Tag Archives: art

Odes to Everyday Things from Every Continent

In the spirit of Pablo Neruda’s marvelous poetry about ordinary things, we’ve compiled a photo essay spanning the seven continents. Plato taught us long ago, that the “beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.” Let’s take a moment to celebrate the design of everyday things.

 


 

Africa: Ostrich Egg

Homes all over South Africa include ostrich eggs in their array of objet d’ -art and it’s easy to see why. Perfected by nature, oversized ovals are a unique surface for artisans to decorate. Enameled, painted, or even untouched, save for a stand, the results are astounding.

 

South Africa ostrich eggs
Photo by: flickr/Redmond licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

 

Antarctica: Ice

Contemplating the ice of Antarctica is a meditation in white. Something commonly thought of as one color, is in the purity of the Arctic landscape, many, many hues. Behold shades of ghostwhite, floralwhite, ivory, lavenderblush; yes, lavenderblush, all in sheets and bergs of ice.

 

Antarctica ice
Photo by: stocksnap.io/Casey Kiernan licensed under CC0 1.0

 

Asia: Bangles

Among the most beautiful creations in all corners of the Indian subcontinent are stalls of shimmering, fragile, glassy, colorful bangles sold by the dozen. A proper “sleeve” of bangles requires at least three dozen bangles. Since they’re glass, they’re expected to break. Shattering one by one, it’s time for another visit to the bazaar when they’ve all broken away.

 

bangles
Photo by: flickr/Garry Knight licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

 

Australia: Didgeridoo

Indigenous Australians created this exquisite instrument almost 1500 years ago from hollowed out tree limbs. How does one hollow out tree limbs? Termites do it for you. Decorative motifs vary depending on the provenance of the person making the instrument, and makes for a variety of styles and sounds. Its familiar droning is inextricably linked to the culture and people Down Under.

 

Australia Didgeridoo

 


 

Europe: Tulips

It’s a flower so gorgeous it inspired a frenzy in the 1600s. Legend has it that at the height of their value, certain tulip bulbs commanded prices 10 times the yearly income of a skilled craftsman! To this day, economists use the phrase “tulip mania” when speaking about fluctuations in the intrinsic value of goods in the marketplace.

tulips
Photo by: pixabay under license CC0 1.0

 

North America: Maple Syrup

During early European colonization in northeastern North America, indigenous peoples taught arriving colonists how to harvest sap for survival. Many years later, Civil War abolitionists opted to use maple syrup rather than southern sugar cane. And during WWII, maple syrup was the go-to sweetener in a time of increased rations. This is a flapjack syrup with some serious historical cred.

 

maple syrup
Photo by Unsplash/ Sonja Langford

 

South America: Caipirinhas

The classic libation of Brazil that’s as fun to drink as it is to say: KAI-PE-REEN-YA. A refreshing concoction that goes great with Rio’s hot, hot, hot beaches. You can order them with a variety of fruits like pineapples, grapes or strawberries but we recommend taking it classic: a little lime juice, cachaça (sugar cane hard liquor) and a hint of sugar. Saude!

caipirinha
Cachaca Dave/under license GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Zipporah Lomax, Luminary Photographer of Burning Man

I once heard the story of a child at Burning Man who looked around at the spectacle and said, “I don’t get what the big deal is. This is just a bunch of adults acting like children.”

An alternative community in the desert, Burning Man is an open canvas for self-exploration and self-expression. 70,000 people now make the pilgrimage each year for seven dusty days to experience the multi-layered experience that is Burning Man. Intermingled in the chaos there is a childlike essence to the endless playground that is constructed on the Playa (Black Rock Desert, NV) each year; and as the community grows, it ushers in more of the little burners. As adults, many Burners use these seven days to bask in the remembrance of the wild potentials for free expression that were the feelings of their childhood.

zipporah lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

Surrounded by youthful indulgences, the young Burners become the wise sages of this playful community. Children naturally bring some of the most potent Playa tools: their fiercely wild imaginations and insatiable hunger for play. The children of Burning Man are beautifully innocent and unwaveringly honest examples of the essence of this spectacular, cultural phenomenon.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

Zipporah Lomax, a festival photographer, has taken on the role of weaving the story of these dusty little ones into a photography book entitled Dusty Playground. Lomax has been a part of the Burning Man community for 15 years now. More recently, her lens has led her into the intimate lives of families on the Playa. In an art project funded by a group of individuals who believed in Lomax’s creative endeavor, Lomax received $47,775 from 448 backers to bring these photographic images to life.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

We had a chance to get the perspective of Zipporah Lomax herself on her approach to this colossal community that is opening the pages of a new perspective of Burning Man by honoring the “tiniest burners.”

BW: As an artist, you are constantly questioning what your work means to yourself and others; and to have such a resounding positive affirmation about what you’re doing, through your Kickstarter, that’s really fantastic.

ZL: I was really asking the world [with the kickstarter] to confirm that what I’m doing is worth putting all my energy into… I really could not have anticipated how much attention it would end up garnering on its own. … I thought people might laugh that I wanted to make a book about the kids. I think I’m still kind of in awe.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: How do you feel your art is also simultaneously your gift?

ZL: Even if I thought about that for a while, I don’t know that I would be able to separate those two words from each other, “art” and “gift”… I really think that everyone was born with the ability to cultivate, or transform, an interest into a gift. If there is enough genuine and authentic interest in something, and enough dedicated and focused attention on it, I think that anything can become an art or a gift.

BW: As you watch the cultural identity of Burning Man change and more in the past 15 years, how has that affected your own artistic expression?

ZL: My first response is that it’s difficult to measure the shift in either the culture or myself, because I’ve been part of it… I know that for me Burning Man has always been a place, not to disconnect from some default world, and not to party my face off for one week in the desert, but really quite the opposite … There’s always been this clarity that comes for me, in that really dusty place.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: How have you captured that change through your lens, and how have you captured the children within that change?

ZL: My first awareness of a little child was in 2001 at center camp. This tiny little baby, who wasn’t even walking yet, just sitting there in the dust in this white, very dusty onesie that said “F*ck Bush.” I remember looking at this child and just being so struck by imagining what this child was gonna grow up to be, having this really early exposure to what I felt was really a cutting edge experimental culture … I think I’ve always been really aware of them, fascinated by them, and totally in love with them. I think they are the dustiest little sages, and I’ve had the most awesome conversations with them, which I can’t really regurgitate, but in the moment I’m just like “you are such an awesome little being and I can’t wait to see who you become and what you do out there.”

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: You’re following these children through their learning experience of this culture that’s ever-evolving, just like these children are.

ZL: I want to spend more time with my subjects, and get to know them a little bit so that the photos are truly an honoring of what they are doing, and the more time that I can spend with them, even if it’s only five minutes, then the photos aren’t just this collection of visual high fives, they are these beautiful little vignettes.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: It’s like you’ve been chosen to tell this story.

ZL: I feel really grateful that I get to be the one to bring this project into being….As much as a mother doesn’t know what their child is going to look like while it’s growing inside them, I don’t know yet. I’m as in the dark as everyone else is about how it’s actually going to look, but I’m up for it, I’m ready to birth it.

To find out more about Zipporah Lomax and Dusty Playground, go to www.dustyplayground.com.

7 US Destinations for Art Lovers

Whether you want to see the exhibit everyone is talking about, discover emerging artists who just might be on their way to become internationally known, or quietly explore little-known art gems, we’re lucky to live in a time when art is so accessible, (thank you, Virtual Reality and Instagram). Yet, there’s nothing like experiencing art up close and personal.  From the big names like New York City and San Francisco to tiny towns in Wyoming and Texas, these are the seven places art lovers will want to put on their travel lists.

 

Cody, Wyoming

Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Buffalo Bill Center of the West | Photo: m01229 on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Tucked in northwest Wyoming, the town of Cody doesn’t even have a population of 10,000, but it does have plenty of charm, and lots of art. Home to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which has five museums including the Whitney Western Art Museum, Cody is a gateway to learning about and exploring Western art. The quaint town is also home to numerous art galleries near the Eastern Gate of Yellowstone making it an ideal stop on a larger trip.

 

New York, New York

It’s hard to go more than a couple of blocks in the Big Apple without stumbling upon a museum, art gallery, or even street art. If you want to hit as many museums as possible plan to head to Museum Mile, a mile-long walk full of museums including the MET, the Guggenheim (*featured image at top), the Museum of the City of New York, and more along Fifth Avenue. After you’re done perusing the art, don’t forget to take a walk through Central Park.

 

Marfa, Texas

Prada store in Marfa, tx
Prada store in Marfa, Texas

This one-stoplight town in the middle of Texas is an art oasis that needs to be on every minimalist art lover’s bucket list. It started in the 1970s,  when a New York expat came to Marfa and built a series of concrete exhibits. Since then, museums and more installations have popped up all over the area, beautifully incorporating art into the landscape, and the town now has a bit of a Brooklyn vibe.

 

Chicago, Illinois

Cloud Gate and Chicago skyline in Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois
Cloud Gate and Chicago skyline in Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois

From the Chicago Art Museum to the Mexican Art Museum to the galleries, there is art galore in the Windy City. There’s also great food and drinks, making Chicago a perfect spot for a weekend art lovers’ getaway. And, while it may be touristy, no visit to Chicago is complete without a visit to Cloud Gate, aka the bean.

 

Santa Fe

Meow Wolf art collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Meow Wolf art collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The art scene in Santa Fe has always been quietly top notch. You have the Georgia O’Keeffe museum with its rotating more than 400 paintings, three museums dedicated to Native American art. and much much more. But in the past few years it’s the emerging art scene that makes this city a must- visit. Head to the commercial district for galleries featuring new artists.

 

San Francisco

Terracotta Warriors statues and mural on a building on Grant Street in Chinatown in San Francisco.
Terracotta Warriors statues and mural on a building on Grant Street in Chinatown in San Francisco.

It’s easy for art lovers to leave their heart in San Francisco. From the vibrant murals in the Mission district to the San Francisco Museum of Art to the open studio weekends when the city’s resident artists throw open their doors, there’s almost too much art. While it’s impossible to see everything you’ll want to see during a short stay, the city is basically sure to have the type of art you’re fascinated by.

 

Bellevue, Washington

I know, you’re thinking tech right now, but Bellevue, Washington is also home to one of the country’s largest running art fairs. While it takes place every July, even if you don’t make it out for that, you’ll find public art displays throughout the city and a surprising number of galleries.

Happy Healing: the Company Creating Tattoo Art on Casts

In April of 2006, Jessica Smith broke her left arm, nose, and toe in a cycling accident—just two weeks away from her college graduation. Not trusting any of her friends to sign her cast, the fine arts major picked up waterproof, puffy paints and began decorating her black cast in spurts. “It all started with a [huge] sunflower in the middle,” she said. “There was a dove [spreading its wings] on the underside of it. I had gotten a puppy [with a]…big white blaze on her chest that looked like a dove.”  Over the course of six weeks, she added shooting stars, yellow and blue beads, and a cloud-covered sun.  While the paint dried at a snail’s pace and required “every little piece of it [to be blasted on high] with a hair dryer, it became a conversation starter, a silver lining to this whole broken bone thing.”  Smith’s original “Castoo” ultimately became the springboard for what’s since become the Happy Healing Company.

pink zebra cast

A global phenomenon, Smith has sold hundreds of thousands of orthopedic cast tattoos to consumers and care providers, who can up their marketing game by branding the product with their clinical logos.  The Happy Healing Company offers 40 different designs in four sizes.  Application is a cinch: peel, press, and dry for 10-15 seconds with a hairdryer on medium or high heat. “The flames, fairies…, and those little, traditional candies are really popular” Smith said. Drawing design inspiration from “everywhere”, this globe trotter and nature lover can turn “whatever you can think of…into a Castoo”, even your authentic x-rays.

The Happy Healing Company is run by just two staff members and three, part-time interns.  “When I was living in Boulder, [Colorado,] I started up an internship that utilized art students from the art department every semester,” Smith said. “I’m firing up that program again at Oregon State University.” The paid internship is fairly competitive and extremely rigorous. “It takes them [an art, computer science, and business intern] through every step,” she said. “The art student, for example, goes through the business of being an artist and what that means:” marketing yourself, protecting yourself, and selling your art.

cast tattoo

However, Castoo is about to “turn everything upside down, shake it up, and put it back out there.”  With 40 brand-spanking-new designs, customers will be able to order metallic and glow-in-the-dark Castoos.

“Now we are starting to get into some licensing,” she said. “Disney is coming.  It’s only a matter of time, [and] luckily, I’ve had universities and professional teams start coming to me, wanting [to directly sell] the product for their fans or for their players.”

The Happy Healing Company, though, is definitely firing up a line of Castoos for prosthetic limbs, which on average cost $5,000 to $50,000 and only lasts three to five years. “Base models are very plain, and you’re looking at someone who suffered a tremendous loss,” she said.  With a semi-permanent adhesive, amputees can jazz up limbs without their Castoos rubbing off.  However, if they outgrow or get tired of the design, they can remove it without damaging their limbs.

Stephaine'sHusband_New Jersey.jpg

Castoo is changing the face of healing, spinning that depressing downtime into a positive experience by chipping away the embarrassment of being the “clumsy kid”.

“Now, mind you, most people don’t want to use the product again,” Smith laughs.  “They don’t want to have to, but you’d be amazed at how many repeat customers I have. Parents that said, ‘I ordered this for my son, and his best friend just broke his arm, and we want to send him this [Castoo] for joy.'”  Happiness: ultimately, that’s what these “beauty for breaks” are for. Proving, in Smith’s case, that “there are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”

The Heidelberg Project: Detroit’s Comeback Kid

Nestled between forlorn, vacant apartment complexes and rundown playgrounds on the axis of Detroit’s east side are piles of charred, dirty stuffed animals, scrap metal and gutted technology spanning two blocks. At a distance, this might seem like another manifestation of urban blight the city is often chastised for; but this particular collection of trash is credited with drastically reducing criminal activity in the neighborhood.

Heidelberg Project 05

The Heidelberg Project was named after Heidelberg Street, which was the center of the Detroit race riots throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. Tyree Guyton, a Detroit native, started the project with his grandfather in 1986 during a time when the community was overrun with crime and infrastructure was crumbling. The street became a mecca for drug dealers and prostitution rings, being so far removed from the rest of the city. In response, Guyton and his grandfather collected garbage lining the streets and pinned them to houses. They put doll heads on toy trucks, clocks in ovens and called it art. The result was bizarre and nihilistic, a perfect representation of the city of Detroit during this time.

Guyton’s work garnered immediate attention, some of which was negative. He has faced opposition from both the city and criminals. The project is a continuous target of arson with more than two dozen serious unsolved cases since 2013. His post-apocalyptic debris sculptures were recently bulldozed as fire hazards. Two years ago, more than six houses were destroyed by unknown circumstances, costing organizers more than $250,000 to ramp up security measures. Because much of the art centers on themes of ruin, acts of arson sometimes even complements the pieces. Despite this, the community continues to see these acts of destruction as an excuse to make new art, and increased media attention has garnered public support.

Heidelberg Project 01

“I’m going to kick their ass with love,” Guyton recently said about the arsonists. “I just want to send out love.”

The project attracts hundreds of volunteers, artists and local activists, and remains a symbol of the city’s strength and innovation.

Today, anyone is free to wander the ever-growing Heidelberg Project. The eerie, quiet timbre gives visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in the city’s culture uninterrupted.

Heidelberg Project 04

The vintage red scare propaganda fixed on front lawns piques curiosity from even antique collectors. Guyton’s signature pastel polka-dots cover the street’s homes, although not all residents participate. Alma Brown has lived a block from Heidelberg Street for ten years and, although she appreciates the publicity that forced out organized crime, she doesn’t fancy herself an advocate.

“I’ve seen this project grow so much, but the problem with fame is it’s almost as bad as anonymity in this city,” she says. “I do know the project has reduced crime in the area, and I think using art as a means of cleaning up the city is an excellent solution.”

Heidelberg Project 03

The project’s volunteers see it as a lesson in certitude and grassroots activism.

“I look at it as a tide. It ebbs and flows,” Trey Leggs, a local artist and volunteer, says. “The gangs tear down, we rebuild. They’re almost doing us a favor because every time they burn down a house, we’re in the news, which keeps us relevant. We’re not your classic art gallery, we’re a collective with purpose.”

The Heidelberg Project is a free, self-guided outdoor exhibit suitable for art enthusiasts, visitors interested in the authentic Detroit experience and bored suburban Banksy fans.