Passport, luggage and our Google Spreadsheet.......

We have been preparing for our up coming trip to Europe and doing research on galleries we plan to visit.   I love this time prior to going on holidays.  The pre-holiday research time, to me, is where my holiday begins.  This is where I get to read about the places that are off the tourist track, a little bit odd or unusual and very interesting. This time ALWAYS involves the birth of a big Google docs spreadsheet.  It is then filled with places we want to check out.  Cafes to walk to, restaurants to sample, exhibitions to see, little fabric/handmade shops to visit (me)  and bicycle/shoe shops (martino) to check out. Its like putting together our own personal guide of the cities we will go to.   We have been very fortunate to do this for many cities we have visited.  Tho, not something we stick to in absolute, its good to know we have a list of places we can walk to after a long and lazy lunch and bottle of Pinot ;-)

Researching Copenhagen at the moment I came across this Brooklyn based artist Tom Fruin. His work Kolonihavehus is located in the plaza of the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen.  Tom works with reclaimed pieces of coloured plexiglass sourced from various locations in the cities he has installations in.  For the Copenhagen installation he used plexiglass from a frame shop, a closed down plexi glass distributor and even the trash from the Danish Architecture Centre.

Kolonihavehus:: Allotment in Danish

His most recent work :: Watertower ::  is located in DUMBO,  Brooklyn until June 2013.   For this work he used thousands of scraps of plexiglass sourced from such varied locations as from the floorsof Chinatown sign shops, to the closed DUMBO studio of artist DennisOppenheim, to Astoria’s demolition salvage warehouse Build It Green!NYC.





A beautiful addition to an already magnificent cityscape. 

Hope to share more of what I discover......

Art I Heart -- Gregory Thielker

These images blew me away when I first saw them. See these are not photographs - rather oil paintings. The artist is Gregory Thielker.

 I really dont have anything else to say but - wow.

Oil on canvas. For real.

 

 

 

 

 

all images via here

Images

Studio

Info

Happy Weekend :: A lovely Easter to all....

Franc Grom - A Slovenian artist who takes egg shell decorating to another level. Using a drill he makes as many as 3500 holes to create some intricate designs on your average sized egg. For the last 18 years he has been creating these beautiful works of art, each taking a week to create.  He is the only known artist of his kind.  Beautiful.......

Wishing everyone a weekend filled with a little sweetness and a lot of fun, laughter and inspiring interactions!

xox
craftyclaudes

ETSY Portraits - Arts for Transit - Sophie Blackall

I recently watched this Etsy Portraits video featuring Australian born Brooklyn based Artist Sophie Blackall, a successful children's book illustrator, as well as author of Missed Connections - Love Lost and Found. Sophies illustrations are inspired by the many ads placed in the Missed Connections section of online bulletin board Craigslist. For those not familiar with Missed Connections/Craigslist, the idea is this: You are on a train/at a park/at a private party in some trendy Soho Loft and you happen to make a connection with a stranger and by some twist of fate, nothing ever eventuates. You cant get that person out of your head and you hope that by some chance, they feel the same. So what does a New Yorker do? they place an ad in Missed Connections. Where they hope, by some chance, to reconnect with that person. Sophie spent many hours reading the ads and drew inspiration from them to illustrate her favorites. Here are some of mine:

The New York MTA recently invited Sophie to create a poster for their Arts for Transit program for 2012.  The program invites 2 artists a year to design Subway related posters that will then appear on the trains all over the city.  For this Sophie had to to narrow down her list of characters to only 34 (as that was what the space provided would allow).  I imagine this would have been very hard for her, as looking at all her work, there is surely enough there for at least 3 posters!

Here are my 2 favorite scenes from the poster:

 

 Having ridden on the subway many times, I can assure you that Sophie would have enough inspiration to draw her characters from for many years to come.   One of the many reasons why Martino and I love the city.

View and purchase the poster via the MTA site here

Visit Sophies Etsy store to purchase her work here

Give it a go: Blind Contour Sketching

Yesterday I was reading about an artist named Ian Sklarsky and his use of an old drawing technique called Blind Contour Sketching (or Drawing). The technique requires you to look at your subject and draw them without looking at your paper or lifting your pen. Here is an example of his work:

So I decided to give it a go myself.  My subject (Martino) reluctantly posed for me.   He really should not have worried because quite clearly, I did a stellar job in capturing his likeness:

And before you ask....no...I don't live with a lumberjack or the elephant man!   haha....
I thought this was a quick and fun challenge.  I can also say wholeheartedly that drawing is not my strong point.

To see more of his work click here 

Janet Echelman - The rediscovery of wonder.....

On our recent trip to San Francisco we sat in awe underneath these beautiful, ethereal installations located in Terminal 2 (T2). Simple in their material (fishing nets) softening the stark space that can often be found in most airports.

I fell in love with the idea of something as basic and ancient as a fishing net being used to fill space.

Researching further I found this wonderful (and recent) video from TED (hands down my favourite video site)  of the artist Janet Echelman discussing the progression her art has taken. Being rejected by several art colleges Janet sought to become an artist on her own. Starting off with painting she was soon invited to India for an exhibition where (by a beautiful twist of fate) she discovered the art of net making whilst observing local fishermen. So began her journey with large scale installations.

For more photos of her work visit her website here



I have recently read that the City of Sydney Art and About festival (September 23 - October 23) will be presenting some of Janet's installations. Very exciting!!

International Women's Day

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the one day of the year where women from all walks of life are celebrated I thought I would share some creative and fantabulous women I admire.  All creative, all bloggers, incredibly giving and inspirational to many.  They make me smile, think, feel and want to be more giving every day.  So lets celebrate these ladies and all the wonderful women in our lives (yes - including ourselves!)

Mimi Kirchner - Doll artist
Creator of handmade dolls including owls, fish and all sorts of incredibly detailed wonders including:

Tattooed Girl, Big Bow and Lumberjack

Check out Mimi's blog here
To purchase her creations go here     Yay! for Mimi!


Kandee Johnson - Make up artist and inspirational blogger

My sister and I both love Kandee.  I first discovered her on Youtube when I was looking for a "how-to cut your bangs" video.  Anyone who knows me, knows how that turned out! hehe....Kandee creates informative videos with beauty tips and tricks as well as how to transform yourself into fun characters for Halloween or fun dress up parties.   Most recently her most special and beautiful creation has been her baby girl, whom, during Kandee's pregnancy was known as "Cupcake" and is now named Elyse.   Here are 3 of my fave Kandee looks (check out her Youtube Channel for the how to videos for all these looks and more!
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Check out her Youtube Channel for more videos
Here is her blog



Katie Sokoler - Photographer, actress and maker of fun things!
A Brooklyn based photographer, street artist and lover of all things fun.   Along with her cat "Moo"  adds much colour to my week.

Here is a video all about Katie......

Radar Eleven - Color Me Katie. Watch more top selected videos about: Lance Weiler, Alex Johnson

Follow Katies Blog here


Happy day to all the ladies!!

xo
claudes

Intel Visual Life - The Sartorialist

I love reading and learning about modern artists. Of course if I can find a video about them on YouTube even better! Imagine my delight when I found the video below. I think one of the most wonderful things the Internet has made possible is the sharing of everyday life. Watching an artist at work whether it be at a sewing machine, behind the lens of a camera, or in the kitchen is a real gift to all of us. Seeing a person just like you and me doing something they love is a great way to fire up the creativity. To them its like breathing, and that is where the gift is for us. What these wonderful people teach us is that no matter what you do, if you do it with love in your heart and fire in your belly, it will always look effortless to others.

Here is my favorite photographer at work Scott Schuman - The Sartorialist