We over here at ACO are giving cheers at the statement above made in regards to gay marriage by President Obama.  We couldn’t be happier that he believes in his heart that people should be treated equally.

Recently we had a way out of town guest visiting, and I will use some of his words for my toast to you all:  Here is to you, the nice colors, the coolness and the liberty!

Have a beautiful weekend friends – raise a glass and make a toast to equality!

Our friend Miwa had posted the photo above on her facebook a while back and I couldn’t get it out of my head! These beautiful fungi are called nidulariacea and are also known as fairy cups or bird nest’s fungi, cause they look like bird nests with little eggs in them. They grow on mulch or bark and can be found in moist foresty or tropical areas (Miwa found this one in Stanley Park in Vancouver BC).

Interesting fact:

The nests are splash cups. When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the eggs are expelled a good distance from the nest. Some species have a sticky trailing thread, a funicular cord, attached to the peridiole. If that thread encounters a twig on its flight the egg will swing around and wrap itself around the twig. The spores can then germinate there and start the life cycle over again. (SOURCE)

Find out more / Read Miwa’s interview on ACO / See Miwa on TED

On one of my trips down the rabbit hole I found an awesome site/project called 323 Projects, started and run by Tucker Neel. All of their projects involving calling in – their current project is The Patter of Tiny Brains, an exhibition curated by Doug Harvey. From their website:

For this group show sourced from dozens of contributors, Harvey presents a rotating selection of audio generated by children, up to and including adolescents.

Visitors who call into 323 Projects’ phone number will hear audio ranging from baby noises to musical performances, and a variety of surprising sound recordings performed by kids. In presenting the work of children, Harvey encourages listeners to bring serious, respectful aesthetic attention to works of performance otherwise disregarded as immature and amateur. This exhibition challenges value systems that deem children’s creative output trivial or inconsequential, and instead critically and enthusiastically seeks to reframe the discourse surrounding notions of youth, professionalism, and creative expression.

(323) 843-4652 or (323) TIE-IN-LA

MISSION STATEMENT

323 Projects exists to provide a dispersed, peripatetic, and constantly accessible venue for artists of all kinds who seek to explore issues important to their respective practices. The artists involved with 323 Projects provide, create, or perform works that can be appreciated in bits and pieces, and at more than one time, in both public and private spaces, by an unseen, yet omnipresent, local and international audience.

Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I love this.

Website / Tucker Neel

After spending most of the weekend driving up and down half the state of California, trekking through the Grapevine to wine country and up and down the curvy coast, I couldn’t help but think of the quote above from artist Anri Sala that I read in this article in Frieze Magazine a while back. Sala’s work deals with the crossovers between sound and space and time. He says, “What I call a place is where one remembers having been, which is not only made of space but also of time.” Read more about Anri Sala and his ideas HERE.

I feel so lucky to have met the talented and very sweet Angela Denny.  She is multi-faceted and has impressed me with her creative skills from the most endearing watercolors to sewing projects.  She works at shabby chic as a designer too! She has a blog – Bonne Chance – that features fortune cookie fortunes, projects and ideas.  Her heart is huge and we really adore Angie!

Tell us some of your current obsessions.  Recently I have re-acquainted myself with my sewing skills and have been sewing one project every weekend. I get obsessed with picking the right pattern and fabric to use. I love buying vintage patterns on ebay! I am always obsessed with vintage bicycles.

Tell us a story from your childhood. I lived in Virginia for a year when I was about 5 and I have very nice summer memories of catching butterflies in a field and fireflies by a lake, it was quite magical.

What are some of your daydreams? I daydream about sewing  mostly, what I am going to make next, what fabric I will use.  I love to daydream about traveling to far off places!

What is something you recently heard or saw that has stuck with you? I am a big Beastie Boys fan, and I am super sad that MCA , Adam Youch passed away. He was such a sensitive spirit and wrote some very beautiful songs.

What are some of your favorite LA spots? My boyfriend Will and I love to eat at Elf in Echo Park and go to the Cheese Store in Silverlake.  Cafe de Leche in Highland Park is a favorite for their horchata lattes!!  I enjoy fabric shopping dowtown in the garment district, near 9th st.

Thank you so much Angie!

Blog / Work / Listen to this!

I thought these words from Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur (which is a great read, by the way) were fitting for today since Stefani and I are heading to Big Sur this weekend to celebrate the wedding of two of our friends!

I wish you all weekends full of love and beautiful sights. See you next week!

Even though it is a wives tale that these bugs are searching out your inner ear for their next home, I can’t help but feeling a little ugh when I see one.  Plus those pincers!  The other day in the beautful early afternoon light, I took a good look through my macro lens at an earwig and found it to be quite fascinating. First, the sheen of it’s body is mesmerizing, with colors that remind me of industrial materials. Secondly, those pincers… they look like hand crafted jewelry.

One crazy fact about earwigs is that they can fly – right into your ear… just kidding! But while we’re on the subject, guess which insect is most commonly found in human’s ears?  The cockroach. Oof.

Khan’s Worm

(This post was “sponsored” by my husband - meaning he suggested the topic.)

The Planets is a 7 part orchestral piece by Gustav Holst written between 1914 – 1916. Holst interpreted each planet in the piece (except for Earth) astrologically instead of celestially. Each movement is intended to convey ideas and emotions that he associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche. He referred to this piece as ”a series of mood pictures.” and considered it to be a representation of the progression of life.

The 7 suites include:
- Mars, the Bringer of War
- Venus, the Bringer of Peace
- Mercury, the Winged Messenger
- Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
- Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
- Uranus, the Magician
- Neptune, the Mystic

End note:

Holst never wrote another piece like The Planets again. He hated its popularity. When people would ask for his autograph, he gave them a typed sheet of paper that stated that he didn’t give out autographs. The public seemed to demand of him more music like The Planets, and his later music seemed to disappoint them. In fact, after writing the piece, he swore off his belief in astrology, though until the end of his life he cast his friends horoscopes. (SOURCE)

Read more about the piece HERE. Listen to it HERE.

Major swoon at the Neutra VDL house over on Silver Lake Boulevard.  Oh man! I highly suggest taking the tour ($10.00) and spending some quality time checking out the space.  It has left a lasting impression and a strong desire to think more about and incorporate sun louvers, water roofs, “nature-near”, and physiologically motivated design into my life.  Two things that I want to show you are the dreamy sun streaming in the window onto the bed, and the tree in the backyard/middle space.

Mrs. Dione Neutra wrote her impressions after living in the new house in June 1970, shortly after Richard Neutra’s death:

“Only those, who have lived in a Neutra House, would ever understand how wonderful the daily satisfactions and delights are and how much this experience helps to augment the joy of living. This is especially the case in this house, which is built on three levels. With the many glass surfaces, mirrors, pools that reflect trees and flowers, every step from room to room, stairway up and down, is an aesthetic and artist experience, which I have the good fortune to enjoy, while I move about the house and watch the changing weather. I credit much of this satisfaction to the detailed efforts of my son, Dion, who spent the better part of two years in daily supervision and design of the rebuilt version of this house, which has so many enrichments in comparison to its predecessor of the early ‘30s. I have been asked whether I would not like to live out my last years in my hometown of Zurich. No, I don’t think I would, even if I could transplant this house; the climate is simply too bad in Europe in comparison with the one here, despite occasional smog. I have a marvelous music room here with the excellent grand piano on which my father played for 70 years…”

From the website:

The house is open to the public without appointment on Most Saturdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. See dates when we are closed below, otherwise we are open – there is no need to call. Last tour starts at 2:30pm. Tours are approximately 30 minutes, and are given by architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona.

]]> http://www.collectionof.org/2012/05/08/p-l-a-c-e-87/feed/ 3 http://www.collectionof.org/2012/05/07/atterbury/ http://www.collectionof.org/2012/05/07/atterbury/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 11:00:48 +0000 Gilda Davidian http://www.collectionof.org/?p=2189

I stumbled across Elizabeth Atterbury’s artwork through an internet rabbit hole recently and happily clicked away on the different projects on her website. I was particularly drawn to her photographs and her erased lithographs, more of which can be seen HERE. Here is Elizabeth telling us a bit about herself.

Hi Elizabeth! Name 3 things that are currently of interest to you. Mono-ha, paintings, tennis.

What are you currently working on? Studio compositions (2 and 3 dimensional arrangements made to be photographed) and photograms. Mostly black and white.

Tell us about something you treasure (person, place, thing, animal or idea)? Richmond Island. 226 acres of paradise off the coast of Cape Elizabeth in Maine. It’s privately owned but welcome to the public so long as you can yourself out there. My boyfriend first took me out four years ago. He built the caretaker’s cottage on the island and every summer we go out and camp for a number of days, usually on the beach. There are 10-foot tides in southern Maine, so at this particular beach we might go to sleep looking out at nothing but open ocean and the next morning, it’s totally different. Spits of land are uncovered, forming little coves. And there’s a flock of sheep that lives out there year round.  Also, the floors of the small evergreen forests on both ends of the island are covered in soft grass. Fields of taller grass make up the rest of the island. Summer is especially on my mind right now and when I think of summer, I think of Richmond Island. To me, it’s the sweetest place in the world.

What was the last place you visited? Tell us something that happened there. Los Angeles for a week in March. One day, we drove out to Joshua Tree with friends. We hiked to an oasis. That’s not a word I get to say often – oasis. It was totally surreal, kinda sci-fi. The red barrel cacti started to look like chubby little aliens.  The next day, we missed our flight back to Maine for no good reason.

Thank you, Elizabeth!

W E B S I T E