Easter Basket

This year, I was lucky to find a basket in the shape of a duck. Not everyone looks out for a duck-shaped basket, but I'm no ordinary bird. Back in January, John and I stopped into an antique store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where I spotted such a ducky basket tucked away on a dealer's shelf. I wanted to transform the green ducky into a sleek black swan, as inspired by a project I had seen before with the exact same basket. I loved Kevin Sharkey's usage of an unconventional (darker) Easter palette using black and rich purples. For my basket, I added my gilded eggs I made a couple years ago. I'm happy with how my swan turned out and I think it'll look great on our Easter table this year.

 

Halloween

This year for Halloween I put out some old and new finds in our apartment. I have finally invested in some vintage hard plastic pumpkins and I definitely hope to grow my collection (they're on the top shelf and are the two smallest pumpkins shown). The largest pumpkin is new (as in not vintage), but I got it in Portland two years ago. When John and I were preparing to move, I was willing to sacrifice it (give it away) to save space in moving, but John insisted I keep it. I really love it and I kind of obsessed about getting it and it definitely gets people talking when they see it.

I found a really fantastic antique urn I've been searching for on ebay on-and-off for several years. And it was a good deal! I cut some random weeds in our alleyway and I think it looks very autumnal and a little bit creepy. 

I somehow divided up my Halloween decorations into colored groups by orange and black and black and white. The small witch silhouette (pictured below) was for supposed to be enlarged for a yard decoration, but I kept it small. Also, our beloved (stuffed) corgi Cornwall has been getting cold recently so he's bundled up to stay warm. And finally, I've been very eager bake and decorate sugar cookies. I think my attempt at frosting cookies this year turned out well enough.

Have a very Happy (and scary) Halloween!

Deville Cohen at Disjecta

Paperclips, thumbtacks, and photocopies of cheese graters--these office 'staples' if you will, comprised an intriguing exhibition by Deville Cohen, an Israeli contemporary artist from New York.  Cohen has recently shown his work "Zero" in a gallery in North Portland (NoPo) called Disjecta.  Disjecta is an art space that includes an art gallery, a lecture space, and a large open gallery.  Cohen's piece was a dimly lit space large maze filled with discombobulated black cardboard forms that direct people toward a projected film in an area toward the back of the space.  The entrance began with a turn-style made of black matte board with large photocopies of cheese graters.  Cohen developed his 'set' with temporary semi-abstract black structures that seemed to loosely suggest graphs, radar grids, and sonar screens.  

The projected movie shown at the back of the installation was a surrealist parody of soap operas, day time dramas, with references to The X-Files.  The interim time between the shows was filled with large paper puppets/two dimensional objects, magnifying glasses, and other things that suggested kinetic imagery similar to the intros of sci-fi television shows.  The revelation of skin peaking through from legs and arms supporting the 'puppets' shows that Cohen wants to show how the performance is structured and played through.  

The intentional imperfect craftsmanship of binder clips, thumbtacks, and other office paraphernalia shows Cohen's influence by popular and office culture, that's haphazard and awkward.  He seems to be offering a perspective of contemporary art that considers a thoughtful glance about media and social norms, which is full of dark humor, isolation, and ironic kitsch.