Friday Inspiration- Getting Modern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Happy friday folks!

This week my family has been on a New York City whirlwind adventure.
Yesterday we visited The Metropolitan Museum's' modern art wing and stumbled upon the AWESOMEST exhibit EVER!

Punk: Chaos To Couture

Seriously if you are in town this is THE exhibit to go see.
Wonderfully inspiring and totally edgy.
The galleries alone are worth a walk through- never mind the fantastic couture by big names like Alexander McQueen.
I wish I had dared to take some photos but it's not allowed- I was scared we would get thrown out.

After you check THAT out PLEASE make your way over to The Brooklyn Museum for

Gravity and Grace: Monumental works by El Anatsui

Ghanaian artists El Anatsui makes huge and gorgeously woven wall hangings out of scrap metal, plastic and wood.
Traditional and wonderfully cutting edge all at once, this exhibit is at the Brooklyn Museum till August 4th.

Here are the pix from our trip to the Met:

"Alquimia XIII" by Olga De Amaral
Linen, rice paper, gesso and gold leaf- WOW!!!
Sorry for the crappy iPod photo- I was running through the gallery trying
to keep Lola from attacking the art.

Georgia O'Keeffe for some neon color combo inspiration.

El Anatsui at The Met- see how big his works are?
I's so wonderful to walk right up and see how he weaved the elements together.

Jasper Johns- monochrome inspiration- I HAVE to try encaustic painting at some point.

I'm sorry- I was too rushed and didn't get info on this but isn't it awesome!!!

Jackson Pollock- I just love the ENERGY in his work.

Before I forget!

A Flair For Buttons has a free shipping in the US sale this weekend!

Swing by the store and pick up all the gorgeous flair buttons you've been considering.

Have a great weekend!
Michelle

Happy Belated Mother's Day. A card and a short story

Hello!
Sunday could have been fun.
I had scheduled fun all morning with some projects and a quick Mother's Day Card for my Mom.

Photo Window card.
I used some of the bits on my scrap table including that super cute
Crate Paper flower die cut which has so far proven too large for any layout.

Card interior. This is my favorite family photo right now.

This is the story.
We decided to go to our favorite casual restaurant since we KNEW everything would be totally crazy with Mother's Day crowds.
But the line was kinda long so we decided- hey Joann's!
I wanted to find this super cute Deer stamp for my December Daily Album (still unfinished)
As I looked through the stamp baskets and my husband right next to Lola
She tripped right over her left Crock
Fell
and cracked her head open on the useless and empty shopping cart I had pulled over to the side.

Our first ambulance ride ever. I've told Lola that ambulances are places where heros work.
She loves watching them pass by. I could have lived happily the
rest of my life imagining ambulances looked like they do in the show ER.

Such is the stuff of a million "what if's".

Mine:
If I had only used a shopping basket instead of a cart.
If I had just put on her Mary Jane's instead of the easy "Crocks"
I'll never forgive myself for saying- ah these are easier than chasing her around the apartment to get her to wear her shoes.
If I had put her into the cart as I always do but she was SO HAPPY walking around...

My husband's:
If I hadn't walked to the end of the aisle.
If I hadn't pulled away the shopping cart so she hit the wheel edge.
If I had just insisted "Let's eat first."

Ok so apparently there is now this analgesic gel that you can apply
to cuts and totally numbs the area after 30 minutes? Dude- she didn't feel a thing.
We had to hold her head in place because she kept trying to see the needle at work!

None of this would have happened.
And naturally there are the obnoxious questions from certain family members who insist we are crazy for not suing the store.
Wait- how is Joann's responsible for my daughter tripping over her shoes?
The floor was clean.
Till her blood spilled on it.

I think if I can or should blame anyone I should go after Crocks.
Which SUCK.
PLEEEASE don't buy these shoes for your little ones.
Lola has tripped on them before but we figured it would be ok- we're going to a paper store.
What's the worst that can happen?

Lola is fine now.

The floor is clean.

She's got bare feet.

She's got 6 stitches and some gnarly looking paste on the outside so the scarring is minimal.

Lessons in motherhood.

• You might not get there in time.
• You are accountable for everything that happens to your your kiddo. That's a good thing.
• People will stress that they hope your GIRL doesn't scar in her FACE. Because permanent brain injury not as important.
• The injuries can and will happen right in front of you as your child is running to you. 
• You will have to take charge because everyone else will be yelling, talking to each other, handing over a maxi pad (uhm yes this happened- and I was grateful- at least SOMEONE did something useful) running the other way or giving totally irrelevant advice.

So that was my Mother's Day.

I'm ok now. 

I was feeling major guilt and utterly incompetent.

I was freaking out about concussions. 

Even the scarring thing started to worry me. 

Then I remembered my sister Leticia, my sister Melissa, my brother Guarionex and my nephews Kaine and Marcus.

What the hell- forehead scars are a family tradition.

Just don't let that *%#@ happen again Mom, capisce?

Chelle's out.

Inspiration Friday- Art happens.

HIYA!

This week went by so quickly I didn't make a thing.
Thursday was filled with ALL interesting things!

I've had a visit to The New Museum Of Contemporary Art in my "to do" list for over two years.
The have a gorgeous new building that looks like stacked corrugated steel blocks.

New Museum Website

See? SO PRETTY! Also? Giant metal rose! What's not to love?

I love modern, challenging and contemporary art museums.
The exhibit "NYC1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No star" was SO not time to visit this museum on a whim.
Very little of what's hanging in the galleries is ok to show here.
No, really.
Crude, shock baiting, obvious and irrelevant are all words that come to mind in regards to what's on exhibit now.

I am an open-minded person who enjoys having the rug pulled out from under her expectations.
But even for me, a good time does NOT include visiting a space where people stare and smirk at a "mixed media sculpture" of a man, a child and a goat.
That move.
Luridly.
Yes- feel free to imagine the very worst.

Who. Buys. This. Stuff?
More importantly, WHY?

I mean, yes, art is MORE than just pretty pictures to match your furniture.
Art is about making you see things in a new way.
It's about opening unexpected doors to new ideas and view points.
For me, art is NOT about beating the viewer over the head with the terms
SEXISM! RACISM! HOMOPHOBIA! FEMALE DISEMPOWERMENT and SUFFERING!

If I wanted to experience obvious interpretations of these societal ills I would walk down the street like I always do, eyes open.

When I see art, I want to be transported.
This exhibit took me straight to a dark place and left me there saying
"Ok. Never coming back here again."

Yet, there was another aspect to this.
As we trudged from gallery to gallery blocking Lola from the worst of the "art"
PS- that's not something I do. I would rather deal with the following:
"What is THAT?"
"That is a set of teeth jutting up and out of a chair." (See? Told you! BANANAS!)
But the husband wasn't HAVING IT!
He left and took the kiddo with him to the food court where a thousand tiny origami paper cranes flew.
Ahhh... art.
Transcendent and perfectly normal all at once.

In my feeble defense, I had no idea WHAT the museum was showing.
It was free thursday and we were curious to see the inside of the place.
SO not what you do.
SO. NOT. !!!
Always, ALWAYS check the museum website or stick to The Met.
The statues in The Met are naked but DO NOT MOVE.

I was feeling all kinds of mixed up.
Here I was grossed out by this spastic display of creative desperation
All the while getting a chance to relive my past.
Not a past of violence or political disempowerment but a past of youthful creativity and hope.

In 1993 I was a Freshman college major participating in an exciting program called Yo-Tv.
We got to make the exhibit video for the Whitney Museum's Biennial.

I met many of the artists in this exhibit 20 years ago when I was pretty impressionable but even THEN I knew the work was lacking.

Here are a few of the installations or exhibits I thought flew past their social ills moorings and spoke to the soul about truth not just capital lettered negativity.

Janine Antoni's "Lick and Lather".
Chocolate  or soap busts that have been licked or lathered.
The results are rather eerie and beautiful.
We can talk for HOURS about female ideations of beauty and empowerment or
we can admire this set of 20 busts that fills the room with the scent of chocolate. 

Didn't get the name of this artist but I loved the interpretation of words so hot they
burned the letters off the page. What a beautiful way to capture feelings and ideas about
sexuality, privacy and knowledge without thrusting body parts my direction. (EWW!)

No artist info- sorry! This was a huge room with wall paper, an orange rug,
lights hanging from the ceiling and music. It was pretty and I wanted a great picture
then the guard yelled at me for getting too close to the installation. So I hid him behind the light.

A photo of a  mirror. Cast your vote for what this stands for. Yeah pretty obvious.
I loved it anyway. It was printed beautifully by Zoe Leonard- an artist I got to meet
and whom I found especially insightful, inspiring and down to earth. 

Pepon Osorio. This two room installation showing all the stereotypical objects d'art that
Caribbean Latinos of a certain generation and dare I say, economic status, tended to fill their homes with.
On the floor is a dead body (a fake one- this is supposed to be a movie set).
I identified with and was repulsed by this but I interviewed this artist for the Biennial video.
I thought the work  didn't make a lick of sense but I liked that he was able to explain himself to
19 year old me plainly and without that tone grown ups get with ignorant know-it-all teenagers.

Uhmmm- enough of THAT.

The New Museum changes exhibits frequently so maybe I'll see something interesting next time- if I ever bother visiting gain.

Onto the more accessible art!
Thursday morning we lined up and waited an hour to get our portraits taken for the InsideOut NYC Project.
If you are near 46 street and Times Square and have a few hours to kill I suggest you line up.
It's free.
You go to the back of a black and white polka dot truck to sit for 6 seconds and get a photo taken- no backsies!
You can then choose to take the resulting poster home or let the crew paste it to the ground in front of the TKTS booth.
This was total AWESOME SAUCE.
We are going again because this happened:

Beware of "funny" faces and distracted toddlers. :)

If Lola had looked in the general direction of the camera, this would have come home with us.
I don't enjoy the sight of my daughter's enlarged nostrils.

Have a great weekend folks!
Michelle

Friday inspiration- Nolita Photo walk

Hello folks!

This week's photo inspiration post was brought to you by a recent walk through Soho and Nolita.

Hot little heavens for visual stimulation.

That sounds rather indecent.

If I get lucky I get to stand out front when I'm at work and make samples.
The idea is to try to capture a customer's attention and get them to see how they can
use the stamps and other products they buy while at the store.
I made both these cards in under 20 minutes using scraps I had on hand.
I rarely get to pick the colors I love most but a little orange helps both grey and teal pop.
Martha Stewart butterfly stickers, Studio Calico mist, Paper Source card stock and stamps. 

I just mean that there are so many museums and shops all close together that the streets are popping with ideas for the open minded crafter.

The ideas can sit in your brain for weeks when suddenly BOOM! an original page appears.

At least that how it works for me.

Case in point:

3 foot tall at marquee at sign.
I REALLY want to make one of these!

Big Boy gets several make overs.

This gorgeous bag hanging in a tiny shop in Nolita.
I didn't even try to go in and inquire how much it was.
The "feathers" are delicately curved sequins.

"Life isn't tragic, Love is being ignored."
Why this is fabulous: 1. They used Puffy
scrapbook stickers and brads. 2. Hello giant scrapbook layout!
3.This was a store window display.  4. It was over 6 feet wide.

Faces layered on top of each other.
This would make a great textile print.

Another mural I caught while the artists were still working.
No I didn't speak to them. Yes I regret it.

Wheat paste posters. 

Also?
I found a gif making app!
All you have to do is take a series of photos and open them in GifMill to animate- super easy to use.
The only drawback is that this is the final size of the file- it's crazy small!
Also- these won't animate of Facebook so you can't torture your friends with them (darn!)
Still...

Just imagine the tutorial possibilities!

Have a greet weekend. 

Go on and make something awesome!

Michelle

Inspiration Friday- Brooklyn Botanical Garden (and an art journal page)

Hello!

This week has run right past me laughing!
I barely had time to notice all the beautiful things so I could share them with you here.

Last night I was trolling Pinterest again.
I'm trying to figure out how to organize my boards since I have so many.
How do you pin?
How do you categorize it?

Here is a very quick page I came up with on the theme "summer heat/ summer sun"
Can you tell I'm SO over this lingering winter weather?

Don't ask my why I combined Tattered Angels "Frozen Lake" with Cosmo Crickets Twenty Three
collection paper and grey water color paper- it just "felt" right.

 The stencil set is from Michael's- 5 bucks and AWESOME!
I also scored on metallic Faber-Castell gelatos at TJ Maxx.
5 dollars for mixed media packs that included water color pencils and PITT pens.

We also visited the Brooklyn Botanical Garden which I put on my "flower watch" every year.
This year the trees have budded but none have flowered,
It will be a few more weeks before I get good Sakura photos.

I did take a couple of shots:

The Magnolias are still budding but the Chinese Camellia tree is in full bloom.

Many of our favorite trees have survived Hurricane Sandy. 

Tiny pine cones from the Japanese Pavilion.

Japanese Pavilion, Brooklyn Botanical Garden
First "winter" type shot I've ever taken.
I think I'm going to swing by and get a snow shot next year. 

Bonsai. It's amazing this tree is alive and thriving on a plate.
SO inspiring!

Sorry I cut the top off. 

Have a great weekend!
Michelle

Friday Inspiration- Photo App Discovery!

Hello!

Thank you to my Scrap FX teamie Sparkling Gnome for letting me in on the coolest app yet- Lenslight.

I've had a week to play around with PicTapGo (another photo app) and have decided it rocks!
It's so easy to lighten or brighten photos on this app!

Michelle's top five all time favorite Apps:

1. Hipstamatic- for it's "Jane" lens and it's "Big Up" film that has yellow, pink or black borders.
All the photos below were originally taken with Hipstamatic and processed in another app.

2. Instagram- for sharing (I actually don't like IG filters at all- most are too dark)
I took this image during that magical time when the evening light turns gold.
The photo was enhanced using my new fave app- Lenslight.

3. PicTapGo- for fast and easy (and controllable) image editing.
This photo used to have bright pink borders from my Hipstamatic app.
The "Montecito" filter made it all dreamy and over exposed.

4. Lenslight- for funky light effects you can fade or change color.
I've been looking for a way to add "rainbow" washes on my photos for a while now.
There are "Bokeh" effects in many different shapes- they can be shifted around the screen and the color can be changed- pretty versatile- it has one major problem though-
the filters all degrade your already pretty low smart phone photos. Use sparingly.

5. PicFX for Bokeh you can layer.
This filter REALLY degrades imagine quality.
Keep that in mind when using it especially if you are
thinking of submitting your project for publication.
Magazines like to see clean and very crisp images.

My scrap space organization project is still under way.
I've been buying mists for 4 years now.
I used to keep items in different spots so it was easy to lose track of how much crap I have.
Then I ran out of space.
Ikea Rikka picture ledges to the rescue!

Estimated count: 28 bottles a shelf- 3 shelves= 84 bottles!!

Shock and awe!!! Many of these are still new and unused!!!
I had them in the bottom of an organizer and forgot they were there.
Hoard much?
Yet there is an explanation.
New colors come out every 6 months.
Simply buying each new color from 3 different manufacturers- Studio Calico, Tattered Angels and Ranger gets you these many bottles in 2 years.
I haven't bought any of the Tattered Angels chalk colors I want.
And now I CAN'T.
Because it's very clear- I bought too much already and need to use it.

New York City Manholes!!!
I've taken over 30 images of these the last couple of days.
I love their awesome radial patterns!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Friday Inspiration- NYC photo walk-about

Hiya!

Yesterday was my day off.
Naturally I had a TON of errands to run so even though the day was freezing I decided to walk around and visit some of my favorite mural spots to see if anything new was up.

So. GLAD. I. did!!!

Here is what I found most inspiring this week:

BAST at Soho- not sure if the artist defaced his/her own mural- this was hella cool.

If you listen- the walls speak.

Ryan Russo's "Out Of Context" at the Charles Bank Gallery.
Acrylic spray paint and newspaper collage on canvas.

Meanwhile over at Nolita... (Kenmare and Bowery)

Crash AKA John Matos over at Bowery Mural
Also? POPEYE!!! TOO AWESOME!

Abandoned building across from
The New Museum has some of the best old school poster graffiti.
These are all letters cut out of ads.

Must go back and shoot this one again!

Detail of Ryan Russo piece- canvas was 8 x 8 feet.
Newsprint, paper, photographs- collage- amazing.

Layered oblong hexagon vellum over at the Anthropologie store window.

I freaking LOVE New York!
Michelle