HI + LOW

CARDBIRD

American artist Robert Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. The Gagosian Gallery has a major exhibition of his painting and sculpture on now through Dec. 18th. This is one I'm not going to miss. *[Cardbird I and III, 1971.]

TURKEY DAY

Illustrations from my son's favorite book: Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever and the Gagosian Gallery's Campbell’s Soup Can (Turkey Noodle) by Andy Warhol, 1962. I'm looking forward to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloon inflation tomorrow. *[Pump it, pump it up...!]

Q-U-I-L-T-E-D

Another Klas Herbert creation: Quilt illustration for Parcs i Jardins, the Park Deparment of Barcelona City Council. Sewn by Wai Lin Tse. Agency Small. Barcelona, Spain 2009. *[Incredible. Thanks Mary!]

 

WET PAINT

These are from a series by Klas Herbert, a graphic designer based in Spain, called Color Pad [2009]. They remind me of this still life series by Sivan Lewin from The World of Interiors from awhile back. So wonderful. *[Some other brilliant projects from Klas...]

THANK YOU

In honour of all war veterans...

ART BOOK

This book, Drawn and Quartered, I found at the Indoor Flea Market in NYC. Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his black humor and macabre characters the best known of which were The Addams Family, who became the basis for the tv series. *[Looking forward to the New York Art Book Fair at PS1 this afternoon.]

26.22 MILES

The NYC Marathon is this Sunday. Here are the pre-race meals of sports stars: Brad Ludden and Keir Dillon which were taken in a series by Jonathan De Vulliers (a marathoner). He exaggerated the portions specified by the athletes, "piling up the selected dishes to decadent excess as a way of emphasizing the huge amount of calories burned in the race." *[More here --> another great article here.]

CUBES

"Pop art" Montessori learning materials: 10 wooden cubes of 1000. Great for teaching mathematics to your little ones. And, not bad looking either. More items to aid learning and exploration at this online resource. *[Nice alphabets, too.]

IN THE SHADOWS

This shadow puppet kit includes 3 forest animals: a bear, a rabbit and a swan, and sticks, stickers and fasteners to bring your animals to life. Grab a flashlight and a sheet, turn down the lights and tell a story about your animal's adventures. I love everything these guys do. And they are Canadian! *[See more in their new shop.]

MR. MAISNER

A master calligrapher, prominent medieval scholar, expert in the art of medieval manuscript gold illumination techniques, and historian of letterforms, he has lectured and taught at the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Cloisters, The Met, and the Getty Museum. *[In 2002, he calligraphed the sample envelope below for me when I was looking for a wedding calligrapher.]

DRAWERS

Two pencilled notes were found on the bottom of two of our kitchen drawers. Both were written by Joan (who I do not know). The first reads: "Nora will never do another thing for me (Joan). April 14, 1969." And, the other: "Mom said she might take Patti and me (Joan) bowling. Aug. 1, 1976." Kid's notes are great. *[Click on image to see in detail.]

HAUTE QUILTS

Below is a quilt prototype made up of vintage A.P.C. fabrics, designed by Jessica Ogden & Jean Touitou. Seven quilts will be produced in India in runs of 30. They will be available in stores October 28th. I'm looking forward to this -- I am into quilts. *[Check out the A.P.C. blog for more projects, playlists, and archives.]

 

EDIBLE STRIPES

Mary & Matt just came out with another graphic collection of chocolate pop art. S-T-R-I-P-E-D chocolate bars. Watch the Op Art commercial here and then buy two for you and one for your mom here. *[This is BANANAS guys.]

BALANCE

Another piece from Alexandra Rowley's "Portrait" show detailing her father's belongings is a collection of his checkbooks. She photographed every page. All with incredible details -- the stores that he frequented the things he bought the amounts paid. A unique record of another time. *[If you are in the Paris area you can see her show here.]

FAMILY TIES

When my friend Alexandra Rowley's father’s health went into steep decline, she began photographing his belongings three weeks before he died and finishing more than two years later. Among the items were her father’s ties "which he wore nearly every day and bear the stains of a man who was both formal and careless." Beautiful. *[Thank you Alexandra.]

 

 

 

TABLOID

Recently, I worked on an assignment for the New York Times Magazine. The project was to design the cover story artwork for the Labor Day weekend magazine. The story was titled "Tabloid Hack Attack." It was fun to collaborate with such talented and great art directors. *[Thank you Gail & Arem!] 

CUTE PAIR

Sanrio has adopted A Bathing Ape's Baby Milo and they have officially paired up with the opening of a Pop-up store in Tokyo and Kyoto. On sale are wears adorned with the classic cast of Sanrio characters together with Baby Milo. Take a look. Too cute. *[Hello Kitty never gets old.]

ROAD TRIP

We drove to Princeton, NJ for the weekend to check out the town, pop art at the university art museum and the Mercer County Burger Festival ($1 sliders). My friend Erik says Princeton is one of his favorite day trips from the NYC area. I would agree. And there was a great American color photography exhibit there, too. *[Photo: Stephen Shore, Beverly Blvd and La Brea Ave, L.A., June 21, 1975.]

GOOD TASTE

Here are some incredibly talented ladies who I've had the pleasure to work with and who are all doing amazing work on their own: Cheree Berry, Gillian Schwartz, Whitney Pozgay, Julia Leach, Katie Hatch, Mary Matson, Anisa Suthayalai. Keep your eye on them, their work will knock your socks off. After all, they have amazingly good taste. *[Art: Ed Ruscha]

BY CHANCE

CHANCE is the new brand inspired by the classic striped shirt, Agnes Martin, the sea, American sportswear, and the French joie de vivre. It is the vision of the talented Julia Leach (a friend and former Creative Director of kate spade). I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Julia on the CHANCE brand book. *[Check out the brand portraits and beautifully curated "essentials" and "discoveries".]

KIDO

Kids really do grow up fast. And I thought it was just a cliché. Our little boy crawls, stands up, can almost balance on two feet, and loves to be in water. Although definitely not easy, being a parent is a good change. And our little one has brought us a lot of joy. *[Have a great weekend.]

LOVE THIS

I spent this past weekend visiting family in Utah. While there, my siblings took me to Decades, a SLC thrift store, and I found this amazing textile design printed on an outdated blouse. I LOVE this. *[Utah has some of the best thrift stores around -- Savers, D.I., etc.]

L'AMERIQUE

La Nouvelle Chute de l'Amerique [1991] is a collaboration between Roy Lichtenstein and the poet Allen Ginsberg. "Ginsberg and Lichtenstein often have been accused of mocking America in their art, but it is exactly their truly American Sensibilities that make them representative of their era." *[Thank you Erik & Jess. And, Happy 4th!]

SUMMER

I love this time of year. The painting below, by artist Yago Hortal of Barcelona, Spain, reminds me of summer art classes making marbled paper, drops of oil and water from summers spent water-skiing, eating water melon, and splattered mustard and ketchup on picnic benches. *[Looking forward to a BBQ with our city friends tomorrow.]

J-U-M-P

When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping, and the mask falls, so that the real person appears, said Philippe Halsman. In the series "JUMP", he photographed movie stars, politicians, entertainers, artists, and authors, all jumping before his camera. *[See the exhibit at the Laurence Miller Gallery.]

DAY TO DAY

Yesterday was a milestone for our small family, as today is for our friends. Time is a gift. Spring is beautiful. Life is good. *["Desk Calendar" by Roy Lichtenstein from Early Black And White Paintings -- a great book.]

BOOKS, BLOGS, ETC.

Erik Heywood has been blogging about books, bookshelves, bookstores, libraries, etc. for a long while. He has one of the best eyes for design and is one of the most well-read people I know. He recently consolidated his various blogs and interests under one roof. Take a look. There's some great stuff. *[Check out his wife Jessica's blog here.]

WEE SEE

A collaboration by designer/father Rolyn Barthelman and singer/songwriter/dad Tim Delaughter (of The Polyphonic Spree), Wee See is "part art installation, part pacifier..." "...a collection of b/w animations built from basic shapes to delight both child and parent." The Wee See DVDs are beautifully done. See for yourself. *[Thanks Rolyn]

COLORFUL

Aaron Dyer makes wonderful photographs. We met years ago on a photo shoot (where he also met my co-worker which led to their marriage). Recently, he relaunched his website -- take a look. It will brighten your day. *[Thanks Aaron.]

THE ARCHIVIST

For an intimate view of JP Williams's world, pop over to SightUnseen.com and peruse the many pictures of JP's home and collections. Wonderful. The last photo, especially, made me smile. B: Thanks for passing this along. *[And, remember: "You're only as good as the obscurity of your sources."]

SHOW ID

Positive Identification was started by Jacob Bronstein, who has been collecting friends IDs since he was in junior high (as displayed on his bedroom wall). Look closely, you can see the metamorphosis of friends' makeup and hair styles through the years documented. *[Thanks Jake.]

M&M's

Chocolate Editions was just launched by my good friends, Mary & Matt. I was lucky enough to taste several of the prototypes this summer and they are REALLY good. Influenced by pop art, they are strikingly graphic. *[Take a look at their commercial -- a sweet animation!]

 

BOXING DAY

We're moving today. All of the boxes filling up our apartment remind me of Andy Warhol's Time Capsule Project. Spanning a thirty-year period (1960s through the 1980s), it consists of 610 standard sized cardboard boxes Warhol filled, sealed and sent to storage. A wonderful catalogue of his daily ephemera. *[View some of their contents here.]

 

 

 

THE FAX

In coordination with the Drawing Center, Tokion Magazine invited me to view the current Drawing Room exhibit "FAX" and then create my own body of work in response to what I saw. I created this series of graphically playful fax cover sheets for Tokion's most current issue. *[Thanks Justin!]

 

WHITE GLOVE

Two 8.5 x 11 handwritten sheets of paper: One from the Pan Am in-flight duty free shop with a note written with black ink and the other featuring partial lyrics to the song "Bad" written with black permanent pen. Both in the hand of Michael Jackson. *[More from the collection of David Gest.]

NICE DEAL

These were found by my friend Brooke while walking around her neighborhood in Brooklyn with her kids (I LOVE the patterns). Most likely the cards were discards from the many Italian social clubs that dot the Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn area. *[For more of Brooke's collections go here.]

WITH CHILD

I'm having a baby B-O-Y! (Due in October.) My husband and I are beyond happy. Now I need to wrap my head around all things "boy" (I grew up with mostly sisters). I can't wait. Fall really couldn't come sooner. *[Child t-shirt from Mike Mills' HUMANS project.]

TYPOESIE

Typoésie by Jérome Peignot is a wonderful book full of typographic explorations. My friend, Anisa, shared her copy with me when we worked together at M/W. I tracked down my own copy from Paris in the days before extensive, online book shopping existed. Published in Paris, 1993, 461 pages. *[Get your own copy here or here.]

AMASS BLOG

The Ephemera Society of America lists JP Williams as a “collector of collections.” His collections include: stamps, staplers, old philatelic covers, and gloves that have been run over by trucks. Now he has a blog to document them all: AmassBlog. Take a look. *[Thank you, JP.]

 

A LADY

Published in 1974, after prolonged litigation, "Jacqueline" is a stunning black and white book full of candid photos of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her children as taken by the notorious photographer Ron Galella. I purchased this used copy a few years ago. *[Get your own copy here.]

SHE CAN

In celebration of Mother's Day, the Op-Ed editors over at the New York Times asked six female artists (Ruth Gwily, Nathalie Lete, Collier Schorr, Shary Boyle, Paloma Varga Weisz, and Kara Walker) for portraits of their mothers. In addition, these artists described one thing their mothers can do -- that they themselves can't. *[Take a look.]

MAKE FACES

"Facestape" from children's store Our Childrens Gorilla is awesome. "Smacked full of face-features you get metres and metres of possibilities when creating portraits, make your own African masks, jazz up your toilet seat or use for fun and totally nonsense surprises around the house." *[I like it. Especially on cardboard boxes.]

 

HAIR CUT

I stumbled upon these hand painted barber shop signs while perusing the internet. They seem to be done by the same hand as these posted over at Reference Library. Small world. *[Reference Library opened a shop in Milan -- nice work.]

 

PEANUTS II

In 1962, Charles Schulz wrote a little book and titled it "Happiness Is A Warm Puppy" (top right). He filled the book with colorful cartoons and captions about "happiness". From 1962-67 it had already sold 2 million copies (published by Determined Productions, S.F.). More of the series below: *[Get your own copies here or here.]

MIFFY

Miffy was created in 1955 by Dick Bruna who had been telling his one-year-old son stories about a little rabbit they had seen while on holiday. Miffy became a girl because Bruna decided he wanted to draw a dress and not trousers for his rabbit. *[JP gave me some of his daughter's Miffy book collection for my future kids. They are wonderful books.]

A NICE PAIR

Swiss publisher Nieves has collaborated with Printed Matter in an exhibit featuring a full retrospective of Nieves' zine program since 2004, and will include a selection of their books published since their founding. These guys are great. *[Opening: Sat, April 4, 5-7pm at Printed Matter, NYC.]

FREE STORE

In the 1960s, a group called the Diggers opened numerous Free Stores in SF's Haight-Ashbury and NYC's East 10th Street in which all items were free for the taking or giving. Today, in NYC's Financial District we have the recently opened Free Store, started by two artists, where goods can be had by bartering. [*Check it out here.]

 

QUARTER BACK

My good friends, Mary & Matt, posted this on their blog and titled it "Business in the front, party in the back." NICE! They happened upon it digging for change while doing their laundry. More painted coins here, here, and here -- but not the same. *[Anyone know the story behind these coins?]

GREENBACK

During WWII, with fears that Japan would overrun Hawaii, the US decided to issue the $1, $5, $10 and $20 Emergency Federal Reserve Notes with the word "HAWAII" overprinted on the front and back to make each note distinctive enough so that they would know if large amounts were being used to fund the enemy war effort. *[I love the contrast of type.] I'm off to jury duty -- wish me *LUCK*.

20 BUCKS

Jason Polan will be drawing pictures of things Saturday, March 14 from 11am to 6pm in the window of Partners & Spade. You can come get a drawing of almost anything you want or request a surprise and the artist will try as hard as he can to draw the thing you will like the most. *[Guaranteed fun! Drawings $20.]