goods and heroes

Mr. Cornell

All that talk about making shadow boxes immediately reminds me of Joseph Cornell. Sigh, Joseph Cornell and his heartbreaking, beautiful boxes. They have quite a collection of them at the Art Institute. The first time I ever went to the Art Institute was with Ted--we were dating--I came to Chicago for a week to visit. I would have been around 26 years old. Anyhow, I was rather overwhelmed by all the over-the-top Super Famous Paintings in the museum but when we entered the little room with the Joseph Cornell boxes, might heart opened up in a very specific manner and I stayed there gazing at them for a very long time. And for years, whenever I would go to the Art Institute, I always made a point to go to the little room up on the second floor and say hullo to his magical boxes.  I haven't been to see them in ages. And now with the Modern Wing open and things moved every which way, it might be tricky to find them. But I think I owe them a visit.

Here are a few of my favorites.

p.s. . . . here's a nice bio on Joseph Cornell and this is a pretty great book to introduce kids to his art as well as inspire them to create their own boxes. 

certainly Maira Kalman

I received the book "The Principles of Uncertainty" by Maira Kalman for my birthday, it was a gift from Suzanna. I know I was just gushing about Lynda Barry the other day, but here comes another gush for another lady who matches words and illustrations . . . Ms. Kalman has some serious magic swirling around her head (and she ain't bad with a paint brush either). What I love is how she follows these characters, thoughts, worries, obsessions and then goes off on a tangent and you just want to keep following her.

It's the same in some of her children's books as well, I mean, "Chicken Soup, Boots" is basically a loopy, confident ode to all the characters, artists, grumps, loonies, dogs and diners who live near her building in Manhattan.  "Principles" is more serious, a little more anxious about death and well, the uncertainty of life, but it also has adoration for pickle tags, broken chairs, treasures found in alleys and wild hats.

And the way old people walk and dish sponges from all over the world and Russian ballerinas and one that totally reminded me of Ted, reminded me instantly and purely why I adore Ted--the wonderfully different little slips of paper that fall out of old books (receipts, tickets, notes).

You can watch a video here of Ms. Kalman talking about the book and her process. You can view some of her art work here and you can check out her children's books here.

binth

Happy hump day--hey, why don't you make yourself feel just a little better by purchasing something gorgeous? Suzanna just informed me that the Binth team has a sweet little offer going on right now in conjunction with Daily Candy.

Just type in "binthcandy" (one word, no spaces and no apostrophes, those are mine) at checkout on the Binth site and you'll get 25% off any item, like this super great numbers poster. (They also do a series of cards for each number.) Or you could get yourself a jaunty little notepad to place on your desk and inspire you to jot off jaunty little notes.

Or you could get an organic pillow silk-screened with water-based ink to lay your pretty little head upon. Hello Mr. Octopus! Maybe that will help take your mind off taxes. Oh wait, don't think about taxes, think about how you'll be saving 25% and that's such an admirable thing to do. Isn't it?

The deal's on for a week. Happy browsing and maybe even shopping.

melty pops

When we were in Boulder last week we ended up at the playground and there was an ice cream truck parked strategically (you had to walk past the truck to get into the playground) with the tinny music blaring out of it. Sam and his cousins Claire and Clinton went zipping right up to it and then Auntie Sylvia (my sister) offered the kids a round of ice cream. So Claire got an ice cream sandwich and proceeded to go sit on a grassy hill nearby and eat it happy and quietly in solitude--my kind of gal for sure. Clinton opted for a super sour watermelon sorbet thing in a cup, kind of a high meets low confection. It was too frozen to even chip away at, so he left in the sun to soften a bit. And Sam? Sam who doesn't really like ice cream so much, he just likes 1. the idea of it (who can blame him?) and 2. the candies and treats that often adorn it, such as jimmies and the like, he selected the Spiderman Pop. With white frozen gumball eyes. And he proceeded to attempt to play and climb on the gigantic rocket ship slide whilst sucking and gnawing on the hard candy eye balls so that they would dislodge and he could eat them up.

While the Colorado sun blasted down, creamy blue so-called ice cream streamed down his little wrists and dripped down his shirt. I didn't take a picture, but it did make me sort of itchy in my stain and sticky aversion that I possess. I just wanted to go wipe it all up but I know in my heart that part of being a kid is to just go crazy and make big gooey ice creamy messes at times. I was practically sitting on my hands when he came over to me, blue stickiness all over his mouth and hands, only 1/4 of it gone (but the candy eyeballs had been devoured successfully!) and he quietly admitted that he was done. And then I attacked him with a half a dozen wipes like a nervous Desdemona. And then he went back happily to climbing the rocket with his cousins.

Anyhow, just yesterday I stumbled across this artist Meredith Allen over at 101 Cookbooks. She has a series of photographs she took over 5 years of all different sorts of these cartoon character ice creams, in different settings, always in the melting stage.

What fun! (I can live vicariously through someone else getting all drippy sticky, eh?) You can check out the entire series over here. Me? I was always a Bomb Pop girl when the ice cream man came . . . they still have them but they aren't called that anymore, I think they're called Astro Bars or something. Oh well, summer will be here soon enough and maybe we can try sucking on a melty Pikachu or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Or maybe not.

paper fun and it's free

Check out the sprightly and spirited scene going on over at The Toymaker. She offers a couple of dozen free downloads for a variety of paper treasures.

Love this diminutive circus book--wish I'd had this little gem tucked in my pocket when we were at the doc's the other day.

A bug box! I have a soft spot in my heart for all kinds of boxes but especially those that can hold one's own collection of nature's treasures (rocks, acorns, shells, pinecones and whatnot). Now I know where we might store the super delicate rattlesnake "rattle" a friend gave Sam last fall. And I think the snails are simply grand.

Paper + Truck + Chocolate + Crafty = happy me

She's got some bunny things going on as well which would be great for Easter. She also seems to have a fairy/dragon/mild Stevie Nicks vibe going, but I don't mind a whit. I love her generous, twinkly-eyed approach. And she's got a book out, which strikes me as such fun (and a great gift for friends who like to play with paper). Let me know if you give any a try and how they works out.