New York City Subway tiles

I've gotten into the habit of reading whilst on public transportation.Which is sucky because the most interesting things can appear on the streets, if you have the patience to watch for them. The art editor of Vogue Grace Coddington, gets her inspiration from looking through cab windows on all her business trips. And I'm quite sure her paycheck has a long list of zeros.
I usually do look outside windows. Even on subway rides, when usually the most interesting thing to look at is the scratchings on the walls and the graffiti on the advertisements. Well, I don't know. Manhattan subway rides usually do give some form of entertainment. Musicians, schizo people.....
Actually, there's so much art in the subway stations. Its almost like visiting different galleries while underground; that is, if you change up your route sometimes.
Some of them move like animations when the train rides past the stations, and some are so huge, they look like installations. There are the really old mosaics, from the 1800s, and the shiny, coppery new ones.
Here's a good site to get lost underground in:

ooh pretty.

Still Life

My mom told me today that her favorite type of art, since she was a little girl, is 17th century, Dutch and Belgiumese Still Life art. I was rather surprised, for I can't stand still life. But I'm prejudiced see, because I naturally can't stand 17th century Dutch art. When I was a kid, I took an art class in Still Life and took quite a disliking to it immediately, for my drawing teacher would not allow me to stray from drawing the same fake bowl of fruit everyone else had to copy. Another factor was walking through dozens of halls of Still Life paintings in the Metropolitan, waiting restlessly for my parents who found the need to analyze each one.


So I asked my mom why she liked it. 


My mom grew up on the outskirts of St. Petersberg, in a suburban- rural village. I guess that sort of makes her a 'village' girl. She lived in the house which my great grandfather built, surrounded partly by an apple orchard and a little chicken coop. During the winter, she would join in pickling barrels of cucumbers and tomatoes from their garden and during the summer she would go to the forest and collect mushrooms and berries. It was hard to grow food in Russia, and it was difficult to obtain anything that wasn't domestically grown, or brought in from Cuba. There never seemed to be enough either, so food was always a problem. 
But my mom can't completely be considered a village girl though, because we have to take into consideration that she attended the top mathematics school in Russia. It required her to wait on cold mornings to take a train to St. Petersberg. Just like me, her mom would sometimes take her to the big art museum, the Hermitage, in order to instill some sort of appreciation for the arts. The art that attracted her the most, every time she went there, was those Still Lifes. The large, luscious, paintings of fruits and vegetables toppling over each other beside silver platters of fish and meat, was food that she never saw in her life, and in quantities that seemed unrealistically huge. She thought that some of those fruits were made up by the artist, just like some of the flowers in paintings were made up by the artist. It was fun to see all that food, even if it made her a bit hungry. But it was only on a canvas.


Later in life, my mom visited Brussels, Belgium with my dad. They walked around the restaurant district and it astonished her to see, that the restaurants had large tables, outside on the side walk, that was covered with heaps of fruits and vegetables laid upon delicate white tablecloth. Restaurant goers would pick out what produce they would like to be served. Of course, those restaurants were quite expensive, and my parents couldn't possibly go to them. But she realized at that moment, standing across the street, that she wanted to be those people, enjoying something that only seemed possible in paintings. And thats part of how my parents eventually got out of the Soviet Union and came to America. 


Well, there other reasons too, but in a sense, those still life paintings are part of what got me to where I am today. Perhaps if they hadn't existed, this blog entry would be written in Russian, or not at all. But aside from that, I now understand the reason why somebody would want to have these paintings. Not only would they show their wealth to possible guests by affording such an elaborate picture, but it allowed them to see something rare, and so rich, and so beautiful, as tables of fresh food. 

Latte Art

Mmmm. Coffeeee. 
(cappucino, expresso, Turkish, Greek, Viennese, Vietnamese, Thai, frappe, frappucino, affogato, mocha, latte, macchiato....)
How beautiful is a cup of coffee? Its gorgeous. The picture of a dainty, smooth, ceramic cup, filled to the brim with a warm, solution of crystal white sugar, foamy black coffee, and lovely, velvety steamed milk......
-Dies-
And pretty little designs only enhance the loveliness. Here is my 'exhibition' of some of the best latte art on the internet!
(In lieu of my last post:)

















(OoOOoh, hypnosis)


^Tis is my favorite

I like the swirls better than the shapes and pictures, because they are more original and unique to lattes. The shapes are not unique, although impressive. There was even a latte with a picture of John Lennon on it. But drinking John Lennon's face is a bit too much. (However, that girl-shape is still cool because she was obviously original.)

Skull Art

This may seem odd, but humans are quite obsessed with their own skeletons. I mean, the amount of art we've made with skulls and bones is tremendous! Take the Sedlec Ossuary for instance:

Its a church entirely decorated with human bones and skulls. In fact, the church actually employed an artist to do this. That chandelier hanging is made with every one of the bones in a human body.
Czech people aren't the only one's obsessed though; Mexicans are.

This is a skeleton dressed as an elegant lady, which is a popular symbol to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Its called the La Calavera Catrina. I see where Tim Burton gets his inspiration, aye?
An artist named Francois Robert has rather interesting art made from human skeletons.
Actually, its not awfully interesting, to me, because I think its unethical. Human remains should R.I.P, not be on display. I mention this because of the BODIES exhibition. We must value the human body so little as a society, if we dip it in chemicals and sell tickets to look at it. Its worse than the freak shows of vaudeville, since this people don't even have the decency of clothes. And I think that all these terrible websites online, which show gruesome pictures of murders and rotting bodies (yes, I have come across them) should be illegal. Its NSFS (Not Safe For Soul!!).

Chintz

Hallo!!
So I have been flipping through a Teen Vogue magazine, and I saw a spread for Summer 2010, that features lots of flower patterned button down shirts and shorts. Interesting, I thought, it looks sort of like chintz. Chintz is a patterned, cotton fabric dyed with prints of little birds and flowers, and was actually once outlawed by the French government in the 18th century. People were buying too much of it from foreign countries, so France didn't want to lose money. However, the nobles however were allowed to wear it. This sort of fills in some blanks, in regards to 18th century fashion, lol. I'm planning on hunting for some of these button down chintz shirts tomorrow, since I'm going to the city. I don't like being a slave to fashion, so I'm going to try to find one in a thrift store. I do think its a nice trend, but I'm not willing to pay over fifteen bucks for a one season thing.

I mean, only in a certain sense. I would have found this pattern horrendous if I was looking at it two years ago. But I think I've kind of forgotten about it, and now I rather like it. I think it might be the right time to bring chintz back. I mean, I'm so sick of this entire leggings, color blocking fashion. Its old, and its boring. We need something new. Maybe some modernized, digitalized chintz patterns? Hmm.
This is a special type of chintz called Tour de Joye. It features historical events instead of flowers:
I wonder if we can bring this pattern back as well. Actually, two years ago, I bought a sweatshirt from Buffalo with a blue chintzy pattern.  Its rather tight and it makes my upper body look like its made from porcelain. So maybe its not that new. But what if we make neon Tour de Joye skirts? Or neon chintz flower headbands? Or...... is this post slightly inappropriate for its kitsch-y nature?
:D
Cyaa
Hanna

Money $$$

I always like to look at foreign money. Money is always so beautifully designed, with lots of different symbols and interesting details. For instance, the dollar has an eagle holding an olive branch in one talon and thirteen arrows in the other, symbolizing the balance between peace and war and a triangle with the eye of God in its center, symbolizing the holy trinity. I think all the American dollar bills are rather beautiful, especially with their trademark green color. I don't know why we dye our bills green; I suppose its just another anti-counterfeiting measure. Thats the reason for a lot of the detail work; anti-counterfeiting measures. The new Benjamins have heavy security on them, and the face actually moves when it is held in different directions. But, sometimes too much detail makes it easier to counterfeit, so the bills sometimes get revised in order to be less busy. Some states and cities actually have their own slightly altered dollar, and some places, like Las Vegas, pay their strippers only in almost extinct bills, like two dollar bills, or two thousand dollar bills. Lol.
 The actual portraits of the Americans on our bills are based on real portraits that hang around the country. I feel that gives our money a certain, drawn style. I've seen other coins and bills with an almost photographic picture on them, and I'm not sure how much I like it. I think the drawn quality makes it seem more classical and graceful. Although, I feel that our money isn't symbolizing quite enough. Even though there is a Sacagawea dollar and a Susan B. Anthony dollar, I think more portraits of women should be put on our money. Yeah, I'm just feminist that way.

String Art

I recently saw this video on Threadbanger (well, really, Decor It Yourself) which featured String Art. I actually recognized a piece of art in my school, which looked similar:

 I didn't really understand what it was before, and I thought it was pretty unique. Now that I've researched it, I found its an entire genre! It can be made with a few different mediums, like yarn, nails, and a board, as shown in the Threadbanger video (and the piece hanging in my school), or sewn on paper with a needle and thread. Unlike the video said, it was not created in the 70's, rather near the end of the 19th century by Mary Everest Boole, a mathematician. She made these geometric art pieces in order to teach the mathematical ideas of Bezier curves to children. It was only popular in the 1970's, due to a rise in crafting, and many String Art kits and books. I think it looks alright, but I'm not awfully impressed by it. However, computer 'string art' and animation, looks rad. Its those same mathematical ideas, but they look so much more beautiful done in motion and animation. I think that computer graphics is a better medium for Bezier curves, than yarn and nails. Its a great artistic idea though, making calculus and math, physically beautiful!