Invasion of Picasso

271 previously unknown Picasso paintings have been discovered.

There's a Picasso exhibit on at Seattle Art Museum right now that I haven't been to yet--now I'm really going to have to go see it.

La Lecture de la Lettre (Reading the Letter), 1921

Sing and dance

Friday Ephemera #53

I've always liked cartography. When I was younger I used to draw maps of imaginary places, which often became the settings for stories. I don't think this particular map ever acquired a mythology, but it's one of my better ones. Obviously, drawn during my fascination with Welsh. Sorry it's so pale, but old pencil doesn't scan well and I couldn't get it any darker.

I have a bunch more maps, so at some point I may post some of them.

Old art

In my cleaning, I keep finding old sketchbooks. I did a lot of drawing in middle school, and I still like some of it quite a lot, so I decided to break out the scanner.
My obsession with paisley is part of my inheritance from my mother.

Sewing and design

Purses are one of those things I'm never fully satisfied with. I've been on the quest for the perfect purse for years, and I've been trying to get around to making such a purse nearly as long. This is made in canvas, the green stripe is also canvas, the binding is a pack of ordinary yellow bias binding from JoAnn's. I wanted a purse that was the perfect size for a book, and that I could display my pin collection on (I have more pins than that). I'm not sure it's the perfect purse, but I like it pretty well and it'll serve for the moment.Possible typefaces for a poster project I'm contemplating. Sorry about the vague shadows from the next page, that was me playing with the stitching design on the purse and obsessing about Turkish tile.

Links

A Man, a Plan, and a Sharpie. Two guys travel across the country correcting the spelling and grammar of signs, and then they write a book about it, which is called The Great Typo Hunt. Might be an interesting book. This is just the kind of thing my grammar-loving self would want to do.

Absolutely incredible pencil lead sculptures by Dalton Ghetti. There's a whole world in your pencil you never knew was possible. Link via Say Yes to Hoboken.

Pea plant grows inside man's lung. This is everything your parents ever told you would happen if you ate watermelon seeds.

Last weekend in California was Costume College, a convention of people who make historical costumes and dress up in them. I'd love to go to this some day. Photos can be found at flickr here, here, and here.

I happened to encounter two fabulous Seattle-based milliners/haberdashers last week. Bad Dog Hats does hats for people and their dogs, especially top hats. Tuzzie Muzzie makes lovely party hats and masks.

Here is a list of 260 websites that offer free, legal e-books. My opinions on books and the internet being what they are, I'm glad to see there are so many such sites.

Friday Ephemera #41

The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, Claude Monet, 1880. Image from Wikimedia Commons. I'm wishing summer looked like this right now.

Friday Ephemera #40

Van Gogh again. Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, 1888. Once more to the Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. I may be in a Van Gogh phase. I want to paint things (I do not want to cut off my ear). And now I have time, since I am officially moving home for the summer today!

Friday Ephemera #39

Because you need more Van Gogh in your life. Lane with Poplars, 1885. Thanks to the Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, which is fabulous.

Picture this

Last Sunday Stuck in a Book came up with a challenge to find one image that sums up your reading tastes but doesn't have any direct association with books. I think maybe I've managed it. This is Design for a poster, by Alphonse Mucha, from 1897. I love this style of art, and I think it sums up my reading tastes in that there are definite hints of the magical in it, but it's also very calm and symmetrical. Nothing wild, but still with hints of the otherworld.

Friday Ephemera #38

This chair was designed by Valentina Gonzalez Wohlers. Photo courtesy of her website. Note the spiky bits on the seat.

Friday Ephemera #37

Today is my birthday! I meant to post a picture of a birthday cake or something, but I wandered through my picture file and this photo stuck out. (Also, if you do a google image search for "birthday" you get a lot of photos of naked people holding birthday balloons in front of the pertinent areas.) It's the painting "Frau am Fenster" (woman at the window) by Caspar David Friedrich. I like it because it looks like the month of May always makes me feel. Though I'm usually much busier than she looks.

Happy Easter!

Or, if you like, Happy Christian Appropriation of Pagan Symbols Day! I don't celebrate any of the other parts, anyway. (Sorry, I do not know where this image came from; my mother sent it to me.)

Reminder

I bought this ceramic bead the other day purely because it made me think of the pottery in The Children's Book. It has the same colours, the same mood. It's lovely.

"The imposing staircase took an interesting turn as it went up. In an alcove, at the turning, standing on an oak coffin stool was a jar. It was a large earthenware vessel, that bellied out and curved in again, to a tall neck with a fine lip. The glaze was silver-gold, with veilings of aquamarine. The light flowed round the surface, like clouds reflected in water. It was a watery pot. There was a vertical rhythm of rising stems, waterweeds, and a dashing horizontal rhythm of irregular clouds of black-brown wriggling commas, which turned out, inspected closely, to be lifelike tadpoles with translucent tails. The jar had several asymmetric handles which seemed to grow out of it like roots in water, but turned out to have the sly faces and flickering tails of water-snakes, green-spotted gold. It rested on four dark green feet, which were coiled, scaled lizards. Or minor dragons, lying with closed eyes and resting snouts." - The Children's Book, A.S. Byatt, pg. 23

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's always been one of my favourite holidays, just because it's so easy to be festive for. We have shamrocks growing along the side of our house, and when I was little I used to eat the flowers.

Have an irrelevant but interesting link for the occasion: Hyper-Realistic Acrylic Body Painting, which reminds me of something out of a story. Like The Witches, maybe.

Friday Ephemera #31

In lieu of keeping calm and carrying on. And this is exactly what I plan to do over my spring break, which officially begins next Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day!). I'm going to prettify shoes and sew something or other, and it is going to be lovely.

This poster seems to have come from here, originally. And here is a Guardian article about the original poster.

Friday Ephemera #29

Found here.

Friday Ephemera #28

By Kelly McKernan. I don't quite know what it is, but I like it. Her other art can be found here.

Friday Ephemera #27

Yes, those are books. Mike Stilkey is the creator of this. Art painted on the spines of stacked up books. There's something wonderful about this in that all those books are individually full of words and knowledge, but this brings them together into one whole. You could make puzzles like that. Paint it, take it apart, and try to put it back together. You can see more examples of this bizarre and lovely art here.

Friday Ephemera #25

That, my friends, is made of nothing but felt. No, really. Found here, where you can also see more pictures of this and other impossible felt creations.