Friday nights...

...are great for art. I'm going to this museum to see this exhibition tomorrow night. Can't wait! I'll take photos if I can.








All photos © 2008 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Special delivery

I can't wait for this to arrive in the mail. Next week can't come soon enough!

Catalinaware at SFO

Waiting in San Francisco airport (aka SFO) to head back to New York from a visit to my sister last spring I had some time to kill. It's a great airport with loads of shops, food stands, and even restaurants in which to spend your pre-flight time. They even have exhibitions! While I was there they had on display a show about Catalinaware, a type of art pottery produced on California's Santa Catalina Island from 1927 to 1937.

I ended up "killing" quite a bit of time looking through this comprehensive exhibition and taking loads of snaps, a selection of which are below. In my opinion it was a museum-quality show!

You can find out more about the history of Catalinaware on the Catalina Collectors Blog. They also have more info about and photos of the SFO exhibition.

"Backgammon" tiles. Four were used to create a backgammon board-topped table

more "Backgammon" tiles

assorted coffee and tea services

relief-decorated vase

Catalinaware lamp base with shade

hand-painted tile signs from Bird Park on the island

decorative Moorish plate

decorative Moorish plate

decorative Moorish plate

vases with gorgeously colored glazes

decorated Catalina tiles

decorated Catalina tiles


below: reproductions of Catalina Island promotional materials

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you get to share it with someone you love.
Have a great weekend!

Any resemblance?

Am I the only one who thinks these Macy's windows remind them of the structures built by the Doozers in "Fraggle Rock"?

(click photos to enlarge)

Recent 34th Street window displays at Macy's Herald Square

Doozers photo courtesy The Jim Henson Company

Knitting for Coraline

Through Grace Bonney's incredibly wonderful blog, design*sponge, I discovered a group of short videos on the Film Focus website about different aspects of their new film, "Coraline".

As you may know, this stop-motion animated film is based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick (who also wrote the screenplay). I had seen the commercial for "Coraline" numerous times on television. Although the film looked interesting, I didn't pay it much attention and figured I'd see it once it was on DVD. However these little videos have changed my mind.

The creativity and imagination that went into this film are unbelievable! The video for which I've posted a link here focuses on the artist who knit remarkably tiny sweaters for some of the characters in "Coraline". I was so proud of myself when I knit a ribbed cap and a basketweave obi belt with integral i-cords, but seeing this woman's work I feel like a preschooler! She made intarsia sweaters that fit over two fingers and said some of her needles are not much thicker than a human hair!






All "Coraline" video stills courtesy Focus Features

An aphorism a day...

...keeps the doctor away. I want to get a bunch of these, frame them, and hang them in a group in my apartment. Now if I can only find some empty wall space!

*Screen shots from The School of Life website. Sorry for the poor quality.