all day boat

PAIR OF SCHERENSCHNITTE BOOKMARKS SHAPED LIKE HANDS

"Pair of Scherenschnitte bookmarks, approximately 2 3/4" X 5 1/2" , found in Family Bible of Heinrich and Susanna (Deturk) Kohler, Berks County, Pennsylvania."

Gone already! Bought now, $150.

saul bass title sequence - grand prix (1966)

“Dealing with Mom Tactics Collection”

The article on NPR translates it: 

The Complete Book of Combat With Mum

Tactic #1

When your mother is yelling at you, you can:

Look elsewhere, think about something else. Don't care, don't listen.

Style: Hard

Note: Can't be used often

Tactic #2

Your mother is yelling at you and not letting you look somewhere else, you can:

Find something trivial about mommy to criticize.

Style: Hard

Note: Can't be used often.

for more tactics: http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/how-to-deal-with-mom-by-beijing-4th-grade-girls.html

Rhymes for Fingers and Flannelboards

Rhymes for Fingers and Flannelboards, by Louise Binder Scott and J. J. Thompson. Illustrated by Jean Flowers. McGraw-Hill Inc., 1960. 

Can't help but be reminded of the Saul Bass design for The Man With the Golden Arm, 1955. Note: if you are editing a cover for children's book in 1960, drawing inspiration from a very famous poster design for a movie about heroin addiction is probably not the first association you're going for. It's still a great book though.

look down

Moss on the bricks. California spring is here.

artifact from another life

Cleaning out the bookcase. Hello old friend! Grafischmuseum.nl.

petit christo

Leave around some blocks, safety scissors, and painter's tape, and a half and hour later... ('mommy, don't see!' but ok, I peeked.) 

...Dining table installation complete. Photographic documentation by the by the artist herself.

De-install.

matisse and second grade

Studying Matisse's cut-outs with Sam's class a few weeks ago. (...Thanks again art for small hands!) For reference and inspiration, we used this out-of-date calendar which I cut up and distributed, a very inexpensive way for the class to see and hold a lot of different works.

Coincidentally there is a new installation of a Matisse work from this period at LACMA now, La Gerbe (1953).

It was one of Matisse's very latest works, completed just months before his death. There is a fascinating story of La Gerbe's journey from the Brody estate to the museum here. And if you have ever imagined what a giant Matisse would look like in your own private home, see great vintage photos of La Gerbe and the Brody estate via midcenturia.com. Enjoy!

make a world and other emberley goodness

"Make a World : the Film" Teaser from makeaworldfilm on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this and this and this and this, but what? Two years too late! Depressingly, the film was never completed. Time to get the word out again. I would buy a t-shirt.

But hey, we are right on time for this:

The scribble, yeah! Find more licensed Ed Emberley fabric love at Cloud Nine. Ok, I feel better now.

nature legos

Sam invented these out of his sister's "girl" Legos. (His "boy" sets do not have friendly-face bricks like this, why is that now?...)  

new niki sculptures at the cca

Last one, almost done...!

New Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures at the California Center for the Arts, installed this month. Gorgeous color and texture, so fun. Come play! Read more here.

cyber monday

french toy loom, playskool beads, vintage book, Raymor xmas tree, girard placemats on eBay now.

gratitude, a lot!!!

(That's the tooth by the way, tmi, but it is so ridiculously small and square! Now I finally get why mothers do gross things like save baby teeth.)

oh so FRUSTRATED

segundas

The latest growth industry in town are segundas, or second-hand shops. Within the last year, when other businesses have shuttered, they have sprung up like mushrooms. Unlike the Goodwill or 99-Cent Store these shops are all home grown and as individual as the hand-painted signs that show out front.

Dollar Saver 2nd Hand Thrift Store

Lupe's Treasures

Mi Segundita

Angel's Thrift Store "Segunda"

Needful Things

Thrifty Store Belem's

told and cut in linoleum

Dick Whittington and His Cat, by Marcia Brown. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950.

Although the artists are not connected, and the work is separated by some 50+ years, the instant I saw this I flashed on Nikki McClure, another artist I like, who also draws with knives.