Creative Process
Designing for Light
Back to the Hirshhorn, from yesterday's post. Director, Richard Koshalek, has asked Doug Aitken, a Los Angeles based artist to redesign the museum's bookstore and shop. I was amazed with what he's come up with. He's designed a space that refracts light with mirrored, angled walls. The shop is located in the basement and currently has no natural light. He intends on using a shaft to a window from the floor above as the light source. He came up with the idea based on what he thought books meant to him — "enlightenment." This was the illuminating idea to spark his creative process. The design will cost between $500,000 –…
Art in Bloom
I’m always inspired by artists who brave the crowds to create their artwork. It’s something that I do not like to do, but this “plein air,” landscape artist, Michela Mansuino, featured last week in the Washington Post, has managed to not only control her experience with multitudes of onlookers but capture the magic of the cherry blossoms in her paintings. She’s been painting at the same spot for four years. The cherry blossoms are nearly gone now, but the moment they existed is immortalized in this painting. Here’s a photo, besides the last post, that I took recently of the blossoms on my neighbor’s cherry laurel tree — just as…
Some Healing in Haiti
The earthquake in Haiti rocked everyone. It was so tragic and still is because there has not been much relief for this already poor and downtrodden country. The process for recovery is so slow. However, when I saw this story about art helping business in Haiti it brought a little bright spot of hope for some progression. The Haitian people are familiar with these brightly painted buses and to see them back again signals some sign of recovery with the business of painting buses, as small and as mundane as that seems in comparison to other dire necessities needed. Since Easter is about rebirth, I see a little bit of…
