Artist of the Day: Reclaimed Metal and Bicycle Chandelier - Carolina Fontoura Alzaga

reclaimed metal and bicycle chandelier facaro

I love this artist, her aesthetic, her process, as much as I love this chandelier.

This chandelier makes me want to sell my house, buy a small, abandoned warehouse, remodel and decorate around it.

It would be one part industrial, one part vintage modern, one part French sass. I can see the chandelier in the living room hanging off center, over a fuchsia velvet sofa, with this as the featured artwork.

What about you? What art inspires you?

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artist bio: Caro (Carolina Fontoura Alzaga) is a multidisciplinary artist with a penchant for repurposing castoff materials and exploring socio - political themes. Hailing from Mexico, Brazil, and USA, Caro’s Work is informed by her lifelong movement between spaces and cultures. What she produces are reflections and documents of these environments and her artistic vocabulary evolves with these shifting realities. In the Winter of 2007 Caro received a BFA with an emphasis in digital art and painting from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her current project is titled ‘the CONNECT series’. To view more models in the series please visit: www.facaro.comCaro is based in Los Angeles.

Artist of the Day: Antler no, 6986 - Kari Herer

antler no. 6986 kari herer

I've been lamenting the waning of the light these last few weeks.

Winter is coming.

Yes, I know I lifted that line from HBO's Game of Thrones, but nothing else describes the visceral dread September ushers in with its short days, dark mornings, and even darker evenings.

I used to love winter. Now when I let my thoughts linger on its broken bone blue-tinged whiteness, it's with exclamation points.

What I love about this photograph from artist Kari Herer is the juxtaposition of bone and bloom.

I am going to look at this everyday, and for that matter, Kari Herer's entire collection of blooms mixed with insects, bone, and drawings, to keep the edge from kicking off its shoes, settling in, and making itself at home.

Winter may be coming, but the certain knowledge that the bulbs of Spring's blooms slumber mere centimeters under the soil's hard surface, is enough to scatter the shadows.

artist bio: Kari Herer has been photographing since a young girl. Her work has been shown in Martha Stewart, Town and Country, Vera Wang Fine Papers, InStyle Magazine, Tiny Prints, Wedding Paper Divas, and William Arthur. Drawing on her experience in the fine arts and graphic design, as well as her deep love of nature, she provides her clients with professional portrait photography in a variety of beautiful settings. She currently splits her time between the East Coast and the Midwest.

Artist of the Day: Seascape - Jennifer Squires Ross

seascape jennifersquires

This photograph matches the mood of the day exactly.

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artist bio: I’m Jennifer Squires Ross and together with my husband Darren Ross we run a small photography business out of our home in London, Ontario, Canada. I specialize in picture taking and picture making and Darren is fondly known as the CFO (chief fax operator) and he takes care of administrative tasks, plus he makes a mean hot chocolate; earning himself extra points at 5am when I’m off to a location shoot. I’ve been photographing professionally since 1996 and opened our online shop in 2008. We have a blog that supports both our shop and our website, and is also sprinkled with other little posts that I thought you might find interesting (including some really yummy recipes). We even offer the occasional giveaway and free download so be sure to check those out too. So thank you for your interest in our work and have fun looking at everything we have to offer.

Poem Therapy 10:24 P.M. 14 September 2012: There Is No Word - Tony Hoagland

There Is No Word
Tony Hoagland

There isn’t a word for walking out of the grocery store

with a gallon jug of milk in a plastic sack

that should have been bagged in double layers

—so that before you are even out the door

you feel the weight of the jug dragging

the bag down, stretching the thin

plastic handles longer and longer

and you know it’s only a matter of time until

bottom suddenly splits.

There is no single, unimpeachable word

for that vague sensation of something

moving away from you

as it exceeds its elastic capacity        

—which is too bad, because that is the word

I would like to use to describe standing on the street

chatting with an old friend

as the awareness grows in me that he is

no longer a friend, but only an acquaintance,

a person with whom I never made the effort—

until this moment, when as we say goodbye

I think we share a feeling of relief,  

a recognition that we have reached

the end of a pretense,   

though to tell the truth

what I already am thinking about

is my gratitude for language—

how it will stretch just so much and no farther;

how there are some holes it will not cover up;

how it will move, if not inside, then

around the circumference of almost anything—

how, over the years, it has given me

back all the hours and days, all the

plodding love and faith, all the

misunderstandings and secrets

I have willingly poured into it.

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Dissemble is the single impeachable word, the very word that tries and fails to cover the
circumference of almost anything, even disingenuous apologies.

 

Dissemble and its family of small conjugations, is the word that stuffs its swollen feet into veracity's shoes. 

 

Consider the past week of endless chatter, the words stretched thin in the mouths of our national grifters.

Watch & Listen Playlist: September 14-16

This has been a savage week.

It brings to mind the saying, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Have a relaxing and peaceful weekend everyone.

Gawd Above - John Fullbright
Savage - Hacienda
You Get What You Give - New Radicals
Live and Die - Avett Brothers
A Town Called Malice - The Jam
Bad Thing - King Tuff
Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance - Patterson Hood
Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
So Many Enemies - Neal Casal
Man on Fire - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
All Fall Down - Shawn Colvin
People Got A Lot of Nerve - Neko Case
My Rights Versus Yours - The New Ponographers
The Righteous Path - Drive-By Truckers
Warrior Man - Dr. Dog
Old Man - Neil Young
Gun Has No Trigger - Dirty Projectors
Empty Threat - Kathleen Edwards
Throw It Out - Megan Reily
Changes - David Bowie
Reboot the Mission - The Wallflowers
Take a Giant Step - Taj Mahal
Buscando Inspiracion - Eme Alfonso
Open the Door to Your Heart - Van Morrison
Golden - Kelly Hogan
Wordless Chorus - My Morning Jacket
Oh Brother - The Lost Brothers
Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
Open Arms - Elbow
It's Only Life - The Shins

Artist of the Day: Autumn Collection - Jamie Birkholz

autumn collection

encyclopedias jamie birkholz jaysworld

artist bio: Welcome, I am a mother of five awesome grown children and I have 5 beautiful grandchildren. I love style and color and have enjoyed creating book collections for weddings and special events, home and office. I like things simple and prompt.

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I could get completely lost this weekend in vintage book decor curator Jamie Birkholz's world. At first I thought the collections were photographs, but each is a grouping of hue-themed books. 

I have put myself on a book-buying time out. Here's hoping Birkholz starts photographing her collections, and offering prints.



Poetry & Music Mash Up - Blood - Naomi Shihab Nye + Grizzly Bear - Yet Again

firey autum raceytay

Yet Again

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Blood
Naomi Shihab Nye

"A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,"
my father would say. And he'd prove it,
cupping the buzzer instantly
while the host with the swatter stared.

In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.
True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.
I changed these to fit the occasion.

Years before, a girl knocked,
wanted to see the Arab.
I said we didn't have one. 
After that, my father told me who he was,
"Shihab"—"shooting star"—
a good name, borrowed from the sky.
Once I said, "When we die, we give it back?"
He said that's what a true Arab would say.

Today the headlines clot in my blood.
A little Palestinian dangles a toy truck on the front page. 
Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root
is too big for us. What flag can we wave?
I wave the flag of stone and seed,
table mat stitched in blue.

I call my father, we talk around the news.
It is too much for him,
neither of his two languages can reach it.
I drive into the country to find sheep, cows,
to plead with the air: 
Who calls anyone civilized?
Where can the crying heart graze?
What does a true Arab do now?