charleston

bird watching me watching the boys..

charleston

charleston

thanksgiving in charleston, sc

off we go

we are off for holiday travel. if you are in charleston, sc or savannah, ga let us know!

clyfford still

abstract expressionist clyfford still, reclusive, elusive, brilliant art world drop-out. on his death he bequethed his entire collection, around 3000 paintings, to anyone who could meet a few criteria. among other requirements, these included:

recipient will never sell, trade or give away any of his work
recipient will build and maintain a special permanent museum to hold his work
recipient will show only his work in said permanent museum
recipient will never show his work alongside that of any other artist

after 20 odd years, his estate found a taker, the city of denver, colorodo. the museum is set to open in 2010. probably worth a trip.

his actions may seem arrogant, but i imagine him a man of true conviction. one who did not want his art objectified by an audience that did not take care to understand it. he said, "I hold it imperative to evolve an instrument of thought which will aid in cutting through all cultural opiates, past and present, so that a direct, immediate, and truly free vision can be achieved. . .and I affirm my profound concern to achieve a purpose beyond vanity, ambition, or remembrance." it seems he stood by that, lived his life that way, when he could have easily taken the money and run. i also have to like a guy who says something like this;

"How can we live and die and never know the difference?" ....oh how i am desperate to avoid it.

arline fisch

pretty as a sculpture

photograph: William Guilette

jean-michael othoniel

le bateau de larmes 2004
i am always a pushover for glass. this boat installation by jean-michael othoniel is so magical. everything i love all rolled into one; glass, light, boat, the suggestion of the sea. jean-michael took this cuban boat, abandoned after it's voyage to maimi, and added crowns, chains and necklaces of glass. his sculpture "floats on the water like a ghost ship, loaded with tears of suffering and joy, overflowing with memories and covered by festive ornaments". i wish i could scoop up all the original passengers and stand them in front of it. i wonder what they would think, what they would say, what the artist would do next after he heard their story...

bottle of tears
"transformations, mutations of materials, and rites of passage from one state to another echo an essential rite in the artist’s work: that of journeys and memory. the notion of wound or injury is at the heart of his work." i feel it.

all photographs via galerie emmanuel perrotin.

cai guo-qiang

cai guo-qiang and the best use of gunpowder in all the land, EVER. you MUST check out the video of him creating "descending wolves" in front of a crowd at the guggenheim. WOW.


how very original. i love his work. it stopped me in my tracks and made me talk out loud to myself. i feel like high-tailing somewhere right now to see it in person.

about the artist..."Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppression that he felt from the controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China at the time. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale, and the development of his signature explosion events, exemplified in his series, Projects for Extraterrestrials. These explosion projects, both wildly poetic and ambitious at their core, aim to establish an exchange between viewers and the larger universe around them."


there are all kinds of videos on the site. be sure to check out some of the large scale explosion projects. great artist and great website. he really invites you in with the videos. i love it!

all photographs via cai guo-qiang.

xavier veilhan

the mobile looks beautiful in this setting. such contrasts. but he snaggged me with the rhinoceros. i just have a real thing for rhinoceroses. no biography on his site, but if you visit xavier veilhan, and you speak french or spanish, there are a couple of videos - one of which is translated from his native french into spanish. if he says something spectacular, come back and fill me in!




The Rhinoceros, 1999. Painted polyester resin ; 170 x 140 x 415 cm/ 67 x 55 x 163 inch. Collection Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris.

my marrakesh

i can not imagine that you all have not met maryam, a human rights and democracy specialist trotting the globe by day, a builder of peacock pavillions, dream guest house in marrakesh by night and a blogger of gorgeous middle eastern culture by...who knows when she fits it in. i go to her site regularly to live vicariously a life of following the wildest of dreams full tilt.


maryam is a finalist for Best Middle East or African Blog in the 2007 blog awards. i hope you will click here and show her some love. then head over to my marrakesh and enjoy the beautiful, the exotic and the out of the ordinary. be careful, it's addictive.

all photos via my marrakesh

goudji

interesting fellow, master goldsmith goudji. born in soviet georgia, studied at the academy of fine art in tbilissi, and at 21 was forced to leave georgia when suspected of complicity in his friends' attempt to cross the iron curtain by swimming to turkey. goudji fled to moscow where he "However, refused to work for the glorification of the regime and limited his contribution to designing items for interior decoration and monumental iron gates. He also created models for commemorative medals and designed stamps. But, most of all, he took advantage of opportunities to travel and meet other creators, while continuing, Goudji met, observed, imitated and assisted two old goldsmiths who beat copper, day in, day out, producing the same pots and pans for sale on the market.This was to be his only training in an ancient craft that can only be passed down by apprenticeship. Two months later, he knew how to beat copper, work repoussé metal, weld, rivet, and tin."

goudji married a french woman but was not allowed exit to meet his wife in france for five years. goudji says, "I was born in Paris at the age of 33. "

"In the Soviet Union, Goudji had been prohibited from working with precious metals. However he had sacrificed a few small silver spoons so as to offer his friends brooches made with colored stones found on the beaches of the Black Sea. It was his only experienceas a silversmith until his arrival in France.

Goudji both loves and needs to create. For obvious economic reasons, his first parisian creations broaches, necklaces and belt buckles - were initially made of recuperated copper and latten, bought at the Porte de Clignancourt fleamarket in Paris. From1975 onwards, his copper alloy creations were silvered by electrolysis. Thanks to these small works - first modest, later sumptuous - Goudji rapidly became well-known among lovers of contemporary jewelry.Always unique, due to the technique employed, this first batch of jewels quickly came to the notice of Hubert de Givenchy, but Goudji was unable to accept the idea of mass-production under any name but his own: his first personal exhibition in Paris was presented in 1975 in the Sven gallery."

lots of interesting information on goudji, his technique and materials can be found on his website. very interesting and very beautiful, this would be my choice to replace drum playing chicken riding elephant. obviously, the chicken can make himself comfortable.

photographs by marc wittmer.

house in my head

i would like to see this libertine lounge (above) by todd bracher for triode dressed up like this (below), built in as a window seat, which is part of a bookcase wall dressed in the same fashion. i have put it in the modern house in my head.



i would also like the table (below) dressed like the table (above) although the veneer would be impossible with those legs and that is the whole reason i want the table. really killer legs by julien armand.



these little doo dads (below) are not part of the imaginary equation.