More random links...

Artsy

Janine Mackintosh does wonderful things with eucalyptus leaves

Amazing art created from folded paper, by Simon Schubert

More folded paper, but this time in a completely different way. Make sure to scroll through the images to get the whole effect, plus a specially post modern ending.

I know not everyone is a birds fan, but Leontine Greenberg makes them seem sweet and whimsical to me.

Another interesting portfolio, this by Mary Katogi.

Some photos from the 2009 Biennale in Venice. Modern art can be cool, yet utterly stupid at times.

I can't even remember finding Chris Berens, but looking over his stuff now sort of freaks me out and intrigues me. Which I suppose is good.

Eek. I have no idea why I saved Sebastian Bremer since I can't find anything that makes me tingle to see it at the moment, but there is a lot of OCDish repetition and line work, which likely drew me in.

I really love the simple/cartoony style of Shigeru Ito... Scroll down to the book covers especially.

Art of Native Vermont. This is what I always like to call kitchen art. As in, it'd look nice framed in my kitchen.

Very influenced by Klimt, but still gorgeous, by David Sala. I think it's from a children's book, but my french is stuck at ou est la tour eiffle...

Amazing stuff by Meredith Dittmar.



Toys / Craftsy / Other Artsy Stuff Really

I kindof love this cardboard rhino, although not really sure wtf I'd do with it. (Likely stick it in a box somewhere to have it mate with dust bunnies. Rhino-bunny offspring -- Bonus!

I love things ordered according to their colour - and so this display of coloured pencils makes me smiley.

I'm not really into the whole typhography craze, but I can still recognize purdy stuff, like this poster of a vine-y alphabet.

OMG this is some insane shit - the whole text of Romeo and Juliet deconstructed into categories of rage indifference and passion

Amazing creatures and things from imaginism studios. This is what I want to do when I grow up...

Great installation of cascading books by Alycia Martin.



Design (aka more Artsy stuff) and Furniture

Local link this time by an art school in Tel Aviv - coffee culture. Am digging the bubbles.

Dachshund (caNNOT spell that) Lamp. Way too expensive, yet cute.

Heh, I marked this as inflatable something when I saved the link, so I guess I'll just leave it as that.

I've always been a sucker for crayons, and Crayola is the brand of my childhood. Still makes me nostalgic when I pass by their display at the Office Depot stores. Nice retrospective post about their branding through the ages.

Pretty Japanese crayons that make lovely mixed colours.

Perfect for those of us with anal retentive flat mates. Lego fridge!

Mushroomy air filled lamps.

I would love this pixely bag for myself. Or at least I would if it weren't so expensive, even though I have like 12 tote bags I never use.

Kitchy I know, but I'm a sucker for rainbows.



WTF-arry

You know I once watched a play where the dude saved all his fingernail clippings from his life in a jar on the mantle, sort of a way to mark the growth I suppose. This Life Urn thing reminds me of that somehow. Ack.

A creepy leash/lead, that I may have linked before... *hums The Beatles*

With the high holidays upon us, let us go back to Passover and renumerate the 10 plagues, with Peeps.

While also technically art, there is some serious wtf action going on here with this snail anatomy artwork. Slimy.

Giving new life to the term tea bagging. Heh.

Born Free

Is it weird that while taking out a chicken from the freezer for a good Shabbes dinner, the first thing that came to my mind was this song?

Even worse than that is the fact that the internet hop scotch brought me to where I am right now as I'm writing this post - listening to a playlist of Tom Jones... Yes, that's right. I AM LISTENING TO THE SEX BOMB. Go ahead and take my name off the hip list for all of time. (Saying "hip list" sort of makes me an automatic write-off anyhow, huh?) *quickly youtubes Ladytron and bops head in nonchalant yet utterly hip manner* Nothin to see here. Move along..

Actually, speaking of Ladytron, walking down the street the other day I heard a beat coming from some kiosk that reminded me of one of their songs that I used to listen to constantly on my Discman (who even uses a discman these days??) walking around the slummish neighbourhoods I lived in during University. I gotta tell you that it made my bowels go all crunchy with the memories of the ghosts of Uni past. Fuck if I didn't do a whole lot of things best forgotten back in the day...

But I digress (as usual. Can anyone spell ADD?) - I was actually thinking about freedom, and flying fowl. Or something. *blinks* Ok, sue me, I have no idea what I was thinking about.

I wonder sometimes if everyone's mind is like this - a crazy swirly black hole filled with bouncy rubber balls and disjointed ideas. I always envied those people who seemed to have such a strong grip on their minds - knowing exactly what they wanted from life - a goal always shining at the end of the tunnel to light their paths. Making steps in a direction that had always been a "goal" of my own for so long brings up the inevitable question of, will this be IT? The elusive IT we're all looking for (ok, this is IT. I've found IT. IT is where I want to be...).

Of course I know that it's not that simple, that happiness is something one has to work on constantly. Sort of like finding Mr. Right -- one doesn't tumble into love and that's IT, bring on the babiez and the picket fences, because dude, I am in LURVE!!!1 - I'm with who I am pretty sure is my own Mr. Right, and damn if we don't constantly have to work on finding the perfect rhythm for us.

But this afternoon, cooking non-born-free-range chickens for a shared friday dinner amongst many, and doodling on the laptop with a minimum of clothing and an acute case of bed-head -- I reckon I'll enjoy the journey for now. At least until the next bouncy ball bangs against my cortex just so.

no picture this time, just links of other people being cool

Art

• Ara Peterson makes optical illusions in person! Kinda makes my eyes swim, in a cool coloury sort of way.

• Adam Ziskie makes some groovy art - especially digging "the glass fiddle", not to mention the Willy Wonka quote. Pure imagination indeed.

• More mega cool art this time by Nick Cave (not-that-one-the-other-one), named soundsuits, which are basically explosions of YAY. *nods sagely*

• This was my wallpaper at work until my boss, The Professor (that's what we call him, seriously) asked what it was - I said it relaxes me and he snorted (he never snorts - very odd) and said he thought it was more exciting than relaxing. *blinks* Ew. Ok. Still, Melissa Haslam has some gorgeous stuff, and I just want the kitties.

• Trees. I love em. And I love Bryan Nash Gill's tree relief prints.

• Sweet simple art by Blanca Gomez, especially like the monsieur ones.

• I love the 3D art here - especially the elephant who can move his legs with the knobby things on the side

• Various designs and art about love/sex. Love the hide-away sex toy in the lamp.

• A cool collection of art made from obsolete technology.

• Microsoft becoming cool? Check out these brilliant wallpapers that are rumoured to be part of Microsoft 7.

• Hee, knit your own Mr. Peen.

• I love Gallery 1988 - and this show Beyond The Page re-looking at classic texts from our youth is full of wonderful stuff.

Stuff for Tea

• These tea towels are pretty and make me feel studenty again. I kinda miss being studenty dammit.

• Apparently these beautiful kettles are called Lady Cadogen teapots, and I want, allthough I secretly know they'd get all mucky with sediment in like, 5 minutes. Still purdy.

• Yet another tea kettle - the all in one - of course, what I like most about it is how the graphics appear only when it's hot. Me and my love for hyper-color changing things. I'm such an 80's child.

Furniture-ish Art

• I love these chairs - I can just imagine curling up in a chair of flowers - seems so relaxing.

• I think these crochet lamps would make such pretty light. Of course, my tel aviv apartment would ruin the whole clean-white thing. But still.

• Love these chairs, although I have no idea what they're made of since I can't understand a word on that site. But still it's a pretty chair.

• This cloud shelf is wonderful, as well as the stuff on it. Yay ugly dolls.

• More pretty light fixtures - this one from paper maiche.

Various Other Stuff

• There are 3 things I love about this thing - the magentability (*insists on word existance* ) of the box it comes with, and of course the flexy nature of it, and that it's a magnet. Who doesn't love playing with magnets?

• I really want these mosaic fridge magnets - I'm imagining hours of fun, alongside hours of frustration for not getting it *exactly right* :)

• Feeling sorely without a *home* these days, maybe that's why this concept of mobile houses on wheels appeal to me.

• Bunny jewlery with various weapons of destruction. Yeeesss, bunnies = equal mass destruction. *blink*

• I don't know what to call this, other than "weird plant thingo"

• A dark depressing first dictionary.

• A nice paper card with a popup flower.

fancy meeting you 'ere

A while back I met a friend for beers for "old times sake" - the original plan being some sort of re-creation of the recreation (you can SO tell I'm a linguist, huh? HUH?) of yesteryear. Plans being the wobbly things they are, the end result was a bit different than the expected rampage and bacchanalian frenzy.

Not that I didn't enjoy myself, but that bzzz feeling I used to get at the end of the first drink, the one that told me moremoremorefunfunfunmoremoremore just isn't there these days. I remember the slightly desperate tingle -similar somehow to the tingle of insomnia - that would always put me right on the edge, only to throw myself gleefully over it - Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Oblivion! Life of the party! Cowabunga!! (*is child of the 80's*). Bejesus, did I have me some great times there in mid air; but to stretch this rotten metaphor a bit longer, in the end I always hit the ground.

Truth is, I'm getting old. There. I said it!

*pulls out rocker*

*piles up cats*

*develops stink eye*

*tells damn kids to get off my lawn*

*cackles gleefully*

Ok, perhaps I'm not quite there yet, but the reality is that I just don't have the patience and energy for the shenanigans of yesteryear. It's such a cliche to be in a relationship and suddenly have your tolerance for alcohol drop by cubic tons ("oh, I'll have a glass of red wine, thanks"), to develop a burning interest in cooking sites and recipes (and having them delivered to your door courtesy of the nearest feed) instead of madly jumping between the stepping stones of the interwebz, searching for the latest, most hardcore, underground art movement ("if only I lived in XXX, I'd totally be OUT THERE instead of here, in this cultural vacuum!"). So, yes - perhaps I am a living breathing cliche. But damn if I'm not enjoying it.