of your useful stuff takes up space. It’s a pain in the ass to haul all your things somewhere new every semester of college, but if you think about the grand number of times you’ll have to do it till you graduate, it’ll only make you depressed.
Each new dorm or apartment is an opportunity to recreate the space you spend the most time in (even if it’s only a few square feet), so this inspiration post is dedicated to everyone currently in transition.
May you settle with grace in a space that suits you.
 |
| Andrew Wyeth (1917 – 2009) – Ericksons Photo found on Tumblr here. |
This man sits patiently, hands delicately intertwined, and the expression on his face is one of near-surprise. As if he’s been looking out that same window for years and all of a sudden something’s different, someone’s arrived.
 |
by Belgian artist Henri de Braekeleer, 1877
Photo from Tumblr, found here. |
Although I couldn’t exactly tell if this was the man’s studio or his home, I imagine that as an artist the two places are pretty closely related. The objects in the painting remain somewhat still, but the floor and empty walls seem to shake and shimmer with the vibration of empty space.
 |
Henri Matisse, The Violinist at the Window, 1918
Photo found here via Tumblr. |
I love Matisse’s colored works. So many of his sketches could become masterpieces with just a little pigment. Here, the faceless violinist looks out the window as he practices. It looks like there may be a balcony indicated by the white railing beyond the windowpane, but he stays inside – almost as if he’s worried of losing the acoustics of his home, unwilling to share his sound outside.
 |
Daylight Raid from My Studio Window, Sir John Lavery, 1917
Photo found on Tumblr here. |
I’m not sure what he means by “Daylight Raid” since it seems remarkably peaceful outside the painted window, but my eye goes straight to the woman looking out of it. The funny thing about looking out windows with someone, is that you can’t both properly look out and look at each other at the same time, so here we’re left with the woman’s backside, half in shadow, as her shimmery dress falls on the couch she’s kneeling on. Perhaps those are planes and not birds in the sky, but I prefer the latter.
While searching for these selections, I found that most images featuring someone inside their home usually included a window or doorway somewhere, leading the eye out. I think that’s a good metaphor for the restlessness within all of us, and that sense of almost-relief you feel when there’s someplace new to move to.
GD Star Rating
loading...
Aug 30, 2012 | news
Starting this Sunday, you’ll be able to find a spruced-up Campbell’s soup can at Target, design courtesy of Andy Warhol. These colorful new cans are Campbell’s way of celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Warhol’s famous “32 Campbell’s Soup Cans.”
To accompany these special soup cans, Campbell’s Facebook page has gone Warhol-wild, with a pop art filter for your photos and a memory game where you match up the new different colored cans.
Warhol had always loved Campbell’s Soup, and the company used to send him cases of it for free. “I used to have the same lunch every day for twenty years,” he said.
 |
| Warhol’s “32 Cambell’s Soup Cans,” each a different kind, made 1962. |
Initially, Campbell’s didn’t like the idea of Warhol using their cans in his work. But they decided to wait on taking legal action until the public had reacted to the piece. By 1964 the pop art soup cans had become a phenomenon, and Campbell’s even sent a letter to the artist thanking him and praising his work.
“I have since learned that you like tomato soup,” Campbell’s marketing manager wrote, “I am taking the liberty of having a couple cases of our tomato soup delivered to you.”
Story found on the ABC News blog here.
Read more about the history between Warhol and Campbell’s in USA Today’s article here.
GD Star Rating
loading...
Aug 25, 2012 | installation, MCA Chicago, sculpture
As you walk into the MCA’s architecture-inspired exhibit, Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity, the first piece you see is Yin Xiuzhen’s Portable Cities: five open suitcases spread out along the floor.
Each contains a mini-skyline, small buildings made out of cloth – just like the clothes our suitcases carry. You can even see the tags on some of the clothes that make up rivers and lakes, and buttons in odd places. Most of the little buildings are built along the open flap, inside the body of the suitcase is a map of each city, viewable through a small lit hole.
 |
| Hangzou, China |
The blue-painted walls suit the yellow strings hung above. The strings map out the distance from one city to the next, forming a makeshift globe out of the three blue walls that surround the five suitcases. The string-suitcase combination makes for a beautiful scene, like a miniature world that can be thrown in the washer whenever it gets dirty.
Check out the rest of my Portable City pictures and others from the MCA here in my Flickr set:)
GD Star Rating
loading...
