Flowery art installation in the Flat Iron Building

My walk home the other night took me past a wonderful installation in New York's famous Flatiron Building, giving me my daily dose of inspiration. The building is home to the Prow Art Space, a public art space where work is visible 24 hours a day, in a small dimensional glass triangle. The space is as unique as the art inside it and was recently home to a 3D version of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

The current installation called Flora Sutra L=T-V, by artist Serena Gidwani Buschi, couldn't be more different. Dozens of lotus flowers appear to be floating in the air, suspended from string or perched atop glass tubes. The style of each varies, and together creates a wonderful, colorful garden in the urban space.  Here are a few of my pics, and you can read more about the artist and the work here.

Some onlookers check out the space

Pretty flowers

These are see through, not sure of the material 

Close up of one flower, covered in flower patterns 

Floaters

The wolf

The art store in my Jersey City neighborhood displays murals on their outside wall, and the current one is particularly awesome.

I love the contrast of the fierce, radioactive wolf against the sad Disney bunny and the geometric shapes mixed with the eerie forest. Or maybe I can't get enough of neons. Either way I'm going to enjoy walking past it every day.  

He won't think twice about eating you

Smoking is bad, especially for bunnies

A little line art street art

It's been a while since I've posted about street art, so two super cool and super different pieces.

The first is the latest mural on the Houston/Bowery graffiti wall.  Very Asian influenced (the artist is Tokyo-born Lady Aiko), I love the girly but edgy color palette.

I'm also picking up little Lichtenstein

Smooches

At the other end of the spectrum is this poster sized line drawing of some guys jammin'. It was spotted adhered to a wall in downtown Jersey City; artist of course, is unknown.

Love the fluid lines, oh and don't forget to vote

Funny how these pieces are so different in scale, subject, and line style, but both use lots of white space and defined black lines (though the first are actually made up of many small shapes). 

Tokens from San Francisco

I recently took a trip out to San Francisco to visit some friends and see why so many people are migrating to the Bay City. While I don't know if I could get used to the unchanging temperature and the rapidly changing weather, it is a pretty awesome place. And what trip would be complete without picking up some paper goods as momentos?  Sometimes letterpress is just too hard to resist.

This map-ish card is by Karen Jean Organics for Loose Petals

A bright skyline letterpress card from Hello! Lucky

"Growing Horns" print by Leah Duncan

Love the soft colors and organic detailing

Paper bird garland from Lamali. I still can't get over birds.

I also bought some of that blue paper that changes colors in the sun. It's been probably 20 years since I last played with this, so lets see if I can come up with anything more interesting than an arrangement of leaves found in my front yard.

Use this paper to trick children into doing chemistry.

Here are a few extra things worth including in this post. I was hoping to get more street art, but I stopped trying to take pictures while riding a bike after almost colliding with one of those Lance Armstrong types.  

In the Haight

This was just a picture I really liked that has not been photoshopped.  Taken in Alamo Square.

Those are my three friends, not aliens

Can't wait to go back!

Upcoming travels

It's vacation time for this hard working girl! For the next week and a half I'll be traveling to a few destinations in Europe, so there won't be any new posts until August. But you can bet I'll be snapping pics every chance I get and sharing them with you when I return.
We'll be travelling first to Amsterdam, then on to Edinburgh, and finishing up in London. I plan on visiting museums, markets, and wandering the steets in search of inspiration. See you next month!

Street Art of Paris, Segment 2

These great works of art were all captured in Montmartre.  The most well known icon of this neighborhood, located in hilly area in the north of the city, is the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur.  The area is bustling with tourists and students, tacky souvenirs, 3 card monte scams, and artists aggressively trying to commission a portrait.  Although it sounds overwhelming, it was one of my favorite spots, bursting with energy and creativity.  With that kind of atmosphere, it's no wonder the street art was not your typical graffiti.

A plaster face mounted to a wall with a tribal
design. I like not knowing if it was meant to be
one piece, or if someone else added the  paint.

3 faces stenciled outside a cafe.

A cafe door, which did not look open,
despite what the sign says.

The other side of the door.  

Just a cool mashup of stuff on a stairway wall.

This guy is known as Monsieur Chat

 

Stenciled daisies on a slope along the stairway.

A weathered looking fellow, I love the sketch style
which you don't often see drawn right on the wall.

Looked like a painted canvas, I couldn't get close enough to tell.

Up next, local artists' paintings.

Taken by les mains

Last week I took a much needed vacation in one of the world's most beautiful and artistic cities: Paris!  There is an impeccable attention to detail in every structure of the city.  And it seemed no matter which direction I looked, there was something beautiful begging to be captured.  This shutter-happiness led to my taking 600+ pictures, averaging over 120 a day.  Mon Dieu!

Don't worry, I'll spare you the anecdotes as well as the photos of me looking touristy in front of Parisian landmarks.  This first installment of Taken by the Hand in Paris cover street art, which is everywhere.  There's standard nonsensical graffiti marking up the train tracks, paper sketches glued to cement walls, and much to my surprise and delight, mosaics.  This first set was taken on the streets near the Bastille, La Marais, and St-Germain.

Paper boar

There were lots of these 8-bit style mosaics, created or inspired by Invader

This truimph de l'oeil is a favorite.  It is positioned near trees
of the same height so you really have to do a double take.

I saw several of these Xes, but couldn't get any info on them.
"X Paris graffiti" is a pretty vague google search term.

The first floor rooftop was a very popular spot.

Another paper illustration.

Up next, street art in Montmarte.