Santigold’s new album is spot on; keeps me dreaming and tapping my toes. xxx
Oh, Ignacio Torres, your Stellar GIFs are making me swoon. Taking inspiration from scientific evidence that everything on earth is made from the matter of ancient stars (cue Joni Mitchell track), Torres has created these lovely images of youth surrounded by miniature galaxies of their own making (glitter & dust). Metaphors abound.
I want a Nudie suit real bad.
From the 1940s - 70s, Nudie Cohn designed his signature rhinestone-studded, western-style suits for stars of the country music world. Everyone had one: from Hank Williams to Buck Owens to Hank Snow; from Roy Rogers to George Jones to Gene Autry.
They were customized and flamboyant and beautiful.
On another floral note, printmaker Angie Lewin recently caught my eye for her exquisitely detailed works on paper. Lewin’s prints capture that Victorian obsession with complicated natural objects, but incorporate a mid-century textile designer’s sense of shape, pattern, and color. I love the way she flattens three-dimensional objects and makes ordinary plants into monstrous beauties.
I’m having a Victorian moment.
Along with the popularity of the BBC’s Downtown Abbey and a growing interest in returning to artisan craft production for everything from furniture to beer, the intricate, sinewy detailing and natural motifs popular at the end of the 19th century (leading up to the iconic art nouveau movement) are enjoying a resurgence, at least in my book.
The Cult of Beauty, currently on view at SF’s Legion of Honor, features works from both traditional and applied arts during this time period, and has me falling in love with Christopher Dresser, WIlliam Morris, and the floral textile designs of their many contemporaries.
Images courtesy the Textile Blog’s Flickr.
finally emerging from vertigo’s black hole: everything so clean and bright, each color like a familiar song
