small shoot

Any kind of crafted bird gets me laughing ever since Portlandia's "put a bird on it" skit. Regardless of the perhaps over-birded design scene, I was inspired by my daughter's above drawing and couldn't pass up a chance to make a large newspaper version as a prop for our Wilderness Queens shoot for the 17th issue of Small magazine.

my living room/large scale bird construction zone

another prop and new favorite past-time...

spray painting furniture

one of my concept sketches

bird in flight

the lovely Christine

and glimpses of the shoot...

I love the collaborative work I get to do with Christine and Steven, we had a great time making this one happen.

projects

Oooohh the projects I've seen...

The last few months have been full of new projects--with a handful of them actually landing in the finished category. Hooray! This week I'm going to try to get back into the swing of posting by sharing one each day.


This little upholstery attempt is an ode to my madre and a loving nod to my grandma whose chair it was a joy to repurpose into the official reading chair in my girls room.

quebec

The beginning of August we escaped the heat by flying off to New England. We ate, hiked, drove and spent as much time as possible outside in all the green, cool beauty. We ventured across the border into Quebec and failed miserably at speaking french--the Quebecers were sadly unamused by my attempts to communicate in english with a heavy french accent...who knew. Quebec City is such a gem of a destination for families. My girls couldn't get enough of the many talented street performers and I couldn't get enough of the open food markets or the city's beautiful buildings and colors.

austin

This week we spent some time lovin' on the Texas hill country swimming holes, live oak trees and our Austin friends.


So much summerness under those cypress trees and in that cold spring fed swimming hole.


Krause Springs just outside of Austin

Here is a shot of my talented friend and official hostess with the mostess, Emily in front of her AMAZING large scale art piece that she was commissioned to create for the wonderful Mathews elementary school. She collaborated with the school kids and had them help to make the small sea and land figures that are swirling throughout this beautiful piece.

art desks

I finally succeeded in forcing my hubby to make these low art desks for our girls. I ordered the hairpin legs online months ago when a friend of mine showed them to me in an article in Readymade. Now, a big piece of plywood and a Saturday afternoon later they are finished and just in time for all the summer art hours ahead of us.



They also double as window seats for a cozy afternoon read. Hooray!

film love

Visual Acoustics is a beautiful film about modern architecture and the wonderful photographer Julius Shulman who captured a great deal of these amazing structures. I LoOovEd this film.
From the film's website...
"Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California’s modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images."

images via Visual Acoustics

mix it up

This past weekend was a little on the hot side for a Texas June so we stayed indoors at the Trammell Crow and the Nasher and enjoyed Il Lee's ballpoint drawings...

© Art Projects International; Courtesy of artist and Art Projects International, New York

© Art Projects International; Courtesy of artist and Art Projects International, New York

© Art Projects International; Courtesy of artist and Art Projects International, New York

as well as Rachel Whiteread's drawings and collages.

Whiteread's collages made me long for my favorite sir-mix-alot, Robert Rauschenburg.

I recently watched an interesting ol' school documentary from 1973, Painters Painting which highlighted Rauschenburg, among others--good stuff.

Rachel Whiteread images via ArtSlant & Daily Serving

Robert Rauschenberg via artnet