Category: creativity
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Retna, Typology, and a New Language
LA-based artist Retna started as a street artist but blew up in 2010 when Jeffrey Deitch said his exhibition at New Image Art was “the most exciting exhibition..this year, anywhere”. He created his own language based on Old English, Asian calligraphy, Hewbrew, and Arabic. His work is stunning and upon closer inspection you see the symbols are…
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the first draft
It is hard to make time to write, and even harder to start writing. I want the first draft to be the only draft, as if my word is scripture, my pen commanded by a higher being. These ridiculous expectations stem the flow from thoughts to paper and creates a truly jumbled and terrible waste…
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El Mac: Photorealistic Graffiti
El Mac is a graffiti and photorealistic artist based out of LA. He has done installations from Miami Art Basel to the Adobe HQ (above). I like the ripples/waves he uses for shading and contour, which can also be seen in his sketches (bottom). Interestingly, El Mac names an artist I featured here as a source…
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to those interested: Norfolk Bike Share RFI
The City of Norfolk, VA is looking for RFI’s from industry providers and vendors about Public Bike Share systems, vendors, and operators. The RFI is below in its entirety. RFI4256-Bike Share (2)
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Art, Freedom, and The Kiss–A Tribute in Syria
“If you can not please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few” Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is an Austrian painter and first president of the Vienna Secession ( an artists’ union), whose goal was to rid itself of classical oppression and motto was “To every age its art. To art its freedom”. The majority of his…
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Graffiti: RYNGAR
The purging of bookmarks directed me to an ekosystem.org page for a graffiti artist called RYNGAR. I cannot find out anything about him and I cannot remember how I came across him in the first place. All I know is that the artist’s work is found primarily in France. The mechanized | industrialized cross sections of these…
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Anselm Kiefer, an Artists Reflection on the Third Reich
Born in 1945, Anselm Kiefer’s attitude is heavily influenced by World War II and the role the Third Reich played in the destruction of a people and a continent. Kiefer creativity arises from his dissatisfied with post-war culture and Germany’s reluctance to discuss their wartime atrocities. He started his career in 1969 with a photographic series…
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Check out my new job at Frank Harmon Architect!
Hello loyal followers, visitors and one-time hitters, I want to apologize for my absence the last week and a half… I was previously posting almost every week day, a feat I was very proud of. However, two weeks ago today was my first day at Frank Harmon Architect, PA, a nationally acclaimed architecture firm in…
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A solution for small closets: an Open-Air Closet
I have a tiny closet and ran out of space long ago. The cheapest solution is hooks but it is ugly and in randomly placed holes from the previous tenants. I have thought about clothing racks but they are bulky and cold. Then I realized all my wooden hangers have swivel hooks and can hang…
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Peter Aurisch Tattoos: Strikingly Beautiful
Peter Aurisch is a Berlin-based tattoo artist and owner of Nevada Johnny. He takes one client per day and each tattoo is unique. The client must email him their idea, no BS, and if it suits him, he’ll do it.
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Design Review Questions You Should Ask Yourself
Jason Fried came up with a list of questions he asks himself while designing. Stepping back and reviewing an idea is difficult, especially if other people, and their time and feelings, are involved. Guiding questions have always helped me and this list has a lot of good ones. I posted a partial list here, the entire list is…
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Toshiro Mifune & Akira Kurosawa, best team in cinema, Ever.
Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, a Japanese director and artist, collaborated on 16 films over the course of 18 years, during the height of Japanese cinema. Clint Eastwood, the cowboy, picked up his Man With No Name archetype from Toshiro Mifune, the oft bandit and roving warrior, with a gruff, emotive, presence. His versatile skills are…
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Repair Urban Sprawl and Strip Malls
I can’t remember where I found this image but it is a great solution to boring, one-dimensional strip malls. The courtyard could provide greenery and seating for restaurants and function as an open-air market. In theory the rooftop gardens and solar panels will save money in the long run but may be overlooked by the…
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Earth & Bamboo School in Bangladesh
Hand-Made School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh Architects Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag designed and planned the Rudrapur school and students, teachers, and volunteers built it at a cost of $22,835 USD! The foundation is brick, the lower walls are loam and straw, the upper walls are bamboo with a galvanized iron roof. The total area of the school is 3,500…
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Robi Mobile Library, Germany
The Robi Mobile Library, designed by Linie Zweii, allows children to access books when a traditional brick-and-mortar library isn’t available. This concept could easily be adapted for the U.S. public school system. When the government cuts funding, activities that create well-rounded, healthy children are the first to go, like recess, lunch, and libraries. It would…
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Models of Abandoned Buildings
Daniele Del Nero made a model city of black paper and covered it with flour and mold to achieve the look of an abandoned city. From what I can tell, the city is built inside a box with a viewing hole, probably so the sunlight won’t kill the mold.
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Monstrum’s Awesome Playgrounds
Monstrum, a Danish design firm, builds thoughtful imaginative wooden playgrounds all over the world. They create playgrounds with child development in mind, building to challenge and stimulate the child. Not only are they great for kids, but as an adult, I certainly appreciate the aesthetic and inventiveness. Sadly, many schools in the United States are cutting recess…
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David Mach, artist of excess
Scottish-born David Mach, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools, London, is known as an “artist of excess” for using everyday objects–such as magazines, coat hangers and matchsticks–to create amazing sculptures. The wire coat hanger sculptures fooled me at first; I thought they were photoshopped.
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Guy Laramée: The Great Wall book carvings
Guy Laramée, a self-professed anachronist, is a Montreal-based multi-disciplinary artist. His most notable works are landscapes sandblasted into old books. The pieces invoke the feeling of a time forgotten, of places that may have existed but no longer do. The detail is breathtaking and I would love the opportunity to see them firsthand.
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Walk the Green Carpet
Gaëlle Villedary used 420m of grass to create Tapis Rouge, an installation in the French village of Jaujac, to reconnect the citizens with their environment.
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Put Parking Spaces to Better Use
What a great way to bring awareness to our use of space in urban centers. If I created a collapsable version, could it be put in any parking space?What if I transformed a flatbed trailer into a mobile park or common area? If the meters were paid and rules followed, I don’t foresee any problems besides taking…
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City of Gold
This model depicts what ancient Rome may have looked according to six etchings done by Giovanni Battista Piranesi in 1762. It also reminds me of a Rube Goldberg contraption I made for a high school physics project. I came home to find the completed Contraption gold and decorated with toy parts, rocks, and feathers. I hated…
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Airy Thai Library
Fifteen Norwegian Architecture students went to Thailand to build Safe Haven Orphanage’s first library on a budget of $4,650 in January of 2009. It is amazing the climate demands only one wall and an overhang. Removing the midsection to play with light was a great idea and it throws in the use for a gangplank! If only…
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Vintage Motivational Posters
These motivational posters are from the English firm, Parker-Holladay. Source: AoM
Catherine R. Hofmann 