Monday, August 30, 2010

3263827 (empty)

3263827

This is a painting I did as an idea for the cover of our book Tossed & Found, wherein die-cut photos of some of the projects would be floating in front of it in a clear plastic cover, referencing the book Italy: The New Domestic Landscape and of course the Death Star trash compactor #3263827.
It would've been awesome, but unfortunately it turned out to be too expensive to produce and (likely) far too obscure to understand.



Thursday, August 26, 2010

Wood Play

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From the book "Modern Finnish Sculpture" (1970) by Goran Schildt:

"During the period between 1927 and 1954, especially in the 1930's, Aalto engaged in a series of what might be described as artistic laboratory experiments, making many of the abstract reliefs and free sculptures in which he studied the variations in pliancy of wood fibres."...
" Alvar Aalto himself explains his early experiments in sculpture by referring to Yrjö Hirn. In spite of an age difference of nearly thirty years there was a warm friendship between Hirn, the distinguished and influential Professor of Aesthetics, and Aalto, who was deeply influenced by Hirn's comments on the significance of play in aesthetic creation. It is only by forgetting practical purposes in order to subordinate himself to the inner logic of his material that the artist can raise himself from the established pattern to free creation, inspired by spontaneous joy and delight in play. Aalto's "motiveless" experiments with laminated wood, aimed solely at facing problems of form and of aesthetic effect, in which the wood was bent, split, and fixed in different positions according to its grain, were acclaimed as the first wholly abstract Finnish sculpture."


Above: Alvar Aalto, various wood reliefs/experiments, 1929- 1966
Top: A fountain of Aalto chair legs from Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found. (no presumptions or pretense- our project was only about how to make the white plinth below it...)

related:




Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Fear and L.L.oathing

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Vintage 70's L.L. Bean crazy-patchwork "Rainbow Lake" jacket, of the Hunter S. Thompson school of Gonzo jacketry, made up of every scrap of corduroy and twill in Freeport. I believe Raoul Duke's (as played by Johnny Depp, above) was actually an Abercrombie & Fitch, but the Bean version was a little crazier, and came with a belt/gonzo headband. From a yard sale last spring, it didn't fit either one of us but it was obviously too cool to pass up. But after languishing in a closet (with other "things-that-hopefully-might-fit-when-I'm-a-wizened-95-year-old") it was time to think we'll probably find another one by then and let this one go-along with my future William Holden looks, below.
So we put them all on ebay last month for some crazy bidding as the patchwork jacket went for $610 and the old Abercrombie and Bean safari jackets went for 200 each.
Rainbow Lake old friend: I will see your amazing technicolor dreampatches another time, another place, and in a bigger size. 'Til we meet again!



abercrombiefitch

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Progettazione 1x2

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Gustav Eiffel/ Enzo Mari- inspired 1x2 plank mantel ("Eiffel Mantel") just after completion in the summer of 2008. Highly mathematical instructions on how to build it are in our book Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found.
Below that is from the following spring, when a winter outside oxidized the nails and they leached into the wood grain, but I like it even better that way. It shows more of "the hand".
Above, a pig working on a Mari-esque progettazione (interlocking end table/s) in the illustration for the book's last page (the end).

also:

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Food & Wine (yard sale edition)

NomNomNomNomNomNom


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Top: Super-delicious peanut butter mash-up cookies made by two kids in front of their parent's tag sale. "The secret is to smunch the Reese's into the cookie while it's still warm." and barely leave a fingerprint. What a great idea- and so good. 5 stars!
Above: 1990 Mouton Cadet Bordeaux from the deep dark basement of an estate sale. I don't know much about wine, but this was pretty cool to find and how nice would it be to bring a dusty 20 year-old bottle of Bordeaux to a dinner party?
(accepting invitations...)


Monday, August 16, 2010

Enter the Dragon

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Osborne & Little's fantastic "Chinese Dragon" wallpaper, designed by Antony Little c.1968.
From a Bondian fashion layout in Oui magazine, 1975.



Friday, August 13, 2010

Collage Prep

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From Linda's junior high school notebook, which consists solely of notes to her friends about guys. The cover should totally be made into a poster.
A poster of the cover and a t-shirt of the "Hunk Page".
Or Hunk Page wallpaper, including the notebook lines.





Thursday, August 12, 2010

Rising Sunkist

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Awesome-graphic-filled 1985 Sunkist cardboard shipping box for the Japanese market. Dew-picked from a dumpster at an estate sale last weekend, where it made its way back from Japan with Gramp's' antique dishes.
...and into our car despite Linda's wishes...







Tuesday, August 10, 2010

masculin féminin

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c. 1960's pastel from an estate sale a few years ago.



Thursday, August 5, 2010

Everything's Gone Green

tony

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ferns

1970porsche

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Recent green things from yard sales, a couple landscapes, and a car.
From top:
24"x36" framed silkscreen by Tony Johnson, signed on the back "To Mom, thanks for everything. Tony"
The Who flyer at a garage sale
L.L. Bean Swiss Army knife
Frog pond and old hippie houses in front of Linda's parents' house, Long Island, Maine
Greenpeace New England cap from 1982
Vintage Vera towels
Prehistoric vegetation looking like a museum diorama behind Linda's parents' house
1970 Porsche 911S, from Fantasy Junction
Another Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella, $3!, in British Racing Green.








Tuesday, August 3, 2010

PCD '69

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back

Arp/Seussian/my-new-favorite painting from 1969, $3.50 from a church charity shop up in Lewiston.


Sunday, August 1, 2010

Lift up your feet and put them on the groundthe grass was greener then, when we were young.....

70sstyleanddesign

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etc..............

A few random spreads from the brilliant new book 70s Style & Design by Dominic Lutyens and Kirsty Hislop.

This is a mind-blowing book and easily the best 70's resource book you'll ever see. Imagine Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy's Cheap Chic (1975) mixed with Charlotte and Peter Friel's 70's Decorative Art (2000) and how they would make sense together. The research is extraordinary, and the scope is radically extensive.
It's also nice to read a book that doesn't just reduce the 70's to kitsch, but really shows you how amazing it was.