Spring is almost here! Thank god! I used to think I liked cold weather clothes best. I don’t. I like comfort and ease. Bundling up in a ton of layers is not comfortable. Lugging around a coat and scarf and stomping around in boots is not comfortable. Shivering and then sweating in your layers sucks. Wearing next to nothing is where it’s at y’all!
“Odani Motohiko: Phantom Limb” Installation view: Mori Art Museum 2010/11/27-2011/2/27 Hollow: Reversal Cradle 2009 FRP, urethane paint, mixed media c.83.5×192×116 cm（Top）、c.101.5×192×115 cm（Bottom） TAKAHASHI collection, Tokyo Work created with the support of Fondation d’entreprise Hermès Photo: Kioku Keizo Photo Courtesy: Mori Art Museum
“Odani Motohiko: Phantom Limb” Installation view: Mori Art Museum 2010/11/27-2011/2/27
“Odani Motohiko: Phantom Limb” Installation view: Mori Art Museum 2010/11/27-2011/2/27
I cut some shaggy bangs! I had blunt ones for a few years but the maintenance on those are crucial. (Agent Lover has a great tutorial on blunt bangs.) I feel much more like myself again. Something just wasn’t right. Here’s a crap pic in my bed sick with the plague:
We’re sick and I’m sick and tired of sick people going out and infecting the healthy. If you have a cold, keep your ass at home. Don’t come to my place and rub your germs everywhere!
Yes, another art post. I’m feeling really uninspired by fashion right now.
A friend of mine was just sent a box of her old RVA magazines from her parents. As soon as she blogged about them, I sent her a tweet asking “that stack of rva mags – if you find the artist that paints hyper-realistic paintings of toys, will u tell me their name? xoxo.” Immediately she tweeted back “Tim Wilson.” We both searched and shockingly found a bunch of nothing. This article from 2004 and this small site. That’s it. No clue what he’s up to now.
I remember seeing his paintings in RVA years ago and my mind was blown. They’ve haunted me for years. Layers and layers of varnish leave the huge canvases smooth as glass. These tiny pictures can’t do his work justice. These are paintings people!
Tim Wilson – See Me, Feel Me (2002-2003), Oil on canvas – 42″ x 156″ – commission from the collection of Stephen Heighton
Tim Wilson – One Life to Live – oil on canvas – 20″ x 36″ – 2003
Tim Wilson – Rush – oil on canvas – 54″ x 64″ – 2003
Tim Wilson – Face Like Summer – oil on canvas – 36″ x 96″ – 2003
….and immediately thought about one of my favorite movies ever – Fantastic Planet (1973). When I was a teen, I used to hang out at this punk house all the time. One guy was/is an amazing artist, and two of his hilarious band mates, one worked at an obscure video store. You could pretty much come over any time of night, find a spot in the crowded living room to sit, someone would pass you a bong and you’d watch some crazy movie. This is where I first saw Fantastic Planet, Baraka, and a ton of other amazing films. Fun times.
While I love my new(ish) bottle of DKNY Pure (never been complimented on it), I pulled out the ole KenzoAmour (and started getting compliments again instantly). It’s pretty special. The notes include: Frangipani blossom, Cherry blossom, Tanakha wood, incense, Thai rice steam, vanilla of La Réunion, white Tea.
I watched True Grit this past weekend and really enjoyed it. I’ve always loved a good western but there was a serious girl-power theme to this movie (little Hailee Steinfeld had the true grit) and the dialogue was wonderful!
Did you know Anthropologie (ladylike), Urban Outfitters (dirty hipster) and Free People (rich hippie) are all owned by the same company? I will only shop their clearance sales and have managed to find some exceptional deals on quirky duds. Urban Outfitters is more my speed and this time last year I got the drape sweater from this post on crazy sale. So, I perused their huge sale going on right now (w/ additional 10%) and picked up this cardigan and jacket for less than $45 total.
okay, now I need a skinny belt like that
open-fronts are safer for me to order online
I’m ready to start a new copy-cat painting project soon. I’m no good at anything with a real painterly quality but do have a steady hand and patience so, this painting by Matt W. Moore is what I want to do – really large for behind our sofa. Now for the big square canvas hunt.
My mom had The View on this Monday and I was pleased to hear that the most influential book Joy Behar has read is Karen Horney‘s Neurosis and Human Growth. For being written in 1950, she was ahead of her time, and also one of the first people (and a woman to boot) to contradict Freud. It’s a bit dry/textbooky but seriously it’s a fantastic read. It’s been one of my favorites for over a decade and I hope a lot of people will read it and find some peace within themselves.
This past Friday the bf took me out for Indian food after a hellish week. I got dressed and took some pics before we left, for an outfit post later. I wore a longer flowing sheer tunic over a tank and skinnies, with ankle boots. Looking at the pictures later, I felt I looked horrible. I’m not saying this in some self-deprecating manner for you to go, “oh no way!” For one thing, the camera, without a doubt, adds ten pounds. The top was a departure from my normal uniform so now, I’m even more frightened of trying new shapes out. How can looking at yourself in the mirror and then taking a pic of yourself in the mirror be so different? Is this happening to anyone else? Do I need a tripod or put my bf to work for me?
We visited the bf’s parents this weekend and I showed up covered in cuts and burns. I even managed to cut myself while peeling ginger with his mom. She gave me a little bottle of 70,000 IU pure vitamin E oil and it’s amazing stuff. My mom used to get the capsules and prick them with a safety pin to put on her skin but the bottle is way more convenient and I can keep it in my purse. It’s healing up my wounds nicely and the moisture retention around my eyes is showing some serious results. A little goes a loooong way.
I want to get snowed in again soon… for everything to slow down, shut down, so I can just play.
FML helps me keep perspective in life… and get a good laugh at other people’s misfortunes… but whoever thought this fantastic incident was tragic needs to get a grip. I would’ve died laughing!
Today, at the supermarket, my mother stopped in the middle of a lane and imitated a gorilla as a way of asking me from far away if I wanted bananas. FML
The latest Hyperbole and a Half is out. I laughed so hard I cried and wheezed and choked.
I suppose being raised by an Eastern European helped me cultivate my love for garlicky cured smoked meats (and spicy food – Who has jalapeno eating contests with a 5 year old? My dad.). My babushka grandma would fix me sandwiches of summer sausage and bell pepper on toast when I was little. I still love to eat them when the weather’s warm. Lately my fixation has been Lebanon bologna. The sweet kind especially. I could really go for some landjeagers too.
On my morning commute today, I saw a dachshund and a Yorkie running loose next to a busy street. I pulled into a parking lot and went after them. Everyone at the intersection was laughing at me. Those suckers were fast! I just know someone is worried sick over them. I couldn’t catch them, was told by an old redneck “You ain’t gunna catchem!”, and had to give up. Hope they make it home.
I’m so damned tired all the time. I think I’ve grown immune to coffee.
The bf will indeed be in town for New Years Eve so, I took matters into my own hands and made reservations at Acacia. We’ve wanted to go for so long and they’re doing a 4-course dinner for NYE. It was voted restaurant of the year in March. I. Cannot. Wait. Now, what to wear?!
This is an oil painting! Click here and here for more! By Korean artist Kwang-ho Lee.
Super easy and inexpensive Christmas ornament tutorial. My mom and I used to make these when I was a kid and the varieties are endless.
Okay, this just cracks me up… especially when Oprah starts strutting.
A good reminder to keep things in perspective – the top 5 regrets of the dying from someone who worked in palliative care.
A lot of you are probably already familiar with the glass art by Dale Chihuly. Born in 1941, he’s had a prolific career. I just watched a documentary on his process and it blew me away so I thought I’d share some of his pieces with you.
ceiling installation at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas
Temple of the Sun – constructed of hundreds of individually hand-blown pieces
2010 exterior & interior installations at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Michigan
Since I’m very mature, I LOVE prank phone calls. The bf and I like to clean the house on Sunday, cracking up laughing to them. This is one of my favorites. The lady gets so sassy!
Oh dear I love these shoes called the Robot by Ruthie Davis for Dennis Basso ss2011!! (via)
I finally brought my sewing machine, box and spool holder from my parent’s house! I never thought we had the space here but I made space. My mom kept her machine in a closet and just sewed at the kitchen table when I was kid. That’ll do! I need to be able to work on projects here in the evening or I will go crazy. Sewing is the only craft hobby I’ve stuck with since I was a kid. Now… do I need an adjustable dress form?
Hey! If you like edgy fashionable DIY projects, you should be reading Outsapop. Really. Would I wear these feather shoulder epaulettes? Hell yes I would!
Soooo Marie Claire posted an article about how people feel uncomfortable watching overweight people on TV kissing or whatever. It got a bit cruel, garnered a TON of pissed off comments and media attention, and the author had to update and apologize (weakly). There has been a lot of fat-acceptance talk on the blogs lately and I think it’s great. NO, it’s not great to be unhealthy but it is great to not hate yourself because of how you look. I think some of the anti-fat-acceptance comments have been missing this point. It’s not “Yay fat! I love fat! Let’s all love fat!” It’s about still being strong and confident when you’ve put on some poundage. Appearance and self-worth are two completely different things that a lot of people get confused in darker moments, including myself. Something about morbid obesity that makes me incredibly sad though: Every morning when I commute like clockwork, I see a very large woman with a few small children about to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the school bus stop. The children dart across the road and she has a terrible time keeping up with them. I think about how she probably can’t play with her children as much as they would like, and how tired she must feel all the time. Growing up with a disabled parent, I can empathize with the kids.
my painting
Tim Wilson – One Life to Live – oil on canvas – 20″ x 36″ – 2003
