blueprints as art

I  think architectural drawings are gorgeous and I'm supremely bummed I wasn't smart enough to think of this first (darn you, Kevin Busta) - collage on vintage blueprint drawings seen here. Brilliant. Am in love. Now I'm definitely going to be on search for old and beautiful blueprints.  Would love to find one large print, cut into 9 smaller pieces and frame individually in a series. Or just DIY collage.  Silhouette collage, might I add! Would certainly be the affordable option to this piece (@ $5200...art or rent? art or rent?).

Birds on Wire, Acrylic on Vintage Blue Print - 30"H x 84"W

n.b. spring break travel and beginning the decent into the black hole of finals have limited my posts.  yet - post finals black hole, I have grand plans for 4 months of summer break to fill with lots of blogging.  thanks for bearing with my increasingly crazy sched until then :)

burj kh-AH!-lifa

Tomorrow, William F. Baker, the engineer of the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is giving a lecture at Pratt.  While I have great respect for this tremendous feat of architectural design and engineering, this place scares the living daylights out of me. The thought of the restaurant on level 122 or the observation deck on level 124 is terrifying.  My heart goes out for the window-washing crew of Burj Khalifa.

 

Looking down. AH!

 Looking up. Ooooo!

As much as I am petrified of heights, I am incredibly excited to hear the engineer's first hand account of the structural design and construction of this building.

ps, more to come in the Spring 2010 Pratt Lecture Series... Santiago Calatrava, Sir Peter Cook, Daniel Libeskind.  Steven Holl and David Adjaye presented over the past two weeks. preeeeeettty good.

cityscape: geek or chic?

When I saw this dress at Anthropologie my first reaction was, "As an architect, I must have this."  With the description "City skylines rise with grandeur and purpose," how could I say no to this most perfect piece? I imagined wearing it to my final review and making a bold statement to my professor, jurors and classmates: not only do I eat, sleep and breathe architecture, I WEAR it too...get it?! And then I realized...I'd likely become the laughing stock of Pratt. The laid back luxe, hippie-chic school in Brooklyn would definitely not see the pure genius of this themed dress. So, I put it out of my mind and moved on to more important things like the new Union Square location of Baked by Melissa.

But then, just yesterday, I ran into this article Architecture in Dinnerware in the NYTimes home section (pictured above)  Jackpot!! If city scape themes are good enough for the NYTimes, then they are good enough for me (really cool Brooklyn grad school or not).  Watch out Spring semester final review...

I must admit that I am a fan of the cityline graphics. Some variations on a theme:

New York, New York wallpaper from Schumacher. 

Shower Curtain, City Style from CB2.

 

CB2, part 2. 

 

  

Perhaps break into the cityscape fashion scene with a NYC scarf from Lily and Lionel? (via Lucky Mag)

kudos Zatista!

Much of my studio work this semester is based on the idea of vector lines and trajectory.  My building, an incubator/shared office space for new bio-tech companies sited in Dumbo, Brooklyn (just a few blocks from our former apt) takes the structural and ornamental lines from the surrounding buildings and projects vector lines onto our site (more ideas/images to come, don't you worry).

I recently came across the artist Joshua Huyser on Zatista, a website to view and purchase original art (which I have found ranges from under $50 up to $10,000+).  I found a similarity in the abstract linework of Huyser's artwork and my driving vector line concept. Cool! I love love love this yellow painting called "Wander/Wonder." 

...very computer-programmer meets NASA

Kudos to Zatista, because I also found another really cool artist, Katrine Hildebrandt, who does cut paper (hello ofgreengables!) collage and sculpture. I believe laser cut paper is incredibly striking and the real life effect is hard to portray through digital images.  I'm sure these are stunning!  So inspirational for a hopeful cut paper designer like myself... :)

 

 Gorge...and affordable art! $175

  

 

 

george & martha

It's the perfect day to honor the art of the silhouette...President's Day! I had my eye on a pair of framed George & Martha Washington silhouettes from a friend's fabulous antique & vintage shop: & found (she also has an etsy shop). Sadly, they've already sold, but I'm always on the lookout for a pair as great.

I'm also developing a silhouette series of framed artwork for Of Green Gables.  It's really the perfect scheme for laser cut designs, which is concerned first and foremost with the design of negative space cut outs...perfecto. 

The original President's Day inspiration from & found:

Carter Kustera's (via Jonathan Adler) kitchy take:

 

Savvy Silhouette in New Canaan, CT has come chic options...this is the perfect family series option.

Being a brand new Etsy shop owner (yippee!), I have to support my fellow Etsians.  Luckymebeads are temporarily closed for vacation, but these custom tiny silhouette charms are precious!

As seen as graphic punch in bookshelf styling in the Feb/March Lonny Magazine.

Finally -great gift idea from Jessica Rust Designs...

an Architect...indulge me

I recently came across this print series 100 Abandoned Houses by photographer Kevin Bauman.  In the mid 90s, he began photographing abandoned houses in Detroit and over the last 10 years has edited the collection down to a portfolio of 100 images (n.b. there are around 12,000 abandoned homes in the city today).

While I think these images are incredibly beautiful, they are also a haunting reminder of fragility and impermanence, most especially to an architect (please indulge me).  I believe many architects feel a satisfaction in well, many things, but most especially the physical permanence and lasting influence their work has on a street, a neighborhood, a city, a nation....you get my point.  This is something I have been reminded of while working on the design of the opposite extreme: greeting cards!

Anyway, I think they are incredible images and at $35 a pop, I can't say no!!  I'd love a series of four...or six.  Here are some of the contenders! 

 

Sneak Preview

Even though I'm busy busy with school work for a desk critique this afternoon, I'd hate to disappoint my thousands (hundreds? tens? let's be honest, Hi Mom) of readers today.  I leave you with a quick sneak preview of two of my postcard designs - soon for sale on Etsy.