nesting

our living room is currently table-less so i’ve been scouring the internet for something to fill the void. nesting tables never really entered into thought, but i was at a friend’s apartment over the holidays and she had this adorable set of stackers. while we were watching a movie i had my feet up on one, a drink on the second, and pizza on the third. i was a table hog. now, it seems like a no-brainer. i need my own set. recently, i chickened out on these ebay beauties. i was way out of me league.

people watching

the subjects in most of hope gangloff's portraits are of her close friends. maybe that is why she is able to create each individual's ambiguous gestures and not-quite-readable expressions, giving us a tantalizing glimpse into their lives, or in a sense, her own life. like illustrated pages of her daily journal. after researching gangloff a little further, i was excited to find out that i own some of her artwork. she drew the boo and scout image on the built by wendy tee i bought almost 5 years ago, currently faded and folded on a closet shelf.

paid for delivery

i like looking through vintage u. s. stamps with the idea that someday i’ll be savvy enough to use them as postage on birthday and christmas cards. adding detail and character to an otherwise boring envelope. in my search, i came across these beautiful mineral stamps from bulgaria.

constructed with care

brooklyn-based designer kelly clark has just released the spring/summer collection of her clothing line, keller ny, which began in 2008. mixing feminine details with masculine shapes, clark creates clothes to “slip on, love, and wear unbothered.”

quiet cold

bryan schutmaat is a houston, texas based photographer/high school history teacher. his images of day-to-day objects, vacant terrain, aged interiors, and seemingly ordinary places question what is an acceptable figure of beauty. “western frieze” is a photo collection of abandoned landscapes and roadside culture that captures the history and nostalgia of the american highway.

healing potentiality

michael dumontier and neil farber were founding members of the winnipeg artists collective, royal art lodge, in 1996, and remained active members until the group disbanded in 2008. since then, the duo has continued to work together—finishing each painting where the other left off. their most recent collection, “homemade marriage certificate,” combines a patchwork of imaginative, brightly colored images with quick-witted text. the exhibition is currently showing at the richard heller gallery in santa monica, california.

whisper please

i love the way the library smells, walking down rows of musty pages and cracked leather spines. shhhhhhh. (1) navy school-boy blazer, (2) striped sweater, (3) scotch skirt, (4) lace-up boot, (5) graphic knee socks, (6) port-a-file, (7) rucksack, (8) sasha frames, (9) cuckoo necklace

specs appeal

i've had my current frames since 2004, but because i usually only wear them before i go to sleep or on a lazy weekend, i haven't felt the need to buy a new pair. while i was back in minnesota, ben and i stopped into a frame store and tried on a few hundred pairs, just for fun. big, dorky, colorful and colorless plastic glasses filled the shelves. surprisingly, the more i laughed at them before i tried them on, the more i actually liked them on my face. I couldn't decide which ones i loved more. the middle of these vintage specs remind me of the big green frames my sister wore in middle school. i wonder if her prescription has changed.

(top photo: garance dore)

luminescence

li shurui is one of beijing’s up-and-coming young artists. classically trained in oil painting, shurui has made a name for herself through her installation experiments and her paintings of abstract light shows on large-scale, air brushed canvases reaching over 7-feet wide. shurui’s latest work, “i love me,” continues to focus on her obsession with light and reflection, but on a much smaller scale. the 6.5 x 4 inch pieces are on display in the "santa's workshop shanghai" exhibit at the james cohan gallery in new york until the end of the month.

holiday pieces 01/11/2010

what was intended to be a one week blog break, turned into one month. i’ve been in denial about getting back to writing after the holiday and spent most of last week just staring at my computer screen. in december, we drove from cold to colder—michigan to minnesota—for visits with family and friends, lots of delicious food, late night movie viewing, and afternoon hikes in freezing temperatures. i love the snow, but hate the cold. negative degrees killed my adventurous spirit and our car. when we finally got home to ann arbor, the 20 degrees outside felt like a heat wave… sadly, that notion has passed.

(photos by: erin)

natural extension

designers tara and inessah met in 2005 through a summer roommate posting on craigslist. a friendship turned into a business and thus sublet was born. an eco friendly clothing line that uses sustainable materials including organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, silk, and surplus fabrics to create their designs.

harbingers of doom

samantha french is a mixed media artist living in nyc via minnesota. most of her paintings are pulled from memories of warm summer days at the lake. they evoke the same nostalgic feelings in me. alongside her images of carefree swimmers are paintings of gathering crows, with black dripping plumage, acting as the antagonists. samantha just placed a few new prints in her online store. any one would make a perfect christmas gift.

slopes

in michigan, flakes of snow are falling from the sky outside and melting on the cool grass. in dubai, snow only falls where nature fails, inside. stéphanie solinas captures beautiful images of an artificial and controversial reality in her photo series of the united arab emirates. at ski dubai, tourists float over a bed of man-made white, under a blue painted sky, and through a paper mountain backdrop, with 120°F in the desert outside.

lucky break

la blogotheque has been filming a series of impromptu concerts around paris called "take away shows." phoenix just did a few songs with them by the eiffel tower, trocadero, and along the seine. lucky tourists. earlier this year they also filmed bon iver singing down winding streets and in doorways, and on a balcony overlooking the city's rooftops. the music is lovely and imperfect, but i would watch all of the films on mute if i had to, just to see the intimate images of the city that i miss.

they only get better with age

one thing my wardrobe is missing this fall is a pair of oxfords. i put the top pair from madewell on my christmas list. (1) tan suede, (2) red wingtips, (3) black trimmed, (4) golden brown, (5) grey suede, (6) cream wingtips, (7) tan woven, (8) white cut outs.

delicately crafted

francesca gabbiani uses an x-acto knife to cut out the tiny pieces of colored paper that make up her most recent collection of work. ben and i saw the exhibit at the patrick painter gallery when we were back in los angeles for a few days in october. the cut-out forms are assembled like rococo mirrors. you move in close to inspect the small details before you realize that you’re looking back at your own reflection against the glass and black backdrop.