Tales; Bear wins a race

Bear wins a street race on his fixed gear bike. He goes so fast he needs goggles to keep the bugs out of his eyes.
He won a bottle of whiskey for his prize.

*This was before Bear and Little got helmets.

art for daily life

Fresh kindling on the front porch makes me feel rich.One of Mr Cranky's 'pets'; the name I have given to all the firewood pieces he sets aside that are too lovely to burn. This one reminds me of a Northwest Coast Native American mask, an eagle or a wolf.

This lichen is huge(8-9") and looks ancient. It fell from a very tall fir tree in the woods.

A very elegant piece of wood that Mr Cranky brought home from a walk. It was leaning up against the wall for a long time before we thought to lay it down. Beautiful transformation.

Honey tangerines put outside the dining room door to stay cool.

Tales; bike helmets

Bear and Little got bike helmets. They wear them every time they ride. Don't they look smart?

Jeanne Quinn

American Craft Magazine has an article this month on a show at Greenwich House Pottery by Jeanne Quinn.
I think this is really beautiful. Now I want to make a chandelier that fills a whole room too.

Inspiring

Late Ming bowl

Tales, dissention

Not everyone gets along all the time. Arturo and Yeti don't.

laughter is art because I said so

So, everyone knows that laughter is good for your health.
And recent studies show that happiness is contagious.
And I really wanted to share this clip of a baby goat with you on my blog, thus I declare that from now on laughter is art for daily life.
Seriously, I laughed out loud(okay, chortled) at this so I hope that it will give you a smile too:

I found this at supervegan.

String book

I'm thinking about making a book. I hope it will be as clever as this (unlikely).
I found this clip on mein inspiration.

in the studio, tags

Turning tales into tags. These are meant to hang up wherever...bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, office. I will glaze them in 'beeswax' (creamy white) and put a splash of color on the figures.
At 6" x 3" they are a little big for ornaments, but I have smaller ones in the works.
Remember the first iteration? I'm finally getting back to the series.

Paper paper paper (Noriko Yamaguchi)

Paper Jewelry by Noriko Yamaguchi

I really was done with paper art but then...I discovered the Holland Paper Biennale. Ack!!!
And Noriko Yamaguchi.
Have a look:

Exhibition at Gallery Art Works, Mishima, Japan / material; paper / photo: Hideto Nagatsuka

Holland Paper Biennale 2008- Evocative

Exhibition at TOKI Art Space, Tokyo, Japan / material: Washi (Japanese paper)
photo: Hideto Nagatsuka

Noriko Yamaguchi is amazing. See for yourself.

More paper art

Large Red Damask Letterpress Buckle with Ribbon by dsharp

Now it seems paper art is competing with the characters in Tales to take over my blog. I'm just gonna have to go with it.
I came across this video on fellow Portlander Denise Sharp's blog and promptly swiped it.

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Denise is another paper artist that I had planned to tell you about, but now I've gone and jumped the gun. Loads of great things at her website. Like this:

Leaning Pisa Candy Container

Have a look at her etsy shop where you will find cool things like this letterpress buckle and ribbon:
I love her blog too. She found the video at The Rag and Bone blog, who got it from brainstorm (which seems to be written in Portuguese and since I have forgotten most of my Portuguese I can't tell you how they found it), and on it goes...

Tales; what would Ranger do?

Ranger is thinking

This image was inspired by my brother's comment on this post.
He said: "I wanna see a "What would Ranger do?" plate.
With Ranger on it.
That would be cool.
I would definitely buy that plate.
When presented with a conundrum, I could consult the plate.
It would probably result in carpal tunnel syndrome, but it would be so worth it."

Hahaha. I'm actually going to do it. I love Ranger. And my brother.

Tales; Ivy visits colleges

Ivy is researching colleges back East on a trip with her dad and grandpa.
She is her usual methodical self, but it's not helping her to make a decision.

Su Blackwell

Alice's Mad Tea Party by Su Blackwell

I really can't get over what people can do with papercuts. You've seen Su Blackwell here before, but I just had to revisit after writing about Peter Calleson's work a couple of days ago.Visit her site and prepare to be amazed.

Tales; Malone is on the move

Malone is buying properties all over the world to use as safe houses.
Here he is on the phone having a conference call with realtors in the US, Europe, and Africa.

Peter Calleson Wishing Chair

It's hard to know where to begin with Danish artist Peter Calleson, but since I have been showing you performance art I'll start there.
The Wishing Chair (above) was placed outside the Nikolaj Tower in Copenhagen with instructions to sit down and utter your wish out loud. His goal was "to create an interactive and poetic situation, leaving the audience to consider their wishes, with the possibility of having their wishes fulfilled" The artist was high above in the tower armed with a baby monitor (so he could hear the wishes), small parachutes, little boxes, paper and pen, and various small objects. From his perch on high, he would create answers to the wishes and parachute them down to the recipient.

But what really got me started with him is his papercut art.
I couldn't pick just one.

Hello 2009!

Wishing you the best of everything in the new year!
From: Lucy, Ranger, Arturo, Woodrow, Yeti, Boise, Ruby, Malone, Gwendolyn Fig, Jam, Ivy, London, Bear, & Little.
It will be so much better than 2008.
No more Bush! Yay, Obama!