nico and i stopped into triple base the other day to say hello to will and dina and check out the current show of sf-based artist, rachel kaye- a colorful, glittery explosion of drawings, paintings, and sculptures that were very “BIG THINGS!” in a style and palette reminiscent of german expressionist painters like kandinsky, kirchner, and...
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there are so many things i love about my hometown of chicago- the cubs, the pizza, the bean, the el. but this homecoming is a little bit different- i’m not only here to visit family and friends, i’m also bringing the BIG THINGS SHOP to the midwest for the first time ever!!! with my...
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it’s intangible, indefinable, inspiring and represents the “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” – it’s wabi-sabi! with roots in zen buddhism and japanese tea ceremony, the aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi is difficult to describe, but you would probably know it if you saw it. driftwood, misty mornings, drooping flowers and rusting metal are all included in this...
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This week Sara from Brown Paper Bag takes us to the German landscape through the eyes of photographer duo Bernd and Hilla Becher. Documenting various architectural structures and arranging them into “typologies,” the couple transforms the context of ordinary industrial buildings simply by rearranging them. In a strangely similar vein, I wrote about the...
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some strange cosmic serendipity has brought two phenomenal artists into my life, the first being tomas saraceno and his mind-blowing balloon structures and cities; the second, italo calvino and his two collections of outrageous short stories about the origins of the universe and imaginary cities, cosmicomics and invisible cities. the use of space, air, lightness and being, plus...
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last weekend i flew up to portland for 36 hours to celebrate the opening of nico‘s first solo show at 12128 boatspace, our friends’ gallery/studio on a boat docked up in nw industrial portland. it was a quick trip, but it was really awesome to collide sf worlds (lisa & chris) and portland worlds...
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found a fantastic gem on netflix this weekend, fellini’s nights of cabiria. the 1957 film follows cabiria, a petite, snarky prostitute, on her adventures around rome with her hooker crew and abusive clientele. her searches for god, happiness, and most of all, true love, prove disappointing until she finally meets an eligible bachelor… starring...
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i found this book at the thrift store for 50 cents and had to share it! patrick caulfield was a british painter and printmaker who famously depicted snippets of everyday domestic scenes in saturated color and a remarkably flat style. unlike his pop art contemporaries, lichtenstein, oldenburg and warhol, who were capitalizing on the objects...
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happy indigenous people’s day, everyone! on this day last year, i shared some photos of chichicastanango market in guatemala. this year, we’re heading to mexico for some images from the codex zouche-nuttall, a pre-columbian, hand-painted narrative book documenting the history of a mesoamerican mixtec community (oaxaca) and their lord, the aptly named Eight Deer...
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I am SO HAPPY that Sara at Brown Paper Bag chose de Chirico as this week’s Time Travel Tuesday feature! Giorgio de Chirico has blown my mind ever since sitting in front of The Philosopher’s Conquest at the Art Institute as a teenager wondering why the hell those artichokes were there. Step into his surreal...
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