I love these beautiful nature inspired wallpaper designs by William Morris.  William Morris was an English architect, furniture and textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement.  The Arts and Crafts Movement was a British, Canadian, and American aesthetic movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries that influenced arts, crafts and architecture. The Arts and Crafts Movement was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and a romantic idealization of a craftsperson taking pride in their personal handiwork. The movement was a reaction to the eclectic revival of historic styles of the Victorian era and to “soulless” machine-made production aided by the Industrial Revolution.

March 29, 2009

It is fun being a tourist in your own city, especially if you have a bike. Pictures are from Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Carrol Gardens and Ditmas Park.

March 28, 2009

So it snowed a lot a couple of days ago in Brooklyn. Then, it became increasingly warm, snow melted and these first white flowers appeared. Photos are taken in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

March 15, 2009

I love Charley Harper’s print, The Desert. 

AFTER:

BEFORE:

The city slowly have been replacing old modern silver lamp posts and installing new old fashioned Victorian style (“Bishop’s Crook”) street lamps to match the historic architecture of the Ditmas Park’s large, free-standing Victorian homes built in the 1900s. Ditmas Park is actually a neighborhood in Brooklyn that have been officially designated a Historic District. It has remained rural until the early 20th century and still fells a lot like a small village surrounded by the city.

March 14, 2009

Wow. Handmade floor mat from old vintage leather belts.  Design by Inghua Ting.

March 11, 2009

Robert Bordo is a painter and teacher at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is originally from Montreal, Canada but currently he resides in upstate New York.  Why do I like Robert Bordo’s paintings?  I do not really know.  Probably because they feel very free and traditional at the same time. 

March 09, 2009

I went to NYU open studios today and this is what I found.  Very talented artist and designer - Hana Tanimura.

http://www.hanatanimura.com/

March 08, 2009

Beautiful ceramic plates inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s biological drawings (book named Art Forms in Nature) by Megha Patel.



*above:  Ernst Haeckel’s book “Art Forms in Nature”

March 07, 2009

Siesta stiffened crocheted doily by Stanley Ruiz . This is really nice.  I even was thinking of making it myself - taking old lace, stiffening it with starch…  but it probably would not be as nice as the one above.

March 06, 2009

Benjamin Hemmendinger
Clouds
2009
Lithograph

Ben Hemmendinger graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is really good at painting clouds and his mom, Gail Kort, is a professional cloud painter.  I believe Benjamin painted only clouds for a year or two while studying at Cooper (although I could be wrong).
Now Benjamin resides in upstate New York.
(This posting is created by me, Anastasia Ugorskaya, watercolor/drawing artist and Cooper Union graduate)

March 05, 2009

Apparently, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art now has The Institute for Sustainable Design. It was created in 2008, with support from philanthropist Jack Rudin, as a resource for education, research and public understanding of the principles and methods of sustainability in all design disciplines. “:Central to the mission of the Institute is the development of innovative pedagogies in architecture, art and engineering that will be models for the transformation of learning and practice for a sustainable future” The inagural lecture of Institute for Sustainable Design NEARLY TRAPPED:  DESIGN IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CONSEQUENCES was held at Cooper a few days ago by Paul Sears, distinguished professor of environmental studies and politics. 

Also, now Cooper Union has a new logo and soon will have a new building with green features.  The building is designed for sustainability, energy efficiency and air quality:

1. Innovative heating and cooling technology
2. An outer layer of semi-transparent mesh screen will create coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter.
3. Carbon dioxide detectors throughout the building will automatically dim power and ventilation when rooms are unoccupied.
4.  A co-generation system will produce some power for both the new building and the Foundation building, reducing the need to tap into the outside electrical grid.
5. The deck surface of the green roof will be covered by a layer of low-maintenance plantings.
6. The low-flow plumbing devices and the green roof will save more than 600,000 gallons of water annually.

March 03, 2009

Today is a snow storm in Brooklyn.  Speaking about snow storms, artist Amy Bennett constructs paintings where houses, villages, roads and trees look small, like tiny toy models.  In a lot of her artwork, snow is taking over.  Amy writes that her art is a lot about isolation and quietness and by transitioning her models into winter, seemed to fortify these senses. 

March 02, 2009

I made this watercolor/drawing of naked winter trees when I visited Pennsylvania. Watercolor, color pencil and graphite on paper.

February 19, 2009

I am happy to show some of my watercolors at the Eponymy gallery and store.  It is owned by Andrea Miller and located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. The store is a mix of vintage and designer clothes, antique mirrors as well as tightly curated modern photography from emerging artists of Humble Arts Foundation.

Vija Celmins
Untitled (Big Sea #2)
1969
graphite on acrylic ground on paper
33 1/2 x 44 in.

I love Vija Celmins drawings of the surface of the ocean.
“Vija Celmins immigrated to the United States with her family from Latvia when she was ten years old. She and her family settled in Indiana. Celmins received international attention early in her career for her renditions of natural scenes, often painted from photographs lacking a point of reference, horizon, or discernible depth of field.” “Celmins’s work demonstrates a remarkably close engagement with the natural world mediated by photography. Celmins has said her images dispel romantic notions of the sublime in nature.” - Wiki

February 18, 2009

Amy Ross’ drawings, watercolors and collages have a surreal effect.  The drawings are rendered in the style of scientific illustration . It is not easy to distinguish at the first glance where the leg of the mushroom starts and the leg of a human being begins. People’s heads are morphed with mushroom legs and birds are actually flower buds on magnolia trees - Amy plays with similarities and differences of nature’s shapes.



 
Amy Ross
Legshroom With Bird
2008
collage on paper
10 x 8 inches

DIY Algae/Hydrogen Kit is an art project by Future Farmers Future farmers write: “Currently scientists are testing and generating strains of algae to determine which one most efficiently produces hydrogen in a process called “biophotolysis”. This is an exciting sector of research, but most of the activity takes place under highly controlled environments in laboratories within universities”. Future Farmers decided to create a “backyard/DIY” model which would allow people (not only scientists) to produce hydrogen. “The notion of people producing their own power is exciting. Researcher, Jonathan Meuser used this opportunity to exhibit a model of “biophotolysis” to test a system in his backyard. His test was a success, in that it produced hydrogen and could demonstrate the process using off the shelf and found supplies”. “The ultimate goal is to develop a water-splitting process that will result in a commercial H2-producing system that is cost effective, scalable to large production, non-polluting, and self-sustaining.”-Maria Ghirardi

February 17, 2009

Matthias Merkel Hess made these 28 terra cotta self-portrait flower pots for his 28th birthday. Each pot was planted with a nativis updated regularly e California trees chosen specifically for a friend or family member and then given away.  Matthias Merkel Hess is currently receiving MFA at the University of California . He also the founder of the Eco Art Blog (one of my favorite eco blogs) with a focus on visual arts and the environment.

I love this painting by Danna Ray of new growth on a tree that was cut down .  Danna writes: “I grew up in a log cabin in the woods of rural South Carolina. Surrounded by forest and lots of crayons, I enjoyed drawing tiny bugs, and tiny plants, and tiny kittens driving trucks.”

February 16, 2009

Bullfinch (Снегирь, snegir)  is a small bird with big round red belly that lives across Europe and Asia.  It is widespread in Russia and one can spot lots of them in Moscow city around winter time. Bullfinch birds travel from Siberia to warmer climate of Moscow during winter.  They eat mostly red Rowan berries that keep hanging in multiples on Rowan trees even in coldest days. It is quite beautiful to see many red birds around red Rowan berries juxtaposed on the winter snow.  Birds look like huge red berries lost in many little ones.  I even think that is why the word red in Russian comes from the word beautiful.
I found this ceramic cup that definitely has a watercolor of bullfinch bird on it by Helen Beard, ceramicist and a watercolor artist from England:

February 14, 2009

I love California quails and quails in general. This is what is it says on wikipedia about California quails: “The California Quail is a highly sociable bird that often gathers in small flocks and one of the daily communal activities is the taking of dust baths. A group of quail will select an area where the ground has been newly turned or is soft, and using their underbellies, will burrow downward into the soil some 1-2 inches. They then wriggle about in the indentations they have created, flapping their wings and ruffling their feathers, causing dust to rise in the air.” (so cute!!!) 

SEVEN DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS is a title of the show in Gagosian Gallery, NY and series of gelatin silver prints by Hiroshi Sugimoto.  Photographs in the show are of the sea and its horizon in locations all over the world. The photographs are taken different in time of the day and with different exposure time. All the photographs have remarkable sense of stillness and eternity. The ocean is still and seems as though it is floating in space and we are floating with it.  Hiroshi returns to the same subject repeatedly to reveal the “subtleties that he finds in the primordial sea, site of the origin and emergence of life as well as of eternal continuity”.
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo. In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center College of Design. Now he lives and works in New York City and Tokyo.

February 13, 2009

This moss rug is perfect! I found it on Environmental Graffitti Blog.  - “Created by Switzerland-based industrial designer La Chanh Nguyen, the small indoor greenspace features three types of live green mosses - ball moss, island moss and forest moss - that grow in individual “cells” of plastazote, a decay-free foam” The moss carpet absorbs bathroom moisture. Mosses flourish in damp, humid environments such as bathrooms.  You probably will need to have a window of some sort in the bathroom because i think moss also likes sunlight, but otherwise this is a great idea.
I always wanted to have a bed out of moss.  Moss is really soft and good to sleep on.  I know this from experience. Once I was in the forest and I was very tired. I found a large field of moss the size of a bed. I slept on it for three hours.  The idea of moss as a carpet or rug is only natural. In fact, I am seriously considering growing my own moss rug. 

February 12, 2009

Vladimir Collection carried and perfected the tradition of the 18th century European trompe l’oeil, meaning “nature in artifice” tradition. Plates are reminiscent of giant cabbage leaves, sunflowers and lettuce leaves. Teapots, sugar bowls and vases are in the form of melons, pumpkins and lemons.  Besides tableware, Vladimir Collection produces metal and porcelain flowers in realistic style.  Each flower and leaves are naturalistically painted and each terracotta pot is designed and handmade.  All collections are handmade in New York and signed by Vladimir Kanevsky, an artist, designer and craftsman who has been perfecting the art of porcelain inspired by nature for almost two decades. 

Not only Vladimir Kanevsky is a great master of porcelain craft, he is also a very talented sculptor.  He is inspired by human body - naked, solitary and vulnerable.  Vladimir explores human condition, sensations and the search of self.  I also think that earth tones of the terracotta and the fact that a lot of his figures face the earth, his sculptures are a lot about connection with the world, beyond self and losing self. 

Recently I started making my own bags from recycled leather and reused materials. Image above is the first bag I made out of small ripped leather purse and old leather skirt.  I added leather material from old skirt to the bottom of the purse.  The image below is a bag I made from ripped fake leather bag I actually found in the garbage. I fixed the bag I found in the garbage and sewed on white silk flowers that came from old jacket.

February 10, 2009

My friend Sergio is making New York City more beautiful by restoring and creating new architectural stone ornaments, reliefs, figures, gargoyles and public monuments. I like how they are not entirely symmetrical and organic.
Besides stone conservation Sergio is currently working on a documentary about atlantic rain forest. Sergio writes: “Some areas of the Atlantic Forest have been designated by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve because of their outstanding biological distinctiveness. Others, equally distinctive, beautiful and rich in species diversity and endemism, are still unprotected.
Until interrupted by human encroachment, continuous areas of forest extended for thousand of miles, linking the Great Araucaria Forest of Southern Brazil to the Amazon jungle. Many plants and animals have evolved travelling throughout the tropical and temperate zones of the New World. This flow is essential to maintaining the rich gene pool and species diversity of the area. The fragmentation of these forests places many species, including some existing only there, under critical threat of extinction”.
Webite for the film: ATLANTIC FOREST 911. 

February 09, 2009

These are so awesome! They are animal pelts knitted from 100% nonwool yarns by Becky Stern.

February 08, 2009

Me and Paul are planning on bike touring Scotland this spring.  Exciting!

February 07, 2009

MANILLA MADE is a blog about all things ethical organized by Helen Cuthbert, a textile designer in UK.  All things ethical are all things handmade, recycled, bright and colorful! I love this blog.
My favorite pieces on this blog are:  vintage glass salt and pepper shakers, handmade shadow lanterns made out of recycled metal food cans, and soy teacup candles!!!