Posted: March 28th, 2010 | Author:Adam | Filed under:Aesthetic | Comments Off
This video will make you feel inadequate. Thomas Camppbell will make you feel inadequate. Last year we saw Beautiful Losers (WHICH YOU CAN NOW STREAM ON NETFLIX! DO IT NOW (if you want to feel even more inadequate)!!!) at the UICA and that was my first peak at his work. It’s a fresh mix of fantasy and I’ll-kick-you-in-the-mouth. I’m not crazy about all of his compositions but his lettering and color work is to die for.
Our recent visit to Seedlings reminded me of Joseph Cornell and his use of found materials and things otherwise thought of as junk. While not exactly the same as the altered books we are working on, the use of collage, memories, and found materials is inspiring.
Joseph Cornell was born in 1903 and lived until 1972. Most of his work was created in the 1940’s and 1950’s. To me at least, his work still looks contemporary today.
Via Wikipedia:
Cornell could create poetry from the commonplace. Unlike Schwitters, however, he was fascinated not by refuse, garbage, and the discarded, but by fragments of once beautiful and precious objects he found on his frequent trips to the bookshops and thrift stores of New York. His boxes relied on the Surrealist technique of irrational juxtaposition, and on the evocation of nostalgia, for their appeal.
In addition to creating boxes and flat collages and making short art films, Cornell also kept a filing system of over 160 visual-documentary “dossiers” on themes that interested him; the dossiers served as repositories from which Cornell drew material and inspiration for boxes like his “penny arcade” portrait of Lauren Bacall. He had no formal training in art, although he was extremely well read and was conversant with the New York art scene from the 1940s through to the 1960s.
Posted: March 25th, 2010 | Author:Adam | Filed under:Easy Activism | Comments Off
So, March 22, was World Water Day. Sadly, it came and went and I gave it little consideration to it. No other substance on earth has given so much life but costs so little. That’s not always the case though, depending on how you get it. This week Annie Leonard and her team came about with the above video focusing on America’s unbridled consumption of bottled water. In 2007 our country spent $15+ billion on the stuff. That’s almost twice as much as it would take to provide sanitary drinking water for everyone in the third world. Dang. The video is pretty good, if you like being convicted. Drastically shorter than the original Story of Stuff, it’s definitely worth eight minutes of your time to watch and even more for careful consideration. For me the most startling fact was that every week Americans purchase over 500 million bottles of water which, if lined up end to end, would circle the earth five times. FIVE TIMES IN ONE WEEK! Actually, a bottles is lucky to travel the world once or twice before ending up in a landfill overseas not far from where it’s production cycle began.
Convicted.
Just the other day I met with Jim Kast-Keat over beverages at Lemonjellos. He’s an energetic writer and a self professed pathological optimist. All that, and he has an uncanny ability to pull of skinny ties. Yup, I’m jealous. Every year he embarks on projects that stretch his comfort zone while challenging him to live a fuller / more present life and 2010 is no different. One of the things he’s attempting to do is drink 100 ounces of water a day and, I’ve gotta tell you, I’m thinking about joining him. That’s the equivalent of 3,041.6 bottles (285 gals) of water this year alone which, if he were to purchase from Aquafina or Dasani (purified tap water) would cost infinitely more than the $20ish it would cost to purchase it from the City of Holland via the tap. Wild. 20 bucks to hydrate for a year. All that and it keeps our landfills less, uh, full. Done; but if I have to purchase it I’ll be sure to ask for it Boxed.
In a recent study Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona, found that “people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier.” Using a sample of 79 college students he recorded 30 second snippets of conversation every 12.5 minutes over the course of four days to create an auditory snapshot of their lives. The findings? ”Together, the present findings demonstrate that the happy life is social rather than solitary, and conversationally deep rather than superficial.”
Posted: March 24th, 2010 | Author:Adam | Filed under:Lifestyle | Comments Off
If that last post didn’t make you love Project M, then maybe this tasty treat will persuade you. One of their recent projects PieLab looks to be a little slice of design heaven. ba-da-bing!
It functions as and experimental design studio slash pie shop slash idea incubator slash neutral meeting space for community members to share ides with resident designers. ”More than simply a pie shop, PieLab operates as a community design center focusing on community development projects and small business incubation in Greensboro and the surrounding five counties.” Roadtrip?
This morning Shawn and I got together to talk art + design + convictions + etc. He’s a senior at Kendall this year majoring in Graphic Design, and he is awesome. A mutual point of interest is not wanting to use our abilities to manufacture perceived needs for objects which people have no need for. Instead we’d prefer (and who wouldn’t) to use our powers for the benefit of our community. Towards the end of our conversation he told me to check out Project M, a group doing just that. It was love at first site (hehe) and after clicking around I concluded that Project M looks to be the most amazing summer experience a young creative could ask for.
“Project M is an intensive summer program designed to inspire young graphic designers, writers, photographers and other creative people that their work can have a positive and significant impact on the world.”
So, to all you young designers wanting to make a larger impact than the ecological footprint of glossy package remnants piled in a landfill somewhere I strongly encourage you to apply for their summer program! In fact, I’ll make it easy. Here’s a copy of the application…it’s due April 30. GET A MOVE ON, ALREADY!
Posted: March 22nd, 2010 | Author:Adam | Filed under:Lifestyle | Comments Off
First off, I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately. And by “lack” I mean zero over the past 30+ days. This past month has managed to be both chaotic and super exciting and in the process this blog has taken a back seat to other matters. Personally, my wife and I just purchased a home and, after years of deliberation, have decided to call Holland home officially. Professionally, we’ve been busy printing tees and scheming summer plans. All in all, the tail end of winter has been a blur and last night the above video (via Brian) stopped my in my tracks. It’s a short film about a man, his passion, and the obstacles he overcomes in order to obtain freedom. Technically, the film is well executed and the simplicity of presentation conveys the simplicity of conflict beautifully. It serves as a poignant reminder that we’re not alone in the struggle to live fully.
The tag-line of Brian’s blog is “Letting go of what’s easy to find what’s meaningful.” This is a consistent theme among our community. Although I love the internet and the breadth of lifestyles (perceived or actual) it transmits I’m even more grateful to have friends who encourage a critical stance of the culture we create and consume.
This is true joy of life-the being used for a purpose that is recognized by yourself as a right one, instead of being a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. – George Bernard Shaw
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