the blue locket quiz: paul barbera

by Paul Barbera

I admire Paul Barbera's work so much. The Australian photographer wears many hats: He travels the world, he photographs artists for the beautiful series Where They Create, he shows in galleries, he publishes books—and he sent me his answers to the Blue Locket quiz. Thank you, Paul!

by Paul Barbera

1. What inspires you?

Inspiration can come from anywhere, from listening to TED talks/radio lab podcast; to the priest I met traveling on a train a few years back; to David Hamilton, Richard Kern, Bill Henson, Wong Kar-wai and Chris Doyle; to Tokyo, and to being lost....But today it was Allan Watts. 

Sonic Youth by Richard Kern

2. Who are your favorite artists? I just said a few. But all-time is Lucio Fontana.

by Lucio Fontana

3. Where do you do your best work? Wherever I happen to be. I love my desk, love my place...but I have a few places I work from. I love temporary desks—me, my laptop and computer. There is always a camera hanging around.

by Paul Barbera

4. What scares you? Sitting still. But I know it's important, so I have to trick myself sometimes to be still and calm. My partner helps.

by Paul Barbera (from Kirra Jamison's studio)

monday thoughts: just a collection

Pink Anemones by Jenny Vorwaller

As you can guess from my absence last week, I've been having a hard time getting inspired over here. But rather than bore you with another post about changing habits and challenging oneself blah blah blah, I'm just going to throw about a bunch of things that *are* fun and/or beautiful, cool, interesting, (dare I say) inspiring. (PS: new Blue Locket quiz tomorrow.)


Some new(ish) songs for some spring dancing.

Now this *is* inspiring.
Idaho artist Jenny Vorwaller has a studio sale of her sweet original watercolors going on right now.

This American Life recently had a great episode about images, their meaning, and their value.

This dress might be too little-girl...but it might not.

bert danckaert

Belgian photographer Bert Danckaert travels the world, finding geometry and beauty in empty spaces. His street scenes are spare and so interesting—and with the most surprising colors. (I want to copy every image into this post; they're that good.)

honeycombstudio on etsy

Silver-tipped white turtledove

Paper or canvas are more my medium. But Atlanta-based Courtney Hamill's minimalist ceramic sculptures are too good to pass up. Some are functional little jars; some are purely decorative pieces; they all reveal her keen eye and careful hand. I love the metallic touches—and how great would those bottles look in a cluster?

Black minimalist bud vases

Gold cross apothecary bottle

Gold-rimmed bitters bottle

monday thoughts: keeping it interesting

Jennifer Ament, Mask (from Serena and Lily)

I was recently talking to a friend from college who has known me well for a really long time. She writes about art for a living—and thinks deeply about art (and many things)—and she's always great to talk to about art, style, family, feminism, and life in general. She lives across the country, but we manage to see each other for big life events (weddings, babies), and we check in on the phone every couple of months. And the other night as we were catching each other up, she said something about her own situation that really struck me. In her words: Life is good. The challenge is to keep it interesting.

Tom Moglu collage

Her life is a little different from mine (she works full time and has one toddler), but she summed up exactly how I feel. Life is good, and the challenge is to keep it interesting. My life is indeed very good; I feel so grateful and lucky that I don't have to worry about all the basic stuff. I should take more time to be grateful, in fact. And as for the keeping-it-interesting part: I don't know what adjective I'm reaching for, but I have a sense of time passing, of needing to remember moments, of "this" being "it." Charlie riding his bike ahead of me down our hill at dusk, past rabbits crouching in the grass and the sweetest honeysuckle bushes all around. Tessa riding a horse on the hottest afternoon of the year so far. My kids joke-fighting in the back seat of the car as we wait out a thunderstorm in the grocery-store parking lot. This lemonade-stand sign, and the sight of my kids pouring from a sticky pitcher and counting quarters:

Just as I don't want to take things for granted, I don't want to let life be boring, either. (The flip side of appreciation is being satisfied with too little.) And I don't want to let myself be nothing more than a mom overly identified with her kids. So the challenge is the balance: gratitude and appreciation, coupled with newness and change and...keeping it interesting.

Serena Mitnik-Miller

What does this mean in concrete terms? Should I reach out to someone from my past? Should I take a class, or a trip alone? I'm always looking for ways to make this blog relevant—to myself and to my readers (few as they may be).

amelie mancini

Left Field Cards would be a great Father's Day gift....

I meant to write about Amelie Mancini a while back. The Brooklyn artist, originally from Lyon, makes baseball cards and lovely linocut prints, all with an offbeat yet pretty sensibility. Her bizarre injuries series has been on the magnet board above this very screen for months now. But somehow she slipped through the cracks. Mancini just turned up on The Makers, and the studio photos and her sweet comments about creativity, New York City, and baseball reminded me of why I liked her so much in the first place. Also, she encloses a sweet little handwritten note with every shipment.

Jades print

Baseball Uniforms print

etsy roundup: business card holders

Juls Sweet Designs

I just decided that I cannot live without a business card holder. Somehow I've made it just fine this far, but I have to rectify the situation right now, with something punchy and cute and kind of girly, so it's easy to spot inside my purse. Isn't it great that Etsy lets me find really affordable versions? Plus I don't have to go to the mall.

Bambina

Handmadetime

Jaden Design

Brooklyn Love Designs

Zen Nature

Ecolution