Filed under: Lauren Selden, anecdotes, art, aura, emily carr institute, film and video, gallery, installation, personal intrests, theory, vancouver
I was first introduced to Peter Horvath’s work in a digital art class I am taking this semester at Emily Carr, seeing his work and hearing a bit about him sparked some serious curiosity, and inspired me to find out more about Horvath’s work and his practice.
Peter Horvath is a film and video artist who personally brings his work to a place where most filmmakers are trying to prevent their work from appearing. The Internet. He creates short vignettes which are able to capture the audience with their unabashed simplicity and tenderness. The colour schemes appearing in his films are carefully chosen, the illuminated sepia-golds and contrasting steel greys of his latest work, Boulevard, provoke reflection of the altercations between memory and current reality.
Filed under: Lauren Selden, anecdotes, art, books, childhood, literature, personal intrests, photography, vancouver
Filed under: Chris Cobb, Lauren Selden, Luke Bulman, Suzanne Kleid, Whimsy, anecdotes, art, aura, books, colour, gallery, installation, personal intrests, photography
Colour-Coding and Book Collecting.
I just shared these photos ( from this flickr set ) with a friend, and sparked a lively discussion about my obsessive need to colour-code things. Maybe it’s just my visual orientated nature, but I find myself arranging everything from pencil crayons to smarties in the order of trusty Roy G. Biv.
The trend of colour-coding books has been around for awhile now, seen in the trendiest design firms, and in more mundane magazines like House & Home. The organization system used to file books can tell alot about a person, and certainly, colour-coding is not the right choice for everyone. Luke Bulman from the design studio Thumb chose to organize his books by colour for the some of the following reasons,
” For one, books he’s purchased or received as gifts are books he knows and often loves, and the color of these books is a major part of the experience of interacting with them.
Another of Luke’s reasons is this: organizing his books by color allows him to discover new and unexpected relationships between books he knows well already. When two unrelated books are forced to occupy the same shelf simply because of their spine color, the shelver is asked to think about whether they have ideas to share between them. Perhaps, the designers of these chromatically-related books saw something in the books’ content that even their authors did not. Maybe their ideals share a common hue? “
The photo’s I’ve shared above are from an art installation by Chris Cobb titled ‘There is nothing wrong in this whole wide world.’ wherin he, along with 20 helpers re-organized the aprox. 20,000 books in San Francisco’s Adobe Bookshop according to the colour wheel. The massive organizational overhaul took place over one night and remained for a week, after which all the books would be returned to their original locations.
Cobb mentions in an interview with Suzanne Kleid that he created this project out of a desire to “make something that I didn’t think would exist anywhere, and that nobody would ever make, that I couldn’t go anywhere in the world and see it. ” He also discusses the immediacy of the project; “It’ll be like in a dream. One day it’ll be like how it is, and the next day when the store opens it’ll be completely transformed.”
Although the idea of arranging my books by colour is something very appealing to me, it’s not something that I think my personal library could handle. Many of my books are oversize, and in order to get the maximum use out of my shelving, I’ve had to recognize shape as well as content.
But keep a wary eye on the horizon, I’ve just photographed my personal (and rapidly growing) library to share with you the way I like to organize my life.
Filed under: Lauren Selden, Plush Animals, Softies, Whimsy, art, childhood, craft, emily carr institute, personal intrests, toys, vancouver, whipstitch backstitch
Head on over to www.whipstitchbackstitch.wordpress.com for a sneak peak at my contribution to the Emily Carr student art sale, a selection of one-of-a-kind plush creatures!
They were (and are) so much fun to make. Stay tuned to whipstitch.backstitch. for more creature updates!
Filed under: Lauren Selden, anti-coloring book, art, aura, books, childhood, colouring books, paint by numbers, paintball, personal intrests, susan striker, the amateurs, theory, vancouver
Paint by Numbers became an American phenomenon in the 1950’s with the promise to hobbyists that ‘Everyone Can be a Rembrandt’. Many people found the pre-designed canvases to be relaxing and more rewarding than painting from scratch, claiming to become ‘hooked’ on the whole paint by numbers process.
One grateful hobbyist likened the process to an addiction. “I know I’m not much of an artist and never will be,” he or she wrote to American Artist. “I’ve tried in vain repeatedly to draw or paint something recognizable. . . . Why oh why didn’t you or someone else tell me before this how much fun it is to use these wonderful ‘paint by number’ sets? . . . am on my fifth set and just can’t leave them alone.”
For critics, the paint-by-number phenomenon provided ample evidence of the mindless conformity gripping national life and culture. “I don’t know what America is coming to,” one writer complained to American Artist, “when thousands of people, many of them adults, are willing to be regimented into brushing paint on a jig-saw miscellany of dictated shapes and all by rote. Can’t you rescue some of these souls-or should I say ‘morons’?”
‘Every Man a Rembrandt’ Full article.
I grew up in a home that didn’t believe in colouring books. I remember once receiving a dinosaur colouring book as a kid and my father using it to teach me how to mix pencil crayon colours to create more depth. I had an abnormal upbringing. And although I would often beg my mother to buy me those little colouring pads with the clear marker that turned things colours (remember those?), I’m grateful that I wasn’t told to “colour inside the lines” as a child.
A favorite colouring book of mine is the Anti-Coloring Book by Susan Striker. It’s a book that gives the artist prompts instead of outlines. Here is a page from one of her books;
(P.S. If anyone actually wants to finish the above anti-colouring book page, it would make my day if you posted it and told me about it! Such fun!)
And also, just for fun, some people who are doing something NEW with the Paint by Numbers project. Paintball by Numbers! (c/o The Amateurs). Enjoy!
Filed under: Lauren Selden, art, emily carr institute, installation, photography, vancouver
I recently completed an installation on Granville Island. Affirmation is about self-belief, and in a way, validation. I want people to realize that any thought, any idea, even the most mundane, can be valuable.
(Thanks to Gabriel and Debbie for being such wonderful models!)
I always tell people I hate fall. It reminds me of an old woman’s chesterfield. But there are some things about fall that I enjoy; sunny cold days, bright red leaves, apple cider and pumpkin pie.
Also there are some things that are perfect for every season, cupcakes, for example.
So it seemed natural that the misty fall weather today required some super delicious Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
(with chocolate icing)!
Filed under: Halloween, Lauren Selden, Pincushion Queen, Tim Burton, Whimsy, anecdotes, art, costume, craft, emily carr institute
I’m not usually one for personal posts but I was so pleased with my Halloween costume this year I couldn’t quite resist. What did you all go as?
Inspiration
Tim Burton’s Illustration of The Pincushion Queen.
The Result
A couple feet of copper wire, an old plastic necklace,
a piece of gold cardboard and 40 hairpins
(to hold the whole thing together).
Happy Halloween!
