art is the new religion

Cassettes Lamp

.tiff pointed me to these amazing lamps made from cassette tapes (via geekologie).  I want one (or two!) very badly. 

 

"Transparent House creates a tribute to an object of their 80's youth: the compact cassette tape.

The small lamp is made of answering machine tapes and the larger model is built from compact cassettes in different shades.  The lamps use non-heated, neon lights.  All cassettes are in their cases."

So, my wishlist now includes:

1. French bulldog
2. tree stump phonographs
3. cassette lamps

In other cassettes news, please welcome Randee Dawn and LeendaDLL to the Don't Forget Cassettes photo album!  Please click through on their names to see the full size photos and stories behind their cassette tapes.

 

It's not too late to submit your photo!  (The offer for the handwritten thank you note still stands, though I haven't actually mailed any of them out yet.)

Summer of Vinyl

There are oh, so many reasons to declare this a summer of vinyl:

• Firstly, it was the fine folks over at Insound who originally declared a 'summer of vinyl', which is music to my ears, of course. They're running a new vinyl-related promotion starting every Tuesday for eight weeks.  Today's your last day to buy a turntable and get a free record (I highly recommend the Vestax Handy Trax) and starting tomorrow you can get 10% off their Best of 2008 (so far).  Check out their Summer of Vinyl calendar for full details.

• I went record shopping yesterday at Open Mind Music.  I didn't see my friend and owner Henry there, but I did pick up a few gems that I'll tell you about later this week.

• Last week I bought my final piece of furniture for my living room, an Ikea number which gives me lots more room to expand my vinyl collection.

• A great retail and art space near my neighborhood, Lower Hater, is currently displaying their Vinyl Apocalypse collection featuring new and original art painted on records.  I stopped by yesterday and might have bought this piece if it weren't already spoken for. 

• In the article "Retailers give vinyl another spin", CNN.com claims "manufacturers' shipments of LPs jumped more than 36 percent from 2006 to 2007 to more than 1.3 million. Shipments of CDs dropped more than 17 percent during the same period to 511 million."  If you ignore the raw numbers and just look at the percentages, vinyl purchasers are blowing up!

The summer of vinyl has begun.  Who's with me?

Related post:  Why I love my Vestax Handy Trax.

Don't Forget Cassettes

I've just added two new entries in the Don't Forget Cassettes photo album!  Check out the photos that djchall and Eve sent me.  Eve submitted her photo along with a two paragraph story that kicked me in the gut.

Please send me your photos!  You can email them to kteeger AT yahoo, or leave a link in the comments.

The offer for a handwritten thank-you note still stands.

You're lucky, on the whole

A few weeks ago, I devoted a week of posts to the art that I'll be hanging on the walls of my new apartment.  In my post titled tree stump phonographs, I told you about meeting Annie, a.k.a. Wexford Girl, at an art festival in my neighborhood and commissioning two pieces of art from her.  Last week, she came by my office to drop off the pieces, much to my delight since they were exactly what I wanted!  (Annie also uses TypePad for her blog, so I think she didn't mind the quick tour I was able to give her of TP HQ.)

Here are the finished paintings.  They're displayed next to the mirror in my bathroom, where I can look at them often:

  

** I took these photos with my cameraphone, which did not do justice to the colors and quality of work.

Part of what captured me about these paintings is the quote.  Annie couldn't remember exactly where it was from, so a quick Google search revealed the source.  I love poetry.  To me, a good poem can be as touching and transformative as a good song.  Just from the two lines in these paintings, I could have guessed I would love where they came from:

  "Poem About Morning"
  by William Meredith

  Whether it's sunny or not, it's sure
   To be enormously complex—
   Trees or streets outdoors, indoors whoever you share,
   And yourself, thirsty, hungry, washing,
   An attitude towards sex.
   No wonder half of you wants to stay
   With your head dark and wishing
   Rather than take it all on again:
   Weren't you duped yesterday?
   Things are not orderly here, no matter what they say.

  But the clock goes off, if you have a dog
   It wags, if you get up now you'll be less
   Late. Life is some kind of loathsome hag
   Who is forever threatening to turn beautiful.
   Now she gives you a quick toothpaste kiss
   And puts a glass of cold cranberry juice,
   Like a big fake garnet, in your hand.
   Cranberry juice! You're lucky, on the whole,
   But there is a great deal about it you don't understand.

• Purchase art from Wexford Girl through her Etsy shop or her online gallery.
• The art-filled house Annie fixed up with her husband was recently featured in Apartment Therapy.

A Lady and A Gentleman from Boston

The final post in a series this week about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home. Read the previous posts: first second third.

For my birthday this year, my friends Ben and Mena seemed especially excited about the gift they'd gotten for me.  When I picked up the wrapped gift, I could tell there were two frames inside it and my mind instantly raced about what kind of art they'd picked out.  Mena watched with a wry smile as I unwrapped, so I knew the gift would be amusing or entertaining in some way.

Here's what I discovered when the wrapping came off:

* Again, this was taken with my cameraphone, which does not do justice to the quality or colors in the art.

Out of all the Boston Terrier art you can find on Etsy, I love that they chose these two for me!  They are serious and ridiculous at the same time - high art with a sense of humor.  They make quite a pair together on the mantle in my living room. 

The artist who painted the originals behind these prints is Brian Rubenacker.  He sells a variety of art featuring dogs in his Etsy shop.  His style runs from the realism of the above prints to more exuberant caricatures, and he depicts a range of canine subjects, from Bostons to chihuahuas to Brussels griffons.

More examples of his work:


Check out Brian's blog and buy something from his Etsy store.

In his Etsy description, Brian links to a post featuring his art on the Dog Art Today blog.  (It probably goes without saying that I immediately added Dog Art Today to my feed reader.)

Bonus: my favorite Boston Terrier is Major.  He belongs to Brad.

Animals & Instruments

Continuing this week's theme of posts about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home

If you read this blog, you'll know I'm obsessed with music.  And if you've ever seen my Vox blog, you'll know that I love dogs specifically and cute animals in general.  Susie Ghahremani combines animals and instruments in much of her art, so I was an instant fan.

Susie has a consistency in her vision that I love.  Many of her pieces are variations on a theme, often containing some or all of these elements: small animals (squirrels, raccoons, cats, terriers, owls, etc.), interesting patterns, a palette of gorgeous muted colors, bits from nature (trees, leaves, twigs, waves) and all manner of tools and instruments (boats, answering machines, pianos, typewriters and more).

I can't remember how I first found Susie's art, but I've been following her LiveJournal for a few years now.  I have bought a total of six pieces of original art from Susie, mostly from Giant Robot's online store following her exhibitions with them.  I bought one art piece from Susie herself, following a garage-sale type post to her LiveJournal.  It was a small original she did for a magazine of two women talking on the phone.  The rest of the pieces I own involve animals and instruments, from birds chirping into an answering machine to cats on a piano.

These are my two most recent purchases:

*Note: I took these photos with my phone, and they do not do justice to the detail and colors in the paintings!

In her Shop, Susie sells affordable, everyday items featuring her art like notepads, magnets, messenger bags and t-shirts.  Her original paintings seem to sell a little more quickly each time I see them online, which makes me happy for her because I want her to have a wonderful, rewarding career as an artist.  But it also makes me happy to feel I've invested in an artist whose career continues to get brighter.

Play

Continuing this week's theme of posts about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home

When I started working at V2 Records in New York City back in the fall of 1999, we had a roster of talented artists but no clear superstars.  One of those artists was this electro guy named Moby, who supposedly had shopped his last record around and gotten rejected by almost every big label before Kate Hyman signed him to V2.

His album Play had been released the summer before I started working there, and by the end of the year it had started garnering some momentum with film and TV placements and critical acclaim.  He was definitely one of our priority artists, but the explosion of Play wouldn't happen until some time in 2000.  Moby was smart, funny and personable, and never threw around any attitude or ego when he came by the office. 

In December of '99, as a thank you/holiday gift to the record label staff, Moby drew a version of his character "the little idiot" for each one of us.  Most of the drawings looked pretty similar to each other, but he personalized mine and signed it with a heart.  I'd like to think he did that because I had a little extra bond with him, but who knows. 

Each staffer treated their drawing differently.  I saw one assistant in the radio department had hers tacked by a corner onto her corkboard, half obscured by a magazine photo of Derek Jeter.  I won't venture to guess what the execs did with theirs.  I had mine framed, partly because I knew it would be a nice reminder of that time of my life and I wanted to protect it from getting lost or destroyed.  And partly because it's always great to have someone I like and respect draw something just for me!

In the following months, someone at the label had the grand idea to remix the version of the song "South Side" that Moby had recorded with Gwen Stefani that hadn't made it onto the original record.  A pricey video was made and people loved it.  Play was re-released with that single, and almost 10 million copies of the record have sold worldwide to this date.

For a holiday gift the following year, after the explosion of his success in 2000, Moby gave us each a very nice bottle of champagne.  The champagne was great, but it's the drawing that will always stay with me.

Tree Stump Phonographs

One of the upsides of my new apartment is that I have plenty of empty wall space that's crying out for decoration.  This means I get to shop for art!  Meaning, I get to give talented artists some cold hard cash in exchange for being able to take one of their wonderful creations home with me.  This makes me extremely happy.  I'm dedicating this week's posts to some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home. 

Sunday afternoon brought another installment of the Capsule Design Festival to San Francisco.  With over 150 local artists and designers in attendance, it was an amazing opportunity to buy some unique clothing, art and accessories straight from the person who made them.

I commissioned two pieces of art from Wexford Girl.  You can purchase art from her through her Etsy shop or her online gallery.  Check out her style:

I also really had my eye on a few pieces on display by Cut Out Art Gallery.  I was captivated by Mark Fox's art in particular.  I have a thing for collecting pieces of art that feature musical instruments, and I especially love his tree stump phonographs. 

The more I think about it, what I'd really like to commission is a fully functional tree stump phonograph.  Surely someone out there could make me one?

Meeting Marc Johns

This week I had the great fortune to meet one of my favorite artists in person for the first time.  I first came to know Marc Johns through my day job and struck up an online friendship with him, eventually commissioning him to create the illustration for this blog. 

Marc was in town for a conference for his day job, so we arranged for him to stop by the Six Apart offices to say hello.  Since one of Marc's specialties is Post-It note art, I have to admit I was tempted to have a stack of Post-Its and a pen just casually waiting on my desk, or even have them ready to thrust into his hand and beg for some impromptu drawings.  Then I realized that would be entirely too presumptuous and awkward, so I didn't do it. 

Much to my surprise and delight, a few minutes after Marc arrived he said "Oh I have something for you."  Turns out he had drawn some Post-It art on the plane for me (and for Vox)!  I was SO EXCITED.  Here are crappy scans of two of the drawings:

My favorite:

I love how his art tells a story, makes you pause and often just puts a simple smile on your face.  Marc's reputation and career have been growing steadily, with new press mentions and the possibility of a book looming in the future.  I wish him the best of luck and can't wait to see what's in store for him!

• Buy some art from Marc Johns
• Related reading:  art is the new religion's redesign

The story of dogwig

About a year ago I was looking around on MySpace, probably doing some research for a music post on SFist, when I came across a mesmerizing photo of a chihuahua wearing a wig.  I didn't know the person who I stole the photo from, but I immediately downloaded it, resized it and created a userpic out of it.  I used this as my photo on instant messenger and a few other places.  "Dogwig", as I came to call him, got a fair bit of exposure and several compliments whenever I posted to LiveJournal news.  I really came to love the little stranger.

Fast forward to last weekend, when I was hitting a few record stores in honor of National Record Store Day.  I was browsing around End of an Ear when the tiny painting caught my eye.  Here's how tiny it is:

Next to the group of paintings on the wall there was an index card with the artist's name and number on it, so I called Kesey and asked him how much he wanted for it.   "Oh, those have been up there for a few months, I kind of forgot they were there.  I remember that painting though - my friend I play soccer with, that's his dog.  I've never actually sold anything, um, I guess just leave twenty bucks at the counter?"

Done and done!

I thanked Kesey profusely, left thirty bucks for him, and walked out of the store with a couple of records and the second most thrilling piece of art I have ever purchased.

The most thrilling piece of art I've ever purchased?  The artwork I specially commissioned last fall for the banner of this blog, by one of my favorite artists, Marc Johns.  This scan doesn't do it justice, but I'm including it for those of you viewing this post from your feed reader:
 

• Buy some art from Marc Johns.