Project for next weekend: how to make Japanese string gardens, from Terrain (directions found here).
Author: Katy Kelleher
Here’s something I made: celery root soup.
Sometimes I do freelance work for the very lovely site Milkshake. This week, I shared a recipe I created with roasted carrots, celeriac, lots of garlic, and a little bit of white wine. It was really, really good! Here’s the recipe.
Also, I’ve been working on my food photography. I think I’m getting better (this looks infinitely more appetizing than the salad I shot a few months ago, trust).
Not your grandma’s needlepoint.
Stephen Campbell makes sassy embroideries (prints for sale here), which I freaking love. It’s awesome whenever anyone subverts “women’s work” or “folk art” and shows how transgressive, beautiful, and straight-up artistic it can be. Embroidery requires WORK, you know? Not to mention skill and an eye for color and design and… yeah. Art isn’t just made with oil paints, and that’s freaking rad.
Also, I had a no good, very bad day today, so Campbell’s print is making me thirsty. But you know what we have on top of the fridge? Maker’s. Inspiration strikes!
{Found via Style Carrot}
Our lies are the same, but her fonts are better.
Over at Daily Dishonesty, graphic designer Lauren Nicole Hom documents some of the lies she tells herself. It’s funny, self-aware, wonderfully done, and hits VERY close to home. From the silly (“I have read the terms and conditions”) to the vaguely depressing (“I’m not hungry”), I identify with every single one. But somehow, every single lie is much nicer—more polished, less raw and confessional—when done in hand-drawn typography. This girl has skills!
My Russian romance.
There are few places I want to visit more than Russia. Maybe I’ve just read Anna Karenina one too many times (no, that’s not possible), but if I were to suddenly fall into a Scrooge McDuck-style pile of money, I would spend it all on a ticket to Russia.
If I could go to Russia, I would want to see everything—not just the cities, though Saint Petersburg looks like magic made of stone—and I mean everything. I want to ride the Transsiberian railroad and stare out at all the miles of quiet, scarcely inhabited land. Oddly enough, my desire was only amplified by this recent story from the Smithsonian about a family that lived in the wilderness of Siberia for over 40 years without any human contact. Driven from society by religious persecution, the family of five survived off the land, hunting for meat and dining on bark when there was no better food to be found. It’s really, truly fascinating (not to mention strangely inspiring).
But I’m digressing from what I wanted to blog about, which is this fantastic series of photographs by Richard Davies. The UK-based artist lived my dream and journeyed through the northern part of the continent, capturing images of grand old wooden churches. While I’m familiar with the shapes of the buildings (onion domes that billow out and spires that aspire to the heavens) I don’t think I’ve ever seen them rendered in wood quite like this. Continue reading
Let’s replace the street lamps with chandeliers.
If someone were to ask me right now what do you want to be when you grow up? I would say: “an artist.” I love art. Love it in forms—from oil paintings to earth works—and all places—on the outside of the building and the inside of a gallery. But you know what? I have no talent. None! So instead, I write about the awesome things other people do.
And damn, this is awesome. Austrian artist Werner Reiterer has been creating these beautiful street chandeliers since 2006. By installing these symbols of opulent, interior life onto decrepit outdoor spaces, he creates a fascinating juxtaposition. These outdoor pieces are playful, yet a little tense, especially in how they draw immediate attention to divisions between public and private, haves and havenots. Now, more than ever, it’s fascinating to see how these old symbols of wealth translate, especially when taken out of context.
Cool, right? Plus, I love that it’s accessible to every passerby. Art for the masses! Occupy museums! Or just, you know, enjoy this cool picture.
Kari Herer makes the prettiest bugs.
Artist Kari Herer creates weird and beautiful prints that mix both materials and species in a minimalist mash-up that I adore. Flora and fauna come together in her photography. Using live blossoms and her static sketches, Herer makes bugs out of magnolia petals, foxes out of lush, overripe roses. Some of her pieces look like a Flemish still life—vivid and colorful, bursting with excess. However, others are almost self-consciously O’Keeffe-ian, like the antlered bouquet below. 
And though I’m not a “Mainer” quite yet (or will never be, according to the diehard reps of this odd state) I was more than a little excited to learn that Herer lives and works in Maine.
To purchase prints, go here. And if you want to see more of her stuff, click here.
Christopher Boffoli’s very small world.
When I’m stressed out, I forget to eat. Hunger simply nag at me when my mind is occupied—it melts away, leaving me clear-headed and full of that odd, manic energy that comes from too little sustenance and too much talking. But what if my world were made of food?
Photographer Christopher Boffoli creates amazing images of tiny men living their small, everyday lives while surrounded by massive meals. A janitor sweeps up a pile of mustard on a hotdog, a group of scientists examine the crime scene of a crushed blackberry, and geologists consider going spelunking inside an eggshell. I’ve been documenting my obsession with miniatures for some time now, so it should come as no surprise that I find this series just delightful. And now I’m kind of hungry.
{Found via Incredible Things}
Read books, drink wine.
Ghent is already on my travel lust list, but when I heard about the pop-up library located in a vineyard… well, let’s just say it jumped a few notches. In the immortal words of Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.” Books and wine? What a lovely idea.
But even more lovely is the entire pop-up library concept. I’ve blogged before about mini-libraries, where books are made free to the public in microspaces like phone booths or bus stops, but a writer at GOOD has rounded up four great projects from around the world, from Israel’s outdoor information sharing program for refugees to Mexico’s free traveling library. More good stuff here.
Pretty little winged things.
Artist Barbara Franc makes sculptures of animals out of recycled metal. I know turning trash into art is nothing particularly new, but her series of British Birds are really amazing. They remind me of every Disney bird ever—little sweet things flitting around, helping Cinderella or chirping at Snow White or whatever—only this is the robotic, steampunk version (21st Century by way of the 18th). Brightly colored and delicately rendered, they are prefect baby monsters, tiny captains of chirpy industry. Soft bodies in hard metal.
Or maybe that’s too complicated. The artist herself says the metal is simply the most fitting material she’s found to reflect the fluidity of animal movement: “I have always been fascinated by the shapes and sculptural forms of animals, they present a never-ending source of inspiration to me. I try to capture a feeling of their movement and presence in my sculpture. For this I use wire and other materials in a way that suggests drawing in three dimensions. This allows me greater freedom to add changes whenever I want during the construction to keep the feeling fluid and to reflect the diversity of movement and form.”
A bit dry for an artist’s statement, but it makes sense. Anyway, her birds are beautiful. Check out the entire series here.
{Spotted on Colossal}
Katy Kelleher 