3. Speaking of Canada, Spanish video production outfit CANADA produces fantastic videos with an aesthetic which is retro, kitschy, erotic and unsettling. Perhaps better examples of their peculiar style are found in their Scissor Sisters, Battles, or Vaccines videos — all of which are great — but here’s one that’s safe-for-work, which channels both 60s live-music acts and Michelle Gondry.
4. And, Best Coast has a video that merges creepy and cutesy beautifully, with slow-motion that brings us back to the first.
I love this video all the more because it reminds me of near-forgotten video I saw just once in the early 90s, a black and white, seemingly one-take video of firing squad executions in the desert — panning between the condemned stage right, the shooters stage left and the deadpan lovesong singer center foreground… Google and Bing have failed me. Anyone?
Doesn’t this awesome new animated video from Lesley Barnes for Belle and Sebastian
seem like the perfect way to transition into the long weekend?
Happy 4th of July!
Although it’s deep summer, San Francisco this week is chilly, rainy and otherwise surprisingly wintry. So please understand that the weather was the inspiration for this week’s schmetsy: snowy white porcelein loveliness.
I was thinking of doing a whole post on cyanotypes today, but then I saw these 2 pieces from Lenny&Meriel, and I thought they were pretty enough for their own post. I’m pretty much always a fan of the texture and tone in cyanotypes and I love the interaction between the circles and lines in these prints.
Since tomorrow is the first official day of Summer and the weather is remarkably beautiful today, I thought New Zealand based photographer Andrew Smith’s (AKA CubaGallery) work would be perfect. He has a great sense of color and composition and these images make me want to run around outside. Cuba Gallery also has a blog where he talks about his post-production techniques using Adobe Lightroom and shows some pretty impressive before-and-after images for his photographs.
I really hate asking people for money, but, it is definitely easier asking for money for someone else. So, I am appealing to you all to head on over to Kickstarter and help fund 69°S.: The Final Stage. 69°S. is the latest production from Phantom Limb—founded and directed by the super talented Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko. For 69°S., they are collaborating with an amazing group of artists, including the Kronos Quartet. It looks like it will be really fantastic, but they need some help making it as great as possible, and as they say, “every little bit helps.”
A few more reasons you should help:
Jessica and Eric are awesome, their work is awesome and their puppets are awesome. You can even see their place over on The Selby, if you need more proof of how cool they are. And, as even further proof that this is a worthwhile project, Kickstarter has made them the Project of the Day, which is really saying something considering all of the great projects they have to choose from. So, if you can, please help them realize this amazing artwork.
I love this living painting — a “cover version” of Van Gogh’s A Wheatfield, with Cypresses from 1889 — composed using plants rather than paint. Created by ans, using over 8,000 plants, the wall was built with sponsorship from GE as part of The National Gallery’s greening campaign. The painted masterpiece can be seen at The National Gallery and the living masterpiece can be seen outside in Trafalgar Square until October 2011. More images can bee seen here — so pretty.
We love to travel and it is no secret that we love maps (we’ve posted about them a whole bunch in the past). I also love seeing how many fantastic ways etsy sellers are making maps — from pillows to prints, paint-by-numbers to cut paper, here are some really awesome mappy finds.
Posting has been a bit light over here at The Experts; we’ve been traveling and working tons. But thanks to our pal Jesse Ragan, we can break our dry-spell. Through him we learned of Jessica Hische‘s lovely new font Brioche which she designed for his Type@Cooper class. It looks like a pretty fun face and I think she is right, it would be great for weddings. You can purchase it through Jessica’s site.
While out and about in warm LA this past weekend, I ran across this building that intrigued me–I couldn’t exactly tell if it was old or new. Kind of reminds me of the half-timbered buildings I saw throughout England. So many interesting things to discover when traveling. Hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend.
