I've found so many stories and links that I'd slung into the folders on my desktop, that the only way to get through them is to do a bit of a round-up. Maybe I'll make this a weekly feature since I always seem to find far more than will comfortably fit into my regular blogging schedule.
Links
Nick from The Boat Lullabies blog found a fascinating photographic history in a thrift store.
Bob collects pencils - lots and lots of brand name pencils. Now, I like pencils as much as the next artist but this strikes even me as a tad odd. It is a well done site though - I like the regularity of the design and you know what, Bob's right, these pencils are kind of beautiful when you see them all en masse.
Photographer Helga Steppan, organised all her belongings by colour - the results are stunning.
The Mega Penny Project is a handy way to visualise large numbers.
Such a clever idea - people who've matched their screensavers to the background behind their computer so that it looks as though their computer screen is transparent.
I adored this short animation called Hiccups 101 by Jessica Sances.
Craig Robinson has done a series of what he calls 'lollipops' - abstracted computer drawings of musicians and pop stars. I was fascinated by how little I needed to identify some of them. I listen to a lot of music on my computer but I don't watch MTV particularly, so I was surprised at how often the names of musicians instantly popped into my head - even ones I'd never heard sing. Even when I couldn't remember the name, I'd often still know who it was meant to be - I guess most of us are steeped in celebrity culture whether we want to be or not.
It's not art related but this YouTube video of a small child trying to communicate something important to his increasingly giggly father makes me laugh hysterically every time I see it.
People
Regular commenter, Tina Mammoser from The Cycling Artist has a good post about avoiding scams which was inspired by this post by Alyson Stanfield.
Ulf Nawrot who did the post-it drawings that I linked to back in August, kindly sent the following clarification on his process:
All my post its were drawn while doing something else in an ad agency: phone calls, meetings, brainstormings-if you are looking close you will find lots of valuable information hidden on these notes like phone numbers, comments etc.-but you will also find my different states of mind, anger, distraction, making fun of people...the whole thing started subconscious like the swirls and ornaments a lot of people draw on desks and everything else in reach when they are doing phone calls.I have been collecting my post its since 1993 and at this point there must be around 25.000 of them.
25,000 of them - wow, way to go, Ulf!
Tina Mammoser
Thanks for the link, hopefully more folk will be helped by it!
As for the round up , well these things are all just SO cool! The pencils are oddly fascinating, the pennies useful (well, sort of), and the photographs of things by colour... I will never work about my obsessive tendencies again. *grin*
Tina Mammoser
Thanks for the link, hopefully more folk will be helped by it!
As for the round up , well these things are all just SO cool! The pencils are oddly fascinating, the pennies useful (well, sort of), and the photographs of things by colour... I will never work about my obsessive tendencies again. *grin*
Cat Vincent
The Lollypops mouse-over identity tags work in Safari. Some surprised me...
Cat Vincent
The Lollypops mouse-over identity tags work in Safari. Some surprised me...
Sheree Rensel
Kirsty,
Thanks for sharing the link about the "transparent" screensavers. I LOVE that idea!! I am going to try it!
:-)
Sheree
Sheree Rensel
Kirsty,
Thanks for sharing the link about the "transparent" screensavers. I LOVE that idea!! I am going to try it!
:-)
Sheree
Kirsty Hall
Hi Sheree, Unfortunately the flaking wall behind my computer just isn't that inspiring. I normally use my art as backgrounds, right now I have one of the pin images on there.
Kirsty
Post authorHi Sheree, Unfortunately the flaking wall behind my computer just isn't that inspiring. I normally use my art as backgrounds, right now I have one of the pin images on there.
Kirsty Hall
Hi Tina, I'm glad to pass these things on, it's great that we can all help each other in these ways.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one fascinated by the pencils, it reassures me that I'm nearly not as odd as I could be.
Kirsty
Post authorHi Tina, I'm glad to pass these things on, it's great that we can all help each other in these ways.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one fascinated by the pencils, it reassures me that I'm nearly not as odd as I could be.