Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Book Titles



How Art Can Make You Happy

&

The Secret Art of Being a Grown-Up


Yes! I am very excited to say that both of the forthcoming books of which I am the author, now have official and final titles. See above. Coming in Spring 2017 to a store near you!

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Yellow


I've talked before about how I organize my Pinterest boards by color. But for some odd reason I've only ever shown you the fashion images from my pink board (twice!). Here today is some yellow fashion for you to enjoy. As always, much of the credit for the original sourcing of a number of these images is due to the fabulous Wear Color.

Above: Solange Knowles at the Whitney Museum


Kowtow


Dior, 1973


Rosie Cook Textiles, photo by Ulyana Sergeenko


Mulberry


Photo by Bruce Dale for National Geographic, 1965


Humans of New York


Naomi Campbell photo by Irving Penn, 1991


Dries Van Noten, photo by Kevin Tachman


Delpozo


Burberry Prorsum

Monday, August 29, 2016

Tall


I thought she was tall in April, but she's even taller now. With these long first-grader arms and legs and torso and neck that, when she stands near some four-year-olds, as she happened to the other day, make them look like babies and her look like a teenager.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Plane.Site at Gagosian Gallery


I stopped by the new San Francisco outpost of the famous Gagosian Gallery (conveniently located directly across the street from the new SFMOMA) the other day to check out their inaugural show. Man oh man, have they really pulled out all the stops. The blue-chip nature of the artists featured means that you feel, while you're in there, more like you're at a museum than a gallery. Pictured here are some of my favorite pieces. Not pictured, but present, and rad, were other enormous names like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein. It's a heck of a thing.

Above: David Ireland


Pablo Picasso


Alberto Giacometti


Cy Twombly


Rachel Whiteread


Richard Serra


Louise Bourgeois (with Joe Bradley and Giuseppe Penone in the background)


David Ireland


Rachel Whiteread

Thursday, August 25, 2016

New Poem Series Poem #7


1995

remember those free
postcard racks that
used to be in all the
cafes in San Francisco?

for a while I took loads
and loads of those cards
every time I went to coffee
and we went to coffee a lot

and eventually made them
into a tarot deck using gold
marker to write all the suits
and whatnot on their fronts

but I never used it
I thought I would
but I didn't which was
how things often went



image source is here

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

All the News That Fits


Two good articles about art books have made their way to my desk lately (the way it works is that when an article about art book publishing appears just about anywhere in the press, three or four people send it to me within twenty-four hours--which is very handy). The first one, from the Aperture blog, is an interview with book designer Stuart Smith about How Not to Design a Photo Book (the image of photographer Martin Parr's book Hong Kong Parr below is drawn from this article--although, as far as I can tell it is not meant as an example of what not to do (and this despite the fact that that the gutter is running right through the person's face, which is generally a big no-no but which, I'd hazard to say, was done here as a deliberate and very effective choice). The second one is a piece in the LA Times about how great big expensive art catalogs are Keeping Print Alive (the Warhol image above from the book Three Centuries of American Prints: From the National Gallery of Art is drawn from this article)--and while, yes, perhaps that headline does read as a bit manically hyperbolic, the assertion is at least in part born out, not only by the evidence offered in the article, but from sales data going as far as 2012, as discussed here. So. That concludes your art book publishing news round-up for today. Now go play.


Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Ladies Drawing Night SF


Inspired by the original powerful Ladies Drawing Night crew of Brooklyn--whose book is out now and you should totally buy it!--we decided a few months ago to start up our very own San Francisco Ladies Drawing Night! Woo! We met last night for the sixth time, and that feels like enough to call us officially established, don't you think? Here is a picture from each of our gatherings so far--all photos mine except for the second-from-the-bottom one which I borrowed from my pal Guinevere because it was just too good to pass up.






Monday, August 22, 2016

Scooting #2


The way I tell if I've already used a particular instant photo on this site before is by file name: I name the digital photos with the same name I wrote it pen along their bottom edges when I took them, that way, when I go to save a new one (off the blog of my father who very kindly scans them all in for me like an absolute dear) into the folder where they all live, the computer very kindly tells me if I already have an image with that same name saved. Usually means I've already loved and saved and posted that same photo and forgotten that I did so. But now and then it means I took two different photos, probably years apart, and named them the same thing. This is one such pair. Big girl Mabel on her big girl scooter at the age of five-and-a-half, above; and tiny girl Mabel on her little baby scooter at the age of three, below. O the Passage of Time!! Perhaps the funniest thing of all is that she's wearing the same helmet in both photos (it's very adjustable), offering a vivid demonstration of the fact that her head about doubled in size in a two and a half year period of time.


Friday, August 19, 2016

The Black Woman is God at SOMArts


I went and saw the show The Black Woman is God at SOMArts the other day. It was various and fantastic. Here are some of my favorite pieces from the exhibition.

Above: Ajuan Mance "Josephine Baker and Maya Angelou Get Carryout from Manna Soul Food on 125th"


Ajuan Mance


Francis Mead


Karen Seneferu


Shona McDaniels


Amana Brembry Johnson


Selamawit Mekonen


Virgina "Nia" Jourdan


Alise Eastgate


Cynthia Brannvall


Francis Mead


Nye' Lyn Tho


Nicole Dixon


Lorraine Bonner


Latisha Baker


Karen Seneferu


Lakiba Pittman


Anna W. Edwards



Shona McDaniels

Shona McDaniels


Tracy Brown


Fan Lee Warren


BrittSense


BrittSense