David Stark Sketchbook

Let ‘Em Eat (and Look at) Cake!

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While creating our new book, I suddenly recognized a recurring theme in our work that I was not conscious of before: cakes!

A food for thought revelation- our events are filled with an abundance of gorgeous cakes of all sizes and textures, ‘cakes’ made from a variety of unconventional materials like flowers or wood, to real edible cakes that transform into surprising sculptural moments. Cakes and parties go hand in hand since parties have been fun, but our delightful cakes are perfectly garnished with our business approach: wherever there is a party convention, why not break the mold? (wink)

In true Alice in Wonderland spirit, flowers were seen where they would be least expected: in surprising pop-up formations as “edible” items! (above)

Tongue in groove, cakes of raw wood were built with whimsy to enhance an editor’s preview of a fall home line of product. (above)

Even though it’s not a cake, per se, wooden pies, are still pretty cool, right?! (above)

A boisterous birthday to-do with candy-colored…well, everything, including a multi-layered and striped ‘wooden’ birthday cake!  (above)

 

2D meets 3D in this over-ripe world of pink where turn of the century engravings are enlarged to life size and mixed with three dimensional flowers and fruits to create a fun optical illusion. (above)

The incredible Confetti Cakes collaborated with us on this edible sculpture.  What better way to mirror Maine in Manhattan than with a red lobster cake propped on a brown sugar sandbox of beach toys? (above)

Our wonderful friends at The Cake Studio hailed down this 200 pound taxi cake; the perfect addition to a New York City themed celebration. (above)

Whoever said you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Not only do I personally love to make the cakes for our events fun and unexpected, I am also drawn to cool cakes made by others as well!  If you’ve got a ‘sweet tooth’ too, below you’ll find work that I find rather addicting.

 

Inspired from the eye and mind candy of Robert The, I love this cake slice of a book frosted with real icing. (above)

 

A true pastry genius, Caitlin Freeman, creates cakes that emulate art in a delicious and cheeky fashion: she reinterprets the esteemed work of inspirational artists and imagines what their art would look and taste like in a decadent confection. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s café sells these confections. Check out her take on Wayne Thiebaud’s Display Cakes. Simply and utterly scrumptious right? And the Mondrian Cake?  WOW!

Let us know what you think of our cakes, inspirations, and other cool stuff in our new book!Your feedback is important to us ladies and gents, it’s the icing on our cake(s)! (wink)

Xoxo

D.

 

 

 

 
 

 

Quick Pick Me Up: Migguel Anggelo’s NERO

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I am in love with Migguel’s new piece entitled NERO, after the Roman Emporor who was said to have played the fiddle as Rome burned back in July of AD 64.  Like his painted portraits of the females in his family, all personified flowers, this chair is one in a new series of portraits in which chairs take on living attributes. 

I understand that recently when it was first placed in a gallery for a show, as it’s feet hit the floor, sparks flew!

I have heard many people say that it should be re-named HOT SEAT.  I like NERO, though.

Xo

D.

(photo by Dando Valle)

THE (purely paper) FLOWER SHOPPE

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To celebrate the launch of our new book, David Stark Design, we created a pop up store/installation at the west elm store on Broadway and 62^nd Street.  It was open for 4 days only and everything from the flowers and plants, to the gardening tools were created out of paper and made by us.  Even the walls and awning of the store were paper, and it was really fun to have the cutest corner flower shop land, unexpectedly, in the very center of west elm.  We collected discarded books from random stoops in Brooklyn as well as uncorrected text books and used the pages to create an array of orchids, house plants, tropical leaves, trees, shovels, watering cans, and loads and loads of flowers.  I was inspired by the concept of the now iconic show presented by Claes Oldenburg in his studio in the 60’s called THE STORE.  In our flower shoppe, we created a stylized stage set where the purchase of accessible hand-made art objects became part of the theater piece.

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Gustavo documented the installation, launch party, and strike in stop action.  Check out the process from beginning to end below!

Thank you so much to Alex, Jim, Angel, Abigail, Kendall, Patrick, Paul and all of my friends at west elm.  I had a wonderful, wonderful time launching our book with you, and I thank you for hosting us and all of our buddies.  I also want to thank you for embracing our loopy ideas and championing fun and difference.  I am so excited to see where all of your new energy takes us in the coming months and LOVE every single moment of our collaborations.

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Fondly and with great respect,

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D.

Love Letter: Migguel Anggelo

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I am in love with Migguel’s new paintings.  I love them at face value: each is a luscious and intoxicating bloom.  Who can argue with that?  

But I love them more for their conceptual intention.  Each bloom is a portrait of the women in the artist’s family, spanning from his 3 ½ year-old niece to his 82 year-old grandmother.  This is not painting for the sake of recording nature.  Rather, this is painting as metaphor, as loving homage, as poetry.  The sensitivity that each portrait has been rendered, faint and soft as a memory is palpable and imbedded in every brush stroke.

If you are going to be in Miami from May 8th through the 15th, I highly suggest you check out Anggelo’s work.   The folks at Design Miami are hosting the exhibition at The Mosaic Building (161 NE 40th Street) in the Design District, in a cool space on the second floor.  Join the ARTWALK on the 8th.  It’s fun and free, and the city is lively with art lovers, music, and good cheer.    And unlike New York City art openings that are ultimately for the cognoscenti and artists who are dying for their own slice of a gallerist’s attention, in Miami, the whole community comes out to join the fun.  That’s the way it should be.
 
Xo

D.

 

 
 
 
   
 

Love Letter: Robert The

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Right now, I am fully engaged in books. Our own book, David Stark Design, published by The Monacelli Press launches on April 27th. The new collection we are doing for West Elm this holiday season utilizes book pages in inventive ways to decorate and celebrate with whimsy too – more on that soonish!

In my creative research for our current projects, I have stumbled upon and fallen in love with the work of Robert The. I have seen some of Robert’s pieces in the gift shops of museums like the Whitney and the New Museum, and I have always liked the objects, but all of a sudden, because I have books on the brain, I started to delve in a little more. Robert similarly takes books and does stuff to them, embracing them as already “found,” evocative objects while transforming them with layers of additional metaphor. Sometimes the books are saved from dumpsters and thrift stores, but the titles seem purposefully chosen to me. 

Here’s some additional eye and mind candy.

Nice, eh?

D.

   

Fabric Mash-Ups

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I have had LIBERTY OF LONDON on the brain for a little while now, and soon I will be able to show you why more specifically!  (wink)

Marimekko is always in my heart, though, and tonight I thought, “What would happen if you mixed both iconic prints together?”  Not bad, huh?!

D.

 

 
   

Love Letter: Xavier Veilhan

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Love Letter:  Xavier Veilhan

Juli’s friend Molly forwarded information about French artist, Xavier Veilhan, knowing that I would be into his work, and  I am very grateful, Molly, because I LOVE it!

It is interesting how Veilhan takes generic objects, smoothes away the details and emotions that would normally be implicit in a public statue, and then creates a double-take.  Especially juxtaposed to historic, European architecture, in public plazas where grand and time-worn monuments typically celebrate heads of state, war heroes, the greatness of an empire, it is amazing to see forms that are familiar enough, but you never see an eye, an expression or the drape of fabric.  The candy colors and faceted, digital smoothness feel so modern and propel these forms to now even when they reference what on first glance could be a familiar site.  The horse drawn coach below is a fabulous example.

I would love to see what Veilhan could/would do in the middle of New York City, a more modern setting.   Dear CREATIVE TIME Can you invite him to play in our city?  I do think it would be interesting since the artist often employs the same trick I.M. Pei pulled off at the Louvre with such incredible effect.  If Pei’s glass pyramid was amidst more modern buildings, say in Shanghai, would it be as special? 

Feel free to share the cool things that you know of, everybody.  Send them in, and thanks so much, Molly, for bringing this work to my attention.  You really made my day.

xo

D.

 
 
 

Travels in Font Land: Albert Exergian

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Nicky and Geoff sent me this cool work, that they thought I would love, and they were RIGHT!!!  The Austrian Designer Albert Exergian, created these posters, boiling down the essence or symbols of such popular TV shows as KOJAK and MAD MEN to their modernist essentials.  Pretty chic, eh?
My favorite?  I think KOJAK.  And it’s not because we share the same hair.  (wink)

xo

D.

 
 

Travels in Fontland: Colombia

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I am pleased to present a fun post today by Juliana Jaramillo, our fearless and brilliantly talented Design Department leader.  Juli is from Colombia – a place I am dying to go to.  The images below cement that desire!

Enjoy!

D.

Over the holidays I went back home to Colombia and was reminded of what it is to see a place for the first time. I was delighted when I was reminded that my hometown Bogota has amazing street art and graphics, something that I have always appreciated in the graphic aesthetic of Coney island (see previous post), but had somehow managed to overlook in my own hometown. Fortunately having been away for some time allowed me to see my city with fresh eyes and really allowed me to appreciate those little works of art that are found all over the city as signage for restaurants, fruit stores, kindergartens, hardware stores, auto repair shops etc.

Some examples of this are shown below in images that I pulled from http://www.populardelujo.com, a site that my good friend Esteban and some other friends started, devoted to promote awareness, protect and stimulate the popular culture and urban capital found in Bogota.

Enjoy!

Juliana

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Happy New Year, Kids!

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Let’s rock 2010 together!

xoxo

D.

Love Letter: Margaret Kilgallen

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Over the holidays, I watched the documentary BEAUTIFUL LOSERS, which highlighted a group of artists that were friends, emerged at the same time period, and came out of a tradition of skateboarding meets tagging, meets happening, meets comic book, meets cartoon, meets folk art, meets mural. 

I had always admired the artist Margaret Kilgallen but was reminded of her brilliance by this film.   She was a central part of this group until her untimely death from breast cancer only three weeks after she gave birth to her and husband, Barry McGee’s daughter.  One can only imagine the power her work would have achieved  had she been able to continue making it.  As it is, I find the work to be very powerful, inspiring, and individual and often think about her sense of scale when I think about my work and impacting a space.

I marvel at the artists that have only a small window of opportunity to make their mark.  Think – Margaret Kilgallen . .  . Felix Gonzalez Torres, Yves Klein . . . and the sheer force of the work that can be created in their time on this earth.

Writing this on new year’s day, pensive about the meaning of it all, I can’t help but be touched by this art and want to publicly honor the voice of the artist who could only sing for a short time.

D.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Apparently Others Heart Bodegas Too!

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One of the art pieces that still stays in my mind from Art Basel Miami this year reminds me of the Target Bodega’s we produced for Target in New York City in 2008, and even more so, it reminds me of the truly fabulous show that was at Deitch Projects in 2000, “Street Market.”

The collective from Austin, Texas called Okay Mountain produced this “convenience store” and sold the items out of it during the show.  I love the quirky hand-made-ness of the whole thing.  My first reaction was that I wanted to buy it all, especially the motor oil.  Then . . . I realized, photos were just fine. 

But why do you think so many are fascinated by the corner store?

D. 

* Above photos by Okay Mountain.

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

   

Love Letter: Neil Dawson

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I was hunting around and stumbled upon the work of this New Zealander’s art – it’s very inspiring.  See how the piece below, called HORIZONS looks so radically different when the weather changes.  It’s amazing how this sculpture is both volumetric and  flat at the same time.  

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The below sculpture is called ECHO.  The “house” is somehow suspended and looks like it is drawn in the sky.  When you walk around the piece and look up, the perspective apparently reverses itself.  On one side, the front of the building is visible from below, but when you move to the other side, the view changes, and the building is seen from above.  WOWSA.

 

 

 

 

 

How come we don’t know so much about this gent’s work in America?  Come to our neck of the woods, and make something cool, Neil.

D.

 

 

 

 

  

Hamburger Today

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I haven’t seen “Slash – Paper Under the Knife” at the Museum of Art and Design yet.  I’m going to try to swing over there next weekend to check it out, but I got a really cool paper something today that I’m really excited about.  It’s a burger. 

Its by Michael Ingulli and I bought it at the Art Jamboree which took over a few lofts in Soho.  This is the second time this little fair has come to town and hopefully another one is coming before the holidays.  It was fun and just the right size to delight without exhausting.  And everything at the Jamboree was under 50 bucks!  My burger was only 10 and worth EVERY PENNY!  I am going to get a glass cake stand to show it off proud!

Xo

D.

 

Think Bigger

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Danielle wrote in with her favorite big stuff in response to my posting of my favorite giant things  -- thanks, Danielle!

I love what you sent too!  Who can argue with The Sultan’s Elephant (below) which was part of an incredible public art/performance by Royal Deluxe.

 

Or ... the stage at Austrian Bregenzer Festspiele’s 1999 production of Verdi’ s opera “A Masked Ball” where the floating stage was actually a giant book being read by a skeleton.  So COOL! 

 

 

 

Chris sent in these cool giant fork sculpture photos by Jean-Pierre Zaugg and Georges Favre, stuck into Lake Leman in front of the Alimentarium (the Food Museum) in Vevey, Switzerland.  (Below)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep sending in your favorite stuff, gang!  I would love to amass a giant collection of everyone’s collective big stuff favorites.  What’s yours?  Send your thoughts to info@davidstarkdesign.com

We can’t wait to post ‘em!

Xo

D.

 

 

 

 

 

Think BIG!

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I spent a beautiful time with pals a couple of weekends ago in Montauk, and the many farm stands that we passed on the way had huge sculptures of ears of corn standing tall and greeting the cars with a smile.  It reminded me how much I love giant . . . well . . . ANYTHING.

My love for “giant” stuff started as a kid at the iconic 80’s Soho store THINK BIG.   Every dentist’s office in America had a giant toothbrush in their lobby from the shop, and I thought it was super cool.   I feel the same about roadside vernacular architecture where nutso oversized “things” hit the road.  Here are some that I love below.

 

The above picnic basket is the world’s largest one, a building that is the home of a basket making company (but of course!) in Newark, Ohio.

 

The world’s largest chair (above) is in the piazza of Manzano, Italy.  Manzano is a city of chair makers so this is quite apt.

 

Spokane Washington’s city park sports this ‘lil red wagon. (above)

 

I’m not really a doughnut fan as far as eating is concerned, but this L.A. icon has always sent me! (above)

Similarly, the artist Claes Oldenburg’s public sculptures change the context of a public arena with bold whimsy.  Check these out:

 

 

 

 

 

We “blow it up” quite a bit in our events too . . . transporting our party guests with an Alice In Wonderland sense of scale shift.  Check these out below:

 

This was our version of “The Bouquet of the Day” at one of Macy’s Flower shows (above).  The last thing Macy’s needed from us was another pretty bouquet in a lovely vase.  We surprised everyone with this oversized paint brush dipping into dripping “paint” created from thousands of fresh, red carnations.

 

A giant hammer of bubble wrap hovered in mid bang above the guests heads at a gala for the Museum of Art and Design. (above)

 

Here (above) a giant composition notebook becomes a powerful metaphor for the fine work that the incredible folks at New Yorkers for Children do in helping foster children on the road to an education.

 

This “bottle” was created from hundreds of recycled wine bottles for an editor’s preview event for the Eco countertop line.  The countertops are created entirely from recycled glass, porcelain, and mirror, and our event schematic showcased various sculptures made from the raw recycled materials.

If anyone has any examples of giant things in the world that they love, send ‘em in.  We’d love to see and be inspired by yours too!

Xo

D.

Ok . . . We have our first BIG thing contribution (below) from Deborah who “used to drive by the Peach water tower en route to the Carolinas from Atlanta (back in my grad school days).  It is located in Gaffney, SC.” 

Thanks for sending in this cool addition, Deborah.  Anyone else?  Don’t be shy!

xo

D.

 

Love Letter: Maison Martin Margiela, Part I

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Ok . . . so I have to admit that I am a little obsessed with this fashion house, and I have quite a collection of the designer’s clothing from over the years, but the store environments that they create to shop in are fantastically exciting too.  This year, the House of Margiela premiered a line of home pieces at the furniture fair in Milan.  Whether it was an experiment that will become a reality in the marketplace is one thing, but I was sad that I didn’t get to see it firsthand.  I am also sad that I did not get to see the retrospective, celebrating 20 years of Maison Martin Margiela at MoMu in Antwerp.  So . . . I am going to do my own little homage today, focusing on interiors.   Part 2 and 3 (in the future) will focus on clothing and accessories.   There’s too much yummy stuff for one posting, you know?!

 

I love the whole trompe-l’oeil thing, a frequently used strategy.  Note the real wooden floor that has been painted to look like a “real wooden floor.”  This is something that we do quite a bit too.  Note our real wooden stumps, painted to look like “real wooden stumps” for an event we did for the Sundance Institute (below).   It’s turning the tables; I love the wink and nudge of it all.  You see fake things all the time that are trying to be real – fake Louis Vuitton bags on Canal Street, fake Rolex watches, but it is funny to see a real thing, posing as a real thing.  

 

 

The wine bottle lamps (below) have been staples of the store interiors for years.  A couple of years ago, I was sent a holiday gift from the New York team, thanking me for being a good customer.  It was a bottle of champagne entirely painted over in their signature gesso, making the bubbly incognito, and rendering the bottle unusable.  Thus, a standard gift, a bottle of spirits, is transformed into an art piece.

 

Painting everything over in matte white until something is “anonymous” is the method de rigueur in the shops.  I am not attributing the painting to “they” or the house because there is something about the way it is done which makes you feel that everything is naturally the way it is.  You don’t feel the hand of the person who does the painting or the obscuring. Rather, you feel as if everything has always been that way. Often times, materials that are of value (leather), that “should” never be painted over are painted over.  Note the leather chairs below that have been erased in white gesso.  The furniture naturally rises out of years of painting jeans and shoes and coats.

 

 

 

When not painted, furniture is often wrapped in white muslin slipcovers.  Some of the most inane objects are also covered in white slip covers (hangers, for instance).  And often, multiple objects, grouped together, have one single slip cover that is made for the objects as a unit.  See the vignette of mannequins below, sheathed as one as well as the various seats in a line that have a single cover that unifies.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The New York store has a tiny room whose walls are upholstered in egg cartons and the jewelry collection is shown off to great effect in there.  It is a brilliant amalgam of trash and chic all at once.  I couldn’t find any pictures of it, but go check it out.  Of course, I wish I had thought of that one.  It’s so perfectly inane.  And I love that they have the audacity to display and sell some of the most expensive clothing and items around in a setting that is anything but.  Once again, it is not what you use, but how you use it that wins the race.  It’s so inspiring for me to learn from others that do it so brilliantly and fearlessly.  Merci Monsieur Margiela.

Xoxo

D.

Do you know the way to Manitoga?

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Robert and I took a ride to Garrison, New York the weekend before last and toured Manitoga, the home and studio of the iconic 40’s and 50’s industrial designer Russel Wright.  It was a real pain to find (once again, we owe that to  Map Quest’s less than dreamy directions), but we made the tour in just the nick of time.  And BOY, WAS IT WORTH IT!  The grounds were incredible, the house and studio incredible.  RUN.  DON”T WALK, kids!

 

Of course, I knew Russel Wright for the above ceramics.  In college, my friend James had an incredible collection, and that was my first introduction.   But I didn’t realize he was such a nature lover too.  Try to find his home in the picture below.  Wright was playing “Where’s Waldo” long before there was a “Where’s Waldo” as it was really important for him to integrate his home into the grounds with the least impact on the land.  Perhaps his roof was one of the first “green” roofs ever with grasses and then sedum planted on the entire, flat rooftop?   His natural concerns in the 50’s and 60’s were so ahead of his time.  So many of his personal design concerns from that period are in vogue right now.  Pretty cool.

 

He “encouraged” moss gardens (below).  I didn’t know anything so yummy was growing in the northeast.

 

A couple of years back, I had been obsessed with moss patches.  Note our moss “wall,” created for an event for the Turner Networks (below).

  

The house itself (below) was kind of like a cross between Falling Water and perhaps the Eames home in California.  He brought the outside inside and the glass walls blurred those boundaries.  Natural boulders, tree trunks, bark covered doors, stone door knobs, and other sensitive surprises were juxtaposed to the iconic and mass produced furniture of the times from companies like Herman Miller.   Of course, Russel Wright’s tableware graced the kitchen.

 

 

The below screen of butterflies, pressed between a filmy plexi created a pocket door to the bathroom in the house (right).  Doorknobs were surprising moments.  A carved face here, an actual stone from the woods there, become tactile experiences, not just utilitarian features (left).

 

Wright’s studio (below) was in a separate wing of the house.  The male guests stayed here.  The female guests stayed in the “Harem Wing” of the main house.  (wink!)

 

You need to make a reservation to tour the house.  It is well worth it.  Without a reservation, you can hike the grounds of the property.  I believe there are 60 or 80 miles of trails.  But if you go there, it would be a shame to not peek inside Wright’s sanctuary and mind.  You know what I mean?

D.

Love Letter: Stefan Sagmeister

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Finally someone has put into words exactly what I feel all the time:  “Obsessions make my life worse and my work better.” 

The melodramatic statement, undercut by the shimmering filigree of thousands of swirling Euro pennies, made for a gorgeous public art work in an Amsterdam courtyard.  I’d like to imagine that the piece was created from pennies that the artist saved every time he got change over the course of a period of time rather than just marching into the bank and exchanging bills for the amount of coins needed at that instant.  That’s how I would have done it . . . right now I have a year’s worth of plastic market bags piling up.  Stay tuned on that one . . .

 

 

 

 

More cool penny stuff?  Here’s something nifty . . . and perhaps against the law?  I saw this penny floor in process when I took a tour of the rooftop bar/lounge at the brand new Standard Hotel in New York City while it was still under construction.  Gotta go back and see it finished!

 

Of course, ideas always go round and round and round.  About 12 years ago,  I casted thousands of pennies in plaster (insane!), painted them all kinds of chalky and lovely colors, so carefully drilled holes in them, and threaded magical, impossibly tall stacks of gradated color that would just not fall over because of their hidden armature inside.  If I knew then that that project would be a precursor to so many of the visuals tricks that I employ now with different materials . . .  Hmmmmm . . . .

Cheers,

D.

Love Letter: The Bacardi Building; Miami, Florida

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There is a stretch of Biscayne Blvd in Miami that is at once super cool AND totally sketchy, framed by run down motels that were once 1960’s groovy and today’s fast food joints devoid of any style at all.  Tucked within that crazy quilt of visual noise is a gorgeous example of 1960s modern architecture, the corporate home of Bacardi USA, housing a museum of the corporate history, family history, and the history of their eponymous rum. 

The architect of the tower was Enrique Gutierrez of the Puerto Rican firm Sacmag International and the blue and white tile work on the exterior was created by Francisco Brennand of Recife, Brazil.  In 1973, the cool square building was added to the property, designed by local architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz, and the glass tapestries, designed to withstand hurricane gales, were created in France under the direction of Gabriel and Jacques Loire of Chartres, after an original painting by the German artist Johannes M. Dietz.  Fancy, huh?!  (wink)

It’s a really, really beautiful spot.  I spend a lot of time in Miami.  Everyone knows it as a place for mad partying and chic hotels, but there is a ton of cool stuff tucked here and there and everywhere.  Come visit!

xo

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: "Bricks"

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So you say you like “bricks,” eh!? 

Well I’m feeling them too lately.  Here are some of my favorites . . .

Cheers,

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kirsten wrote in and tipped me off on a cool brick tote.  Check it out and if anyone else has a favorite “brick” thang . . . send it in!

Xo

D.

OMG: I Made My Own Clock: CONTEST!

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There is a very clever bunch over here at David Stark Design -- so clever that I am constantly surprised and delighted to go to work every day and hang out with such creative forces.  My recent “make your own clock” challenge had already been revealing some wonderful responses and last week, if you didn’t tune in, I posted a bunch of them individually.  But not only is the group talented, they are also very COMPETITIVE, so when I revealed that the “winner” would receive two very GOOD seats to my girl, Beyonce’s, upcoming concert, the gang kicked into high gear.  The clocks have poured in FAST and the results are posted below.

Now I call upon YOU to help us determine the winner.  Please leave comments on this post below and tell us which clock is your favorite.  You can tell us by name or by number, and tell your friends to write in too!  And your mom!

Tallying your comments will determine who wins and gets those prime seats.   We’ll make that determination by noon on Friday, so don’t sit on your vote! Thanks for giving us your thoughts!  I know that a lucky two people will really appreciate it.

Xoxo

D.

PS - The clocks are listed in alphabetical order by first name so as not to insinuate preferential treatment. ; )

 

1. Alfonso Nieto, Untitled

 

2. Alyson Walder, "Kim the Talking Wall Clock's Evil Twin"

 

3. Charo Figueroa, "Lunch Time"

 

4. Christopher Clark, "Double Time"

 

5. Christina Dimitriadis, "Time to Make the Donuts"

 

6. David Stark, "Infinity Toast"

 

7. Heather Lee, "A Memory In Time"

 

8. Jason Neufeld, "Ahead of Time"

 

9. Lauren Merkin, "Tick-Tock, Tater-Tot"

 

10. Changzhi Lee, "Open the Green Door for a Good Time"

 

11. Marco Mendez, Untitled

 

12. Liz Holden, Supermarket Sweep

 

13. Mary Martinez, "Happy Hours"

 

14. Melissa Gamwell, Untitled

 

15. Nati Gutierez, "Time to Shine"

 

16. Oneca Hitchman, "Step In Time"

 

17. Rakesh Malik, "T Time"

 

18. Sascha, "Fetch"

 

19. Scott Sanders, Untitled

 

20. Shari Wagner, "Hammer Time"

 

21. Spencer Merolla, "Thyme Clock"

 

22. Susie Montagna

"Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Chance of Showers, Rain"

"Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Chance of Showers, Rain"

"Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Chance of Showers, Rain"

Can somebody write music to these lyrics?

 

 

Love Letter: Ai Weiwei

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I have been looking a lot at the work of the Chinese artist, designer, architect, and activist  Ai Weiwei who creates magical installations that fuse east and west, old and new and very serious AND loopy into fantastical dreamscapes that are also stinging social commentary.  Calling for the Chinese government to ease control over the individual, Weiwei’s outspoken and critical views of totalitarian states have gotten him into some hot water with Chinese officials over the years, but the rest of the world has fallen in love with him.  I’m late to the table, but enjoying the meal thoroughly!

 

"Bamboo and Porcelain", 2008

 

The most popular brand of bicycle in China is called “Forever.”  The symbolic form of infinity, created from a symbolic “thing” of the people, beautifully interwoven like magic, is really stunning to me.

 

 

 

The three images above are of the public sculpture “Template,” constructed from the wooden doors and window frames of Ming and Qing dynasty homes that were destroyed by the Chinese government during the vast building boom that was characterized as being part of China’s second Cultural Revolution.  The piece was originally a tower standing tall, but the tower was thrown down by a violent windstorm.  Weiwei both accepted and embraced this “new” installation as highly preferred to the original conception.  Very “go with the flow,” huh?

 

The carved marble piece (above) is entitled, “Monumental Junkyard,” and it honors and immortalizes the heaps of trash that are commonplace in Beijing suburbs.

 

The Tate Liverpool in Liverpool, England commissioned the above fantastic work for the opening of their exhibition, “The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China” in 2007.

 

It would be really cool to have the above chandelier in a very tiny New York City walk-up tenement apartment.

 

 

I adore this series of images as well.  Not a symbolic “fuck you,” but an actual one, these are samples from a larger body of work in which the artist gives the finger to the representation of state power – from the White House to the Eifel Tower.

Love Letter: Master Cheng

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My friend BZ introduced us to a truly amazing talent who we were lucky enough to have join us for a recent event.  Master Cheng takes impromptu orders at parties and within seconds, in front of your very eyes, he cuts elaborate animals, silhouettes, and anything your heart desires out of everyday paper.  I asked for a Noah’s Ark of animals.  Master Cheng did not disappoint.   And the guests were pretty amazed too!

Cool, huh?!

D.

 

 

  

 

 

 

OMG!  It looks just like the rendering: 

A Private Celebration

Master Cheng was situated within a glorious and zany “garden” of flowering cherry blossoms, sculpted boxwood hedges, dappled moon light, and really BIG boxwood topiary of the host’s ever ebullient poodle Peaches!   Peaches is not only an important member of our client’s family, but she played a critical supporting role in the evening’s drama.  She appeared first on the save-the-date, then on the invitation, and as the cherry on the sundae of our cocktail hour – a boxwood nod and wink to Jeff Koon’s infamous Puppy sculpture.

 

Based on our client’s drawings of Peaches, we first created a sculpted foam armature for the boxwood to be affixed to.  Take special note of Peaches collar, though.  It’s hard to see in the photo, but the strap is created from pink carnations, and the buckle is a silver photo frame (on its side, sans glass).   The part of the buckle that catches in the holes of the belt (does this thing have an actual name?), is a nail clipper.   (BIG smile)

Brilliant, right?!

Bravo, my team.  That little detail, as silly as it might seem, blows me away.  Thank you for that inspiring surprise and for the inventiveness that makes what we do ART.  It’s what keeps me going every day.

xo

D.

P.S.  Jeff Koon’s work was on my mind a lot while we were playing around with our Peaches.  I was lucky enough to experience Koon’s huge puppy both in Spain and in NYC – such different experiences, both wonderful.

 

This guy greeted us in Bilbao, Spain when we went to the Guggenheim Museum there for the first time.  What a magical site he was – all abloom in Technicolor!  And huge.

 

And this Puppy is pretty fabulous too!  He was so cool on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art last summer.  Where is he now?

 

 

And this one?  I don’t know where he is, but he is cool in that color too.

 

 

 

If The Shoe Fits ...

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I am happy to let my buddy Corrie hold the reigns today – the first in a series of guest starring performances by the talented members of the David Stark Design team.  Corrie is very central to our design department, amazingly talented, and a great artist, and I thought it would be fun for y’all to get a different perspective on life in the fast lane over here. 

Cheers!

D.

P.S.  I did not coerce her into saying the nice things she said! (wink)

- - - -

As a lucky member of David Stark’s design team, my desk sits closest to the door that leads to our office. I always know who is coming and going and I get many opportunities to check out our cool door knob. It is a classic men’s two-tone wing tip shoe.

 

This got me thinking how often we love to use ordinary objects in unusual ways; how seductive a Post-It note, a plastic bottle, or a sneaker can be simply by changing its context. David has often tried to convince us that we need to do an event’s decor completely out of tooth picks. Luckily, so far, he has settled for things a bit larger. In this case, shoes.

We have a junk shelf that has ended up as a drop off for materials we hope to use or get inspiration from someday. Last month, David came in with a huge smile on his face saying he had something for us to be “pumped about” and handed me a pair of gold glitter PUMPS.  Ha! Pun intended! Of course, I wanted to take them home, but dutifully they went on to the shelf for all to enjoy.

 

Last year for the Robin Hood Foundation, we made a tornado out of 3000 Nike sneakers! The kicker? All the shoes were donated after the event!

 

 

On a lighter note literally, we made an inflatable sneaker as an icon for our Target Bodega project.  The extra large sneak inflatable reminds me how the ordinary can be extraordinary by changing the scale and with a touch of humor.

 

We are not alone in our love of shoes as art and inspiration. There is a culture out there for sneaker freaks, complete with conventions, blogs, and magazines. Shoes have also starred as the muse for many an artist and designer.  Corporate brands have joined in as well, commissioning artists to create one of a kind sculptures crafted out of everything from cardboard to vegetables, limited edition runs, and even large scale installations created completely out of shoes.

 

Artist, Michael Leavitt created a series of cardboard sneakers.

 

Artist, Olle Hemmendorff crafted this hamburger Nike. To read more about Olle and this project, click here.

 

Paper twine shoes by Japanese artist, MNNF. To see more click here.

 

Graffiti artist Jor One, hand painted these super cool kicks.

 

I love this one, anything in miniature suddenly becomes so cute, and so smart. This was done by London artist, Jethro Haynes.

 

Scrap Wood Chucks by Dutch artist, Diederick Kraaijeveld.

 

Brown shoe company commissioned this giant shoe sculpture to sit in front of their building on Maryland Avenue in Clayton, MO. We love the idea of making large sculptures out of smaller versions of itself.

 

 

 

We made this giant pencil out of pencils for Robin Hood last year.

 

Asics Tigers made a giant shoe out of toys to celebrate its quirky Japanese roots. The giant shoe was a collaboration between StrawberryFrog, LA-based artist Gary Baseman, and Dutch photographer Marcel Christ.

 

Artist John McNaughton has created giant wooden shoe sculptures as part of a project in the lobby of the Shoe Carnival headquarters, located in Indiana.

 

Columbian artist, Federico Uribe, worked with Puma to create his installation “Human Nature” which is made entirely out of shoes.

Whether the shoe is the medium, the canvas, or the inspiration, it seems to be a common thread in our collective curiosities. In art school, I had to draw my own shoes more times than I care to count. In my travels through google it seems shoe art is still a staple for young art students. Luckily we haven’t grown out of it. Here’s to putting the right foot forward.

- Corrie

- - - -

Hi guys.

Me again  . . .

Growing up, I was kind of obsessed with the woman that lived in a shoe and had so many children she didn’t know what to do!  Here’s my contribution to your post, Corrie.  Thanks for all the fun surprises.  I really love all the cool stuff that you found . . . and YOU!

XX

D.

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Roy McMakin

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I became enchanted with the artist Roy McMakin back when the ultra serious Richard Meier, architect of the just completed Getty Center in Los Angeles, had a tantrum over the furniture McMakin was commissioned to create for the complex.  The furniture was a little roly-poly and a tad goofy, juxtaposing a sentimentally sweet wink to Meier’s absolute purity.   Maier was outraged, AND I LOVED IT!

McMakin is that rare talent that slides seamlessly between architecture, furniture, and art making. Over the years, his Domestic Furniture/Architecture Company has created special buildings and interiors all over the country for artists, art collectors, and people of style.   Simultaneously, his art is sold at one of the most blue chip galleries in New York – Mathew Marks.  His “art” often looks like furniture.  His “furniture” often looks like “art.” 

I was tooling around the internet and found these incredible interiors where painted shapes bisect the furniture and rugs of the space.  My friend Robert had suggested I paint a rectangle on the ceiling over my bed the other night – almost like a canopy.  Then, low and behold, I ran into the image below.  Pretty GREAT, huh?!

 

 

 

I thought The below images/pieces were pretty neat too.  I like that something is sweetly “off”  in all of the objects/rooms.  Whether misaligned, out of proportion, strangely colored – there is a memory game going on in McMakin’s work that is sometimes hard to pin-point, but the imperfection is quite beautiful and haunting to me. 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Ellis Gallagher

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Lauren reminded me that in our very own neighborhood, we have a graffiti star: Ellis Gallagher (aka Ellis G.).  Known for his chalk outlines of the shadows cast from everyday stuff, those of us in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens have loved Ellis’ outlines of hydrants, street lamps, and bicycles found on the local sidewalks for years. 

Ellis used to be more of a traditional street tagger, using subways and other public spaces as his canvas but when his buddy and fellow tagger Hector Ramirez was hit by a train, Ellis changed directions. We’re really glad you did, neighbor!

D.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Robin Rhode

I have been into Robin’s work for quite awhile.  Born in South Africa and living in Berlin, the below stills come from photographic sequences that beautifully walk the line between performance and photography.  Robin interacts within his own drawn worlds much in the same way that my childhood hero HAROLD (AND THE PURPLE CRAYON) did.  While Harold’s skin was pearly white and his fantasy worlds rather benign, Rhode’s scenarios often register the cultural traces of poverty and social inequality that were endemic to growing up in Johannesburg.   The work retains a playful joy, though, identifying fundamental social concerns while never becoming judgmental.   I like that.  A lot.

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Florentijn Hofman

I have been infatuated with rubber duckies ever since I was a child.  In fact, a collection of them resides in my shower, greeting me upon every ablution with a smile.

Upon searching the web for more rubber duckies, I fell smack dab into the work of Florentijn Hofman.  Apparently Mr. Hofman is an extremely well known artist in his native Holland as well as throughout the rest of Europe, and he created this grand ducky for ‘Loire Estuary 2007,’ an outdoor contemporary art exhibition taking place in France.  Of course, I immediately started searching voraciously for information on more of his works.  Piece after piece is simply astounding!

 

 

 

The below piece, “Signpost 5” was created to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Schiermonnikoog International Chamber Music Festival in 2006.  Like beached whales or shipwrecked cargo, these grand pianos totally change the context of this peaceful beach and appear to either float or have been washed up on shore depending on the tides and time of day.  I always think about how hard it is to make an impact with a sculptural work outdoors.  The world and sky are so, so BIG that it is difficult to penetrate on that gargantuan scale.  These pieces seem to do so with such aplomb while also providing a comfy seat (or two) for birds and people alike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Beukelsblue” is a stunner too!  By dousing an entire city block in Rotterdam with electric, candy blue paint, Hofman changes the context of this neighborhood and turns a derelict building into a sculpture.  Why not?!?

 

 

 

Hofman’s work reminds me of one of the first art lessons I learned as a freshman at RISD, a lesson that I think about all of the time.

On a crisp Monday in October, our professor Alfred DeCredico took us all to the First Baptist Church in America, an iconic, New England clapboard church with a steeple.  When inside, Al handed us some rope and said, “As a group, and with only this rope, change the context of this Church.”  Then he left and didn’t come back for five hours.
 
My classmates and I spent the day stumped.  This lesson was as much about “context” as it was about the difficulties of group collaboration.  When he finally returned, we had nothing to show for our afternoon of push and pull, and with the grandiosity he was known for, he created an elegant, snake-like coil, put it on the floor directly in front of the altar and walked out triumphantly.

Al’s “piece” was not impressive for its mind-blowing transformation of the Church in the way that painting a whole city block blue is.  Rather, I was blown away by the simplicity of the gesture and the grand concept of “changing a context.”  They didn’t talk about things like that in suburban New Jersey!

Today, every single project I touch or consider makes me think of that day at the First Baptist Church of America. 

Thank you, Al.  Thank you RISD for the gifts you gave me.

D.

Love Letter: Saul Steinberg and Inge Morath

For Christmas this year, Susie gave me a book called, MASQUERADE filled with such inspiring photos, a collaboration between the artist Saul Steinberg and the photographer Inge Morath, taken between 1959 and 1961.  What a lot of fun, right?!

Thanks, Suse.  I LOVE this work!!

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travels in Fontland

I am not a fan of winter and when it starts to get frigid outside, I start to long for the beach and the sun of summers past. Feeling reminiscent, I just found these photos I took this past August on a perfect Sunday in Coney Island. My buddies and I rode our bikes there, making pilgrimage on what was supposed to be the last day the amusement park was going to be open to the public before being shut down for good. What a place!

While I enjoyed it all wildly – from the scary, rickety Cyclone rollercoaster, to the lines of people waiting for Nathan’s hot dogs and cheese fries (thanks, I’ll pass!), the thing I enjoyed most of all was not the rides, but the . . . FONTS. I picked up this art nerd trait of documenting fonts from my buddy Marcia whom I travel often with and who dutifully snaps up signage pics from all over the world. I think combined; we must have quite a collection.

Coney Island signage is specific ONLY to Coney Island. There is no other place that has a look like this. And that’s pretty damn cool, right?!  I hope some smart person or group comes in to save Coney Island to preserve its quirky beauty. Do we really need more cheesy condos there?  REALLY?!

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut, cut, cut ... GOOSE!

My buddy Grace over at Design*Sponge has exquisite taste, and a week or so ago she had an image of Heather Moore’s work up that intrigued me and made me want to find out more. A designer, illustrator, and writer who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, these newspaper cuts were apparently commissioned by a local newspaper for their advertisements, but alas, never ran. Their loss over at that paper, right?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upon reaching out to Heather, she suggested I look up the work of another paper charlatan out of Britain, Su Blackwell. WOWSA, Heather! Thank you for that tip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coincidentally and without knowing about either of these two amazing artists, we embarked on our own paper cutting project, creating the décor for the New York Road Runners’ 50th Anniversary Celebration.

The Road Runners are the fine folks who produce the New York City Marathon (among many other races), and we told their “story” in a visual way at the chic Metropolitan Club. Books became our “stage set” for the evening, and the paper “runners” cut from those pages brought the metaphor to life.

Clearly . . . something “paper” is in the air.

 

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Tape Bandits

On October 17^th, I posted an entry called “Street Art in a Box” about a piece of geometric graffiti rendered in tape instead of paint. I stumbled upon it by accident when I was walking about town. I apologize for not crediting its maker as I did not know who it was at the time. It turns out the artist is Aakash Nihalani, and now I am seeing him and his work EVERYWHERE. Does it count as graffiti if it is commissioned for say, a living room?

 

I like his statement: “We live in a big city of big boxes with little windows peeking onto other big boxes next to smaller ones…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s important to point out that when I was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 80’s, someone there beat Mr. Nihalani to the punch in the tape department. Michael Townsend created murals with tape, renegade-style, around Providence and the RISD campus. Although his work is much more figurative and sweet, he asked the same tricky question: “When is graffiti illegal and wrong, and when is it public art and a welcome addition to the world?” Michael has since lassoed his work into a collective called Tape Art that is now hired to work with schools, prisons, and hospitals.

I guess you can’t help but ask the age old question: “Are there really any new ideas out there?" And does it really matter? Hats off to Aakash Nihalani. He is certainly making works that make me stop, stare, and now blog about -- even if he wasn’t the first (and I’m sure not the last) to draw on the world with a roll of tape.

 

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Trail: John Morse

My buddy, John Morse, has new collages in a show called “America,” opening at the Silas Marder Gallery in Bridgehampton, New York the Saturday after Thanksgiving. These recent portraits are made entirely from found paper – junk mail, macaroni boxes, newspaper, all materials that would either end up in the trash or in the recycling bin, but have been transformed into  . . . yup,  ART!

Since I and my group have been passionately challenging ourselves to artistically re-purpose paper waste into three dimensional installations and objects, I LOVE encountering other members of the tribe who are on parallel paths, especially those that yield very different artistic outcomes. I tend to think about waste materials as the building blocks of an object or a room, like when we used six tons of shredded office paper waste to build a “Versailles Garden” of sculptural topiaries for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards last year.  John clearly uses paper in two dimensions to fantastic effect and, to the former painter in me that is very exciting!  Instead of dipping a brush into paint, John rips swaths of color from the discards of packaging and draws a shadow, a nose, an essence.

I was delighted when John sent me these images to check out. Forget Pearl Paint and pricey art materials. Next time you want to “draw,” just rip up your empty cereal boxes, supermarket circulars, and old J. Crew catalogues -- they are as good a “box of colors” as any that Crayola makes.

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“OMG. It looks just like the rendering!” : Whitney Gala

It’s tricky to show infinity and the reflection of mirrors in a computer rendering, but it is often the best shot we have to get an idea across. Case in point, the Whitney Museum’s recent and glamorous gala was all about the Museum’s past, present, and future -- conceptual ideas that we made materially tangible with light, reflection, and color. Inspired by the magical infinity boxes of the artist Yayoi Kusama, I wanted the guests to feel like they were dining within one of these optical works.

 

The dinner was held in the third floor galleries between exhibitions. To transform the gallery space, we first painted the walls a deep purple and hung floor to ceiling mirrors tinted in hues ranging from purple to smoky gray. Next we suspended hundreds of indigo bulbs from the ceiling in a perfect grid and created a floor plan that flowed perfectly, mixing rectangular and round dining tables in equal parts. Custom light boxes were created for each of the tables. Illuminated panels of the light box were upholstered with plastic slide protection sheets filled with squares of lighting gels and reflective papers instead of slides. The resulting effect was a deeply sexy supper club whose boundaries and points of light seemed to go on in glorious infinity.

 

Elated from a fantastic evening, Mr. Lauder, the Museum’s fairy godfather, apparently stated on his way home, “We don’t need a bigger Museum. We just need mirrors!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirrored room, Love Forever (above), was constantly in my mind as we conceived and refined the design for the Whitney’s Gala.  The piece is visually exciting, but is also the perfect marriage between the abstract concept of “infinity” and physical, sensual materiality – a pretty hard tightrope to walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keepin' On The Paper Trail

My head and eyes remain on paper as a “go to" material, and clearly, many other very talented folks still think about its virtues too.

 

Last Saturday, I saw a cool show of Chris Gilmour’s work at the Freight and Volume Gallery in Chelsea. Gilmour maniacally recreates everyday objects out of cardboard and brown paper. I covet the grandfather’s clock, which is pretty awesome. I wish I had a bigger apartment that could showcase it properly (and a spare $27,000!)

 

 

Here’s another cool project Gilmour crafted entirely out of boxes, I believe to herald the opening of our friendly, new Red Hook neighbor, Ikea. I’m swooning over here, guys . . . over the installation, not Ikea’s opening, by the way.

 

 

 

Along a similar track, I recently became acquainted with Californian folk singer Phranc’s art work, also a series of objects created out of painted paper and cardboard.

 

 

 

We continue to explore our paper obsession in our own and various ways. Since we’ve been so busy, we haven’t had time to share images from The America’s Society Gala we produced back in June at Cipriani’s grand, old space on Wall Street. To reinforce the organization’s focus on the exchange between North, South, and Central America, we enhanced the space with décor created from 45,000 postcards of monuments, people, landscapes, flora, and fauna of the regions that comprise the Americas and Canada. An entry wall, HUGE suspended chandeliers, and even vases for the flowers, all were hand-made out of the post cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This installation was in part inspired by the pixilated Post-it decor I had been transfixed by in the windows of Bergdorf Goodman. The America’s Society entry wall map made out of postcards was a direct response to those fabulous windows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for images from the upcoming Museum of Arts and Design Gala that we are designing (November 12th, 2008) which explores these ideas further. You’ll see the connection immediately and I’ll continue to post other cool paper works that I find “out in the world.” It will be fun to see these items amass on David Stark Sketchbook as a movement of the times.

D.

 

 

Love Letter to Robert Indiana

I saw Robert Indiana’s beautiful show at Paul Kasmin’s Gallery and took some photos to remember it by. GORGEOUS.

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street Art in a Box

When I walk the streets of New York City and Brooklyn or travel to anywhere else in the world, I am struck by graffiti that goes beyond familiar curse words -- public art works, really, that use the world as its canvas. I like to keep a photographic log of these art pieces, and look forward to filling David Stark Sketchbook with my findings. Here’s one I discovered over the weekend.  So weird:  A perfect, geometric box drawn in tape – how considerate to the neighborhood!  If anyone takes great offense, they can simply peel it off. I like to imagine an artist like Donald Judd or Carl Andre sneaking out late at night, drawing on buildings, inciting the people to come together with radical notions of minimalism – HA!

D.

 

 

Love Letter to Marimekko

When someone mentions “Marimekko,” people automatically think of that big, happy, iconic flower print from the 70’s, which I believe Crate & Barrel revived a couple of years back making it seem so cheery and new. Fast forward to now and Anthropology is upholstering some of their furniture pieces with that fab newish lily pad print. 

I’ve caught the fever as well. I am obsessed with these new patterns and am trying to figure out how to use them in my life. I love that you would never know they were Marimekko unless you were told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been using some fabulous Marimekko patterns for recent events. We used Liro A. Ahokas’ pattern (Turbulent) in green and white for MoMA’s Party In the Garden this year – so chic and sophisticated (and incidentally, not seen all that often!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pushing Paper

We’ve been creating a glorious paper trail over here for quite some time, inventing grand décor schemes using paper as our material du jour.  It seems that we’re not the only ones --  everywhere I turn, pretty incredible stuff made entirely from paper continues to  inspire me and my gang to keep on cutting and folding.  

 

D.

 

 

Stephen Doyle, a finalist for the 2007 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards created this sculpture. 

Maciavelli: The Discourses. Hypertext Sculpture. 2007.

   

Impenetrable Castle by Danish artist Peter Callesen, 2005.

 

  

Impenetrable Castle by Danish artist Peter Callesen, 2005.

 

Inspired by these white paper pieces, we made our own paper bouquets for a wedding.

 

When we did the re-opening of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts celebrating a brand, spanking new wing, we created the décor for a grand dinner for 1,000 people entirely out of paper. The flower shapes were inspired by the Museum’s large holdings of William Morris fabrics and papers.

 

 

  

   

Jennifer Stark is an artist out of Miami who shares my last name, but is not a relation.  I've never met her but think her work is pretty spectacular.

 

 

Matthew Sporzynski is an artist and designer who we were lucky enough meet recently.  Like many, I too, have been obsessed with his work.

 

 

One of the all-time genius event ideas was executed at the Museum Of Modern Art when the institution honored architect, Phillip Johnson.  There was no real décor at the party to speak of. Guests became the décor when each was handed a pair of the black rimmed glasses Mr. Johnson was known for wearing.  500 or so guests all wearing his "signature" look were the décor of the evening.  Matthew made the place cards for that evening:  A PAPER pair of those same glasses. 

I wish I came up with ALL of that!

Word Search

Melissa forwarded these pictures of a very cool installation in the parking garage of the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia.  The work is inspired by Swiss artist Felice Varini and was created using a projection technique to bring the words to life. Only when you are at the correct vantage point do the words snap into alignment and come to life. 

When I have a parking garage, I think I’ll do this too (wink).

D.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you hear me now?

I adore “stuff” made out of “other stuff,” and the below pictures are a perfect example of that design strategy.  Alfonso’s mom sent him these photos and he was kind enough to forward them around the office. This was an installation that was actually on view about four years ago at the Frankfurt Museum of Communications.  The artist is Jean-Luc Comec. 

Check out those sheep feet!  Pretty FABULOUS, huh?!

D.