Movie Magic

Chinatown sketch, Courtesy of the Richard Sylbert Estate

NPR hosted a segment this morning reminiscing about the old days of Hollywood, long before computer-aided graphics created the scenes and stories that we enjoy now.  Their article is absorbing, divulging the secrets behind the ice castle of Dr. Zhivago (melted wax), the Wizard of Oz's yellow brick road (yellow industrial paint), and Gone with the Wind's burning Atlanta (a fiery King Kong movie set). What fascinates me the most are the preliminary sketches featured at the top of the article, like the one above from Chinatown. They are quality work on their own, made even more special by coming to life on the big screen. Who doesn't want to re-watch Cleopatra after looking at the barge sketch? We tend to celebrate the final product of a movie without being privy to the very creative, problem-solving, detailed work that goes into it. Key moments captured by an artist's hand set the stage and the emotion of the entire production. I wonder if contemporary films, especially computer-generated ones, still use hand-sketches. If so, I'd really love to see them. - l.o.d.

It's January 26th...

Do you know where your February (calendar) is? No? Well then download, cut, and paste this adorable pop up groundhog calendar from the Curiosity agency for your desk. You have 5 days until go time, so...go! - l.o.d.

Curiosity Shop Calendar Club

A Fallen Empire

The melancholy documentary photos of Detroit by the Parisian artists Marchand and Meffre are so incredibly sad. They collaborated on this effort to document the historic mummification of urban landmarks in this once glorious city. Their photographs are beautifully haunting. And profoundly upsetting, especially for those of us within an hours drive of these subjects. There is a underlying question that remains unanswered - do we let the ruins live or do we take back the city and make it live once again? Click through the pictures and tell me what you see. - l.o.d.

Bath & Beyond

The bathroom is finished!  Hooray!

A DIY project by numbers: 8 months of weekend work, 4 trips minimum to Lowe's each weekend, 2 dirty respirator masks and safety goggles, 5 calls to the handyman, 1 week of drywall dust, 2 vanity installations with 1 success, 4 unexplained shower drain drips in the basement, 3 counts of eeew while looking down the old toilet drain pipe, 1 expedited shower valve part replacement, 2 inter-personal declarations of insanity and dozens of love, hundreds of home-ownership curses with one dose of healthy respect for a 140-year old home. 2 people incredibly happy and proud of our work. - l.o.d.

Before/During

Step 1: Uncovering old drywall

Step 2: Ripping up carpet

Step 3: Removing old drywall

 

After

Yes, please

Pretty is a Verb

Sometimes a well-designed life needs a little pampering. A little extra attention during these dry winter months, a little bit of pretty. A touch of femininity to remind us to be soft, gentle, and smell good even under our sweaters and boots. Let these ethereal products from Anthropologie sweep you away to a different time, place, where you can become pampered, centered, in order to approach the modern world anew. - l.o.d.

Cezanne

You probably noticed today's Google homepage logo celebrates the 172nd birthday of the great Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne. Impressively, the painting was recreated in the likeness of Cezanne's works by a Googler who first painted it in oil and then digitized. Well done, Googler. 

Since Google brought it up, I thought I'd give a brief art history lesson about Cezanne. I actually write a term paper on him for my Psychology class way back in the day and I consider him a rather fascinating character. Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence France in 1839 and left home to refine his craft in Paris in 1861 with the company of author Emile Zola. After an unsuccessful run in Paris and a prodigal return home, he returned back to Paris where he became close with Pissaro, Manet, and Degas and formed, through many years of work, "constructive landscape". Although he exhibited his work with many of his Parisian Impressionist colleagues, he developed dissatisfaction with the lack of structure found in the Impressionist landscape. He wanted more forms, a visual solidity to show firmness and permanence. Basic shapes of cylinder, sphere, and cone became the basis for all the objects in his work from still life through landscape. This is where his work drifted towards cubism and unfortunately he drifted towards seclusion, self-doubt, and isolation. Some argue that his landscapes often represent the manifestation of lust, desire, and anger by taking on nude human forms. That's subjective, although I can see it. Mostly what appeals to me is that his struggles with self-doubt almost lead to the end of his artistic career, but ultimately the beauty and form of his work prevail. Fortunately he was alive to see some fame before his death from pneumonia in 1906. - l.o.d.

Mont Sainte-Victorie

Marimekko Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Show

Why do all the northern regions of the world do such a nice job at celebrating color? I found a great fashion video from Merimekko-land celebrating their Spring/Summer 2011 collection. Check it out.



Haute couture it's not but this is more my style anyway. The cuts are a little boxy for my liking but the prints are bold and eye-catching as always. Do I see a little of Pantone's 2011 color prediction, honeysuckle?

Marimekko also announced a new flagship store opening in Helsinnki on February 10. For those of us on this side of the pond, they have also amped-up their partnership with Crate & Barrel with a shop within the New York SoHo store. Online shopping for The Marimekko shop at crateandbarrel.com are coming this spring. All of this in addition to the earlier announcement about their Converse partnership makes for very interesting awareness expansion of their product lines. My prediction: Ikea won't be the only Scandinavian design shop for the masses for long. - l.o.d.

Babushka Love

It was a chilly weekend here in Ann Arbor, Michigan; we are surely in the throngs of deep winter. To ward off oncoming cabin fever, a few friends and I paid a visit to the pub and shops on Main street yesterday. After a warm vegetable boxty and a few sips of an ale, we popped into the boutiques where I happened upon this charming babushka pepper mill, isn't she adorable?

Babushka Pepper Mill

While Babushka-style nesting dolls are typically thought of as a Christmas item, I've seen a few clever ones that beg to be shown all winter. The bright, bold colors are spirit lifters, and the northern charm goes perfectly with the black and white winter landscape. These are contemporary ones, but the more common Russian dolls, especially vintage, are heartwarming too. Suddenly, I feel like I'm 6 again, sitting on the floor, playing with a simple wooden toy. - l.o.d.

Urban Outfitters Nesting Owls

CB2 Russian Nesting Dolls

Yellow Robots on Etsy

Mini Countryman

Oh yeah. Does it come in orange? - l.o.d.

In Living Color

Pantone has announced that the 2011 Color of the Year is Honeysuckle 18-2120. 

To be brutally honest, my immediate response was less than favorable, but I've warmed to the idea since the announcement. Let me explain. First, I think it's self-fulfilling for Pantone to market a Color of the Year. Color trends and color theory are very important and drive significant marketing and design decisions but distilling it down to one color creates false power. And to determine the color at the start of the year is like a horoscope - ever so slightly tainting perceptions as to create a future where perhaps it may not have been otherwise. Philosophy aside, initially I scoffed at the blatent pinkness of this color and their description of its personality. Courageous! Confident! Vital! Wow. But after weeding through the first two paragraphs of their press release, I got to the heart of their intent and it started to make sense. It's not about the color per se, but about the place that this color has in our lives. No one other than graphic designers really care about the Pantone number on the color chip. But look at the makeup counter in any Sephora and it's teeming with shades of honeysuckle in lipstick and blush because it compliments virtually all skin tones. Pages of my Mexicolor home decor book are devoted to the energizing boldness of this reddish pink shade when painted on a wall. Notice the preppy trend in current fashion and the color that signifies this style? Yep, it's honeysuckle. And as we enter into the dog days of winter I do appreciate the spring-like apparition of such a hopeful color. So when I start to see signs of honeysuckle in magazines, blogs, and trends, part of me will wonder if I'm seeing the chicken or the egg, but then again, does it really matter? - l.o.d.

Mobile Me

I'm a fluttery ball of excitement about today's news release of the iPhone 4 on Verizon. I feel that Apple's products are vastly superior designed machines with exceptional screen resolution, a pleasing interface, and cutting-edge hardware. I have solely owned Apple computers starting with my old Power Macintosh back in 1995. Yes, there are negatives and drawbacks to this Empire. But without exception, my Apple products have brought ease, simplicity, and style into my personal tech world. Until today, the only exception was my phone. Not anymore. I love the iPhone even before I own it. Why? It's inspirational to me. You're rolling your eyes, but really, it's a hand-held extension of my creative life. This is due in no small part to the multitude of iPhone apps that for the most part aren't available on Android. The decision to switch phones is purely emotional for me - to be able to play in the elegant sandbox of smart, inspired creativity that syncs with my commitment to Apple products at home.

That's not to say that I haven't had fun with the few creative apps that are available on Android. Here are three free, essential apps available on both iPhone and Android that I've been enjoying tremendously and will be downloading immediately upon receipt of my new iPhone. - l.o.d.

Photoshop Express
A mini version of the beloved software program, you can crop, rotate, color-correct, add soft focus or sepia effects, and add a vignette. It saps the phone's battery, but well worth it for picture quality when it's important.

Photoshop Express

Sketchbook Express
Extend your sketchbook to your phone with this professional-grade drawing app. Totally addictive.  

 

Sketchbook Express

Retro Camera
Turns your phone's camera into an instant artistic endeavor with options to use an assortment of "toy" cameras and image effects such as scratches and blurs.

Retro Camera

Roan Inish

This weekend I was utterly charmed by an old movie that weaved a fine tale like the rope of an Irish fishing net. I was carried away to a wind-swept isle to discover The Secret of Roan Inish where man and seal live in magical harmony. The tale is of a 10-year old girl Fiona who discovers her brother, long since "lost" at sea near their Roan Inish home and learns the fable (or truth) of her Selkie ancestry. From a storytelling perspective, the Selkie family tale unfolds to her as it does for us, and we are tangled in the net of what is true and what is tale and that there's probably no difference between the two anyhow. From a visual perspective, the land is a rough, simple, stony lusciousness as only Ireland can provide. You expect something magical to happen because it looks so enchanting. Fiona's blond wavy locks flow in the breeze, her simple knitted sweaters with colorful mismatching buttons and flower print dresses are very real. Her grandfather's pipe warms the air with tobacco scent. Her grandmother's Irish soda bread warms the belly. And the wise seals of the island warm the soul. It's a true comfort movie for our cold, cynical world. - l.o.d.

Rockin' Paper & Scissors

I don't know about you, but I have not been able to wrap my head around the fact that it's a brand new year and to write 2011 instead of 2010. I happily celebrated new year's eve, but now that daily reality has set in I haven't quite gotten "11" into my head. Maybe the mental block could be helped by this charmingly adorable DIY folded paper Yeti calendar! This little guy is so much fun, right down to his toothy smile and friendly cat. The Curiosity Group, who has a great blog too, will be making a new foldable paper calendar each month this year, so you should do what I've done and sign up for their monthly downloads. I printed mine out today on regular 8.5 x 11 paper and look forward to making it this weekend. I think he'll look perfect on my orange desk. Whatever your origami plans are for this weekend, have fun! - l.o.d.

Curiosity Group's Calendar of the Month series

Artist's Profile

While trolling around the web this morning, I saw a very creative article from Mashable on 10 Creative Uses of the New Facebook Profile [PICS]. Having just converted my profile page, my curiosity was piqued. The ideas are inspirational genius.  Here are two samples to give you an idea of what I'm talking about (sorry they're so small).

They really got me thinking about how to use the new profile pictures in a creative, personally-branded sort of way. I played a little with it this morning, changing my profile to tell a story of my trip to Hawaii last year. But I started of thinking of other things that I'd like to do on my page:

Blocks of color for the profile picture and real-world snaps of these colors

A bird flying to a bird feeder/flower/or tree

A picture of me reading and book covers of favorite books

A picture of a piece of artwork and close-ups of that piece
Close-up pictures of me and my friends making faces

My imagination is going wild! I hope to see many other profiles use a creative layout for self-expression. Have fun! - l.o.d.

P.S. you have to tag yourself in the photos to get them to appear on your profile photo feed, even if you're tagging a blank space or inanimate object. It feels weird to do but it works.

Daily Sketchbook

I'm very impressed with the whole-heartedly ambitious new year's resolutions that my friends are making for this year. I agree - never before has there been so much collective anticipation for what the new year will bring. Especially because personally 2010 really wasn't that great. I've never been one for making new year's resolutions because inevitably I fail on day two, whatever the tenacity of my resolve. Instead, I make the vague yet important statement that I'm going to try to make this year better than the last. I purposefully have not qualified "better" so that it doesn't become a scorecard game. All this said, if I were to make a goal for this year, it would be to use my sketchbook more. It's a really lovely (pink!) moleskin notebook that I carry with me every day. Yet, only 3 pages have been filled. Perhaps the book is too lovely; that there's pressure to make a perfect drawing every time. Or that my drawing skills are rusty, or that I don't have the time. You see where this is going. Now, this blog gives me the perfect excuse to make time for that notebook, and I've found the perfect artistic inspiration for sketching rough, everyday life, no matter how thoroughly or lightly conceived. Check out the blog of Jason Polan titled "Every Person in New York".  I'm not going to reproduce his sketches on my blog out of respect for his own blog. But really, it's worth a look. And if this doesn't convince you, he's also a featured artist at one of my favorite shops, West Elm. A snap of one of his products is below.  I guess you never know where your daily sketches will go.  I'm off to crack open that pink book of mine. - l.o.d.

Jason Polan Glass Decoupage Trays

Taking the Time to See New Things

More about last week's trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts, which was ripe with artistic inspiration and new discoveries. Sometimes it pays to slow down a little bit on the way to the gift shop, if you know what I mean. Usually my trips to the DIA are so few and far between that I'm scrambling to see all of my favorites, spending far too little time taking them in before rushing to the next. During this visit, however, I discovered my now favorite nook of the museum, the Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Americas collection. Not only was it a quiet spot among the crowds, but it was appropriately dimly lit just enough to make all the statues, masks, figures, and paintings quite heavy with meaning. It was like taking a step into an archeological site; foreign enough to be mysterious, beautiful enough to be awe-inspiring, old enough to be reverent. The large-scale painting above is grand, the colors luminous and the graphic animals are quite modern. Other pieces caught my eye too, for my love of folk art and symbology comes alive with them. - l.o.d.

The Year of Illumination

Happy 2011! My day today started off with an early awakening and then some knuckle-cracking, get-back-into-the-swing-of-things internal pep talk. It was a great holiday, full of local adventures, to-do lists, and unfortunate Michigan clouds. Despite of, or perhaps because of, the gray gloom, I was particularly pleased and surprised by a late afternoon ray of sun that brightened a patch of wall on new year's day. It was a lovely, fleeting moment that lit up an arrangement of branches and peacock feathers with an iridescent glow. I'm not usually home to see this time of day so it was a fruitful moment to capture. What a nice little welcome to 2011. May it be a year full of illumination for all! - l.o.d.