Swingers of the World, unite!

The piece on top - "Swingers of the World, unite!" - is partly a result of an exhibit i saw on my second day in Paris (and out of very many exhibits i've seen in my 3 weeks there, this one still stands out as the best one - check out Izis, the photographer). With my love of all things 'swing-y', i knew this was going to become a necklace. but then i found this Goya's happy man, & it became a pin...

This installation/3D necklace is part of my Sao Paulo collection: vintage photo & a toy. A tribute to Andy Warhol "Red car crash". (amazing how well it goes with a boring striped short, isn't it?)

that's the whole point: anything can be made to look great!

TruthBeauty: no time for NGA in DC!!!!

http://www.phillipscollection.org/exhibitions/truth_beauty/index.aspx

TruthBeauty is the only exhibit i'll be able to see while in Washington.
The truth is, that i have so little time there, that - terrible suspicion - i probably won't be even able to go back to my favorite NGA (but we'll see about that - it's hard for me to give that up!)

But of course having to choose, a good photo exhibit is something i can't resist!

2 worthy women together, finally

I wish my best friend didn't ask me to come & spend Thanksgiving with her. what?!? Yes, that's exactly right. it's a family holiday here & i'd rather she still have her family than be free to spend time with me...
That said, it's going to be beautiful. One of the best women & my best friend.
That's why this necklace was a natural match for her: it's part of the fresco from a palace in Saluzzo (near Milan). The whole fresco represents 9 worthy women & since i only show 4 (why not just 2, like me & my friend? well, 4 gives this piece a better volume, i guess), its name is "5 worthy women gone missing". (naming what you don't show - why not?)

Tired of beauty

Some pieces of course inspire more than others. a lot more. some names even come before the pieces, because they stem from something that - on a theoretical level - you've felt strongly about for years.
Seeing the history of art overrun by all these prettiness & angels & flowers & light, 'unproblematic' colors (aka "French impressionism") - all right, now I remembered that i've talked a lot about it/against it here, so enough of it, too... so, because of all that, i came up with a name for a series of pieces that was "So pretty it hurts". My original idea was to come up with pins or something that could physically hurt you a bit.
But then i found this great Durer nasty angel & all pieces came into place. Here's one of my variations on the theme. and it's name is "Beauty won't save the world, but sense of humor might".
And like any other highly inspiring piece, it has another name: "(Enough). Basta(rds)!"
P.S. and just as i finished writing it, here's yet one tweak: "If you're tired of beauty, ...you're right!"

Location (occasion)-based pieces

I'm a big believer (and a dedicated practitioner) of dressing just right for the right occassion, taking into account/planning/studying how the environment & the event matches what you wear (or the other way around - at any rate, it has to be seamless, or not - at times).
So when I took some friends to my favorite swing night at the Green Mill 2 weeks ago, the choice of necklace was clear: "Cry, baby, dance!" above.
Yes, at times when i don't want to dance & say 'no, thank you' to those who try to get me on the dancefloor, i'm afraid my face might bear a slight resemblance to Durer's angel - by the way, look harder - his wings are bended down....

Every piece tells a story

This was the whole point, one of my company's tag lines: "Have a story to tell about what you wear". But sometimes, like in this case, the story is not a backside one, it's not something i have to tell you in my own words, but it's something that is right in front of your eyes & you can imagine it, build it, however you want...
This 3 images went well together: a monk praying, a soldier undressing & a chair (by Cezanne, by the way - would anyone ever guess that?!?)
And i preferred to keep the name simple: Progression

20+10 in 2010: forcing it?

Here's another example of thinking (too hard???) about a title. This is now called "20+10". try to figure out why...

Naming process

I have new work to show. A lot of it, actually & i've had it for some time & have been adding to it. what i didn't have, was the time to take pictures, do uploads & sit down to blog a bit (it feels good now to be blogging about 'work num.2, rather than random wanderings & meanderings - nothing wrong with it, oh no, but still, the main purpose of this blog was/is something else).

ok, so last night i sat down to put most of my recent work (which is presents to my best friend & the best art curator...) into envelopes & write down each piece's 'name'.

the thing is, not every piece comes with a name (but everyone who gets one wants it to have a name - i quickly found out that it's a great 'selling' point). Like everything else in life, I love it when the name comes spontaneously, and fast. and for most part that's how it goes.

But in some cases - and i had about 3-5 like this last night - i didn't have the names.

The piece below that combines 2 of Vuillard's paintings with 2 photos of his mother & his model (i don't remember now if she was (also) his lover or not...anyway, what matters is the wallpaper & the cut of her dress!) had no name. it is part of the series i call "Known/unknown", but no title came to mind.

Then i went to bed & as I was reading "Wanderlust", a chapter dedicated to the rise of the flaneur in Paris, i stumbled upon the phrase that summed up neatly what my necklace was about: "Poetic possibilities of everyday life".

So here we go!

Working on webisodes...

One of the very few people who always stimulates me immensly got me to 'work' on a very fun project... can't - and will never - disclose any details on it, but i saw this place (on the street next to my house) and it seemed like the perfect title for the whole project...

yeap, this is why you need to drink less - keeping your eyes perennially open gives you 'prizes' lke this one!

Surreal Pringles

Here we go - a clin d'oeil to our dear Rene Magritte gone mainstream, all the way down to the food industry!!!

Intellectual drunkenness is better (for me)

While getting ready for a meeting on global packaging trends, I found an excellent Spanish designer & this is one of his wines. A great idea for someone like me who loves books....But apparently i'm wright in keeping up with my 0% alcohol policy... it does relax me too much & puts me to sleep...and i'd love to outsource sleep!!!
But great design should leave on!

Not sure, but still

Ha! If you've seen Houellebecq's photos, they're normally fashioned either after Baudelaire (to whom he bears a stricking resemblance), or just represent an unhappy creature in a parka. This photo is nothing like that at all (and that's why it's here, of course!)
I got confused: was expecting the Goncourt announcement on the 10th, but here we are. Not sure if this was the right (=best) of Houellbecq's books to have won the prize, but it's logical that it happened...And maybe we should simply look at it as a prize for his 'body of work'....

Will reread La carte e le territoire soon - first time around i gulped it in 3 days...

My shopping list on someone else's wall & why I love Banksy

I thought it was great when i stumbled upon it yesterday, but i only now realized that it's the only item that's been sitting on my shopping list for about 3 weeks now & that i haven't been able to get (time crunch!)
And then another coincidence: a couple of hours later i finally went to see Exit through the giftshop (a much better movie than I expected) & of course it made me think, yet again, about what's the difference between good & bad art.
This milk wall is good to me. And so is Banksy. Simple & unexpected. This is it.
If i only knew how to get the simplicity right....