history in the making: election 2008

on the eve of the most historical election of my lifetime thus far,
a tribute to Barack Obama:



I am ready to believe again. Let's get out there and vote.

museum inventory

an inventory of all the amazing art/design museums, galleries and events I've visited over the years, tracking where I've been and where I want to go.

Amsterdam
Foam Fotografiemuseum
"Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Retrospective," 23 December 2005 - 2 April 2006
Van Gogh Museum

Barcelona
Museu del Temple Expiatori de La Sagrada Familia
Museu Picasso

Berlin
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Decorative Arts, September 2009
Museum für Fotografie
Helmut Newton Photography, September 2009

Boston
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Museum of Fine Arts
"Gauguin Tahiti," 29 February 2004 - 20 June 20 2004

Boulder, CO
Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art

Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago

London
OXO Tower Gallery
Saatchi Gallery
Tate Modern
Victoria & Albert Museum

Los Angeles, CA
LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
"Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008,"
26 October 2008 - 1 March 2009

Miami
Art Basel Miami Beach 2005
Lowe Art Museum - University of Miami
"Classic Posters of the Belle Epoque," February 5 - April 3, 2005
The Wolfsonian-FIU

New York
Brooklyn Museum of Art
"© Murakami," April 5–July 13, 2008
The Cloisters
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
"Design for the Other 90%," May 4–September 23, 2007
Gagosian Gallery
"Warhol from the Sonnabend Collection," January 20–March 7, 2009
Guggenheim Museum
"Richard Prince: Spiritual America," September 28, 2007 - January 9, 2008
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Morgan Library & Museum
Museum of Modern Art
"VanGogh and the Colors of the Night," September 21, 2008–January 5, 2009
Whitney Museum of American Art

Paris
Musée d'Orsay
Musée du Louvre
Musée Rodin

Prague
Mucha Museum

San Antonio
San Antonio Museum of Art

San Francisco
SFMOMA

Washington D.C.

the culture of museum "member previews"

Yesterday, I experienced another New York "first" -- that of the art museum Member Preview. Now, of course I know that Member Previews happen in art museums all around the world, in metropolitan cities everywhere, but I suspect that the phenomenon of the "New York City Art Museum Member Preview" is unique and very distinctly "New York."

As a member of the MoMA, I had been getting several emails and regular mailed invites to the exciting new exhibit "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night."



One of the benefits of membership is that you get to view the exhibits before the galleries are open to the general public, about 5 days prior. This concept was very appealing to me -- the very idea of "member preview" conjured up visions of a peaceful, serene viewing experience, with members strolling through the exhibit, murmuring their appreciation for the artwork to each other, while silently congratulating their fellow members for having the smarts to join the museum and BEAT OUT the masses of hungry pedestrian artgoers who would have to see Starry Night in "general viewing."

As the security guard pointed the way to the Van Gogh gallery, my anticipation mounted as I thought about how pleasant it would be to enjoy these masterpieces all by myself -- or at least, with a few other savvy members.

Apparently, thousands of other MoMA members had the same idea.

As I turned the corner to the exhibit entrance, I was met with a massive, coiling line of pseudo highbrow art aficionados, Brooklyn hipsters, amorous young couples, frenzied parents with turbocharged baby strollers, and distinguished old gentlemen with tweed jackets. So much for having a little QT with Vincent.

And so I patiently wormed my way to the VERY end of the line, ignored the father behind me who kept pushing the baby stroller onto my heels, drowned out the MoMA staff who kept shouting "this way to the end of the line! Members and Members' Guests ONLY!" and waited my turn to shove my way into the exhibit.

It still ended up being a very interesting exhibit, despite the hordes of people. In actuality, Member Preview was probably even MORE crowded than the more regulated general admission hours, which have timed entries.

Luckily for me, the OTHER benefit of membership is that I can go back and catch Vincent on other, less-frenzied days, from now til January. I just might have to create my OWN Member Preview on some quiet, off peak Tuesday morning.

cool creative in chattanooga

After an almost 2-month long hiatus (sorry!), I'm now back on blogging, and it's nice to be back. This is a post I've been meaning to write for months, but just hadn't gotten around to scanning in the artwork until recently when I got a pretty decent new Epson color photo printer/scanner/copier-in-one. So now I'm back from my weddings, travels, career quandaries, etc and updating again. (And yes, I'm back to reading all of your blogs too AND commenting..)

A few months ago, during my trip to Chattanooga, TN that was part-work and part-visiting one of my best friends from high school, I was browsing in a cute little gift boutique, Blue Skies, when I found these funky greeting cards:






These cards are designed by Anahata Katkin, a collage artist who has been creating cool art journals since she was in 3rd grade. Together with her mom, they started a greeting card company, PaPaYa!, which is now sold in 7 countries all around the world. I like the collage-y style of the cards, where some have a kind of ethnic feel - asian or indian-inspired patterns, and then a use of lace, glitter, and cloth texture. Funky. She has a blog, too, which had some really cool images and inspiration.

In a drastic departure from that girly style of collage art, while in Tennessee, I also happened upon Hatch Show Print, an old print shop that has churned out cool rock posters for some time.



Now I actually already mentioned this place in a previous post, but at the time I didn't get a chance to scan these "postcards" which I stupidly bought for $2 each:




As you can see, these "postcards" are really just cut up pieces of posters and test prints that ended up on the cutting room floor, swept up, printed on the back, labeled "postcards," organized in a turning postcard rack at the front counter, and snatched up by people like me, who'd pay for art room scraps. All in the name of art. Oh well, I still think they're cool. The letters printed on during the letterpress process create a kind of impression in the card stock, and then each layer of paint that is applied adds a bit of texture to the stock as well. Cool effects you can't exactly recreate in Illustrator or Photoshop. (Well, at least I don't know how to just yet.).

And there you have it, my tribute to creative inspiration in Tennessee.

COLOURlovers unite!

Here's a cool-orful website, Colourlovers.com, which is a "color and design community for creative inspiration."



What's cool is you can search sections to see what color trends are happening on the web and even in magazine covers:


You can also just browse the over 1 million colors they have on this site, as well as the thousands of patterns and color palettes. You can create your own colors, palettes and patterns and let others in the COLOURlover community vote on them.


I feel like choosing a color palette and painting all the boring white walls of my apartment now.

argentinian inspiration

I was checking out the Design*Sponge blog and saw this post about Argentinian artist, Lucas Rise, which was inspiring to me in a few different ways.

First, he paints these vibrant, colorful cabinets in latin, tribal, kaleidoscope-like patterns that are really fun and whimsical. Great inspiration for furniture painting projects or even mural compositions.



Such intricate detail:


But then, when I went to his website, even that was designed totally in line with his overall style and aesthetic.


His own design influences are from carnaval, the circus, and the park, and the combination of patterns and colors on his site--although very busy--still works for me. He uses a few different, stylized fonts, but they complement each other and still feel fun on the site.




Celebrate bold color, complex patterns, geometric shapes and energy!

mural project #2, part 2

After the mural background color was painted, we returned the following week to sketch the entire mural from a scaled-down paper study to the full blown mural, which was 56'L x 5'6"H. Transferring the mural from paper to wall took about 4.5 full hours, and the next day we had a crew of about 15 volunteer mural painters who helped us paint all day long.

The pics below show various portions of the mural, in its sketched state and final painted state. What an undertaking!











And lastly, one of my favorite contributions to the mural:


All in all, it was a pretty huge project with a lot of lessons learned. But beyond that, it just felt really awesome to know that we made even a small difference in the lives of the residents of the Veralyne Hamilton Residence in the Bronx.

mural project #2, part 1

Location: Veralyne Hamilton Residence



The first week we went, we scouted out the location and took pictures of the wall we needed to paint.



On the second visit, we measured and taped the wall to mark the borders of the mural.



And then we painted the background: "Rocky Mountain Sky"



Next up: Drawing the mural outlines and then painting with the volunteers. Stay tuned!

nashville TN: music city usa

Last Thursday, I had to go down to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to give a presentation to the brand managers of Chattem, makers of 22 health and medicinal product lines that are probably sitting around in your medicine cabinet. Amazingly, it turned out that one of my best friends, Alicia, lives only 20 minutes from Chattanooga, so after the Thursday presentation, we had 3 fun days of exploring to do.

Nashville is a very cute little city in the Midwest, also the capital of Tennessee and dubbed "Music City USA." It's home to the cable channel Country Music Television, the Grand Ole Opry, and scores of little country bars where famous musicians are said to have been discovered.

Here, you can see that the influence of music is so great, that even signs are in the shape of a guitar pick.












I took this picture of the Lawrence Record Shop as a little tribute to my brother:


And then, of course, there was the required group of gypsy kids panhandling and singing. This quartet, led by the squinty-eyed chap on the right, happened to be crooning the lyrics of "Hey There, Delilah," and they actually sounded pretty decent.


Nashville is also home of cowboys and all things western.




Miles and miles of boots as far as the eye could see.


Here are a few of my favorite pairs:




We stumbled upon Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. They still make posters the old fashioned way by hand - and I was so excited to be in the actual print shop and take in all the posters they had displayed on the walls.






These are 2 examples of their posters:




Finally, Chattanooga itself is home to lots of great little shops and the quirky Hunter Art Museum, located on a rocky bluff overlooking the Tennessee River:


Sadly, the 3 days came to an end too quickly, and I soon found myself boarding the Delta puddle jumper...


...bound...


...for...


...Home Sweet Home.