10:217

Post no bills.




:217project; image dianamuse, west 57th street

Good weekend, everyone. Wherever you may be.




No one knows for sure what creates these picturesque dark streaks on Mars. A leading hypothesis suggests that the streaks are the result of fine-grained sand sliding down the banks of troughs and craters. In this image, dark sand appears to have flowed hundreds of meters down the slopes of Acheron Fossae. The sand flows like a liquid around boulders, and, for some reason, lightens significantly over time. This sand flow process is one of several which can rapidly change the surface of Mars; other processes include dust devils, dust storms and the freezing and melting of areas of ice.

:image nasa, slope streaks in acheron fossae on mars

make something cool every day

:behance network, ice (mobile phone photo)

know your audience: tim davis

Bridge Street Books

Oh, the hilarity of Tim Davis's self-referential My Audience project.

Photography Club

Observations from a recent lecture at Hamilton College:

Prior to beginning [the] lecture, Davis insisted that all audience members be seated in the middle section of the [lecture space], where nearly all seats were quickly filled. Rather than starting his talk, he began adjusting a camera that stood on an impressively large tripod. He took three photographs of the audience, requesting that each member look as though they were sitting in an incredibly boring lecture.

His first few slides continued on the subject of why he photographs those who attend his presentations. Davis showed numerous photographs of past audiences while explaining that, in this way, he gets to continue his work even when giving speeches. In this way, he never has to leave the craft that he loves. (Hamilton College News)

American Academy in Rome

Strand

Cal Arts

KMA Docents

:tim davis

gasp

Have you ever? The utter gorgeousness is nearly more than I can bear. But you can handle it. Yes, you can.




:image lee gunho; harpar's bazaar japan, september 2007 via livejournal

incomplete alphabet

Rendered in biro (ballpoint) pen by master calligrapher Luca Barcellona. Luca's calligrafia set is a reservoir of gorgeous hand lettering.

Magia.




:luca barcellona, alfabeto incompleto

9:217

Every little flake is sacred. Each one gets a fleeting close-up.

Snowstorm + night + camera + flash = this image.





:217project; image dianamuse

abandoned

These stunning images of forsaken Russian houses make my heart ache. Left uninhabited and neglected in Russia's remote forest regions, the dilapidated structures bear silent witness to bygone days. To my mind, they reflect some fundamental aspect of the Russian spirit in their dignity and beauty.














:images andrew qzmn - first spotted at lori's glorious automatism a couple of years ago

8:217

These are my shots of three sculptures from the Jack Pierson: Abstracts show at Cheim & Read last fall.

Pierson works in a variety of media, including photography, video, collage and sculpture. He is well known for reappropriating commercial signage and large-scale vintage lettering. For the Cheim & Read exhibition, Pierson repositioned letters and other signage details - broken pieces, numbers and symbols - to create new sculptural abstractions. By removing the hierarchy of language, and therefore its immediate associations, Pierson strives for "universality where narrative is no longer recognizable." The sculptures do not rely on words to communicate; they provoke a more visceral reaction.






This one endeared itself to me with its calligraphic swagger.






:217project; images dianamuse; jack pierson desire/despair

make the red lantern

Wishing you a Happy New Year - whether it be 4708, 4707 or 4647.




:images life, workers at the fine arts red lamps factory co. in beijing

Good weekend, everyone. Wherever you may be.






:image pictoris, tblisi underground

7:217

Here we have the tippity-tip-top of St. John's the morning after yesterday's blizzard. The image could serve as inspiration for anyone out there planning a Goth-themed wedding. Just remember to substitute favorite gray cake and winter white icing for granite
and snow.




:217project; image dianamuse

6:217

Yesterday's news. Literally.





:217project; image dianamuse

Inspiring weekend, everyone. Wherever you may be.





:image dianamuse, kandinsky at the guggenheim 09

5:217

It's February. Get your red on.






:217project; image dianamuse, west 112th st.

timekeeper

Pierre Huyghe sanded down a few layers of paint at Secession in Vienna, revealing the colorful past of previous exhibitions.







:pierre huyghe, timekeeper, via today and tomorrow

4:217

The I.D.: A riot of bare limbs belonging to the eight-story beauties beyond our rear windows. They do a fine job of mimicking bronchial trees, don't you think? Neural networks, too.



See what I mean?













I think these images give added meaning to the term, "the lungs of the city," which refers to urban parks. The phrase is famously attributed to Frederic Law Olmsted, although he didn't actually coin it. "The lungs of the city" is a form of the earlier expression, "the lungs of London." That phrase has been attributed to William Pitt the Elder, British Prime Minister from 1766-68. It appears that Hyde Park was the original "lungs of London." Sometime during the 19th century, the phrase was generalized to refer to major urban parks.




:217project; photos dianamuse

Good weekend, everyone. Wherever you may be.








:think pink 81, taiwan

There are lots of good writers. There are lots of hugely skilled writers. There are lots of us who write about many subjects with curiosity and diligence. But there are very few writers who find or forge the key that enables them to unlock the hearts of their readers and of their fellow people. And Salinger did that. He did it repeatedly. And whether he was silent for 40 years or miserably grumpy for half a century, I don't care. He did that. And he alone did that. He wrote with all his stars out and the world shines brighter for him. (Adam Gopnik, NPR interview, 1/28/10)

: image dianamuse, my first copy (purchased ~1972)

3:217

Good morning, New York City! You realize that by about 1:52 this afternoon, all that pretty pristine white powder will have morphed into a flow of putty-colored slurge that accumulates in three-feet-wide ponds at every corner. That's snow for you. Just doing its job.

(I do love the dash of taxi yellow in the upper right. It orients me to time and place.)





:217project; image dianamuse

2:217

If Adam (top panel, looking all naked and mortified) could have glimpsed the beauty in store - check out those dancing jewel-tone reflections on the wall behind him - maybe he'd have grokked that being expelled from Eden wasn't such a bad thing after all.




The I.D.: I took this shot of the Paschal candlestick at The Cloisters in December. The decoration of the hexagonal candlestick is organized in three tiers: The upper register is devoted to the Old Testament (Adam and Eve, the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, etc.); the second register features various saints; the third register (out of view) is loaded with apostles.

Did you know? The Cloisters is patterned on the monasteries that mushroomed during the Middle Ages - a rambling structure of halls, chapels, cloisters and gardens intended to evoke, rather than duplicate, the originals of which they once were part. Contrary to what some believe, The Cloisters is not an entire monastery brought stone by stone from Europe and reassembled on its perch in Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park.

Much of the art collection came from that of George Grey Barnard, an American sculptor and collector of medieval art, who had already established a medieval-art museum near his home in the Fort Washington neighborhood. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased Barnard's entire collection of art and architectural remnants as a gift to the Met; this collection, combined with a number of pieces from Rockefeller's own collection (including the Unicorn tapestries), became the core of the new Cloisters' holdings.

The Cloisters gets its name from its incorporation of five cloisters - the covered walkways where monks strolled, prayed and did manuscript illumination as well as their laundry - from the French monasteries of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, Bonnefont-en-Comminges, Trie and Froville. The museum opened in 1938.




:217project; image dianamuse