Jeff Nishinaka’s paper sculpture
25 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Culture, News Tags: Jeff Nishinaka, paper art, paper sculptures
Readers of MadSilence know how we love paper art! Check out the paper sculptures of artist Jeff Nishinaka.
Via dailyartmuse
Extraordinary secrets of everyday trees
20 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Books, News, On Books & Reading, Reading Tags: Seeing Trees:Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees, Timber Press, trees
I enjoy going out into nature, visiting our local parks, beaches, and arboretums. Part of the appeal are the trees I experience. Some are old friends, like a towering American beech I’ve known for over thirty years; others are mysterious strangers to be identified by leaf, bark, fruit or seed.
Not everyone can appreciate the affection I hold for my favorite trees. Nancy Ross Hugo and Robert Llewellyn, co-authors of Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees, understand the meaning and importance of trees. Hugo’s delightful text and Llewellyn’s breathtaking photographs “deliver a steady steam of small astonishments that not only underscore the fascinating physiology of tress but bring you into a closer, more intimate relationship with these miracles of nature.” Hugo teaches the reader how to experience a tree, a lesson I’ve learned over decades of arboreal observation. You must look closely at a tree to really experience it. At the ground around the tree trunk, where you can find the oak’s acorn, the fruit of the common dogwood, the pointy fruit of the sweet gum. At the tree’s bark, the smooth and shiny white of the white birch, splotchy camouflage of the sycamore, smooth greyness of the American beech. At the shape of the tree, its twigs and leaves; the needle sharp buds of the beech teach our fingers a lesson in identification. Being able to identify a tree by its signs provides a feeling of intimate knowledge, of comfort and camaraderie, of belonging.
Beech, sycamore, oak and maple, Hugo reintroduces us to the trees we’ve grown perhaps too familiar with, encouraging the viewer to look closely and deeply to appreciate the life and majesty of our common neighbors. Hugo and Llewellyn are eminently successful in making those trees we see and ignore every day come alive, demonstrating their beauty and secrets.
Seeing Trees provided my first introduction to Timber Press, Inc., a Portland, OR, publisher of books on gardening, ornamental and edible horticulture, garden design, sustainability, natural history, and the Pacific Northwest. Visit their blog here.
A report published recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service further affirms the value that trees add to our lives.
City dwellers can find many reasons to value neighborhood trees. The urban greenery provides relief from the built environment that many find appealing. In fact, a previous study found that a tree in front of a home increased that home’s sales price by more than $7,000. Two new studies explore the measurable effects that urban trees and green spaces have a human health and crime rates.
Geoffrey Donovan, a research forester with the Pacific Northwest Research Station, used public health data, crime statistics, tax records aerial photos and other information in the two studies. He found that women who live in houses with more trees are less likely to have underweight babies. The study on crime revealed a more complex relationship. Larger trees, including trees located near the street, are associated with a lower incidence of property crimes. Larger numbers of smaller trees — especially trees planted near the home, which may provide a screen for burglars — are associated with higher crime.
Title: Growing quality of life: urban trees, birth weight, and crime. Author: Kirkland, John. Date: 2011. Source: Science Findings 137. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 6 p.
MadSilence in review 2011
16 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Blogging, News, WordPress Tags: MadSilence
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for MadSilence.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 130,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.
Crafting for a Good Cause and the Knit for Japan Initiative
13 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Charity, Craft Tags: charity, crafting, crochet, Knit for Japan, knitting, prayer shawls
I’m sure that many of you crafters out there have a problem similar to mine – you love making stuff, but as you build up your skills you might end up making a lot of the same type of object…. say, scarves for knitters or blankets for crocheters. Making them is awesome, and it certainly helps you to improve your skill set so that maybe one day (let it come soon, please!!) you can stop making scarves and start on those sweaters, hats or socks you’ve been drooling over on Knitty or Ravelry! But in the meantime, what do you do with that mountain of excess crafts you’ve produced? You already have 10 of them, and your family is swimming in the extras you’ve bestowed upon them. It’s time to branch out and give them to people who need them!
There are plenty of ways to share your craft bounty with your community. Many local churches or religious institutions have prayer shawl clubs, thinking good thoughts and prayers over them while they are being made and then donating them to the needy or to those who have suffered emotionally in the recent past. This is great not only for those receiving the shawls but also for makers who get the benefit of a crafting community. Even if your local church doesn’t have a group, there are many online you can participate in.
Craft Hope is a purely web-based charity that started by a group of mothers who wanted to reach out and help others.
“Craft Hope is a faith-based, love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those less fortunate. It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world.
Craft Hope was born over tea at the kitchen table. The amazing creations that we watch day after day on your blogs have inspired us to begin this new endeavor.”
They set a new project every few months, always something different, new and creative. Their past projects have included pillowcase dresses for children in Brazil, scarves for orphans, and educational bean-bags for poor schoolchildren in Liberia. The most recent project, sock monkeys for children who lost their homes to brush fires in Texas this past summer, has just ended. But a new project will be coming soon, so keep your eyes on their website!
Lastly is something that is near and dear to my heart – a heartfelt new initiative going on in Japan that I learned about over at the Japan Times. They’re covering the story of a German man by the name of Bernd Kestler who’s made his home in Japan and spends his free time collecting crafting supplies and teaching knitting to the people still stuck in the shelters in Tohoku.
FROM THE JAPAN TIMES WEBSITE: "Knit-aid: Bernd Kestler shows off two of the knitted hats donated to his Knit for Japan initiative, which distributes such items to victims of the March 11 disasters, in Tokyo on Dec. 14. KYODO"
“[Kestler] launched his Knit for Japan initiative, which collects hand-knitted and hand-crocheted items including hats, scarves and gloves, knitting tools and materials such as yarn, and then sends the items to people in disaster-hit areas in Tohoku.
Knit for Japan, he said, also aims to empower disaster survivors living in temporary shelters and evacuation centers. Giving evacuees the tools and materials to knit with would enable them to make much-need clothing items and help alleviate their boredom, he said.
“When I watch TV, I see a lot of people in shelters, sitting there doing nothing. . . . If I can give them needles and a ball of yarn, they can knit something so they don’t have to wait for somebody to send them hats,” said Kestler, a native of the German town of Assenheim. ~Japan Times”
Keslter’s website is called Knit for Japan, and you can get more information on how to help on his “about” page there if you’re interested. At the moment, his goal is to outfit an entire shelter full of people with warm hats – about 200. He also needs more supplies for teaching (yarn, crochet hooks, knitting needles, etc). So head on over there and make your crafting count!!!
~MS the Younger
Past Objects
10 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Collecting, Culture Tags: collage, Found art, New York Artifact Art
The majority of modern man-made artifacts have no intrinsic value. Mostly mass-produced, ultimately discarded by their owners, they quickly disappeared from sight and memory. And yet these objects were often imbued with significant meaning: first by those who designed and manufactured them; then by those who used them. It’s the romance of these objects’ stories that entrance me so; their making and their use, and what such usage tells us about their history.
Scott Jordan is a man who understands well the power of the object. I recently came across his book Past Objects and recognized in the author a kindred soul.
“In the space between archaeology and history stand men like Scott Jordan, a New Yorker who has been digging around the city’s soil for the better part of four decades. What began as a childhood hobby searching for treasure evolved into a way of life that has resulted in Jordan haunting building sites throughout the five boroughs, attempting to recover history before it is forever paved over. Using shovels, mesh sieves, canvas rucksacks, ingenuity and an incredible amount of determination, Jordan has amassed a staggering collection of antique bottles, china, toys, shoes and other items that creates a patchwork historical narrative of New York City and its earliest settlers.”—From the publisher.
Jordan is a collector, detective, preservationist, historian, author and artist. He’s spent decades of his life devoted to the object and its meaning, digging around New York City to uncover and preserve a past buried underground. Once unearthed, Jordan is a cultural interpreter who provides a voice for the voiceless, who forges intellectual and emotional connections between the object and the viewer.
It comes as no surprise that Jordan is also an artist who creates collages from his found objects, a method by which the collector pays homage to his collection. Moreover, collage enables the artist to gather together objects and present metaphors, create symbolic associations, expose emotions, and convey messages for which there are no words. According to Jordan:
My goal in making these artifact art collages is to allow the holder or observer to not only make a connection with the independent beauty of the historic objects but also to make a tangible connection to the history of New York.
Links:
Scott Jordan’s website
Scott Jordan’s Collage Art
Mark Batty Publisher of Past Objects
New Reading Material!
09 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: collecting, meaningfulobjects, new blog, objects, Past Objects, Scott Jordan
Introducing the newest blog in the MadSilence family, meaningfulobjects!
Meaningfulobjects is the baby of MadSilence the Older and Wiser, a separate place for him to explore the objects and art that are meaningful to him, and not specifically Asia- or craft-related, as many of the posts here at MS tend to be.
“meaningful objects : explorations into the significance of things.
I enjoy things, both natural and artificial, those objects produced by nature as well as those man-made. As we are material beings living in a physical world, it makes sense that material objects should have value and meaning, both inherent as well as that applied by the viewer. The things we surround ourselves with tell us much about ourselves and the world around us. Things can amuse, entertain and support us, invoke meaning, and tell us stories. Objects can serve as a mirror of our reality, a lens to study our world, a doorway into our innermost selves.
This blog is a journey of discovery into the meaning of things.
Consider the following:
–Objects have meaning, being imbued with emotional and informative value.
–Things open up our world and history to us. We decode our pasts through objects.
–The human inclination is to treasure personal artifacts.
–It’s important to understand what gives seemingly insignificant objects their value.
–What qualities give meaning to objects?
–What objects speak to me the loudest, and why?
–Which things would I like to touch, even to own?”
Check out MS the Older and Wiser's recent post on "Past Objects" by Scott Jordan.
Go on over and check out his latest post about Scott Jordan’s book “Past Objects”!
~MS the Younger
Barbie The Museum Collection
07 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Culture, Popular Culture Tags: Barbie, doll collecting, dolls
Ok, so it’s not fine art, and it’s mass produced, and at $34.95 it’s pretty affordable. So why not?
So some things just shouldn’t be for sale.
If toys speak to a society’s values and beliefs, what do these dolls say about American society? That we minimize the world’s greatest artistic creations? Or mass produce them to share with all? That almost anyone can afford a bit of beauty in their lives? Or that collectors will lock away these beauties, mint & never opened in the original box, in anticipation of future returns? Or should I just relax and enjoy the little beauties?
Mattel pays homage to artists Klimt, Van Gogh and da Vinci in these recent additions to the Barbie World Culture Collection
And what about paying homage to that badly abused & iconic image, Grant Wood’s American Gothic? Oh so it’s already been done.
So read more:
The Barbieriffic® Barbies® of the Museum Collection Barbie® Collection
Back to your regularly scheduled program…
05 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
Hey all! Hope you had an amazing holiday and New Year’s! MadSilence will be back to its regularly scheduled program of interesting tidbits and articles this coming week!
Savage Beauty
30 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Art, Culture Tags: fashion, MadQuote, Metropolitan Museum of Art
I’m an unabashed fan of American Arts Quarterly, a publication of the Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center. The writings contained within the journal resonate strongly with my personal beliefs concerning the arts, their value to society, and the importance of beauty, good craftsmanship and taste. The Center reflects these beliefs in its mission statement:
The Center is dedicated to the principle that the arts help shape our world, from our cultural perceptions to the physical experience of our communal space. We recognize that it is imperative that the arts reflect the many voices of the diverse American community. Encouraging artists from all disciplines who are selectively and imaginatively revisiting traditional and classical forms, and exploring the great myths we hope to reunite the artist with society. Beauty, virtue and spirituality are again becoming part of cultural life.
Writing for Fall 2011 edition of American Arts Quarterly, James F. Cooper reviews the 2011 exhibition “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first glance an article about fashion art may seem out of place in a journal dedicated to exploring and defending the relevance of classical art concepts to today’s institutions and culture, based on the conviction that the arts are a perennial resource in sustaining and advancing civilization. The author goes far in convincing us that McQueen’s fashion art is fine art indeed.
Here are selections from the article that are particularly meaningful:
Speaking of the one of a kind the fashion art of Alexander McQueen, Cooper writes:
Powerful, imposing, aloof, evoking associations with ancient myth, spirituality and nature, as richly ornamented as a medieval reliquary, they require no justification for existence other that their own self-contained magic.
What makes it different from the silly, vacuous postmodern detritus that fills our modern museums? Indeed, what makes McQueen’s work so different from the attractive, expensive fashions created by the most successful designers? [...] The difference is taste, moral passion and a highly refined sense of beauty and craft.
According to Cooper, McQueen “…never succumbed to the kitsch and cheapened sentiments that characterize much of postmodern culture.”
McQueen’s work doesn’t require textual explanations, but is ripe for psychological and cultural analysis. He has applied the highest craftsmanship to his garments, at a time when sloppiness and poor craftsmanship are all too common.
…commitment to beauty and craft should always be recognized…
Giant Godzilla Christmas Tree
16 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Japan, Popular Culture Tags: Christmas tree
Via Steve Levenstein of Japanorama at InventorSpot.com we have a Giant Godzilla Christmas Tree sprucing up a Tokyo mall:
Credit: Steve Levenstein, Japanorama
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