Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir in a comic book form in which Marjane describes her unforgettable childhood, growing up during the Islamic Revolution.
Waltz with Bashir - is a 2008 Israeli animated documentary film and graphic novel written and directed by Ari Folman.  The film was conceived as a journey in search of Folman’s lost memories from the 1982 Lebanon War. Folman designed the film as an anti-war message.

April 08, 2009 by Designsquish

Above:The Unicorn is Penned, the Unicorn Tapestries,
circa 1495–1505,
the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York City



Above: Woodpecker
1885
by William Morris

April 01, 2009 by Designsquish

I love Charley Harper’s print, The Desert. 

March 15, 2009 by Designsquish

Robert Bordo is a painter and teacher at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is originally from Montreal, Canada but currently he resides in upstate New York.  Why do I like Robert Bordo’s paintings?  I do not really know.  Probably because they feel very free and traditional at the same time. 

March 09, 2009 by Designsquish

Benjamin Hemmendinger
Clouds
2009
Lithograph

Ben Hemmendinger graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is really good at painting clouds and his mom, Gail Kort, is a professional cloud painter.  I believe Benjamin painted only clouds for a year or two while studying at Cooper (although I could be wrong).
Now Benjamin resides in upstate New York.
(This posting is created by me, Anastasia Ugorskaya, watercolor/drawing artist and Cooper Union graduate)

March 05, 2009 by Designsquish

Apparently, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art now has The Institute for Sustainable Design. It was created in 2008, with support from philanthropist Jack Rudin, as a resource for education, research and public understanding of the principles and methods of sustainability in all design disciplines. “:Central to the mission of the Institute is the development of innovative pedagogies in architecture, art and engineering that will be models for the transformation of learning and practice for a sustainable future” The inagural lecture of Institute for Sustainable Design NEARLY TRAPPED:  DESIGN IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CONSEQUENCES was held at Cooper a few days ago by Paul Sears, distinguished professor of environmental studies and politics. 

Also, now Cooper Union has a new logo and soon will have a new building with green features.  The building is designed for sustainability, energy efficiency and air quality:

1. Innovative heating and cooling technology
2. An outer layer of semi-transparent mesh screen will create coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter.
3. Carbon dioxide detectors throughout the building will automatically dim power and ventilation when rooms are unoccupied.
4.  A co-generation system will produce some power for both the new building and the Foundation building, reducing the need to tap into the outside electrical grid.
5. The deck surface of the green roof will be covered by a layer of low-maintenance plantings.
6. The low-flow plumbing devices and the green roof will save more than 600,000 gallons of water annually.

March 03, 2009 by Designsquish

Today is a snow storm in Brooklyn.  Speaking about snow storms, artist Amy Bennett constructs paintings where houses, villages, roads and trees look small, like tiny toy models.  In a lot of her artwork, snow is taking over.  Amy writes that her art is a lot about isolation and quietness and by transitioning her models into winter, seemed to fortify these senses. 

March 02, 2009 by Designsquish

I made this watercolor/drawing of naked winter trees when I visited Pennsylvania. Watercolor, color pencil and graphite on paper.

February 19, 2009 by Designsquish

I am happy to show some of my watercolors at the Eponymy gallery and store.  It is owned by Andrea Miller and located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. The store is a mix of vintage and designer clothes, antique mirrors as well as tightly curated modern photography from emerging artists of Humble Arts Foundation.

by Designsquish

Vija Celmins
Untitled (Big Sea #2)
1969
graphite on acrylic ground on paper
33 1/2 x 44 in.

I love Vija Celmins drawings of the surface of the ocean.
“Vija Celmins immigrated to the United States with her family from Latvia when she was ten years old. She and her family settled in Indiana. Celmins received international attention early in her career for her renditions of natural scenes, often painted from photographs lacking a point of reference, horizon, or discernible depth of field.” “Celmins’s work demonstrates a remarkably close engagement with the natural world mediated by photography. Celmins has said her images dispel romantic notions of the sublime in nature.” - Wiki

February 18, 2009 by Designsquish

Amy Ross’ drawings, watercolors and collages have a surreal effect.  The drawings are rendered in the style of scientific illustration . It is not easy to distinguish at the first glance where the leg of the mushroom starts and the leg of a human being begins. People’s heads are morphed with mushroom legs and birds are actually flower buds on magnolia trees - Amy plays with similarities and differences of nature’s shapes.



 
Amy Ross
Legshroom With Bird
2008
collage on paper
10 x 8 inches

by Designsquish

Matthias Merkel Hess made these 28 terra cotta self-portrait flower pots for his 28th birthday. Each pot was planted with a nativis updated regularly e California trees chosen specifically for a friend or family member and then given away.  Matthias Merkel Hess is currently receiving MFA at the University of California . He also the founder of the Eco Art Blog (one of my favorite eco blogs) with a focus on visual arts and the environment.

February 17, 2009 by Designsquish

I love this painting by Danna Ray of new growth on a tree that was cut down .  Danna writes: “I grew up in a log cabin in the woods of rural South Carolina. Surrounded by forest and lots of crayons, I enjoyed drawing tiny bugs, and tiny plants, and tiny kittens driving trucks.”

February 16, 2009 by Designsquish

SEVEN DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS is a title of the show in Gagosian Gallery, NY and series of gelatin silver prints by Hiroshi Sugimoto.  Photographs in the show are of the sea and its horizon in locations all over the world. The photographs are taken different in time of the day and with different exposure time. All the photographs have remarkable sense of stillness and eternity. The ocean is still and seems as though it is floating in space and we are floating with it.  Hiroshi returns to the same subject repeatedly to reveal the “subtleties that he finds in the primordial sea, site of the origin and emergence of life as well as of eternal continuity”.
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo. In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center College of Design. Now he lives and works in New York City and Tokyo.

February 13, 2009 by Designsquish

Vladimir Collection carried and perfected the tradition of the 18th century European trompe l’oeil, meaning “nature in artifice” tradition. Plates are reminiscent of giant cabbage leaves, sunflowers and lettuce leaves. Teapots, sugar bowls and vases are in the form of melons, pumpkins and lemons.  Besides tableware, Vladimir Collection produces metal and porcelain flowers in realistic style.  Each flower and leaves are naturalistically painted and each terracotta pot is designed and handmade.  All collections are handmade in New York and signed by Vladimir Kanevsky, an artist, designer and craftsman who has been perfecting the art of porcelain inspired by nature for almost two decades. 

Not only Vladimir Kanevsky is a great master of porcelain craft, he is also a very talented sculptor.  He is inspired by human body - naked, solitary and vulnerable.  Vladimir explores human condition, sensations and the search of self.  I also think that earth tones of the terracotta and the fact that a lot of his figures face the earth, his sculptures are a lot about connection with the world, beyond self and losing self. 

February 12, 2009 by Designsquish

My friend Sergio is making New York City more beautiful by restoring and creating new architectural stone ornaments, reliefs, figures, gargoyles and public monuments. I like how they are not entirely symmetrical and organic.
Besides stone conservation Sergio is currently working on a documentary about atlantic rain forest. Sergio writes: “Some areas of the Atlantic Forest have been designated by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve because of their outstanding biological distinctiveness. Others, equally distinctive, beautiful and rich in species diversity and endemism, are still unprotected.
Until interrupted by human encroachment, continuous areas of forest extended for thousand of miles, linking the Great Araucaria Forest of Southern Brazil to the Amazon jungle. Many plants and animals have evolved travelling throughout the tropical and temperate zones of the New World. This flow is essential to maintaining the rich gene pool and species diversity of the area. The fragmentation of these forests places many species, including some existing only there, under critical threat of extinction”.
Webite for the film: ATLANTIC FOREST 911. 

February 09, 2009 by Designsquish

These are so awesome! They are animal pelts knitted from 100% nonwool yarns by Becky Stern.

February 08, 2009 by Designsquish

February 01, 2009 by Designsquish

This ia a drawing of a tree by Amy Talluto. Amy draws and paints a lot of trees, forest and nature landscapes. 

January 26, 2009 by Designsquish

This is Kim Holleman’s study for her Trailer Park installation sculpture.  Kim Holleman constructed a park with little paved road, a bench, a fountain sculpture and some greenery inside of a one small mobile trailer.  Theoretically this trailer can be parked and be a functioning park anywhere it goes for everybody to see and enjoy.  I saw this piece when it was parked in Williamsburg near Black and White Gallery.  There is something exciting about jumping inside a trailer car and ending up in a relaxing atmosphere of a beautiful park. Of course, it does not always work this way.



*below: Inside the trailer

January 25, 2009 by Designsquish

Boris and Kenny are my favorite artists with whom I went both to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and La Guardia high school of Music, Art and Performing Arts in New York City.  Their installations are absolutely stunning! The image below portrays one of their installations called “Below the Highline” and is a dying pocket park as they called it.



The installation took place in an old West Chelsea truck garage underneath the High Line Elevated train tracks.  Boris and Kenny filled the space with torn grass and logs from cut down trees, dead trees, dead leaves, branches, dirt, bushes, paint and stereo system with bird sounds. 



They made similar installation in the Summit High School, NJ and they called it ” A Tree Falls in Summit”.  They created a forest classroom for students of the school to enjoy. Below are some picture details of this installation. 

January 24, 2009 by Designsquish

Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors are so detailed and realistic. My favorite part about his paintings are the tiniest grasses and hairs that are visible.  Not a lot of people can master this technique.
On January 16, 2009, Andrew Wyeth died in his sleep at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, after a brief illness. He was 91 years old

January 16, 2009 by Designsquish

Drawing of a naked tree in the winter. Watercolor, pencil and graphite on paper.

January 08, 2009 by Designsquish

One of my my favorite drawings by Carson Ellis, artist from Portland, Oregon.

January 06, 2009 by Designsquish

Reform School is a store, web shop and collective based in Los Angeles, CA. 
Billie and Tootie write about their store:  “We definitely wanted to talk about how sustainable design is a huge focus for us, and that green living is important to us, not only in business but in our personal lives as well. We wanted to be eco-friendly without being too in-your-face about it. The last thing we wanted was to be another shop selling all things hemp & bamboo ( not that we don’t love hemp & bamboo)”
To visit: Reform School.

December 30, 2008 by Designsquish

Ancolie (Aquilegia vulgaris L.)
Albercht Durer
36cm X 29 cm,1503-1533

The Great Piece of Turf
Albrecht Durer
41 x 32 cm
Watercolor,1503

December 23, 2008 by Designsquish

This is a sculpture by Johannes Vanderbeek who lives and works in New York and
is represented by Zach Fueuer Gallery. (images taken from Zack Fueuer Gallery).  I believe this tree’s leaves are made out of metal and wax.  Looks very natural from far away but leaves are shiny and have small portions of unnatural blue pigment when looked at closely. 

by Designsquish

Brie Harrison is a printed textile designer living and working in London.  I love her patterns inspired by nature, traveling and children’s books.

by Designsquish

Taken by Adrien Casey in Massachusetts, near where he lives.

December 20, 2008 by Designsquish

This photograph is by Andrea Galvani.  Andrea Galvani was born in Verona, Italy in 1973. He lives and works in Milan and New York.
It looks like the rabbits were relocated to the North Pole or are trying survive Ice Age.  I think this photograph can be about global warming and mass extinction. 

December 19, 2008 by Designsquish