Before They Pass Away

I recently found this and was totally blown away: www.beforethey.com

It is one of the most beautiful photo series I have ever found. Before They Pass Away was shot by photographer, Jimmy Nelson, and documents cultures around the globe whose way of life could be on the verge of extinction.  I am not going to write about it all too much because these exquisite images will speak for themselves.  One thing that makes it quite unique is how it feels like you are staring at images from the past through a modern lens.  There are a lot of images on this post but many more at the beforethey site.

-Brian

David

An open call to artists went out: create a portrait of the founder of the School of Visual Arts MFA Fine Arts program and recently retired chair, David L. Shirey. Organized by SVA alums at the studio/art space that they run and named after the man himself, The Shirey will be showing the work in their exhibition simply titled David on October 18th, 2013. 

I sent in my ink on paper version (pictured above) last week. When I was thinking about how I might want to portray the man, the myth, the legend, I knew that his eyes should be most prominent, as they are one of the first things you notice about him. They are a bright, piercing, other-worldly blue. Like, there is no way this blue exists in real human eyeballs on this earth. He is also super broad and muscular because he works out constantly. Like, he knows people at his local gym so they lock him in at night when they're done cleaning up so he can continue his grueling regime well past midnight. Oh yeah, did I mention he's also in his 80s? And while his physical fitness is important to him, and he often wears obscenely tight shirts to show it off, there is always a side of Shirey that remains hidden, buttoned up. He is extremely private and incredibly smart and he has a wonderful way of making you feel like you're the most important and interesting person in the room when he talks to you. I had the privilege of working with him at SVA for two years after I was a student in the program and I am so very grateful for the opportunity he gave me and for the chance I got to know him better. 

Go see this group exhibition at The Shirey located at 47 Thames Street in Brooklyn, NY on Friday, October 18th, 2013 from 7 pm-11 pm. While you're there, take pictures of everyone's work and send them to me. Then hoist a light beer (his favorite) to the man who brought us all together. 

- Cathleen   

All the Small Things

There are many things I don't appreciate about our apartment. The screamy downstairs neighbors, the crazy upstairs neighbor, the howly next door neighbors; all loud in their own distinct ways at all times of the day and night. The derelicts that hang out in our "lobby" smoking weed and cigarettes, leaving behind garbage, graffiti and stink in their wake. The crappy basement dryers and leaky upstairs bathroom (also that crazy neighbor lady's fault), both ruining our nice wedding-gifted towels on a semi-weekly basis for awhile there. It's enough to make a person declare every other week that they want to move out. 

But after four years together—me and the apartment, that is—there are a few things that I do like about our space, and it's mostly in the details. When we began the search for our first home, Micky was totally sold when he saw the chalkboard wall in the kitchen. Once I assured him that we could do that ourselves anywhere we lived and that we had to look past the bells and whistles to see the real bones of the place, it was the old pre-war touches that really drew us—ok, me—in. The filagreed light switch in the bedroom, the portrait molding in the living room, the built-in ironing board in the kitchen that I have never set up for fear of unleashing a colony of live spiders and dead insect carcasses. This was the stuff that Brooklyn apartment dreams were made of!

Now that we've got another little person in the mix, with all of his bulky baby trappings, I'm definitely looking forward to finding someplace bigger with less baggage to live in soon. In the meantime though, I do admit that I will miss the features that made this place so special. With that I give you a photographic love letter to all the small things I love most.  

- Cathleen

One Stop Shopping with Sarah McNeil

Mittens No. 18 & 12

$68 a pair from SarahMcNeil on Etsy

You guys ready for Cyber Monday? I've already started in on my Christmas shopping, and really want to give the gift of handmade this year. Illustrator and maker of lovely things, Sarah McNeil has a little something for everyone in that department. Beautiful hand knit mittens in perfect shades of pink, gray and mint green. Original flora and fauna illustrations and prints. Funny eyeball stickers. Clever graphic zines. Fuzzy animal brooches. And thoughtful commissioned pet portraits. 

You can see more of Sarah's work on her website www.400pencils.com

And purchase her handiwork directly from her Etsy shop: SarahMcNeil

Trying to be Happy a Lot of the Time and Fox and Fir Giclee Print Set

14cm x 12.3cm, with 0.5cm borders and a 1.5cm border at the bottom

$40 from SarahMcNeil on Etsy

Updated Report of Observations Which Seem to Reflect Abstractly on Life Zine

$4 from SarahMcNeil on Etsy

Hand Cut/Drawn Eye Stickers

$16 from SarahMcNeil on Etsy

Commissioned Pet Portrait

$200 from SarahMcNeil on Etsy 

- Cathleen 

Artwork of the Week: a man's nape. with ears.

a man's nape. with ears. by Robyn B. West

4 x 5" print (w/ 1" border) of original painting, $12 via smiling robyn on Etsy

A girl named Mary Stork used to draw pencil portraits of the backs of people's heads during class in my high school. Whomever was sitting in the desk in front of her was a captive audience, at least until the period ended, and by the time we graduated she had done all of the girls in our grade. I found the portraits to be just as revealing as the face-first variety—everyone had their own distinctive hairstyle, with their mother-of-pearl barrettes clipping up curls or the way they pulled their ponytail into a bun with a fan of fringe that always flared off to the right. I so wish that I got my own portrait to keep. For some reason I have Marita Horvath's (on a torn piece of paper somewhere), but it's definitely one of my favorite fragments from my time at the Oakcrest College Preparatory School for Girls.   

Searching for something comparable online, I found the above portrait by Robyn B. West that I thought was quite nice. You can see more of Robyn's work in her Etsy shop here.

- Cathleen