Architectural Message of Chartres Cathedral
Medieval accounts tell of riders passing amid long fields until at last they see the spires of Chartres Cathedral begin rising into view. On the brink …
Breathers
Jewelry Raw & Cooked
If you show people two objects and ask which is a bing and which a bong they can often agree. Theories have been spun to explain this but …
I Can’t Get There from Here
Thinking about that which cannot be thought about. The emerald stashed in the heart of a Japanese temari ball — you’re delighted by the expert working of threads …
Stone Tools & New Tools
The first stone tools were made by animals 1.1 million years before those animals evolved to be early humans. They could well have looked like this reconstruction of an …
Hitchhikers
Among the delights in viewing a firehose blast of images is that you get unexpected ahas. Ever notice how common it is for one species …
Four Golden Hats
Golden hats (or Gold hats) (German: Goldhüte, singular: Goldhut) are a very specific and rare type of archaeological artifact from Bronze Age Europe. So …
Face It
If you can’t paint, don’t try selling us your paintings. I get impatient with the profound smudge, the swashbuckle of off-the-shelf colors, the — …
Mighty Lak’ a Rose
A Francis Meilland rose It would be appropriate to levitate softly after sniffing a Francis Meilland hybrid tea rose. No bold gestures for this subtle bloom please. …
Arctic Wonders
The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Arctic Peoples display at The Field Museum Imagine walking through a museum exhibition of the Americas’ preEuropean cultures, …
Light in Chicago
Chicago hotel interior, upper floor Above is a detail of the historic building that houses my Chicago hotel. I’ve spent an afternoon admiring …
Of Utopias and Turkeys
At the end of this post you’ll find reference to a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) that starts September 17. Free, no mandatory tests. Think …
Feelingful: Laura Ford
Beast and Espalier Girl, by Laura Ford via shanathegrinch The Welsh artist Laura Ford creates works addressed to your core. These are not Yayoi Kusama’s …
Xu Bing, the Real Thing
Xu Bing’s Phoenix is worth seeing with your own eyes. Mass has been instilled with grace, a legendary Chinese bird carries a message about China …
Computer-Assisted Fashionistas
Iris van Herpen fashion creation based on a high-speed camera photo of buckets of water tossed on a model In the high-wattage world of couture, outlandish …
Computationally Speaking
Three views of Fire Series [0352], computational origami by Erik Demaine and Martin Demaine via erikdemaine.org – Since the word computation harks …
Live and Learn: the Pratfall Method
A note from your blogger. I’ve recently become obsessed with trying to lay out some of the abstractions I’ve thought about for years. Can …
Deep Pattern
Look at these four Jeff Koons sculptures. What do you see? The more attention you pay the more specific you can be. Size, …
Facing It
Muscles of the human head from Gray’s Anatomy. via WikiMedia. Pattern, Sloan Nota. The muscles of the …
A Flavor of Realism
Before the Journey by Charles Bell, 1986 via Louis K. Meisel Gallery Realism comes in as many flavors as cheeses …
Drawing Shape: Contour Lines
Game store carpet, Paris via keepbusy Earth isn’t flat but this carpet is. Curving lines produce the illusion that the …