Category Archives: art

Mar18

the language of trees.

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NYC Parks Are Using a Designer’s ‘Tree Font’ to Plant Secret Messages with Real TreesNew York City Tree Font Alphabet by Katie Holten

Inspired by the nature around her, artist Katie Holten recently developed the New York City Tree Alphabet. Each letter is represented by an illustration of a different type of tree found in NYC. The letter A, for example is depicted as an ash tree, and the letter O is illustrated as an oak.

Holten is one of the first creatives to become an NYC Parks artist-in-residence, where she was asked to explore “the intersection of art, urban ecology, sustainability, nature, and design.” Holten’s resulting NYC Trees font is now available as a free download to anyone who wants to write secret messages in tree code. Not only that, but the NYC Parks Department plans to actually plant some of the messages as real trees in parks and other public spaces.

“Being an artist-in-residence with Parks meant that I could create a ‘real’ tree alphabet. When I say real, I mean legitimate, sanctioned, approved by the city,” Holten explains. “Often, this is exactly what you don’t want with/for an artwork! But in this case, because I really feel the project is a public service—providing a tool that people can use to interact with public space in a whole new way—it needed to be truthful and practical. It had to be something we could actually plant and that the city supported.”

Holten is currently accepting message submissions via her website. From poems to love letters, you can test out how your words would look as trees using the “Write with Trees” function on her homepage. “Right now, we’re leaving it completely wide open, so we’ve no idea what messages we’ll be planting. I’m excited to see what people send us,” Holten writes. “People have been suggesting words like ‘Dream,’ ‘Hope,’ and ‘Peace.’ But we’re also receiving longer messages, love letters, poems, and short stories. We’re curious to see how we could translate a long text into a grove of planted trees. It’s an exciting challenge and we can make up the rules as we go along, so anything could happen.”

Do you have a message you’d like to translate into your own custom forest? Planting begins in April 2019 in New York City. Download the font for free and check out Holten’s website for more details on the project.

Artist Katie Holten developed the New York City Tree Alphabet—each letter is represented by an illustration of a different type of tree.

New York City Tree Font Alphabet by Katie Holten

“i think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”
-joyce kilmer

image credit: Katie Holten 

other credits: mymodernmet.com, emma taggert

Feb27

legends.

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King Arthur at Tintagel, Cornwall. On the cliff by his castle.

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Sculptor Rubin Enyon creates unforgettable public artwork using a variety of mediums—from wood and stone to iron and bronze. His recent work, Gallos, was installed in April 2016, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the cliffs of Tintagel. The stately 8-foot-high bronze sculpture was not only inspired by the legend of King Arthur, but also Tintagel Castle’s history. Commissioned by English Heritage, the public sculpture is located in Tintagel, a village in Cornwall, known as the legendary site of King Arthur’s conception.

 

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“all the great legends are templates for human behavior.

i would define a myth as a story that has survived.”

-john boorman

 

 

 

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credits: rubin enyon- sculptor, selectcornwall.co.uk, british medieval history, english heritage

 

Feb11

a story in every line.

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A pencil drawing by a 16 year old Irish girl has won a National Art Competition. Shania McDonagh is tipped as a future top artist. The man she drew is a Fisherman and Seaweed Harvester named Coleman Coyne. There’s a story in every line.

 “His name is Coleman Coyne, and he’s from Connemara in County Galway. He passed away earlier this year. The portrait is done using graphite pencil, and it took around 100 hours of drawing to complete the portrait.” – Shania McDonagh

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“youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”

-stanislaw jerzy lec

 

 

 

 

 

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credits: soul alchemy, word porn

Jan9

bare.

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bare tree at rest in early winter.

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“people don’t remember each tree in a park

but all of us benefit from the trees.

and in a way, artists are like trees in a park.”

-yoko ono

 

 

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kerrytown courtyard, ann arbor, mi, usa

Dec15

great things.

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tiny kinder spent nearly an hour

 focused

working alone

not asking for any help

very carefully snipping tiny pieces

from the roll of sticky green tape

 placing them on her fringed orange paper. 

when she was happy with what she had created

her beautiful piece of art was done.

“great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

-vincent van gogh

Dec4

re-imagine.

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when you combine

dots, pencils, whales, glitter, markers, acorn caps. and glue

and make them into a good day.

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“the visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.”

-malcolm gladwell

Nov24

no must.

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cousins take a closer look to discuss jackson pollock’s ‘one’

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“there is no must in art because art is free.”

—wassilli  kandinsky

credits:  jackson pollock, ‘one -number 31,’ 1950,

museum of modern art (manhattan, new york, ny usa)

Nov13

living room.

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Oct6

pigment.

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pigment

every color in the rainbow awaits.

In Tokyo, there is an artist’s dream come true: thousands of pigments with names like “Autumn Mystery” and “Luxury Twinkle” line the neat, airy bamboo shelves of a store called Pigment.

Pigment is dry concentrated color dust used to give fabric, ink, plastics, and, of course, paint their hue. By adding a binding agent like oil or glue to the powder, the pigment becomes adhesive. It’s an older style of paint-making as opposed to purchasing paint pre-mixed, but many artists prefer it for its simplicity and versatility. The store also sells other traditional Japanese painting supplies like brushes, papers, frames, natural animal glue, and ink stones.

Pigment the store is just as beautiful as its contents. It was designed by renowned architect Kengo Kuma, whose work connects ancient principles of Japanese art and ideology to the modern day. Much like pigment, it’s simple, natural, and basic but elegant too. The store is made almost entirely of bamboo with gently waving lines, lots of open space, and light. The store does ship art supplies ordered online, but Pigment’s physical store and displays are something to behold.

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‘we all have the same palette of emotional paints

it’s how we pigment them on the canvas of life that dictates our artistry.’ 

-ged thompson (liverpool poet)

 

 

 

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credits: atlas obscura, pigment, tokyo

Oct3

light and shadows.

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kinders explore light and shadows.

 

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‘find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows,

the light, and the dark which that thing provides.’

-junichiro tanizaki