I picked this up at my local art supply shop. It's perfect. 7 bucks.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Pork Pie Hatters
Upon walking home tonight I passed a relative new comer to my neighborhood.
Pork Pie Hatters are just around the corner from me. I aspire to be cool enough to pull a hat off.
It's important to have local specialty shops. It is what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood.
from: www.porkpiehatters.com
Pork Pie Hatters are just around the corner from me. I aspire to be cool enough to pull a hat off.
It's important to have local specialty shops. It is what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood.
from: www.porkpiehatters.com
Jean Prouve
Jean Prouvé is one of the greatest French designers of the 20th century. Working as a craftsman, designer, manufacturer, architect, teacher and engineer, his career spanned over sixty years. With remarkable elegance and economy of means, he designed prefabricated houses, building components and façades, as well as furniture for the home, office and school.
From his early days, Prouvé was apprenticed as an artist blacksmith, hammering and shaping red-hot wrought iron. He progressed to running a studio and then established his own factory at Maxéville, just outside Nancy, where he worked until 1953. Driven by the constant quest for innovation in process and use of materials, his bold, reduced forms were inspired by the sparse aesthetic of aircraft and automobile design. Prouvé believed in the power of design to make a better world. He fought for the French Résistance, ran his factory on socialist principles, and saw design as a moral issue.
Born in 1901, Prouvé came from an artistic home. His father, Victor Prouvé, a painter and sculptor, was a founding member of the Art Nouveau School of Nancy. While longing to be an engineer, financial constraints meant that at the age of 15 Prouvé was apprenticed to the artisan blacksmith Emile Robert in Paris and then with the firm of Szabo. In 1923 after his military service, Prouvé set up his own workshop in Nancy and took on commissions for ornamental and wrought-iron work, such as grilles, hand-rails and balconies. Aware of the limitations of these materials and methods and keen to embrace the modern movement, Prouvé started to work with new materials and processes: steel, aluminium and arc welding. In 1926, Prouvé installed Nancy’s first electric welding machine and by 1930, he was using a metal-folding machine to make his designs. In 1931 he founded Atelier Jean Prouvé and increasingly aware of avant-garde architects such as Le Corbusier and Robert Mallet-Stevens, Prouvé began to make metal furniture.
Prouvé designed sturdy but light-weight furniture from his earliest experiments in folded steel in the late 1920s. It became a core part of his business. By 1934 he had a commission for 800 pieces of office furniture for the headquarters of the Paris power company CPDE. This made Prouvé a serious contender in the market for mass-produced furniture. He avoided the domestic market, in favour of the public sector — local authorities and government bodies — in the growing areas of health, education and administration. It reflected a social ideal but, with its larger orders, also offered the economies of scale. One secondary school in Metz ordered 1000 items, including beds, chairs and desks. These successes led the company, in 1936, to produce a catalogue of standard models for hospitals, schools and offices.
The potential for mass production inspired Prouvé to develop and patent industrial products using folded sheet metal for the construction of buildings. These included movable partitioning, metal doors and lift cages. His ideas came to summation in 1937 in the Maison du Peuple, a social centre and covered market in one of Paris’ more radical suburbs.
The outbreak of World War II brought restrictions on the use of electricity and raw materials. Prouvé’s factory adapted, by producing a range of products responding to the crisis. His patent Pyrobal stoves could run on any fuel and he worked on emergency generators, bicycle frames and wooden furniture.
Prouvé was an active member of the French Résistance and after the liberation of France he was briefly appointed Mayor of Nancy. The war years and the age of austerity that followed marked a period of enforced experiment. Prouvé worked with wood when steel was in short supply, and by 1947 furniture accounted for a third of his business.
In 1947, Prouvé moved his operations to Maxéville, just outside Nancy and by 1953, the factory had over 200 employees. With its own design studio, Prouvé could combine research, prototype development and production on one site. It was at Maxéville that Prouvé set about fulfilling his ambitious plan to alter the building process from a craft-based practice to that of a mechanised industry. He not only produced houses, prefabricated huts, doors, windows, roof elements and façade panels but also set up a production line for furniture based on his own designs. At the same time he was continuously upgrading the machine-tools as well as the working procedures and conditions on the factory floor. As an employer Prouvé was equally conscientious providing his employees with supplementary insurance and paid holidays.
Prouvé created an atmosphere of community at Maxéville where worker participation was encouraged and research into new procedures and design were central. It was in this creative environment that the prefabricated refugee houses of 1945 and the flat-packed, tropical houses for Niger and the Republic of Congo in 1949 and 1950 were developed.
Prouvé lost control of the factory he established at Maxéville when his financial backer, Aluminium Français, took over in 1953. The loss was a huge emotional setback for Prouvé who had called himself ‘a factory man’, but it encouraged a new and fruitful phase in his creative development. Prouvé built himself a house using components salvaged from the factory. This unique house brought an end to the experimental phase in his career. From then on he stopped being a manufacturer and instead established a new business, Construction Jean Prouvé, that turned him into a designer.
It allowed him to realise some of his more elegant and technically ambitious projects, moving away from making components to designing more complex buildings. He was commissioned to design a pavilion on the banks of the river Seine, to celebrate the centenary of aluminium. He also designed an innovative spa building in Evian, and worked on housing, youth centres and schools that reflected his social values. It was also a period of creative collaborations with designers such as Charlotte Perriand. In 1952, they were commissioned to design the furniture for the student rooms at the Maison de la Tunisie and Maison du Mexique at the Cité Universitaire.
Construction Jean Prouvé was eventually taken over by CIMT, a maker of components for railway lines. Under Prouvé’s direction it became the leading manufacturer of light-weight curtain wall façades. When Prouvé left the business in 1966 he started a technical consultancy advising architecture on cladding design. This led to his work on the curtain wall façades of the Tour Nobel building in Paris’ La Défense and the development of the grid frame constructions used for petrol stations. In 1971 Prouvé chaired the architectural jury that chose Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers to design the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Prouvé’s approach to design and making was systematic. Both the design process and the look of his design were of equal interest to him. He produced flow charts for the factory at Maxéville. These showed exactly how materials and elements moved from one machine to another and how one procedure followed another, from the stocking of sheet metal, rubber and neoprene sections, right up to the product’s dispatch. Tools and materials were categorised by the making process: cutting, punching, bending, plating, stamping and welding. Also his frame-by-frame photographic documentation of each experimental building project allowed him to refine the product and its construction.
The same precision was applied later to his teaching. In 1957 Prouvé was asked to give weekly lectures at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métier in Paris. Always packed to capacity, Prouvé illustrated his ideas with a succession of drawings on the blackboard and argued that the root of creativity came from the practice of theories and not academic knowledge alone. Almost a thousand pages of his lecture notes survive.
Prouvé provided a forensic analysis of the design process. He traced the history of industrial production explaining the causes and effects of the technical evolution on machines and products, moving from the railways, to aircraft and the car industry. His teaching reflected his own experience and his conviction that industrial creation does not unfold in great leaps but through gradual modifications and careful adaptations.
Prouvé has become a legendary figure since his death in 1984. Many of his landmark buildings are now national monuments and his furniture and architectural elements, façades and buildings are sought by collectors.
His work, however, is not so easily categorised. He designed furniture and he also made it. He helped architects to realise their designs by designing and fabricating the façade systems that made them possible. He was certainly an architect, even though he never qualified. He was an entrepreneur and an enlightened factory owner.
Delighting in all things technical, Prouvé was tirelessly driven by the desire to find solutions through trial and testing. Always the team player, his lack of ego has won him huge support with many architects and designers working today. Richard Rogers and Norman Foster as well as Jean Nouvel see in his work intelligence and an understanding of the potential of materials as both construction and form that opened the way for high tech architecture with its structurally candid expression.
© Design Museum
from: http://designmuseum.org/design/jean-prouve
Thursday, December 22, 2011
American Masters on PBS
December 20th, 2011
Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
From 1941 to 1978, this husband-and-wife team brought unique talents to their partnership. He was an architect by training, she was a painter and sculptor. Together they are considered America’s most important and influential designers, whose work helped, literally, shape the second half of the 20th century and remains culturally vital and commercially popular today. They are, perhaps, best remembered for their mid-century modern furniture, built from novel materials like molded plywood, fiberglass-reinforced plastic, bent metal wire and aluminum – offering consumers beautiful, functional, yet inexpensive products. Revered for their designs and fascinating as individuals, Charles and Ray have risen to iconic status in American culture. But their influence on significant events and movements in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age – has been less widely understood. Charles and Ray Eames are now profiled as part of American Masters. A film by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey. Narrated by James Franco.
Watch the full program on the American Masters Web site. www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/charles-ray-eames-the-architect-and-the-painter/watch-the-full-documentary-film/1950/
AMERICAN MASTERS is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for American Masters is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Jack Rudin, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation, and public television viewers.
Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
From 1941 to 1978, this husband-and-wife team brought unique talents to their partnership. He was an architect by training, she was a painter and sculptor. Together they are considered America’s most important and influential designers, whose work helped, literally, shape the second half of the 20th century and remains culturally vital and commercially popular today. They are, perhaps, best remembered for their mid-century modern furniture, built from novel materials like molded plywood, fiberglass-reinforced plastic, bent metal wire and aluminum – offering consumers beautiful, functional, yet inexpensive products. Revered for their designs and fascinating as individuals, Charles and Ray have risen to iconic status in American culture. But their influence on significant events and movements in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age – has been less widely understood. Charles and Ray Eames are now profiled as part of American Masters. A film by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey. Narrated by James Franco.
Watch the full program on the American Masters Web site. www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/charles-ray-eames-the-architect-and-the-painter/watch-the-full-documentary-film/1950/
AMERICAN MASTERS is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for American Masters is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Jack Rudin, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation, and public television viewers.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Vera Meat Christmas
I know I've posted about Vera Meat before, but I got my girlfriend done at birthday and Christmas from there this year. I love her stuff. The Hipo Shark and Scissor Hand are amazing.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Run From Fear, Fun From Rear
BRUCE NAUMAN
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 1941
I think that the point where language starts to break down as a useful tool for communication is the same edge where poetry and art occur. (B. Nauman)
Nauman was born on December 6, 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He studied mathematics and music, then art, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and took a degree in Fine Arts at the University of California, Davis (1960-66). In 1964 he gave up painting to dedicate himself to sculpture, performance and cinema collaborations with William Allan and Robert Nelson. He grew interested in Samuel Beckett’s works, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy, and the musical experimentations of John Cage, Philip Glass, La Monte Young, Meredith Monk. Between 1966 and 1970 he made several videos, in which he used his body to explore the potentials of art and the role of the artist, and to investigate psychological states and behavioural codes. His production ranges from fibreglass sculptures or neon tubes to photography and drawing. He never developed a specific style, though, since he considered art as an activity or an action and not as a product. Nauman used irony and puns to reveal the ambiguous nature of language and to examine the way human beings communicate of fail to communicate. After his solo exhibition at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery of Los Angeles in 1966, he started a collaboration with gallery managers Leo Castelli in New York and Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf (1968). In 1968 he was invited to Documenta 4 in Kassel and, having received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he stayed in New York for a year. In 1972 he held his first solo show in a museum, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and by the Whitney Museum of American Art of New York. In 1979 he moved to a ranch near Galisteo, New Mexico, where he raised horses. The artist’s research until the mid-1980s was focused on psychological and physical conditions, and earned him several prizes and a new travelling exhibition organized by the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis (1993-95). In 2001 he executed the installation Mapping the Studio, inspired by the daily life at his studio, while Setting a Good Corner took its cue from the everyday life at the ranch. After winning the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennial in 1999, in 2004 he received the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture. That same year for London’s Tate Modern he executed Raw Materials in which 22 spoken texts taken from existing works become a means to mould the acoustic space of the Turbine Hall. 29 historic works by Nauman have recently been restored thanks to the Preservation Program of the Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) of New York.
From: www.museomadre.it/bio_show.cfm?id=66
Monday, December 12, 2011
Lost Weekend NYC and Michael Halsband
Lost Weekend NYC in collaboration with Payal Arts International presents Michael Halsband: Surf. Opening reception will be held at Lost Weekend NYC on Thursday December 15th, 2011 from 6-9pm. This exhibition of photography captures the surfing communities of Southern California, Hawaii and Australia. Prints hang alongside Halsband's award winning surf documentary Surf Movie: reels 1-14 (2003). In The Surf Book (2004), Halsband's epic comprehensive survey of surf culture, he states:
"I grew up in Manhattan and, for as long as I can remember, I dreamed of being a surfer. I got my first taste when I was twelve years old, when my family was on vacation in South America. After years of coming close, I finally decided to start surfing full on. Little did I know that one day being a professional photographer would help bring me deep into the heart of surf culture and history. During the past four years, I have been accepted into this microcosm in a way that makes me feel as I have been surfing my whole life. The figure that made this possible is the legendary Joel Tudor. The adventure I have been on with him has exposed me to some of the people who have been crucial to the evolving technology and culture of surfing. I have sat, listened to, and photographed these individuals as they opened up with Joel in ways that they never would have with anyone else. There is a mutual respect between Joel and these individuals that is both deep and loving.”
Michael Halsband is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts. His photographic work includes iconic portraits of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, The School of American Ballet, and sex industry workers. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world and has appeared in Vanity Fair, Time, Interview, ARTnews, GQ, Vogue, Life, and Self, among other publications. Payal Arts International in New York City represents Michael Halsband. Connections, an exhibition of twenty gelatin silver prints of 8x10 portraits by Michael Halsband is simultaneously on view at The Mandarin's Tea Room in SoHo, New York.
"I grew up in Manhattan and, for as long as I can remember, I dreamed of being a surfer. I got my first taste when I was twelve years old, when my family was on vacation in South America. After years of coming close, I finally decided to start surfing full on. Little did I know that one day being a professional photographer would help bring me deep into the heart of surf culture and history. During the past four years, I have been accepted into this microcosm in a way that makes me feel as I have been surfing my whole life. The figure that made this possible is the legendary Joel Tudor. The adventure I have been on with him has exposed me to some of the people who have been crucial to the evolving technology and culture of surfing. I have sat, listened to, and photographed these individuals as they opened up with Joel in ways that they never would have with anyone else. There is a mutual respect between Joel and these individuals that is both deep and loving.”
Michael Halsband is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts. His photographic work includes iconic portraits of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, The School of American Ballet, and sex industry workers. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world and has appeared in Vanity Fair, Time, Interview, ARTnews, GQ, Vogue, Life, and Self, among other publications. Payal Arts International in New York City represents Michael Halsband. Connections, an exhibition of twenty gelatin silver prints of 8x10 portraits by Michael Halsband is simultaneously on view at The Mandarin's Tea Room in SoHo, New York.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Christmas Antlers
I made these antlers out of a head band, some wire hangars, and some thin galvanized wire. Holiday headdress complete.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Vasque Sundowner
I am an Eagle Scout and a NOLS Grad. I've owned two pairs of hiking boots in my life. I still have both.
The first pair was made by a company called Scarpa, in Italy. They are crampon compatible and completely indestructible.
The second is a pair of Vasque Sundowners. Vasque is part of Red Wing. With all the hulabaloo about Red Wing, heritage, LL Bean and the like, I'm surprised I haven't heard more about Sundowners.
They are Gore Tex, sturdy enough to put a pack on, and comfortable enough to wear everyday, I do.
Friday, November 25, 2011
School House Electric: Tables & Goods
The credenza and desk are beautiful examples of wedding old school woodwork to a pop of modernity.
This chair reminds me of the football game my grandfather took my grandmother to when they were courting. It reminds me of a story.
I love the coal miner feel of this sconce. It's Harlan County.
Bien Hecho.
Jacob Hashimoto
I just came across these and found them very cool.
MARY BOONE GALLERY
745 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10151. 212.752.2929
JACOB HASHIMOTO
On 27 October 2011 Mary Boone Gallery will open at its Fifth Avenue location The End of
Gravity, an exhibition of new work by JACOB HASHIMOTO.
Jacob Hashimoto uses traditional kite-making techniques to create distinctive works
comprised of hundreds of bamboo and paper elements strung together and suspended
between parallel dowels to form fragmented and layered fields. The works take into
account the spatial considerations of sculpture and the pictorial devices of painting,
operating as a hybrid between what are conventionally separate disciplines.
For this new body of work, Hashimoto references another artistic practice: each individual
kite element portrays a graphite drawing. Values ranging from lightly hatched gray to
dense black complement translucent white paper, replacing the kaleidoscope palette of cut
paper collage evidenced in previous works. The subtle hand introduced by the traced and
meandering pencil lines accentuates the intricate construction of the works’ foundation.
The exhibition, 745 Fifth Avenue, is on view through 17 December 2011. For further
assistance, please contact Ron Warren at the Gallery, or visit our website
www.maryboonegallery.com.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
School House Electric- Expanded and Re-Branded
One of my favorite companies, School House Electric, has expanded into a full-on lifestyle brand. Here's a write up on their new factory:
OUR NEW FACTORY
What was the new home of Pacific Hardware and Steel Company in 1910 is now the home of Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Company 101 years later!
The San Francisco based company needed an outpost in Portland, Oregon, for their growing hardware and tool business and so the heavy timber Douglas fir and brick structure was designed and built by notable Portland architect John Virginius Bennes.
The building went from hardware storage to wool storage - for the Columbia Wool Warehouse Company until 1918 - to paint supply storage for W.P. Fuller & Co. The most recent occupant was Coffee Bean International until our purchase in 2010.
Putting the past into perspective through the eyes of the building, Schoolhouse Electric was a natural fit! From hammers and bin pulls to wool blankets and throws, paint brushes, paint and coffee beans. How Portland! Where do I sign up?
We’re thrilled to take part in the Portland tradition of the Pacific Steel and Hardware Co. building - now known as the Schoolhouse Factory!
From: www.schoolhouseelectric.com
OUR NEW FACTORY
What was the new home of Pacific Hardware and Steel Company in 1910 is now the home of Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Company 101 years later!
The San Francisco based company needed an outpost in Portland, Oregon, for their growing hardware and tool business and so the heavy timber Douglas fir and brick structure was designed and built by notable Portland architect John Virginius Bennes.
The building went from hardware storage to wool storage - for the Columbia Wool Warehouse Company until 1918 - to paint supply storage for W.P. Fuller & Co. The most recent occupant was Coffee Bean International until our purchase in 2010.
Putting the past into perspective through the eyes of the building, Schoolhouse Electric was a natural fit! From hammers and bin pulls to wool blankets and throws, paint brushes, paint and coffee beans. How Portland! Where do I sign up?
We’re thrilled to take part in the Portland tradition of the Pacific Steel and Hardware Co. building - now known as the Schoolhouse Factory!
From: www.schoolhouseelectric.com
Monday, November 14, 2011
Fort Worth Food Park
Fort Worth Food Park Expected to Open December 2nd Featuring Several of the Area's Top Gourmet Mobile Food Chefs
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth Food Park is planning Dec. 2nd, 2011 for its Grand Opening becoming the first food park or food court to open in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex dedicated to gourmet mobile food vendors. The Food Park, located near the vibrant West 7th/Montgomery Ward plaza entertainment district in Fort Worth, will showcase a variety of local gourmet mobile food trucks and trailers serving a wide range of food including taqueria-style tacos, bbq, vegan and gluten-free dishes, cupcakes, bahn mi sandwiches, Neopolitan pizza, and gourmet hamburgers, hot dogs, and grilled cheeses. The Food Park will also feature live music and outdoor movie nights in a relaxed backyard-like setting.
To help kick off the Food Park, Good Karma Kitchen, YES! Taco, Nammi Truck, Lee's Grilled Cheeses, Red Jett Sweets, and Jake's Hamburgers will serve up their specialties at the Park's Grand Opening. Live music will be provided by the Gary Kyle Band and there will be free beer from Rahr & Sons Brewing Company. The Opening event is expected to be from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm.
After watching the food-truck trend explode across the nation, including in Austin and San Antonio, and then seeing food trucks begin to gravitate to Fort Worth, owner Chris Kruger thought it was the perfect time to bring a unique tranquil space designed specifically for food trucks to Fort Worth. "My wife and I loved that food trucks were beginning to come to Fort Worth, but I thought it would be really nice to be able to sample a number of food trucks in one location rather than trying to track them down all the time. You can see that the food truck culture in Austin, Portland, Los Angeles and similar cities is really starting to move towards a food-court-setting with a number of trucks working together, so I wanted to bring that trend to Fort Worth. Luckily, the City of Fort Worth has worked with me as I moved forward in bringing this idea to fruition."
Fort Worth Food Park will initially be open every Thursday for dinner and every Friday-Sunday for lunch and dinner, although it is expected that the Park will eventually expand to a full-week schedule. The Food Park will be the perfect destination for families, friends, and food-truck followers to enjoy deliciously creative dishes while relaxing in a unique outdoor space. The space will also host charity events and can be reserved for private functions.
Fort Worth Food Park is located at 2509 Weisenberger St., Fort Worth Texas, 76107, which is immediately North of the Target shopping complex near Montgomery Ward plaza. More details on the Food Park can be found at facebook.com/fwfoodpark and eventually here at fwfoodpark.com.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth Food Park is planning Dec. 2nd, 2011 for its Grand Opening becoming the first food park or food court to open in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex dedicated to gourmet mobile food vendors. The Food Park, located near the vibrant West 7th/Montgomery Ward plaza entertainment district in Fort Worth, will showcase a variety of local gourmet mobile food trucks and trailers serving a wide range of food including taqueria-style tacos, bbq, vegan and gluten-free dishes, cupcakes, bahn mi sandwiches, Neopolitan pizza, and gourmet hamburgers, hot dogs, and grilled cheeses. The Food Park will also feature live music and outdoor movie nights in a relaxed backyard-like setting.
To help kick off the Food Park, Good Karma Kitchen, YES! Taco, Nammi Truck, Lee's Grilled Cheeses, Red Jett Sweets, and Jake's Hamburgers will serve up their specialties at the Park's Grand Opening. Live music will be provided by the Gary Kyle Band and there will be free beer from Rahr & Sons Brewing Company. The Opening event is expected to be from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm.
After watching the food-truck trend explode across the nation, including in Austin and San Antonio, and then seeing food trucks begin to gravitate to Fort Worth, owner Chris Kruger thought it was the perfect time to bring a unique tranquil space designed specifically for food trucks to Fort Worth. "My wife and I loved that food trucks were beginning to come to Fort Worth, but I thought it would be really nice to be able to sample a number of food trucks in one location rather than trying to track them down all the time. You can see that the food truck culture in Austin, Portland, Los Angeles and similar cities is really starting to move towards a food-court-setting with a number of trucks working together, so I wanted to bring that trend to Fort Worth. Luckily, the City of Fort Worth has worked with me as I moved forward in bringing this idea to fruition."
Fort Worth Food Park will initially be open every Thursday for dinner and every Friday-Sunday for lunch and dinner, although it is expected that the Park will eventually expand to a full-week schedule. The Food Park will be the perfect destination for families, friends, and food-truck followers to enjoy deliciously creative dishes while relaxing in a unique outdoor space. The space will also host charity events and can be reserved for private functions.
Fort Worth Food Park is located at 2509 Weisenberger St., Fort Worth Texas, 76107, which is immediately North of the Target shopping complex near Montgomery Ward plaza. More details on the Food Park can be found at facebook.com/fwfoodpark and eventually here at fwfoodpark.com.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Jimmy Diresta Ties a Giant Knot
It's like a Rubics Cube only you can beat someone over the head with it. Thanks Jimmy!
Tom Sachs
WORK
Sperone-Westwater Gallery
4 November -- 17 December 2011
Sperone Westwater is pleased to present new paintings and sculptures by Tom Sachs in the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. Sachs has a reverence for the ritual act of work itself and the sculptures and paintings he creates are artifacts of his devotion. Sachs "shows his work" by emphasizing the presence of the human hand, to remind the viewer of the labor involved in the creation of objects. Influenced by a range of historic objects and cultural iconography -- Sèvres porcelain, traditional African symbols, Pop, NASA, and the singer and songwriter James Brown (“the hardest working man in show business”) -- Sachs addresses the conception, production, consumption and circulation of modern-day creativity by refashioning the world out of simple stuff. This exhibition precedes Sachs' major interactive exhibition, ASTRONAUTS TRAINING MANUAL; SPACE PROGRAM 2.0: MARS, co-presented by Creative Time and Park Avenue Armory, and on view at Park Avenue Armory in New York from May – June 2012.
The show begins with Sachs’ plywood, glass and metal model of the recently built Sperone Westwater gallery, surrounded by paintings that reference several periods of interest to the artist: Duridium (2008) is made after the famous Lichtenstein work, but here out of screws and plywood; Viagra Gold (2008) has compositional ties to Op Art; and Muhammad Ali Poem to James Brown (2009), and James Brown’s Hair Products (2009), relate to color studies by artists such as Albers and Richter. Several of these paintings incorporate Sachs’ innovative technique of pyrography, where "paint strokes" are burned and etched into the wood surface.
Works in the East Room emphasize the range and beauty of things that can be made out of the very basic medium of plywood. For Cinderblock (2010-11), the artist creates a laminated cinderblock structure out of resin and plywood, a material commonly used for basic construction, into a Minimalist form. Big Cock (2010) harnesses the power of the 18th century Nigerian ceremonial sculpture, Rooster Figure, by including a slot for coin donations to be made in honor of the ceremonial chief. A new body of work, the Sèvres Collection, will be on display in the dimly lit Moving Room. These sculptures are based on late 18-century porcelain objects from the French town of Sèvres that were manufactured by Louis XV, and sought after by the French nobility. Using plastic animal figurines, glue, foam core, and resin molded from a woman’s breast, Sachs creates his version of the famous Sèvres "breast cup" that belonged to Marie-Antoinette.
In the James Brown series, Sachs celebrates James Brown’s (“The Godfather of Soul”), religion of work. Not only a musician, but also a key figure who helped define African American and American culture in the 20th century, Brown reinvented himself and innovated his industry many times over. Everyday objects from Brown’s life have now become collectible relics. Sachs uses these real artifacts as a starting point for works in his James Brown series. In James Brown’s Last Supper (2009) and Dome (2011), Sachs conflates the art of the ready-made, found object with intensely fabricated, craft-oriented details.
Tom Sachs was born in Manhattan in 1966 and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. After studying at the Architectural Association in London in 1987, Sachs received a B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont in 1989. Major solo exhibitions have been presented at SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (1999); the Bohen Foundation, New York (2002); Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2003); the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2006); the Fondazione Prada, Milan (2006); the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, which traveled to the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2007); the Lever House, New York (2008); and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2009). Sachs’ work is featured at the 2011 Bienal de São Paulo in In the Name of the Artists - American Contemporary Art from the Astrup Fearnley Collection. Sachs’s work can be found in museum collections around the world. The artist currently lives and works in New York.
From: www.tomsachs.org/exhibition/work
Sperone-Westwater Gallery
4 November -- 17 December 2011
Sperone Westwater is pleased to present new paintings and sculptures by Tom Sachs in the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. Sachs has a reverence for the ritual act of work itself and the sculptures and paintings he creates are artifacts of his devotion. Sachs "shows his work" by emphasizing the presence of the human hand, to remind the viewer of the labor involved in the creation of objects. Influenced by a range of historic objects and cultural iconography -- Sèvres porcelain, traditional African symbols, Pop, NASA, and the singer and songwriter James Brown (“the hardest working man in show business”) -- Sachs addresses the conception, production, consumption and circulation of modern-day creativity by refashioning the world out of simple stuff. This exhibition precedes Sachs' major interactive exhibition, ASTRONAUTS TRAINING MANUAL; SPACE PROGRAM 2.0: MARS, co-presented by Creative Time and Park Avenue Armory, and on view at Park Avenue Armory in New York from May – June 2012.
The show begins with Sachs’ plywood, glass and metal model of the recently built Sperone Westwater gallery, surrounded by paintings that reference several periods of interest to the artist: Duridium (2008) is made after the famous Lichtenstein work, but here out of screws and plywood; Viagra Gold (2008) has compositional ties to Op Art; and Muhammad Ali Poem to James Brown (2009), and James Brown’s Hair Products (2009), relate to color studies by artists such as Albers and Richter. Several of these paintings incorporate Sachs’ innovative technique of pyrography, where "paint strokes" are burned and etched into the wood surface.
Works in the East Room emphasize the range and beauty of things that can be made out of the very basic medium of plywood. For Cinderblock (2010-11), the artist creates a laminated cinderblock structure out of resin and plywood, a material commonly used for basic construction, into a Minimalist form. Big Cock (2010) harnesses the power of the 18th century Nigerian ceremonial sculpture, Rooster Figure, by including a slot for coin donations to be made in honor of the ceremonial chief. A new body of work, the Sèvres Collection, will be on display in the dimly lit Moving Room. These sculptures are based on late 18-century porcelain objects from the French town of Sèvres that were manufactured by Louis XV, and sought after by the French nobility. Using plastic animal figurines, glue, foam core, and resin molded from a woman’s breast, Sachs creates his version of the famous Sèvres "breast cup" that belonged to Marie-Antoinette.
In the James Brown series, Sachs celebrates James Brown’s (“The Godfather of Soul”), religion of work. Not only a musician, but also a key figure who helped define African American and American culture in the 20th century, Brown reinvented himself and innovated his industry many times over. Everyday objects from Brown’s life have now become collectible relics. Sachs uses these real artifacts as a starting point for works in his James Brown series. In James Brown’s Last Supper (2009) and Dome (2011), Sachs conflates the art of the ready-made, found object with intensely fabricated, craft-oriented details.
Tom Sachs was born in Manhattan in 1966 and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. After studying at the Architectural Association in London in 1987, Sachs received a B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont in 1989. Major solo exhibitions have been presented at SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (1999); the Bohen Foundation, New York (2002); Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2003); the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2006); the Fondazione Prada, Milan (2006); the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, which traveled to the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2007); the Lever House, New York (2008); and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2009). Sachs’ work is featured at the 2011 Bienal de São Paulo in In the Name of the Artists - American Contemporary Art from the Astrup Fearnley Collection. Sachs’s work can be found in museum collections around the world. The artist currently lives and works in New York.
From: www.tomsachs.org/exhibition/work
Monday, November 7, 2011
Half Terry
TERRY RICHARDSON
MOM DAD
November 11—December 4, 2011
Reception: Friday, November 11, 6-8 p.m.
"My parents split up when I was four. It feels good for me to have them back together again, even if it's in a gallery and only for a little while. It's something I'm doing for me and in a way, for them." -Terry Richardson, 2011
Terry Richardson's "Mom & Dad" exhibition opens in New York at half gallery on 11/11/11 (celebrating the release of his new monograph from Morel Books). His late father Bob Richardson was a renowned fashion photographer and his mother Annie -- still alive and kicking it in Ojai, California -- a former Copacabana dancer, stylist and Jimi Hendrix paramour. Although they divorced when Terry was quite young, the couple are brought together again here in these touching, funny, sometimes desperate photographs. Mixing captured text and portraiture, this series doubles as an epistemological survey of one man's life in an attempt to reconcile his family of origin. The two-volume book launched at Colette in Paris late September.
208 FORSYTH STREET, NEW YORK | INFO@HALFGALLERY.COM
Hours: MONDAY-FRIDAY, 10-6 p.m., SATURDAY-SUNDAY, 12-4 p.m., and by appointment
MOM DAD
November 11—December 4, 2011
Reception: Friday, November 11, 6-8 p.m.
"My parents split up when I was four. It feels good for me to have them back together again, even if it's in a gallery and only for a little while. It's something I'm doing for me and in a way, for them." -Terry Richardson, 2011
Terry Richardson's "Mom & Dad" exhibition opens in New York at half gallery on 11/11/11 (celebrating the release of his new monograph from Morel Books). His late father Bob Richardson was a renowned fashion photographer and his mother Annie -- still alive and kicking it in Ojai, California -- a former Copacabana dancer, stylist and Jimi Hendrix paramour. Although they divorced when Terry was quite young, the couple are brought together again here in these touching, funny, sometimes desperate photographs. Mixing captured text and portraiture, this series doubles as an epistemological survey of one man's life in an attempt to reconcile his family of origin. The two-volume book launched at Colette in Paris late September.
208 FORSYTH STREET, NEW YORK | INFO@HALFGALLERY.COM
Hours: MONDAY-FRIDAY, 10-6 p.m., SATURDAY-SUNDAY, 12-4 p.m., and by appointment
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Walking Wounded: Writer's Block
I designed and made this writing desk for a friend of mine. Threaded Pipe and Poplar. I inlaid cork on the right side and top corner to act as inspiration pinup and coaster. Then, I put a pencil tray in the top- just like in school. I like the color blocking.
Walking Wounded: Waxwear Chair
I waxed a Vietnam Era Duffel Bag with Paraffin and Bees Wax, then upholstered a chair that I restored in it.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Stove Top
I'm getting interested in electric stove top burners for source material....
they're kind of amazing...
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Dirty Money back!
Jimmy Diresta and Co. will be back on that magic color box in your den on October 13th. Tune in to see some cool stuff get made!
Show Schedule
Thursday, October 13 / 10:30pm
Coffin Up Big Bucks
Friday, October 14 / 12:30am
Coffin Up Big Bucks
Thursday, October 20 / 10:30pm
New York State of Find
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Fort Worth Food Trucks, Picnic in the Park
My friend, Chris Kruger, has created Fort Worth's first Food Truck Park. I got a chance to build some picnic tables for him and his customers. Get yourself to Texas.
They open in a few weeks.
They open in a few weeks.
Walking Wounded: Writer's Block, In Process
Here are some in-process photos of a writing desk I made for a pal.
Threaded Pipe, Poplar, strong, classic and my design.
Completed photos to come....
Threaded Pipe, Poplar, strong, classic and my design.
Completed photos to come....
Monday, September 26, 2011
Matt Kenny
Matt Kenny
For his first exhibition in New York, Matt Kenny presents a new series of monotypes. Elusive in nature, they appear reminiscent of wood-cuts, gelatin silver prints, and even meticulously rendered ballpoint pen drawings. In actuality, Kenny composes them by inking and arranging plastic shopping bags then running them through an intaglio press. The resulting forms range from solid rock-like masses to writhing anthropomorphic swirls. His unique works on paper capture both the spirit of Jean Arp's playful abstraction and the dynamic energy of Franz Kline's black and white painting.
Derek Eller Gallery is located at 615 West 27th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues. Hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 11am - 6pm. For further information or visuals, please contact the gallery at 212.206.6411 or visit www.derekeller.com
For his first exhibition in New York, Matt Kenny presents a new series of monotypes. Elusive in nature, they appear reminiscent of wood-cuts, gelatin silver prints, and even meticulously rendered ballpoint pen drawings. In actuality, Kenny composes them by inking and arranging plastic shopping bags then running them through an intaglio press. The resulting forms range from solid rock-like masses to writhing anthropomorphic swirls. His unique works on paper capture both the spirit of Jean Arp's playful abstraction and the dynamic energy of Franz Kline's black and white painting.
Derek Eller Gallery is located at 615 West 27th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues. Hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 11am - 6pm. For further information or visuals, please contact the gallery at 212.206.6411 or visit www.derekeller.com
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Favela Chair
This chair is awesome:
designer:
Fernando and Humberto Campana
design year:
2003
manufacturer:
Edra, Italy
materials:
Brazilian Pinus wood
notes:
"Favela" refers to the ad-hoc shelters which are built out of mud, sand, scraps of wood, bricks and stones in the hills and on the fringes of urban expansion around Rio de Janeiro. The name refers to the location of the first of such settlements, the hill "Morro da Favela", built in the late 1800s by African-Brazilian veterans from the Canudos war who had nowhere else to go.The "Favela" chair is constructed piece-by-piece from the same wood used to build the favelas, and every piece is hand-glued and nailed.
From:www.mossonline.com
designer:
Fernando and Humberto Campana
design year:
2003
manufacturer:
Edra, Italy
materials:
Brazilian Pinus wood
notes:
"Favela" refers to the ad-hoc shelters which are built out of mud, sand, scraps of wood, bricks and stones in the hills and on the fringes of urban expansion around Rio de Janeiro. The name refers to the location of the first of such settlements, the hill "Morro da Favela", built in the late 1800s by African-Brazilian veterans from the Canudos war who had nowhere else to go.The "Favela" chair is constructed piece-by-piece from the same wood used to build the favelas, and every piece is hand-glued and nailed.
From:www.mossonline.com
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
UES Restaurants
If you find yourself in the Upper East Side and need a good place to eat, stop in to The Seahorse Tavern. Solid place run by solid people.
http://theseahorsetavern.com
http://theseahorsetavern.com
Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
WHIT Spring 2012
Whit's one of my favorite women's designers. She makes great clothes that women can actually wear year after year.
From WWD: Whitney Pozgay channeled the colors of the Arizona desert, resulting in a lovely lineup of “wear anywhere” short dresses done in linen, some with embroidery, and sportswear such as red-and-blue Aztec-print shorts paired with a red knitted T-shirt.
From: http://www.wwd.com/runway/spring-ready-to-wear-2012/review/whit
From Lucky Mag: NYFW Spring 2012: Whit's '60s Wedding
12:30 AM, September 14 2011
By Caroline Waxler
The Venue: The Gramercy Terrace at the Gramercy Park Hotel
The Scene: The ivy up on the roof of the Gramercy blended well with the minimalist desert backdrop, setting the mood for Whitney Pozgay’s WHIT presentation. The designer had lots of family and friends on hand for support, including uncle Andy Spade and designer Steven Alan. What's more, the party was thrown by Bon Appetit and Chef Fabio Viviani, which meant being in the company of many dapper types, including Glen O’Brien and Adam Rapoport. They mixed in well with the young fashion crowd, who took a break from the tents to come see WHIT.
The Look: Imagine you’re a guest at a wedding in Marfa—in the ‘60s. There were mix and match graphic prints and lots of colorways. Even a midriff-baring dress! Indeed, this showing was bit less conservative than Pozgay’s previous collections.
What We Want to Buy: We loved the border town feel of the whole collection. “I’m just an Arizona girl,” the designer told us. The open-weave sweaters—especially the white one the designer was wearing—made us wish we’d grown up with Whitney in the Southwest. Come this spring, at least we can look like it.
From: http://www.luckymag.com/blogs/luckyrightnow/2011/09/nyfw-spring-2012--whit#slide=1
From Fashion Week Daily:Whit
Hometown nostalgia lent Whit a decidedly Southwest POV for Spring 2012. Arizona native Whitney Pozgay presented an earthy desert-inspired collection on the Gramercy Hotel terrace, 16 flights up from the urban hustle and bustle below. The print-heavy mashup, tinged with mod elements, referenced '60s landscape photography in playful Navajo-like print shifts, Aztec bottoms with sunset coral toppers, and striped canteen-shaped handbags. A cacti backdrop was an apropos choice against a canyon print day frock and relaxed weekender getups, proving that playful, wear-anywhere separates are Pozgay's hallmark.
From: http://www.fashionweekdaily.com/the-fix/article/spring-2012-marc-by-marc-jacobs-reem-acra-whit-alice-olivia-rachel-zoe
Low Line in NY Mag
I have been helping my friend, James Ramsey, work on the Low Line for the last few years. It's good to see his hard work is paying off. Bien Hecho compadre.
"Land for parks is so scarce in Manhattan that the city’s most generous new green space, the High Line, occupies an elevated railway. Now three urbanist entrepreneurs—James Ramsey, a satellite engineer turned architect; Dan Barasch, an executive at the technology think tank PopTech; and the pedigreed money manager R. Boykin Curry IV—hope to mine roughly two acres of green space under the city streets. Much as Joshua David and Robert Hammond transformed an old freight line into an attractive strip of greenery, this trio wants to convert the vast and dank trolley terminal that has sat disused on the Lower East Side for six decades into a park that they are calling Delancey Underground but will inevitably be known as the Low Line.
“Technology enables us to create an appealing green space in an underserved neighborhood,” says Ramsey. The key, he says, is the “remote skylight,” a system that channels sunlight along fiber-optic cables, filtering out harmful ultraviolet and infrared light but keeping the wavelengths used in photosynthesis. “We’re channeling sunlight the way they did in ancient Egyptian tombs, but in a supermodern way.” Ramsey envisions a stand of dozens of lamppostlike solar collectors on the Delancey Street median, feeding a system of fixtures down below.
The MTA controls the terminal, where trolleys plying the Williamsburg Bridge looped back toward Brooklyn; Ramsey says the agency has been willing to listen to his pitch, though it won’t contribute any funds. The next task is to sell the neighborhood on a park with walls and a ceiling supported by I beams. Community Board 3 gets its first look at the plan on September 21, giving residents the chance to start imagining what it might feel like to loll on a subterranean sheep meadow or ride an escalator to a bower in a burrow."
From: http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/the-low-line-2011-9/
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