Stars

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This week we’ll be going to Boston to celebrate Hanukkah. I always decorate the house sparsely for the holidays, because we are mixed celebration household and I like a festive mood without big glitter. We use lots of painted pine cones, light chains and paper stars. Lots of them. Tutorials from and inspiration from past year are here and here.

However, there are two projects from fellow bloggers that are both beautiful and simple: suschna’s wonderfully Asian inspired paper globes (lampshade included) and evi’s filled paper advent calendar each with easy to follow tutorials.

I didn’t manage to create a hand-made calendar this year, but the paper stars will look good on bare branches as well. I tried one and they are great, roomy enough to hide a small treasure in them and easy enough to make a few.

I’ll see you all next week.

(R) Restricted Embroidery – Some Nudity

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Did the title make you click? I was originally taken by the texture, shapes and form of the ribbon and didn’t at first notice the stylized undressed figures moving and dancing. The work is by Susanne Klinke, a German artist from Meschede and there is not much about her or her work on the internet. Is that even possible in this day and age?

I found Klinke’s work through browsing the book “Contemporary Embroidery“; and while there are many talented fiber artists within, this one was my favorite.

Isn’t is amazing, how these figures come to life?

On My Way to New England

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Have you seen Wes Anderson’s latest movie “Moonrise Kingdom“?

I did yesterday and it marked the moment when I finally arrived here in the US, both in body and mind.

The story is set in in the 1960s somewhere in  New England where I’ll be traveling this week. The extraordinary cast includes Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and many super talented kids. The music is great and Anderson’s love for detail makes me want to see it again soon.

I loved it!

dOCUMENTA (13)

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Last week we were at dOCUMENTA13 in Kassel, one of the World’s more interesting venues for contemporary art. We were lucky to have the chance to visit the exhibition as it happens only once every five years. I’ll show you what caught my eye later, as I am now in the heart of the Black Forest with only “1 bar” of internet access, not enough to upload anything more than the image above.

The image above is a detail from a tapestry by Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970) a self-taught weaver, translating the claustrophobic feeling of war and destruction into remarkable woven cloths. She commented on Fascism and Nazism’s emergence in Europe in the inter-war years, and Norwegian politics in the post-war years.

Kassel was nominated twice as the “ugliest city in Germany”, but with the dOCUMENTA and all its visitors from around the world, I found Kassel incredibly lively. I’m always amazed how art can transform even the ugliest city into a place of inspiration and introspection.

Summer Food

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Do you remember when food was served and the only criteria was if you liked it or not? Now it seems that every meal has its considerations: “Gluten-free or not?”, “Peanut allergy?”, “Vegetarian?”, “Diabetic?”, “Locavore?”, “Ethical”? It’s a current theme and there was an interesting article recently in the NYTimes: “The Picky Eater Who Came [...] Read more »

From Around the WWW

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Love the Hand-Made Etsy series. This week Mitsy from Artmind was featured whose work and blog (with great tutorials) are very inspiring. Another wonderful portrait is of mother daughter team Ayşegül & Sebahat in Bolo, Turkey. Seedbombs are a cool way to beautify your neighborhood and vacant lots through guerrilla gardening. Uncommon goods has 6 [...] Read more »

Bangs Or Not : From Ellen Barkin to Donald Trump

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This is a post that could have probably stayed in draft mode forever. But it didn’t. Yesterday evening I decided is was hair salon time. It’s always salon “annekata”, because I don’t like proper haircuts, which I’ve talked about before. I think haircuts are a lot like shoes in the sense that one is always [...] Read more »

Elfi Cella

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Isn’t it clever how this artist  incorporates clothes into her painting? Elfi Cella is a Swiss based painter, who paints miniatures and mixes paint and textiles in a wonderfully innovative way. Now that’s what I call fabric manipulation. Not sure if this is printed or painted, but it’s very much alive and intriguing. To me [...] Read more »