St. Elmo's New Mural

St. Elmo's Coffee Pub is an institution in Del Ray and recently it got a brand new mural. Now we've got some pretty famous musicians just lounging outside the shop with their dogs. The mural was painted by Chad Brady who lived in the area for several years but now resides in Wisconsin. It was really cool to stop by and watch the evolution of the mural as Chad worked on it. I took pictures of the mural at a few different stages.

Jim Morrison sits off to the side brooding, while Chad paints in the dog that keeps him company.

Here's a detail of Jim Morrison from the finished mural.

There are 3 dogs featured in the mural, one by Jim Morrison, one by Janice Joplin and one by Joan Baez. It's so great that Chad included the dogs because you always see dogs outside of St. Elmo's.

So here's the rough beginnings of the other side of the mural.

Here some of the painting is more fleshed out and soft shadows are added.

Chad is adding more detail to the vest Janice is wearing.

And here is a close-up of the finished mural.

Chad adding more detail to Joan Baez's face.

And here's another detail of the finished mural.

If you are in the area or just visiting Del Ray, you should stop by St. Elmo's and see the mural in person. Chad is currently working on another mural that will be on the side of the Cheesetique, which is diagonally across the street from St. Elmo's.

Craft Show & Tell

This past weekend I went to the Smithsonian's 2013 Craft Show and saw so many beautiful and inspiring works of art. The artists were also very friendly and loved to talk about their work. The show was huge and this is but a small sampling of the work I saw and adored.

Artist: Dan Mirer/Corning, NYThe category I seemed drawn to the most in this year's show was glass. So many wonderful pieces. Dan Mirer's work is both beautiful and fun. I love the drop imagery (like in the glasses on the right and the pieces on the left) and the use of bubble textures in the vase shown in the middle. Go to his site to see more photos of his work and read about him.

Artist: Nick Leonoff/Brooklyn, NYThese are from Nick Leonoff's "Uban" series; but of course my first thought was "that's no moon". Yep, it looks like the Death Star from Star Wars. Nick's pieces look like ceramics, but are actually glass. Here he layered 3 different colors of glass on top of each other (a dark blue, an opaque black, and a white), then he uses a tool to grind a pattern into it revealing each layer. 

Artist: Nick Leonoff/Brooklyn, NYThese are two more pieces by Nick Leonoff. I love the abstract patterns he creates. There's lots more information on his work process on his site.

Artist: Carrie Gustafson/Arlington, MAContinuing with the glass theme, up next is Carrie Gustafson. Love the textures, colors and patterns in her work. So lovely.

Artist: Michael Mikula/Cleveland, OHAnd my last example in the glass category: Michael Mikula displayed these great abstract totems made of blown glass.

Artists: Jenifer & Don Green/Delhi, NYI loved this beautiful side table, it's called the Sofia. The top of the table has this cool marbled pattern that is mirrored in four different pieces (shown in detail on the right).

I didn't get to ask about these adorable candles that they had in their booth (Jenifer & Don Green's). Not sure if they created them or if they were simply there as accent pieces for their tables, but I thought they were cute.

Artist: Kari Lonning/Ridgefield, CTThe patterns and colors in these baskets by Kari Lonning are breathtaking.

Artist: Carol Tao/Sunnyvale, CACarol Tao was one of my favorite people I talked to at the show. She was so warm and friendly. She makes her own paper to use in her sculptures, and she finds the act of papermaking very meditative.

Artist: Jef Raasch/Milwaukee, WIJef Raasch's fantastic clay figures combine elements of nature and fantasy. If you get a chance to see his work in person, go see it. The pictures don't really do them justice. 

Artist: Donna Veverka/Boston, MAUnfortunately I didn't get a good photo of Donna Veverka's jewelry, so please go to her site where she's got much better shots of her work. Her jewelry combines architectural and heraldic imagery which should be super popular now given the popluarity of Game of Thrones. Her work is gorgeous.

And that wraps up my coverage of the 2013 Smithsonian Craft Show. I highly recommend going to the show, they have one every year around this time of year. Plus the National Building Museum is such a beautiful venue.

Just for Fun

Sometimes it's good to take on a project just for fun. Molly Wood and Tom Merritt are very well known tech writers and podcasters. I have been a fan of both of them for years. Recently the two of them decided to launch a new podcast just for fun. The podcast is not about tech at all. It is a very loose conversation about trends they've noticed. They call the podcast "It's a Thing" as in: "I didn't know THAT was a thing!" The episodes are around 22 minutes long and so much fun (plus you might learn about new trends like I have). It's definitely worth listening to if you haven't discovered it yet.

When they posted the first episode at the beginning of March, Tom threw together an icon graphic for the show's Twitter account and put up a random picture at the top of their blog page. I thought to myself, "boy, they really need a graphic for the podcast". And I decided to create one just for the fun of it and see if Tom & Molly liked it. I started thinking about visual trends and initially I thought of Shepard Fairey's work, specifically his "OBEY" posters with Andre the Giant's face on them or the famous Obama "Hope" poster. Then I also thought of Barbara Kruger's iconic work. I decided to do an homage to her "I shop therefore I am" piece. So the graphic is purposely very generic-looking because the theme of the show is so non-specific; but at the same time it does pay tribute to this propaganda "counter culture" (to borrow Molly's term) art, which itself is a thing.

I sent my mock-up for the Twitter icon off to Tom & Molly and explained my idea behind the graphic. They were so impressed with it and wanted to use it right away. Tom asked me if I could also create matching banner art for their blog and I did (shown above). They both thanked me effusively via email and on Twitter. Tom credited me and added my info on the "About" page of the show's blog. They had already recorded the first four episodes of the podcast at that point, so it wasn't until episode 005 that I was mentioned on the show. Around 19:30 minutes in to the episode they talk about the new show graphics and how they all came about and how thrilled they are to have them. It was so surreal to have Molly & Tom talking about me and gush about the work I did for them. It felt like my brush with fame (in a very small but fun way). I did it because I am a big fan of theirs, I love the new podcast, and I wanted to contribute. If they didn't like it or thought it wasn't right for the show, I was OK with that too. I had so much fun just thinking about what kind of graphic I'd do, and then creating it. I'm glad I decided to do it, just for the fun of it.

Lempicka Inspired Wired Magazine

Left: Detail from April 2013 cover of Wired Magazine; Right: Detail of Lempicka's "The Straw Hat", 1930

The April 2013 cover of Wired Magazine features a gorgeous photo of Alison Brie dressed as Don Draper. What struck me about the photo was the lighting, the hair, and makeup. The focus on her eyes, the shape of her red lips and the shadows cast on her face reminds me so much of Tamara de Lempicka's portraits, which I love. Here is the whole magazine cover:

April 2013 cover of Wired Magazine featuring Alison Brie

And below is another one of Tamara de Lempicka's paintings., her self-portrait. Whether consciously or not, I do see an influence in the way the photo was lit and styled.

Self-Portrait in the Green Bugatti: Tamara de Lempicka

Library of Congress: Prints & Photographs

Library of Congress: The United States' first foreign trade zone, Staten Island, city of New York, opened February 1, 1937 / Herzog.

The Library of Congress (LOC) has a wonderful online collection of posters, photographs and other artwork. It's a wonderful research tool as well as a source of inspiration. For each image, they give you information on its origin, its creator, publishing date and rights information. In addition, they provide downloadable files in three different formats (small JPEG, large JPEG, and high-res TIFF). Here are some examples of what you can find and Cultiva Studio also has a board on Pinterest with many more wonderful images from the LOC collection.

Library of Congress: Clyde Fitch's greatest comedy, "Girls"

Library of Congress: See America / Dux.Library of Congress: Amateur contest for children Final eliminations, Sept. 24, 1936.(Via How About Orange)