I first discovered designer Jeff Leatham a couple years ago when he was resident florist for Hotel George V in Paris prior to staring in his own show flowers: uncut.
Watch this video of him and his floral designs at the Hotel George V.
Showing posts with label france. Show all posts
Showing posts with label france. Show all posts
20 October 2009
25 December 2008
24 September 2007
I have failed to post anything all summer, I have been busy making jewelry, reading and looking into applying for my masters in environmental design. Here are some things that I have been admiring over the past few months...
I made very little art during the summer, but instead made bracelets whenever I had some free time. Pictured below are two of my favourite bracelets. My bracelets are being sold at Capitol Clothing on Broadway.
I have recently fallen in love with French artist Fafi's work!! She has been featured in the last two issues of Nylon magazine. She started off as a graffiti artist, working her way into galleries and now her images are appearing on products for adidas and LeSportsac. She calls her work "girlie art", as the female characters or 'Fafinettes' she paints are extremely feminine and appear in an imaginary world of their own. Pictured below is one of her 'Fafinettes'.
This summer I read two books by Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Becoming a fan, I was interested in his inspiration and style of writing. Similar to his books, Safran's website, the project museum is both visual and non-linear. Foer uses unconventional methods for inspiration, asking participation in different projects. In one particular project, he asked readers to submit pencil-sketched self-portraits, which he later framed to examine at home. I heard one story where he was having writer's block and wrote to renowned authors asking for advise. Most replied with generic letters, but some replied in their own words. I found influence from this in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, where the main character, eccentric child Oskar Schell writes to many notorious people asking if he could work under them. In the first chapter, for example, he writes to Stephen Hawking asking if he could be his protege.
I have been looking for architects and designers that I really admire for their ability to incorporate and concentrate on nature and environment, in both the physical and designed context. Here are three that I have found so far:
Site Architecture, Art & Design
One of my favourite designs is their 2004 plan for a residential building in Mumbai, India. It is a multi-tiered structure with landscaping on each level, inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, including terraces and water features, and maintaining Vastu principles in historic Hindu architecture.
A-Z (Andrea Zittel)
Out of all their designs, A-Z 'Living Units' are my favourite, because of their minimalistic quality. It reminds me of the philosophy of tailoring space to humans' basic needs, similar to that of pioneer-architect Le Corbusier. To deal with housing shortages in urban Paris, Le Corbusier designed 'Immeubles Villas' in 1922 that...was such a project that called for large blocks of cell-like individual apartments stacked one on top of the other, with plans that included a living room, bedrooms, and kitchen, as well as a garden terrace.* Pictured below is an A-Z 'Living Unit'.
Inscape Architecture
For a long time, I have been infatuated with the idea of movable walls, mostly in the residential setting. Inscape Architecture has designed movable walls for the corporate setting. I love that they are glass and allow for natural light to diffuse, while still allowing for versatility in space and privacy needs. This simplicity of design reminds me of the exposed framework and the use of glass to enclose and define space of pioneer-architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Pictured below is an example of Inscape's 'movable walls'.
Inscape Architecture is brilliant at designing office settings, keeping to clean lines and simplicity of materials, and working towards good use of space. Here is another example of their designs, a meeting area and space for filling and storage is pictured below.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier
I made very little art during the summer, but instead made bracelets whenever I had some free time. Pictured below are two of my favourite bracelets. My bracelets are being sold at Capitol Clothing on Broadway.
I have recently fallen in love with French artist Fafi's work!! She has been featured in the last two issues of Nylon magazine. She started off as a graffiti artist, working her way into galleries and now her images are appearing on products for adidas and LeSportsac. She calls her work "girlie art", as the female characters or 'Fafinettes' she paints are extremely feminine and appear in an imaginary world of their own. Pictured below is one of her 'Fafinettes'.
This summer I read two books by Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Becoming a fan, I was interested in his inspiration and style of writing. Similar to his books, Safran's website, the project museum is both visual and non-linear. Foer uses unconventional methods for inspiration, asking participation in different projects. In one particular project, he asked readers to submit pencil-sketched self-portraits, which he later framed to examine at home. I heard one story where he was having writer's block and wrote to renowned authors asking for advise. Most replied with generic letters, but some replied in their own words. I found influence from this in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, where the main character, eccentric child Oskar Schell writes to many notorious people asking if he could work under them. In the first chapter, for example, he writes to Stephen Hawking asking if he could be his protege.
I have been looking for architects and designers that I really admire for their ability to incorporate and concentrate on nature and environment, in both the physical and designed context. Here are three that I have found so far:
Site Architecture, Art & Design
One of my favourite designs is their 2004 plan for a residential building in Mumbai, India. It is a multi-tiered structure with landscaping on each level, inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, including terraces and water features, and maintaining Vastu principles in historic Hindu architecture.
A-Z (Andrea Zittel)
Out of all their designs, A-Z 'Living Units' are my favourite, because of their minimalistic quality. It reminds me of the philosophy of tailoring space to humans' basic needs, similar to that of pioneer-architect Le Corbusier. To deal with housing shortages in urban Paris, Le Corbusier designed 'Immeubles Villas' in 1922 that...was such a project that called for large blocks of cell-like individual apartments stacked one on top of the other, with plans that included a living room, bedrooms, and kitchen, as well as a garden terrace.* Pictured below is an A-Z 'Living Unit'.
Inscape Architecture
For a long time, I have been infatuated with the idea of movable walls, mostly in the residential setting. Inscape Architecture has designed movable walls for the corporate setting. I love that they are glass and allow for natural light to diffuse, while still allowing for versatility in space and privacy needs. This simplicity of design reminds me of the exposed framework and the use of glass to enclose and define space of pioneer-architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Pictured below is an example of Inscape's 'movable walls'.
Inscape Architecture is brilliant at designing office settings, keeping to clean lines and simplicity of materials, and working towards good use of space. Here is another example of their designs, a meeting area and space for filling and storage is pictured below.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier
6 December 2006
This little story is about a small Island I went to visit years ago. The island is called Ile d'Aix. I had written this story and then pasted it on top of this background of hollyhocks. This was one of the most remote and beautiful places I have been to. There were tons and tons of hollyhocks everywhere on this island! Click on the image to view the larger version.
This is the full story: L’ile d’Aix
This tiny island reminds me of my grandmother’s home and yard, vulnerable from all sides, its homes chipped and worn from the ocean winds. It has a natural charm decorating-type magazines seek to imitate. Hollyhocks, hundreds upon hundreds are sagging from fences and homes, and swaying, and reaching out sideways. Their bright fleshy tones for petals, pinks and blood reds ready to blossom, burst out, flowing forward-my tongue reaches for the taste this season brings. We sat on a patio made of stones, sunk deep into the dirt. I satisfied my thirst on a sugary mixture of Orangina and grenadine and played with the tiny sugar cubes wrapped in paper packaging imprinted with pictures of great cathedrals. This island’s colour is sweetness, and so pretty it hurts the eye like a sweet tooth.
This is the full story: L’ile d’Aix
This tiny island reminds me of my grandmother’s home and yard, vulnerable from all sides, its homes chipped and worn from the ocean winds. It has a natural charm decorating-type magazines seek to imitate. Hollyhocks, hundreds upon hundreds are sagging from fences and homes, and swaying, and reaching out sideways. Their bright fleshy tones for petals, pinks and blood reds ready to blossom, burst out, flowing forward-my tongue reaches for the taste this season brings. We sat on a patio made of stones, sunk deep into the dirt. I satisfied my thirst on a sugary mixture of Orangina and grenadine and played with the tiny sugar cubes wrapped in paper packaging imprinted with pictures of great cathedrals. This island’s colour is sweetness, and so pretty it hurts the eye like a sweet tooth.
2 November 2004
Ever wanted to visit La Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris? Here is a link to a 3-D virtual tour of the graveyard and visit such grave sites as Ingres, Descartes, Corot, David, Delacroix, Ernst, Morrison, Chopin, Seurat, Gericault, Wilde and so on.
This is how I remember the cemetery and other places in France:
09.08.97
L’ile d’Aix
This tiny island reminds me of my grandmother’s home and yard, vulnerable from all sides, its homes chipped and worn from the ocean winds. It has a natural charm decorating-type magazines seek to imitate. Hollyhocks, hundreds upon hundreds are sagging from fences and homes, and swaying, and reaching out sideways. Their bright fleshy tones for petals, pinks and blood reds ready to blossom, burst out, flowing forward-my tongue reaches for the taste this season brings. We sat on a patio made of stones, sunk deep into the dirt. I satisfied my thirst on a sugary mixture of Orangina and grenadine and played with the tiny sugar cubes wrapped in paper packaging imprinted with pictures of great cathedrals. This island’s colour is sweetness, and so pretty it hurts the eye like a sweet tooth.
10.08.97
Mass and Market
It was a very quick family trip to both mass and market today. In both venues, everyone is free to come and go. You can come just long enough to secure either your salvation or sustenance
18.08.97
Soirées Mousse
If I were to describe this evening using paint, I’d blow liquid paint through straws, effecting splatters all over my paper, and let it dry with my saliva bubbles. It was a sadistic evening, where the bar staff filled the dance floor with foam every half hour to the anthem “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2. Big black shiny tubes pumped and churned out soapsuds, filling the room foot by foot until it was high above our heads. I was drowning on soap as I sputtered and flailed my arms, but to others it must have looked like a dance of complete elation.
20.08.97
French movies
We had a quiet evening watching movies. We watched the entire Godfather series in French dubbed voices. As well as the movie Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise. I am amazed at what a dubbed voice does to change a person’s personality. Tom Cruise’s character now seems halfhearted to me, yet to Marie he is very passionate.
29.08.97
La Père Lachaise
The man at the gate sold us a map of the cemetery,so we could find our way easier to famous grave sites, such as Chopin, Descartes, Ingres and Jim Morrison. We still got lost in a maze of stones and immense vegetation. Paths leading to paths that led to nowhere, but back to the path we were on. Instead we found the enshrined tombs buried in letters, flowers and candles - as markers of the most cherished grave sites.
30.08.97
Les Catacombes
We descended spiral stairs down and down into the bowels of the city. It was literally the intestines of Paris, where sewage lines leaked and seeping green ooze dripped down above our heads into the tunnels. The tour guide suggested using umbrellas if we had brought them along with us. This is where they once emptied old Parisian cemeteries to solve problems of overpopulation and space. Stacks of human bones and skulls lined the walls of the passages. It was a subterranean “Day of the Dead” in the gut of Paris, and I wondered if the souls of the dead had returned and were all around us now.
This is how I remember the cemetery and other places in France:
09.08.97
L’ile d’Aix
This tiny island reminds me of my grandmother’s home and yard, vulnerable from all sides, its homes chipped and worn from the ocean winds. It has a natural charm decorating-type magazines seek to imitate. Hollyhocks, hundreds upon hundreds are sagging from fences and homes, and swaying, and reaching out sideways. Their bright fleshy tones for petals, pinks and blood reds ready to blossom, burst out, flowing forward-my tongue reaches for the taste this season brings. We sat on a patio made of stones, sunk deep into the dirt. I satisfied my thirst on a sugary mixture of Orangina and grenadine and played with the tiny sugar cubes wrapped in paper packaging imprinted with pictures of great cathedrals. This island’s colour is sweetness, and so pretty it hurts the eye like a sweet tooth.
10.08.97
Mass and Market
It was a very quick family trip to both mass and market today. In both venues, everyone is free to come and go. You can come just long enough to secure either your salvation or sustenance
18.08.97
Soirées Mousse
If I were to describe this evening using paint, I’d blow liquid paint through straws, effecting splatters all over my paper, and let it dry with my saliva bubbles. It was a sadistic evening, where the bar staff filled the dance floor with foam every half hour to the anthem “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2. Big black shiny tubes pumped and churned out soapsuds, filling the room foot by foot until it was high above our heads. I was drowning on soap as I sputtered and flailed my arms, but to others it must have looked like a dance of complete elation.
20.08.97
French movies
We had a quiet evening watching movies. We watched the entire Godfather series in French dubbed voices. As well as the movie Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise. I am amazed at what a dubbed voice does to change a person’s personality. Tom Cruise’s character now seems halfhearted to me, yet to Marie he is very passionate.
29.08.97
La Père Lachaise
The man at the gate sold us a map of the cemetery,so we could find our way easier to famous grave sites, such as Chopin, Descartes, Ingres and Jim Morrison. We still got lost in a maze of stones and immense vegetation. Paths leading to paths that led to nowhere, but back to the path we were on. Instead we found the enshrined tombs buried in letters, flowers and candles - as markers of the most cherished grave sites.
30.08.97
Les Catacombes
We descended spiral stairs down and down into the bowels of the city. It was literally the intestines of Paris, where sewage lines leaked and seeping green ooze dripped down above our heads into the tunnels. The tour guide suggested using umbrellas if we had brought them along with us. This is where they once emptied old Parisian cemeteries to solve problems of overpopulation and space. Stacks of human bones and skulls lined the walls of the passages. It was a subterranean “Day of the Dead” in the gut of Paris, and I wondered if the souls of the dead had returned and were all around us now.
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