Like Etsy But…
October 31, 2009
Another weekend, another Halloween… but I’m getting ahead of my blogging. Last weekend saw the last SoWa open market of 2009. SoWa is a silly term for the south end of Boston’s South End.
It was a lovely sunny October day, we bumped into some friends, we bought some art… The print of dinos reading is by Eric Sturtevant: our home life sometimes resembles the picture.
The two smaller prints are by Chen Reichart, whose blog and Etsy store are called botodesigns. The autumnal print seems to illustrate that we should become a two-Android family soon. Chen and her partner were kind enough to compliment me on the tshirt I was wearing, and to ask where I got it (Threadless, Star Men in Moon’s Milk).
Indeed, the SoWa market is like Threadless, Etsy, and similar web sites come to life, in ways that demonstrate advantages of real life over the web. The market has a good selection of tshirts, crafts, etc. It also has an antique market next door, in a rather wonderful old trolley barn.
The market also provides the chance to meet the artists: that’s face-to-face, the ultimate social medium. On Sunday it had sunshine, halloween candy and other seasonal flavorings. Now, time to post this, and get ready for halloween itself.
Media: Praise for Paper
June 15, 2009
We the parents each took some reading matter along to Kids Fun Stop on Sunday morning. When we got there, we saw that they have wireless, and wondered if we should have brought computers.
While we were there, I read (some of) the New Yorker, which is the only magazine that arrives in our house by subscription. With a PC, I could have done the same reading online. For example, here is an interesting article on the question: Should creative writing be taught?
But I was better off with the magazine in paper form. It’s very portable (important when one is keeping kids in view), boots quickly, offers excellent print resolution, etc. Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’ve been struck by the advantages of paper, it won’t be the last, and many others make similar remarks.
I wouldn’t consider it worthy of remark were it not for the illustration that adorns the cover of the current issue. A space traveler sits among gadgety debris, happily absorbed in a book. So: praise for paper; and kudos for Daniel Clowes, the artist.
Screenprint by Scott Saw
June 5, 2009
Artist Scott Saw is getting into screenprinting. I’m tempted by Deep Space, a limited edition print on black acid-free paper.
The web is great for visual art. As a consumer, I get to “sample” a lot of it online. I hope that it’s great for the artists as well, since they can easily give out samples. But you can’t beat the real thing, preferably signed by the artist, for your wall.
Travel Posters
June 2, 2009
The Boston Public Library is running an exhibition of travel posters. The site of the exhibition is Flickr. The collection spans many destinations, but I find this poster particularly pleasing and appropriate.
Good for the BPL!
Bestee Finalists at Threadless
January 23, 2009
For someone who tends to mock awards, I tend to post about them a lot. So it is with cognitive dissonance, as well as with pleasure, that I link to the Bestee Award nominees at Threadless.
My vote goes to “Grandpa Cassette” by Zack Finfrock. I like some of the other work at Zack’s site, particularly this strip about the webcomic creative process.
Sea Serpents and Suchlike
January 10, 2009
One of the things I suggested relatives buy for our 5yo daughter was The Sea Serpent and Me. I’m delighted to say that Maddie got the book, that Catia Chien‘s illustrations are just as lovely as I hoped, that Dashka Slater‘s words are also lovely, that words and pictures go together wonderfully well, and that Maddie likes the book as much as I do.
I was pleased to see that Sea Serpent was one of the books for sale at the Museum of Science: to be precise, it was in the stock of things relevant to the Mythic Creatures exhibition. We enjoyed the exhibition. The kids particularly liked being able to build their own dragons, and to release them so that they could fly through the virtual clouds. Apparently dragons can fly even in the presence of Microsoft error boxes.
Nucleus of Totoro
January 6, 2009
I’ve posted before about the book and other aspects of the Totoro Forest Project. I’m glad to say that some of the art from the project is available at Gallery Nucleus, in the form of posters. Here’s Jennifer Chang’s contribution.
Fail Whale, New Yorker Style
September 28, 2008
This is the image in question. If you don’t see an image with roads, then the New Yorker’s fail whale has failed (or perhaps just changed).
This is the Wikipedia article that sent me on the wild whale chase. Of course, it may well have been fixed by the time you read this.
This is a previous post on Twitter’s Fail Whale.
If I knew of a page about Fail Whales and their relatives, I’d link to it. Ideally, it would collect fail images.
Totoro Book Available
September 22, 2008
The Totoro Forest Project book is now available at the project website. See my previous post for an account of the project, and a sample of some of the lovely illustration contributed to it.
The very limited supply of books is expected to go soon. I wish that more had been printed, and sold through an existing online channel. That might have raised more money and awareness for the Totoro cause. Well, at least my order seems to have gone through.
Update, a few hours later: sold out.
Getting Cooler
September 17, 2008
Autumn is almost here, and we plan to go apple picking this coming weekend, probably to Tougas Farm again. Talking of local stuff, here’s the Boston area weather forecast: it will get cooler until I remove our air conditioners for the year, and then there will be a sudden heatwave.
This illustration by Christian Lindemann (via Drawn!) captures autumn rather well.
