Grounds for Sculpture

Over the holidays I had a chance to visit Grounds for Sculpture, a sculpture garden located in central New Jersey. Founded in 1984 by a member of the Johnson & Johnson family, it's situated on the former New Jersey State Fair Grounds and features acres of outdoor sculpture installations (including several that put new spins on well-known works of art) and two buildings that house rotating collections of works, like the current exhibit of sculptures by Edwina Sandys, the granddaughter of Winston Churchill.

Arriving shortly before dusk on a winter's day, we had just enough time to look at some of the works, see the holiday light display (which was the only underwhelming part of the visit), and watch the peacocks that wander the grounds fly up into the trees to roost for the night.

 

It's an incredible place that now ranks among my favorite museum experiences. I'm definitely planning to return for a longer visit during the warmer months.

A Dog Governess

I've written before about the art of Janet Hill. I have to ration myself in looking at her work, though, or else I would be way too tempted to order more prints (and I already own this one, this one, and this one). But after taking a peek at her site recently, I can't help sharing a new series by her that I'm completely smitten with: Miss Moon Was a Dog Governess.

(image via here)

Each piece in the series features Miss Moon teaching a different lesson to her canine charges. You can see them all here.

It would be perfectly reasonable to hang one of each along my floorboards as artwork for Millie, right?

Regrouping

I recently gave the wall grouping above my sofa a little makeover. The "before" version looked something like this. I wasn't unhappy with it per se. I still liked all of the individual pieces, but found myself getting tired of that particular arrangement. I  removed a few pieces and added in some new items, both recent acquisitions and some long forgotten older pieces. The end result looks like this:

I kept one of my Black Apple prints in place, added an old Chagall print that I've had forever, two small canvases by Janet Hill, a mirrored frame from Pottery Barn (with a vintage author photo as a placeholder until I can find the right personal photo for it), and a vintage mirror matted with a page from an old encyclopedia that I picked up in Maine.

Have you done any redecorating lately?

Book Printing

I'm in the market for some art to group on the wall of my reading nook. For obvious reasons, I wouldn't mind if one or two pieces had a literary theme. Here are some contenders that I've come across so far:

A print that has its priorities straight from The Black Apple

A simple and sweet book lover print from The Book Fair

More book love by Rosie Music

 

Polka Dots in the Strand by Sophie Blackall

 (which I own, so it actually will be in the book nook)

A bookster that features text from a classic novel on a large scale poster.

Taking the same concept one step further, Postertext uses the text from a novel to shape one of its iconic scenes, like this one from Gatsby. 
(Don't you just love that they included a little green light in the distance?)

A literary map of Britain.

And last but not least, a charming "teatime" print (complete with a book, of course) by artist Yelena Bryksenkova.

Which one is your favorite?

Dancers Among Us

The hardest part of my self-imposed blogging hiatus last week was having to wait to share an amazing art project I discovered, Dancers Among Us. It's one part photography, one part guerrilla ballet that captures dancers in unexpected, everyday scenes. The final shots are gorgeous, not least because of the surprised reactions from some of the unsuspecting bystanders caught in the scene.

All of the images can be found here, along with many others well worth a browse, more information about the project, and some interesting behind the scenes videos that show how these scenes were captured.

In other news, I'm in the running for the Independent Book Blogger Awards on Goodreads. I normally don't do things like this, but I figured, why not? If you're on Goodreads and are so inclined, you can send a vote my way using the link in my sidebar. Ironically, I probably don't seem like much of a book blogger based on the topics of my recent posts. Don't worry, I haven't given up on reading, I'm just deep into the middle of 1Q84. I have about 300 pages left to go, so more coming soon on that, I promise!

Many Are Called

I just finished reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, which I'll say more about another day. For now I want to talk about how reading it led me to discover some interesting photos by Walker Evans. The Prologue of the book opens in the 1950's, years after the main story takes place, with the protagonist at a museum opening for Many Are Called, an exhibit of candid photos from the late 1930's (right around the same time as these pictures). Taken with a hidden camera (!) they depict unsuspecting New York City subway riders.






(Images from here, here, here, here, and here)

I'm not sure which is the most intriguing: the vintage clothing and newspaper, the blank stares and world weary attitudes....or those two chatty ladies!

Window Shopping on Etsy

I love Etsy, but I tend to run a bit hot and cold with it. I have a tendency to forget about it for a month or two, only to swing back into obsessively searching it for new shops. I thought I'd share some of my recent finds, starting with a few that sell quirky and whimsical art pieces.

For some reason, I've been really drawn to watercolors lately. The ones from JessicaIllustration have an especially bold, graphic quality to them. My British alter ego may want to pick up some of these UK inspired prints.





Based in the Netherlands, IsabellasArt creates intricate shadow puppets based on literary characters, like Mary Poppins and Pippi Longstocking. These would be so fun to incorporate into a children's room.



And on another literary note, if I ever find myself in need of a doll version of an author, UneekDollDesigns seems like it would be the place to look. Isn't the resemblance pretty uncanny on these Shel Silverstein and Joyce Carol Oates dolls?


Have you discovered any interesting Etsy shops?

Another Place

About a year ago, I was excited to see some of Antony Gormley's Event Horizon public art installation appear around Manhattan. The other day I learned (thanks to this post) about another Gormley installation on Crosby Beach near Liverpool, England. Like Event Horizon was, Another Place is a series of 100 life sized, figural sculptures. They're placed at various points along water's edge on the beach and are revealed and submerged to varying degrees as the tide ebbs and flows.

I think these are so haunting and fascinating. Can you imagine what it would be like to stumble upon these on the beach without knowing what they are?

And to keep from being too highbrow and artsy, it looks as though people have had some fun with the sculptures too:

(images via here, here, here, here, and here)

Delightful Doodles

Has anyone else been enjoying the great Google Doodles that have popped up on their home page this week? Between today's mesmerizing Martha Graham animation and Monday's tribute to Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss and Mr. Man series, I've been going out of my way to search for things online just to get a look at them.

These reminded me of how much I loved those books when I was little. I probably had most of the series, but my favorites were the fascinatingly small Little Miss Tiny and Little Miss Helpful. The disastrous results of her good hearted meddling would get me every time.