In what is now at least a two-part-series I might as well call “cats make teh artz more interesting“, I’m loving this Balthus painting that Ann Marie sent me this morning. As she said, this Le Chat de la Méditerranée is really the devil hisself. Nice fish rainbow, nice soludos, chat.
The sun decides whether or not it wants to come out today, and I feel like I am living in this Will Barnet painting that Miss McKay snapped and sent me from the Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas. My cat is brown, but I think sometimes he dreams he is white.
Spotted in LA. We take our time, and we go everywhere. This week: New York City. Next week: the world.
Oh Adventure! Last weekend we got a wild hair, piled into Francine (Miss Jocie’s mobile… all good cars have names), and made our adventurers way to Storm King Art Center. Five women strong, scarves, leathers, the flush of possibility, (and we picked up Mike, king of beers and collars, on the side of the road), a wrecking crew to make our way. Just an hour north of the city, Storm King is an outdoor sculpture park situated on 500 acres of impeccably swooping jealous-Olmstead wild-meets-barely-tamed earth, dotted with monolithic sculptures. In a word, it is awesome. This time it also happened to be peak leaf season, PEEPINGPEAKING, and everything was suffused with the kind of beauty that you can’t stop talking about, the sheer hush and truth of where you are, who you’re with, how the air feels, how the golden-hour light looks, and the how-if-everything-hadn’t-happened-just-so we wouldn’t be here, but it DID so REVEL IN IT makes you utterly, totally full-hearted and giddy. Storm King is open through November, so get thee there, this weekend, do it. And after you do, order six pulled pork sandwiches and a parcel of tallboys, to go, from Barnstormer’s BBQ. At least that’s what we did. Here, some of the beauty:
If you’re needing a little dose of wonder and beauty this morning, go here. With this incredible 360 degree panoramic view of the Sistine Chapel, you can zoom in and out on any panel, move around the room as if you were actually there (or as if you were actually flying up by the ceiling), and—in an INTERNET FIRST—the site’s built in heavenly music is totally awesome. The Vatican has really stepped up their web presence. While you may want to zoom in on the Drunkenness of Noah or (my personal fave) Judith slaying Holofernes, it’s also just pretty cool to check out the oft-ignored “Sistine Floor”.
Waiting on pictures from the grand festivities of this weekend, in the meantime, it’s officially fall and my need and want to nest has escalated to epic proportions. I am especially coveting Katherine Wolkoff’s amazing photographs of FOUND BIRDS. The silhouettes are striking, austere—sort of like an Audubon mug-shot—and each has the description of where the bird was found, under what circumstances (brought down by a storm, taken from a cat etc. and by who. There is something sort of morbidly curious but also noble and honoring about the series. As always, it’s the story behind them that makes them matter most.
Above: left: Black-billed cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus. Killed by flying against a lighted window, presented by Alice Northup. May 6, 1925. right: Yellow-billed cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus. Killed by South East Lighthouse, salvaged by Charles Rogers Jr. September 23, 1935
Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis. Found beneath wires by Stanley Stinson. December 11, 1929.
Barn Owl, Tyto alba. Blind in one eye- telephone wire victim. Found by George Grime. December 25, 1943
Great Blue Heron, Ardea hernias. Found dead in road by Richard Conley. November 15, 1947
Great Egret, Casmerodius albus. Brought to Block Island by Captain Alfred Jacobsen. Alighted on fishing vessel “Friars” at Georges Bank during N.E. storm. April 2, 1931
Greenbacked Herons, Butorides striatus left: Immature: taken from a cat by Mr and Mrs Herb Winsor. September 23, 1944. right: Male, Wired victim found by Mary Elizabeth Lewis. May 18, 1944
On our way out to spend Memorial Day at Sweetheart’s house in Rockaway we drove past Floyd Bennett Field. I’ve always had a bit of a love affair with the old airfield (see here and here). How interesting, then, to discover this amazing photographic series “Found in Nature” by Barry Rosenthal: collections of items and objects found out at Floyd Bennett Field. This weekend, on that brilliant, sunny, fresh-hot birth of summer day, they had a carnival set up: a Ferris Wheel, a funny purple roller coaster, big fat circus lights and cotton candy. How many new contributions must have been left behind…
Read more about Barry Rosenthal and his art here and thanks to Things Organized Neatly for the heads up (man I love that site).
How cool is this? German artist Mark Formanek builds a wonderful giant clock before our very eyes, filming the whole thing as workers change and set the numbers in real time. It took 70 workers and 1,611 changes to make it accurate, and the result is simply majestic. Here are some small videos of the clock in motion, and if you want the live clock on your desktop, there’s an app that syncs to your computer’s internal clock. Brilliant and functionally obsolete? My Favorite.
heads up from here.
I’m loving the divine Miss Mia’s newest endeavor, The Novo Project. Mia is one of those magnetic souls, a student of the possibilities and the positive, a gatherer of beauty and feathers and magic. She’s one of those rare people who seems to burn a bit brighter and hotter than most everyone else- but not in a consumptive way, in the best way, the way that casts light and shadow, that shows a relief of what is and a glimpse of what could be. So, when she says that her Novo Project “will be sharing stories, profiles, and images that are tender / wise / outrageous courageous / quirky / beautiful / insightful of–––authors / artists / designers / educators / healers / athletes…etc.”, I’m inclined to stop whatever I’m doing and listen. Check it out here.
ps. I can’t get over how much Mia looks exactly like her mama here.
I am in love love love with this Molly Ledbetter painting. Deep Dark Secret Confession: I’m one of those boring poopers who usually prefers when art is a picture of something. Like a horse or a ship or a faith healing. I probably would have been gasping and “well-I-never!”-ing at the 1913 Armory Show. Yet even though dear miss Molly’s work is large scale, graphic, and abstract, it’s also deliciously tactile, lovely and compelling, with riotous pops and swags of color and I just love it. She’s got a marvelous new site (and a great blog to boot). Now if I could only decide which piece is my favorite…
Feather By Feather 