Stunning. That’s the word we utter when we look at the photos from Jim Denevan’s massive land art on an icy lake in southwestern Siberia.
Some of you might remember him. Back in 2009, this surfer-turned-environmental artist created the world’s largest drawing in the fine sand of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Using chain link fencing and a single engine plane, he carved out more than 1,000 circles covering a swath of land wider than Manhattan.
A year later, Anthropologie commissioned Jim to create a massive drawing for the anthropologist, a thought-provoking website which showcases the work of inspiring individuals. Over the course of two weeks, Jim and his crew carved a startling spiral of circles, along a Fibonacci curve, on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal, eventually converting nine square miles into a work of art. A team of filmmakers, photographers and artists were there to capture every moment and turn it into the breathtaking film—Art Hard.
Well, it’s about time we picked this theme back up again: Hollywood’s ability to suck the stoke out of a sport by making a cheesy movie about it. When we first conceived this idea for a blog series, it was winter (a few years ago) and we focused on skiing. Now that summer is almost here and the beaches are filling up again with weekend warriors, it seems like the right time to tackle the surf movie genre.
We picked the first movies that came to mind (we’re sure a few are missing), and the hardest part was determining if the flick was actually good or bad—or so bad it was good. So we came up categories that leave room for interpretation. Click on each title for a totally radical clip!
This clock we found on Etsy is absolutely perfect. Elegant, modern, and understated, it’s one of those simple things that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” This is probably the best use of bike parts for home decor since Picasso put together some handlebars and a bike seat and made his famous bull’s head.
This particular one seems to be sold, but browse through Pixelthis‘ other recycled items (the bike crank clocks are also pretty nice) and there’s a good chance you’ll find something that will make counting the minutes until your next ride a little easier.
Posted by Rick | May 16th, 2011 | Filed under Art, Music
Leisure Package is a website curated by Portland-based creatives Tom O’Toole and Ada Mayer. We follow them, and also Tom’s awesome Tumblr blog, Weirdo Vibing. Yes, these are places of great inspiration. It’s always nice when creative people take the time to share their favorite songs and even nicer when they package up their favorite tracks as a mix and make it available for download, complete with artwork. This compilation has a great mood throughout, bouncing from decade to decade without skipping a beat, from the opening VU classic to Flying Lotus to Patti Smith. It’s the kind of song collection that makes you think about the open road and maybe even plan a long drive simply to give the audio a worthy visual accompaniment.
When we first launched the Thought Kitchen, I had this idea that I would bring a little garbage home from the beach every time I surfed until I had enough junk to build some kind of art piece. I still have a bag of bottle caps, candy wrappers and broken cigarette lighters in my basement. Needless to say, it didn’t really work out. (It didn’t take me long to realize that I don’t get to the beach enough to build a monument of any significance.)
That’s not the case with Washed Ashore, a community art project sponsored by the Artula Institute of Bandon, Oregon. They’ve mobilized hundreds of people to collect plastics that have washed up on the beaches of Oregon to create large-scale sculptures of the wildlife affected by pollutants. Seagull feathers made of old flip-flops, whale bones made from milk jugs, a coral reef made from Styrofoam. In the words of Washed Ashore, this project acts “as an antidote to despair…” And it is, creating something beautiful from rubbish and raising awareness about a problem we can help fix.
Last week I stumbled across a pretty amazing youtube channel by a guy in Sweden who calls himself “Log Cabineer.” He shoots these really simple videos of a record player spinning old vinyl in front of the landscapes surrounding his cabin. They are powerful, calming, and have the amazing ability to transport one from their seat in front of a computer screen to a magical outdoor setting. Something about the way each video feels like a still life, with very subtle movements—clouds shifting, a fly hitting the surface of the lake—and the music mixing with the ambient sounds of nature is really enchanting. Have a look. Oh, and check out the video where the dog grabs his beer on command. What a life.
Wow. I can just imagine the assignment in preschool: Do a drawing about your dad and share it with the rest of the class.
Now, as a young dad myself, I can totally relate to this scenario. Of course I’d love for my son to immediately whip out the magic markers and illustrate my surf passion just like Kai, the son of our friend Mark Hoffman, did a few weeks ago. In my dreams, the picture would be of a grizzled version of myself screaming down the face of a giant north coast bomb. Fearless. Unshakable.
But when the subject of the piece is the angst that only a surfer who has recently given up regular trips to the coast to be a good father knows, things get a bit bittersweet. Certainly my own son has heard me lament about sub-par surf conditions, plea for more water time, and while watching surf videos, pondered my answer to the question, “Can you do that, Dad?”
Of course, we hope that those little moments of bliss when you score a soft, long, perfectly formed left at Seaside hit home with the kids—or at the very least that fleeting feeling of freedom when you get a few hours away with friends and a few cold beers on the beach. But that’s a bit tougher to explain to a 5-year-old.
Posted by Rick | April 4th, 2011 | Filed under Art, Music
When we first heard the tUnE-yArDs track “Bizness,” from the forthcoming album w h o k i l l (April 18), we really thought it was an African-tinged world-beat song from the ‘80s. It was on a mixtape, which strips all context away, leaving only the sounds to speak for themselves. Then we dug a little deeper and found this amazing video. It combines a few things we love—unbridled movement, eye-catching design, rebellious kids—to compliment the upbeat soundtrack, which is quickly becoming the background music for our own Spring moves.
Posted by Rick | March 25th, 2011 | Filed under Art, Design
Nothing gets us going like a nice, long downward scroll through a bunch of inspiring
photos. Here are a few we’ve been fixated on lately—click the pic to check the blog:
The Thought Kitchen is our effort at collective inquiry and its power to affect change. Have you ever noticed how the party is always in the kitchen? There are more walls to lean on and people are energized by the proximity to food and drink. Well, welcome to our kitchen, where we hope to tap into everything we love about that feeling—community, vivacious exchange, food for thought.
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