Mortal Plush: I am not your toy

plush made by melissastanley727

A friend of mine got accepted to be part of this little bit scary/little bit cute/all awesome art show. It's called "Mortal Plush: I am not your toy" and it is a group exhibit of "emotional plush art" that's going to take place in National Harbor, Maryland: July 11th - August 11th. I don't think I'll be able to go, but I took a trip through the flickr group just to check out the artists' submissions. I don't know who got accepted, but here are just some of the plushes (or is it plushies?) that appealed to me.

"I Can't Believe You're My Sister" by Silent Orchid

(Can't you sense her annoyance? The hand on hip nails it.)

"Pip N Squeek" by Kit Lane

(Sweet fuzziness. I love the pink thread.)

"Sad and uber angry Mr. Toastee" by Yummy Pancake

(I would go through these feelings too. If I were toast.)

"old lady 011" by Wool & Water
(Does anyone remember Madame, the sassy old lady puppet from the 80s? This girl totally reminds me of that girl - without the rhinestones, of course.)

"Lil Octopus in Hand" by Loopy Dolls
(I get the same sense of sweet strangeness that I get from that doll head toy in "Toy Story.")

"Needle Felted Buddies" by feltalive

(Just a pair of red-headed friends.)

"Squirrely Pin" by VenaCavaCraft
(Just some tiny, fuzzy love with some darn careful stitching too.)

Dangling Art

Image courtesy of Tiptoe Studio via Etsy

I love a mobile. I immediately fall for any space that has one. Originally I was a giant fan of the nursery mobile, but now I realize that they can be worked into so many rooms. Why not hang happiness wherever you please?

This "grown up" mobile brought me to the frazier & wing site. It features the incredible work of artist Heather Frazier and I was hooked. She works with die-cut card stock and the result is always a lush, delicate cascade.

frazier&wing mobile image courtesy of project nursery

Julie Frith is another artist of mobiles. Her pieces have a very modern look and are made from eco-friendly plastic. I am mesmerized by the "Mobius" in all white-seems very peaceful.

Frith mobile images courtesy of humboldt1.com

On a recent beach vacation I saw the most beautiful shop window display. It was mobile of blown glass starfish. I wish I had taken a photo, but I did find the glass stars and you can imagine how lovely they would be as dangling art...

Image courtesy of lukeadamsglass via Etsy

I could not resist including some nursery/ children's rooms' mobiles- first love never fades.

Image courtesy of khann75's shop via Etsy

Images courtesy of potterybarnkids.com

Image courtesy of kangarooboo.com

Gearing up for "September..."

This is my favorite The Sartorialist shot ever. I love it on so many levels. Don't you?

God knows I am no fashion plate. When I was younger I might have worried about it and gotten anxious over it, but now I'm happy to wear what I know suits me, what I feel comfortable in, and what makes me feel like I look nice. And nice is all I need. This may sound like a cop out, but check out this quote from the most stylish blogger in the world, The Sartorialist:

"One of the tricky parts of shooting a fashion blog is the temptation to always be looking for fashion with a capital 'F.'
Although I do shoot that a lot, especially at the shows, when I am "on the street" I shoot with a slightly different eye.
When I am in a neighborhood I'm not looking for the "next big trend" or a ground-breaking style statement, but just reacting when I see a person and thinking to myself "he/she looks nice."

He goes on to say that "'Looking nice' is truly underrated" and that he notices those that reflect that quality even if it's: "Not groundbreaking, not earth shattering, but in its own way, a very glamorous way to live a simply nice life."

Of course, I still really want to see this movie even if it results in me hating every single "nice" thing I own...

discovered on being red

Edible Garden

Image courtesy of nybg.org

Gardens have been on mind since I read Vivi's post back in April. I would love to think I could get it together for next Spring and plan a space to start one in my own yard. I think The Edible Garden, the summer-long exhibition at The New York Botanical Garden, would send me running out back, hoe in hand, in no time.

This weekend, June 27th-28th, is the opening festival of the Garden , which is set throughout the 250-acre property. The theme is local food and promises to be full of information on fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I can't imagine a more appetizing way to spend the weekend!

Who are you Pat Prichard?

image via xtinalamb

Am I not the biggest nerd for wanting to check out this book: Hanky Panky: An Intimate History of the Handkerchief by Helen Gustafson? I stumbled upon these handkerchiefs by Pat Prichard and just think they are the loveliest. And then wanting to learn more about Pat Prichard - I did some hardcore research and googled. I found nothing about her on the internet (I imagine the artist to be a woman) though a lot on other hanky designers like Tammis Keefe. So the prettiness of these hankies has me curious (and greedy, I hate to admit)...

image via xtinalamb


image via xtinalamb


image via Tea With Friends


image via Tea With Friends

Wild about wild things...

by Cory Godbey

I was already on the edge of my seat about the Where the Wild Things movie, but now I'm just losing it because of this blog. Terrible Yellow Eyes was created by the artist Cory Godbey and is a collection of artwork influenced by the Maurice Sendak classic. It's such a brillant idea too and the artwork is so incredibly different and inspiring (and I can't help but be most in love with the pictures done by children). Spread the word because I really want to see more artists (grown and growing) post on Godbey's blog!

by Barnaby Ward


by Annie Bastine Koelle


by Robert van Raffe


by Lily, age 6

Charming Walls

October by Devon Kelley-Yurdin

Celebrate by Cory Dantini

Great Jones Street by Fred Chao

Astroland by Danica Novgorodoff

Blondie by Bailey Saliwanchik

Sometimes it seems near impossible to find art for certain spaces and even more difficult than that, finding unique and affordable art. The folks at Charmingwall Inc. are addressing these problems and I say hooray.

What is even more incredible about this gallery/website is that starting in October 2009 they will introduce a sister space, Six by Six Gallery , that features all original works of art on 6" square canvases. If you are an artist interested in this venture they have a gallery submission package available, as for the rest of us- summer just started and already there is something to look forward to this fall....

It is that time of year...

Image courtesy of itsawhimsicallife.blogspot

Happy first day of summer

"I don't want to say it's breaking my heart / And I don't know where to start..."

image via wanderlust

"Straight Lines" by Dawn Landes is such a pretty song sung by such a pretty girl. The song is so light and summery, but the lyrics are wistful and carry a nostalgia for childhood that makes the song just a little bit heartbreaking (and how can you not love a folky song that mentions a BMX bike?). I'll be singing this all summer...

video via youtube

"Straight Lines"

Remember when we were young
How you asked everyone to marry you
All of those songs we sung
Changing all the words you used to make the heroine die
Why?

Remember when we were right
God threw his darts at stars in the night
I had a kite
You had a trampoline and a BMX bike
You didn't even like

I don't want to say it's breaking my heart
And I don't know where to start
Old friends are falling apart
Time like the name of a man
Covered and we both can whine
I miss the straight, straight lines

The old times

Remember when we got caught
Dirty hands and make-believe drugs
We never got
Give me all your money
Bank robbers and cowboy cops
Make-believe rocks

Remember when we held hands
Red rover and marching band
You had a tan
Staying outside that long's gonna make you man
Never going back, never going back again

I don't want to say it's breaking my heart
And I don't know where to start
Old friends are falling apart
Time like the name of a man
Covered and we both can whine
I miss the straight, straight lines

The old times
The old times
Remember when we were young
Remember when we were young

(found the lyrics here)

Drama in miniature

Each of these photos from the "Half Awake" series by Erin Tyner (via Junior Society) features a solitary figure, caught in some lonely expanse, in a moment of quiet drama. The emotion Tyner evokes in these shots is incredible considering her subjects aren't alive.



So lovely and melancholy.

Freemotion Art

End of the Pier, originally uploaded by gillian.bates.

As a sewist who still has to concentrate like gangbusters to keep my hems straight, this freemotion machine embroidery by Gillian Bates is astonishing.

I'm in love with these pieces--the medium, the colors, the subjects. There's something so nostalgic and true about them.

And some of them are for sale in Gillian Bates' Etsy shop.

If you are willing to settle for a print, there are also postcards:

Now it's just a matter of choosing.

Looking at Lolita

(1964 US LP Spoken Arts, New York)

“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was always Lolita.” Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

Nabokov's Lolita is incredibly complex and layered and poetic, but I also think it's so interesting to go back to it and consider how the cultural idea or concept of a "Lolita" differs from the actual literary one. Or many just look at all the different covers? The New Republic has a slide show tracing the covers both over time and in different countries. Here are just a couple of the ones that struck me.

(1969 IT Mondadori, Rome (Poster))

Lots of covers with grown women (well over Lo's age) with popsicles and lollipops.

(1988 LEB Dar Al-Adab, Beirut)

Is Lolita an Alice lost in wonderland? This cover makes me think so.

(1995 GB Penguin, London)

I love this painting by Balthus, but Nabokov had said that he didn't want to have a girl on the cover of his book. Does this one count?

(2001 FR Gallimard (Du monde entier), Paris)

Has anyone else noticed how often books aimed at women show body parts on the cover especially legs? A couple of Lolita covers go that way too, but at least these are legs belonging to a girl (Though I think of Lolita as having scabby knees).

(2005 JAP Shinchosha, Tokyo)

I think this is a great photo. It's open to interpretation as to who is doing the looking. So many of these covers of girls/women are presented as if we're looking through Humbert Humbert's eyes. Here - it depends on the viewer on how you read the image.

(2006 GB Penguin (Red Classics), London)

I love this image - it's cartoony and retro. I think it captures the way Nabokov mixes pop culture references in with the high literary stuff.

(1959 TUR Aydin Yayinevi, Istanbul)

This cover seems so different from the others that it may seem wrong, but I think it could read as Lolita's naive perspective on what having a love affair with a "movie star" like Humbert Humbert would look like. Or maybe that's just the English major in me over-reading this cover...

(1994 BRA Companhia das Letras, São Paulo)

Jarring and unnerving - such a thought-provoking cover. The split screen, the contrasting colors, the perspectives, the lack of words - really, really interesting.

All these cover plus more found on Covering Lolita)