What are you up to this weekend? We’re headed to the Discover Cube with friends to check out the dinosaur exhibition. It’s going to be good catching up with one of oldest friends. Hopefully I’ll be able to practice some photography out there.
Now, for this week’s Fun Links of the Week:
Love fashion? Here are 8 fashion photographers you should have on your radar.
The company behind Flyte, the world’s first levitating light, has just come out with a new product called Lyfe. The gravity-defying floating planter is a 12-sided geodesic designed planter that rotates in mid-air. The magic happens due to a custom shaped magnet that pushes up against an electromagnetic base. This is perfect for those those looking to effortlessly grow plants. Within Lyfe, you grow air plants, which don’t require any soil.
Lyfe is now on Kickstarter. Their goal is to raise $80,000. Their last project, Flyte, is now on sale on their website. Each floating light sells for $349. On Kickstarter, Flyte raised an astounding $617,258. Amazing! Do you think Lyfe will be just as popular? If you’re an early backer you can buy a Lyfe for $179. This will include a free air plant of your choice. Read more about Lyfe on Kickstarter.
Remember American Giant, the hoodie and t-shirt maker? I got my white t-shirts and I love them! They’re the perfect fit and length and Sam loves this lightweight hoodie I bought for him in black. Highly recommend.
Looking to remodel? Here’s a guide with 200 custom color schemes based on every room in a home so you can find ideas for any type of remodeling project. (I always prefer white.)
Truth be told, I’ve been a fan of Kerby Rosanes for quite some time. The moment I laid eyes on his incredibly detailed sketches I was blown away by his talent. He’s the author of several books, including coloring books (if you’re into that), and he’s now come out with a brand new book called Sketchy Stories, that’s presented as a Moleskine notebook. Loaded with secret doodles, elaborate sketches, whimsical lines and detailed patterns, it’s a must-have for anyone who has ever picked up a pen and doodled before.
Interspersed with his artwork, Kerby also includes techniques, tips, inspirations, and influences. In total, it’s a 128 page book. I liked this review on Amazon: “This is a journal-like book with an elastic closure filled with beautiful and clever illustrations. It is the type of art that you can look at over and over again and always see something new. It isn’t specifically suggested that you can color this art in but you could as it is all black and white line art. The art has meanings, puns and double entendre along with cute little creatures, deer, birds and all sorts of things. A complete feast for the eyes!”
Here’s some of the work you’ll find inside.
Couldn’t you just stare at each piece for hours? You can pick up Sketchy Stories on the Quarto Knows website or on Amazon.
With the fair being on a Saturday, Sam and I decided to take a day off on Monday to relax with the kids. The fair went well, by the way, there were thousands of people and Parker got to hang out and talk to the community’s policemen, firemen and ambulance drivers. Moms, you know how much that means.
We called our brother-in-law, Burt, to ask him if he wanted to meet us up at Disneyland. We spent about three hours eating and playing at the California Adventure side of the park. I lugged my big DSLR to Disneyland for the very first time. (I’d always just take pictures using my iPhone but I wanted to practice shooting with a higher quality camera). For the most part, it wasn’t too hard balancing two kids and a huge camera. I had to sneak in my pictures where I could. I kept thinking – Line, Light, Moment. I actually want to go back to Disneyland, sans kids, and take pictures of patterns or symmetry at the park.
Alas, here are my pictures from Monday.
Logan and Parker in Downtown Disney taking a break before we entered the park.
My nephew Riverton wanted to hold hands with Parker. It was so sweet.
Parker didn’t want to ride on Little Mermaid with the rest of the group, so we just hung out at one of the benches.
My brother-in-law, Burt, and his son, Riverton, watching the Toy Story green army parade.
The three kids hanging around, checking out the big lake and the large ferris wheel.
Logan and Parker love playing the fishing game. It’s a guaranteed winner every time. We end up with lots of stuffed animals but we give them away to random strangers just because.
Sam bought a lot of credits so the kids went fishing for quite some time.
Riverton won two medium size prizes which came out to two Mickey Mouses! He was over the moon.
We rode the carousel next. Parker’s a big boy now so he can ride all by himself. Logan, not so much. He started kicking and screaming. (I had flashbacks to the tram ride at the Wild Animal Park.) Poor Sam almost had to take him off but luckily Logan calmed down.
Logan’s sweet spot. (Over Sammy’s left shoulder.)
He quickly fell asleep and stayed in that position for at least an hour. (Poor Sam’s arms.)
We bought Riverton and Parker each a new car. Damn that store, Ridemakerz, on the way out! The car version of Build-A-Bear is kind of genius, though. Parker got his remote control-style Lightning McQueen car. The kids had a blast playing with it once we got back to Burt’s house.
An advanced online preview of HUSH’s new show has just been released. HUSH has an immediately recognizable style, he paints the female form using a combination of acrylic paint, screen printing and spray paint, so that there’s a beautiful yet purposeful messiness to each piece. With bright red lips and impossibly white faces, the women in his paintings bear the striking resemblance to geisha girls.
I enjoyed this description of HUSH’s work, from Metro Gallery:
The artist’s mark-making bears the distinct aesthetic of tagging, bringing the rough texture of street art into each piece. Swift gestural marks underlie splashes of paint, looping through lines and over bright combinations of colour. With an in-depth technique that includes painting, screen printing and spray-painting, Hush creates work that instantly draws the eye in and holds the viewer’s focus. Patterns ranging from geometric repetition to florals that conjure up images of royal tapestries and delicately decorated vases are not solely confined to the background but often take shape, forming graceful fabrics. In some works these shapes appear solidly, while in others the central figures are only lightly delineated from the waves of pattern, body and background blending, as if they are sinking into the colourful composition itself.
The UK-born artist will debut his show, title Allure, from May 28 to July 2 at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. This would be a fantastic show to see in person.
The largest exhibition of Banksy’s work ever! With the help of private collectors from all around the world, a new exhibition will show a vast collection of original works by the famed street artist Banksy. Starting May 24 through September 4, 2016, the public will be able to visit Rome’s prestigious Palazzo Cipolla museum to see over 120 pieces including paintings, prints, sculptures, and rare objects. All of the works are from private collectors, therefore, none have been removed from the street.
The exhibition, titled War, Capitalism & Liberty will examine how social and political events are viewed through the irreverent wit and artistic skill that encapsulates the career of the artist known as Banksy – from his black and white stenciled sandwich board-wearing monkeys declaring ‘Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge’ to the unsettling image of ‘Kids on Guns’.
Commenting on War, Capitalism & Liberty, Prof. Avv. Emmanuele FM Emanuele, President of Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Italia e Mediterraneo, said: “The exhibition is a far-reaching initiative, a unique platform to showcase the themes that it deals with – war, capitalism and freedom – which seem to be both the primary sources of inspiration for the artist known as Banksy, characterised by a strong component of social protest, and the most current and urgent themes defining our present times. This exhibition is the perfect and natural culmination of a path I wanted to pave through the Fondazione terzo Pilastro in order to give voice to a form of street art expression that takes art out of the museums and shifts it into everyone’s world, making it something that belongs to our daily lives.”
How I wish I could see this show! Anyone up for a summer visit to Rome? Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find there.
Hey! What are you up to this coming weekend? We’re celebrating a bunch of family birthdays and we’re combining that with a late Mother’s Day celebration. We bought Snapbox’s pillows for Sam’s parents, four of them, one for each grandchild. They turned out great. I’ll share a picture of them next week.
Now, on to this week’s fun links of the week.
I have to start off with this. Could it have been any more beautiful? I’m listening to it on repeat. JT acoustic album, please.
A few days ago, Sam and I took the boys to one of the beaches we frequent the most, San Clemente Beach. The beach is unique because a train runs right next to it, so every so often, we’ll all stop and watch as it passes by. Of course, the boys get ecstatic at the sight of any train, let alone one that’s in full motion. I brought out our colorful beach blankets though no one really sat on them except for Parker to take the picture above. At this age, the kids really don’t like swimming in the water, so mostly, we visit to play in the sand and watch the sunset.
We brought a bunch of toys from the house, Parker gravitated toward the dump trucks.
Logan didn’t care much for the toys, he just wanted to climb on top of the big rocks.
Speaking of rocks, Sammy was channeling his inner Michael Grab to make this balancing stack.
We brought take-out, nachos and tacos from a Hapa J’s, and enjoyed dinner while watching the sunset. The nachos at Hapa J’s are huge, they’re topped with Kahlua pulled pork which made for a mighty big dish. (We couldn’t finish it.)
Here’s the three boys waving to the train as it passed by.
Logan was a busy little man, running around on the beach.
Overall, it was a fun evening. The beach is just gorgeous at sunset.
For those in Southern California, I’d highly recommend this beach because it’s never that crowded (like Newport Beach) and, if you have kids, they really get a kick out of the train. (Maybe next time we’ll even try walking on the San Clemente Beach Trail.) I like what one Yelper wrote about the beach, “Though it may suffer from erosion, the sand is half large rocks, and the public restrooms aren’t as well maintained as some other locales, this place has serious character. Take a moment to drink in the view from the public parking deck, which is pretty cheap. Breathtaking. This beach always has a refreshing breeze. The break is solid. The town is chill. Not as gritty as Venice, not as uptight as Manhattan, not as pristine teen dream as Laguna, the perfect sweet spot right in the middle.”
Talk about some mad Etch A Sketch skills! One of the most iconic paintings of all time, Georges Seurat’s 1884 painting, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” was just recreated by artist Jane Labowitch not with a pen or pencil but with an Etch A Sketch. Sitting in front of the actual painting at The Art Institute of Chicago, it took the artist eight hours spread over four days to make the beautiful waterfront scene.
She told the Chicagoist that this isn’t the first time she’s used Etch A Sketch for art. “I’ve been pretty consistently using an Etch A Sketch as an artistic medium since I first started playing with the toy when I was four,” she said.
The artist holds a BFA in Illustration from Chicago’s American Academy of Art and works as a professional illustrator. She initially planned to recreate the painting using a digital image but then heard that the painting would be temporarily moved to a wall facing a well-placed bench. This led her to deciding to Etch A Sketch in person. Passersby noticed. “I met people from all over the world who had stories to share about how they had an Etch A Sketch when they were a kid, too.”
What’s next? Labowitch plans on recreating another Art Institute treasure, Marc Chagall’s “America Windows.” Can’t wait to see more.
If you’d like to learn more about Georges Seurat’s famous painting, Mental Floss has an interesting article that lists 15 things you may not know about it.
Update: We got in touch with the artist to ask her a few questions.
How has the response been to your Seurat Etch A Sketch?
The response to my Seurat Etch A Sketch has been explosive! It’s blown me away. So far I have been interviewed for CBS Chicago radio and a few online news articles. I was in the RedEye today. Tomorrow I am going to be on NPR and I will be on Fox 32 news on Sunday morning! On Monday I am going to be on WGN radio. It’s been a whirlwind media circuit and I am so so grateful that my art is being so well-received!
What’s the secret to creating such detailed Etch A Sketches?
The secret to creating such detailed Etch A Sketch art is patience! It is important to take your time to make sure that you don’t misjudge proportions. I spent arguably as much time staring at the painting as I did rendering it on my Etch A Sketch, to make sure that I wasn’t missing any important details.
What’s the biggest challenge in creating these?
The biggest challenge is making sure that everything stays proportional, meaning that nothing is too big or far apart from other things in relation to it. This is difficult to do, because there is no way to map out or sketch the final drawing before you begin. The fact that everything is all connected with one line adds an interesting challenge, too, because you have to come up with creative ways to make everything connect without it being distracting.
Do you have any plans to create Van Gogh’s Starry Night?
I actually have made Van Gogh’s Starry Night, on a pocket (small) Etch A Sketch! Here’s a link to it. I gave it to my mom for Christmas in 2014, as it is one of her favorite paintings, and I have never given her an original Etch A Sketch rendition of mine before. I would love to re-visit Starry Night on the classic (large) Etch A Sketch, though! It’s one of my all-time favorite paintings.
You can follow Labowitch’s work on Facebook where she goes by the name Princess Etch A Sketch.
via [Chicagoist]
First image, photoshopped by MagnuPI on Reddit
Hello, I’m Alice Yoo! I’m founder and CEO of Skylar Yoo, a company dedicated to inspiring and empowering women to be bold. We sell apparel, art prints and accessories to the modern feminist.
In my former life, I was editor-in-chief of the art and culture blog My Modern Met, which I founded back in 2007. I curated and wrote about art, design and photography for more than seven years. (In fact, I published over 7,000 articles which were seen by millions of people worldwide.) I’m also co-author of a book called For Love: 25 Heartwarming Celebrations of Humanity, which is on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
I live in southern California along with my husband and my two toddler boys.
This blog is about what I love, the tough experiences that I’ve learned from, and my journey as a second time entrepreneur. Right now, I’m in the midst of a 365 day challenge, to read one book a day. If you share my passions or want to learn some cool new facts, come along for the ride. I hope to inspire, educate and entertain you!
