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Charo has a scrumptious, new baby that is joining our gang at David Stark Design, but we need your help big time! What should we name him? Will you write in a give us your thoughts?
The new puppy’s big sister, Sascha, doesn’t have any great ideas either. HELP!!!
D.
Miguel gave me a BEAUTIFUL book over the weekend of an artist that I did not know of, Paolo Ventura.
Ventura is a Brooklyn based (Go Brooklyn!) Italian expat and his images explore the real and imagined memories of his youth and his country. Close to my heart, he constructs elaborate sets or dioramas as his subject matter out of such found and relatively base materials as wood, plastic, and foam core. He additionally integrates found objects and tiny props from miniature dealers (think dollhouses). Shockingly, he apparently creates each of these little, complex worlds that are so filled with ambiance for only about $30.00!
In other words, Ventura is a shaman, and I realize more and more that the kind of art that I am attracted to, the kind of art that I hope we make at DSI is art that relies on the magic of transformation.
Needless to say, the below photos are inspired fantasies, and behind the curtain, Ventura is OZ making it happen. I love that.
D.
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
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.