Author: Katy Kelleher

I Love Public Art, Part II.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

Coin art from Amsterdam by artist Stephan Sagmeister. In case you can’t read it, it says: “Obsessions Make My Life Worse and My Work Better.” It was commissioned back in 2008 by Urban Play for the project Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far.

Not only is it really, really pretty (the font!) but also scarily true. You know how sometimes things knock you over with their sudden and surprising applicability? Like someone wrote or created something that was clearly (yes, I know this is self-aggrandizing and self-centered and all sorts of solipsistic junk, but that’s how it feels) intended just for you? That just happened.

Watch a video about Stephan’s piece here.

I Love Public Art.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 2 Comments

Architect John Locke not only has an awesome name (okay, I wasn’t that into the philosopher, but I did just start re-watching Lost and I’m totally team Locke), he’s also a very cool dude. He must be, since he designed this amazing project: a communal lending library, tucked into obsolete phone booths. The plywood shelves can be installed in any phone booth, and are filled with books, which passersby can borrow, exchange, or take for keepsies. Operating on the honor principle, they not only look cool, but also help disseminate knowledge in a weird, slightly haphazard way.

I would love to see something like this in Boston or Cambridge. I feel like it would really thrive here! Can someone make that happen, please?

See more pictures at Design Bloom.

Sea of Lights.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

Italian-born artist Giancarlo Neri recently installed these gorgeous lights in downtown Rio de Jeneiro. Titled Maximum Silence, the public art work is composed of 9,000 25cm lights that change color and intensity according to a pre-programmed cycle. Though most of the time they shine in unison, every few minutes the lights break into a chaotic “color free-for-all” before reverting to their ordered ways.

Pictures of the installation make it look really, really beautiful and sort of otherworldly and futuristic at once. Alien-art. That should be a genre, if it isn’t already.

See more here.

Follow Me?

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

Mini-announcement: I joined Pinterest! Be a dear and follow me? I mostly just post pictures of treehouses, food I will never make in my tiny kitchen, and interesting art projects. Kind of like my blog, only I update it a lot more often.

And since I feel like that’s not enough for a blog post, here’s something wonderful: The Pothole Gardener. I realize he’s not exactly new news, but this guy has been making some of the most adorable street art I’ve ever seen. He takes potholes and cracks and other urban chasms and turns them into sweet little gardens, complete with miniature lounge chairs and umbrellas. Sadly, the guerrilla gardener just works in London, but maybe we can bring his movement to Somerville? The city streets here are pretty grey and could use a few flowers.

Knock ‘Em Out.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

This is awesome. Made by Debra Baxter, this amazing sculpture even has a super badass title: Crystal Brass Knuckles (I am going to realign your chakras motherf*****). In an interview with the blog My Love For You (one of my daily reads, by the way), Baxter said:

It is sort of a superhero tool/weapon. Most of my work is about engaging the body in some way. Calling the body to do something. My work embraces failure and fragility…though you won’t know that seeing this piece… They are made to fit a woman’s hand. There is a feminist/grrl power piece to this…and to all my work. Women engaging in their power and sexuality.

Brilliant. Oh, and her other work is pretty lovely, too.

A Hair’s Breadthe.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 1 Comment

A lot of people find human hair disgusting when not attached to a head (I know I had some previous roommates who did) but I never really understood that reaction. Sure, I don’t like eating hair, but if I find one my food I generally just remove it quietly and keep eating. We leave little pieces of ourselves everywhere—skin cells and hairs and tiny bits of gnawed-off nails—that it seems inevitable that we’ll be in constant contact with human debris.

Anyway, I’m thinking about this partially because I came across the work of Jenine Shereos on Notcot. She crafts these incredibly delicate, impossibly intricate leaves out of human hair. She stitches and weaves and knots the hair until it creates this perfect little skeleton. I can’t even imagine the patience that it takes. Continue reading →

The Noun Project.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 9 Comments

I came across this very cool website yesterday while searching for images of baby sloths: The Noun Project, a free site dedicated to sharing symbols and enriching our language through symbols and images.
From their mission statement:

The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way…We think a language that can be understood by all cultures and people is a pretty amazing thing. We also think our symbols and the objects or ideas they represent are works of art worth celebrating.

The symbols range from sort of silly (and potentially useless, like the sign for drawbridge) to really damn cool (boycott! urban farm!). And you can download whatever symbol you might need for free—or submit a symbol, if you’re artistically inclined.

See for yourself.

Words & Pictures.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 1 Comment

“However long we postpone it, we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously uncomfortable bed, the one we make ourselves. Whether or not we sleep in it depends, of course, on whether or not we respect ourselves.”

Always Joan.

And one of my favorite images by one of my favorite painters: “Wind from the Sea” by Andrew Wyeth.