playing with light and color
creating a new vision.
—
“light, that first phenomenon of the world,
reveals to us the spirit and living soul of this world through color.”
~ johannes itten, bauhaus colorist
May10
Tag Archives: art
Mar25
fold.
i held this gift of a tiny origami star
made from a square of beautiful paper
admiring it in my hand for a time
knowing it will be held in my memory
for a long time to come.
—
“WHEN YOU FOLD A PIECE OF PAPER,
YOU’RE ESSENTIALLY CHANGING THE MEMORY OF THAT PIECE”.
-ERIC DEMAINE
Mar18
the language of trees.
NYC Parks Are Using a Designer’s ‘Tree Font’ to Plant Secret Messages with Real Trees
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.
“i think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”
-joyce kilmer
—
image credit: Katie Holten
Mar16
making money.
kinders have taken up a new hobby – counterfeiting.
they are now officially a gang.
‘i have ways of making money that you know nothing of.”
Feb27
legends.
King Arthur at Tintagel, Cornwall. On the cliff by his castle.
—
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.
—
“all the great legends are templates for human behavior.
i would define a myth as a story that has survived.”
-john boorman
—
credits: rubin enyon- sculptor, selectcornwall.co.uk, british medieval history, english heritage
Feb11
a story in every line.
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
—
“youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”
-stanislaw jerzy lec
—
credits: soul alchemy, word porn
Jan9
bare.
bare tree at rest in early winter.
—
“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
—
kerrytown courtyard, ann arbor, mi, usa
Dec15
great things.
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.
when you combine
dots, pencils, whales, glitter, markers, acorn caps. and glue
and make them into a good day.
—
“the visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.”
-malcolm gladwell
Nov24
no must.
cousins take a closer look to discuss jackson pollock’s ‘one’
—
“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)
I didn't have my glasses on.... 