Towse: views from the hill

May 21, 2007

RUNNING THE NUMBERS: An American Self-Portrait by Chris Jordan

Filed under: art,environmentalism,life,stats — Towse @ 7:56 pm

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

[...]

[Thank you, Auntie K!]

May 6, 2007

Paul Madonna’s ALL OVER COFFEE. Just what I expected. And more.

Filed under: art,books,San Francisco — Towse @ 5:45 am

I’d been trying to grab a copy of Paul Madonna‘s book, ALL OVER COFFEE, (based on his work in the San Francisco Chronicle and just out from City Lights) since I first heard of it. City Lights was selling pre-sale copies but wanted to charge me to mail it over. Why? I can just walk down hill for pete’s sake.

I dropped a note to Madonna. Can I arrange something through you? He said that City Lights would have signed copies when it came out and if I wanted something personalized I could come to his book release party.

I walked over to City Lights last week and they did have copies of the book but nothing signed. “You’ll need to go to his book release party for that. He hasn’t been by.”

So, Friday (yesterday) we hopped on a 30 and took it down to Market, then hopped on an F and rode to Laguna/Guerrero, hopped off and walked down to Valencia and 14th — Mina Dresden Gallery, to be precise, 312 Valencia.

Brilliant idea Madonna had. The gallery had his work hanging and for sale. They were selling books in back. If you snuck up on Paul where he was standing at a bar table schmoozing, he’d sign your book. (By the time we turned around twelve … fifteen … more people had had the same idea. …)

The table with the “book signing 8:30p” wasn’t keeping people from waylaying him while he tried to be sociable.

The small gallery was a crush. I’m obviously not the only person who really likes ALL OVER COFFEE.

The book is brilliant.
BUY THIS BOOK if you are at all intrigued by the snippets at his Web site.

I love this book.

May 1, 2007

Renzo Piano Building Workshop – Official Site

Filed under: architecture,art,life,San Francisco,science — Towse @ 6:38 pm

The official site for Renzo Piano’s Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

Nice use of Flash.

RPBW are the architects for the new California Academy of Sciences which is going up in Golden Gate Park, across the Concourse from the DeYoung Museum. The new Academy will open late 2008. 370K sq ft — of which 95K sq ft are public space. Living roof. Zounds.

We almost stopped into the Academy’s temporary digs on Howard Street yesterday, but I was tuckered out, having walked down to SFMOMA to meet up with his nibs and visit, among other exhibits, the Picasso and American Art exhibit. Get there if thee can. Exhibit closes Monday, May 28, 2007.

Philistine that I are, I did not get Brice Marden, especially his monochrome work.

Where were we? Ah, yes: Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The RPBW site covers projects, bio, history, &c. An interactive map gives access to projects worldwide.

Interesting.

(Walked back home again, too, even though it was a free transit day: RT was 4mi+ and then there was all the walking around inside SFMOMA)

April 28, 2007

Amazing Cake Art

Filed under: art,food — Towse @ 11:54 pm

Amazing Cake Art (more than just the one cake pictured below) found at englishrussia.com — allegedly totally edible, allegedly made by Zhanna from St. Petersburg.

[repurposed from SG’s tumblr site]

February 20, 2007

San Francisco Street Art / Graffiti

Filed under: art,photographs,video — Tags: , — Towse @ 9:59 pm

Ryan pulled together a very well-done video collage of photos he took of San Francisco Street Art / Graffiti while he was tooling around the City on his bicycle in 2006.

Some of my favorites are here: Mona Caron’s Duboce Bikeway Mural, f’rex (visible from the N-Judah).

Some of my favorites aren’t in the collection: the mural on the side of the building at the NW corner of Columbus and Broadway (thx to karbon69 for the click) and “One Tree” by RIGO [photo by kootenayvolcano]. There are others not included, including the murals on some buildings on Bay just up from Tower Records, but I can’t find pictures. Guess I’ll have to make some of my own.

[YouTube link from a link Ryan posted to SFist/labs/contribute last month]

[note: flickr has photo pool for San Francisco/murals. Check it out if this sort of thing interests you.]

January 30, 2007

[URL] Index of artists and architects

Filed under: architecture,art,history,URL — Towse @ 8:36 pm

Index of artists and architects. Digital Imaging Project: Art historical images of European and North American architecture and sculpture from classical Greek to Post-modern.

Not just European and North American anymore. Also includes images from Vietnam and Cambodia.

Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton University, has pulled together more than 13,000 images. Index. Monthly featured site. More.

January 6, 2007

[URL] Wooster Collective

Filed under: art,culture,URL — Tags: — Towse @ 2:28 am

The Wooster Collective is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

You know: not just graffiti, street art, projected art, found art the world over.

Stuff like

Yow.

December 21, 2006

Bob Mankoff, New Yorker cartoon editor

Filed under: art,writing — Towse @ 8:39 am

Ever wonder what it takes to get a cartoon published in the New Yorker? Wonder no more. …

A post at Drawn! contains links to a three-part series over at the Huffington Post in which Matthew Diffee interviews Bob Mankoff.

There’s a very interesting read over at the Huffington Post. New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee has posted a 3-part discussion with Bob Mankoff, the magazine’s infamous cartoon editor. The two discuss the nature of humour, what makes a good cartoon, and I think, more importantly, what defines a New Yorker cartoon and sets it apart from the rest.

[...]

Clicks to the three parts of Diffee’s interview are contained in the blog entry.

Added bonus (for those who read all about the above in m.w and are saying, “So. What.”):

A 2001 Bob Staake interview with Mankoff at PlanetCartoonist.

Man, I mean. How hard can it be to draw one of those little cartoons and think up some caption for it?

Here. You try it.

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