Jennifer Jeffrey, Writer & Editor

Random Photo Friday: Graffiti Truck

You might remember that I have a mild fascination with graffiti. Walking Petra all over the city, I've seen more than my share of spray can art and signatures scrawled in paint. A lot of it I don't like; some of it I love.

I like, but do not love, graffiti murals that cover entire walls. Many are decent, but not outstanding, so those go into the category of "meh." Simple signatures and other crude bits go into the "visual blight" column.

The sweet spot, to my eye, lies somewhere in the middle:  edgy and unpolished, with an arresting artistic composition.

That's what I like about today's photos: a van as canvas. A woman rises out of a sea of  blocky letters, swirling a skirt that seems to be made of sunbeams and wind currents.

I like.

Speaking of swirling: I've been whirling around the Bay all week, meeting with clients and spending more time in my car than I have in a long while. I'm not complaining - I secretly believe that I work with some of the most fabulous people anywhere (shh! don't tell!), but the result of all the going and meeting and note-scribbling is: no blogging.

*boo*

But I've got a couple of posts brewing, and once I get some work out of the way, I'll put them up.

In the meanwhile: soak up this gorgeous spring sunshine, and have a twirly-whirly, bubble-icious weekend.

Get Your Art On:

+ The SF MoMA Artists Gallery at Fort Mason is having their Annual Warehouse Sale. It's worth checking out, even if you just go to browse.

+ The Annie Leibovitz Exhibit at the Legion of Honor ends on the 25th. The celebrity shots are fun - who doesn't like to see Johnny Depp sprawled out on a bed  - but what bowled me over was the personal shots she included. Her tender, loving photos of her father's death and Susan Sontag's fight with cancer had me fighting back tears.

+ Remember when I wrote about Jen Beckman's 20x200 project? I received these pieces by Doug & Mark Starn this week - from an edition that sold out in less than 3 minutes. I happened to be sitting at my desk went the editions went live and was lucky enough to snag both. I did a happy dance when they arrived. Simply gorgeous, yes they are.

Where Are You Finding Inspiration Lately?

Blue Friday

Maybe because I'm a Pisces and fond of all things water-related, or maybe because my father's eyes are a dazzling shade of topaz, or maybe because I'm easily mesmerized by a spring sky, or maybe FOR NO REASON AT ALL, the color blue makes me twitterpated.

My first car was blue. My second car was blue. My third and fourth cars? Both blue.

I don't drive a blue car any longer, having finally come to my senses, but my eyes are still drawn to colors in the 210°-270° range of the color wheel.

It's Blue Friday! Rejoice.

Blue Links:

+ Shades of blue from the walls of Vincent Van Gogh's room

+ Oh, to be a blue balloon drifting across the sky 

+ The New Yorker wrote about people who dress only in one color.  The Blue Girl: woah. 

Photos Above:

+ A blue door in Acapulco, Mexico

+ Wave your hand in the air if you love Hog Island Oysters

+ A blue chair on my parent's deck

+ A box of blue plastic balls used to create the fabulously silly tree at Cornerstone Gardens

From Marcy Playground's "Opium":

Blue like water

Blue like heaven is all of the time

I'm all right

I'm just gagging on all the all right

Happy Weekend. Don't be blue.

Pink + Red Thursday

For Pink + Red Thursday, I decided to forgo the beauty shots I had lined up for some of the more neglected snaps in my iPhoto library.

A dew-spangled magnolia flower.

A muddy Radio Flyer in my mother's garden.

An aggressively humorous sign on a garbage can in New York that offers this choice nugget: THOSE THAT DO NOT VIOLATE OR DUMP HERE SHALL BE BLESSED WITH GOOD LUCK. Amen.

Pink + Red Links:

+ Our favorite Sartorialist discovers pink sneakers in Paris.

+ A photographer on Etsy captures a red umbrella.

+ The marvelous Maryam in Morocco drinks red wine in the pink desert.

And a quote from Jim Carrey's character in The Mask: (from the scene in Landfill Park, where he's leaping over park benches to chase after his love interest, and pulling all sorts of shenanigans, including plucking a red rose out of thin air and holding it between his teeth. I LOVE THAT MAN. Call me juvenile if you must.)

"My love is like a red, red rose...

And I am...

A little thorny."

Pink + Red Thursday is a good day for a fat slice of rhubarb pie.

Orange Wednesday

Jen Maiser turned me on to Hula Seventy a few weeks ago, and I've been dropping by regularly ever since for a dose of Portland-area inspiration. I loved Andrea's recent post about photographing strangers, and I'm already a big fan of the photo booth at the Ace Hotel, so she and I have that in common.

When she posted about participating in Color Week, I decided to play along. I'm not going to do the catch-up days, but I'm starting today with Orange.

Happy Wednesday!

ORANGE Links:

+ Orange You Glad it's Wednesday?

+ Sam has some fabulous orange in her kitchen.

+ The paint color of Golden Gate Bridge is International Orange.

Random Photo Friday: Inside the Elevator at The Scotsman, Edinburgh

One of my sisters and I traveled together to Scotland a couple of years ago. We hopscotched all over the country, from Glasgow to the Isle of Iona and back, and stayed in something like 7 different hotels. We had a fabulous time.

Some people are tough to travel with, but this one - she's a peach. She never lost her cool, even when my arms were shaking as I tried to get used to driving in the UK for the first time (on the wrong! side of the road, in the wrong! side of the car), and when I reversed into another driver on a busy road near Oban. Oops. (Hint: Always reserve rental cars with a credit card that offers collision coverage. You'll be ever-so-glad you did.)

Near the end of our trip, we drove into Edinburgh and stayed at The Scotsman Hotel. After days in the (gorgeously green) countryside, we were thrilled to be back in a big city.

"I love cities," I said to her, as we climbed into the elevator.

"Me too," she smiled.

We spent a good chunk of our time in Edinburgh in the hotel pool, which was located on the basement level. It was a huge, stainless steel rectangle in a soothingly dim room, surrounded by walls of trickling water. Float, submerge, float. Yummy.

I chose this shot for today because I loved the smoky, over-exposed colors, and the foggy glow of the lights on the elevator ceiling.

Happy Friday, peeps.

I, for one, am NOT going to be at my desk this weekend, and you shouldn't be either! 

Random Photo Friday: Kevin Bacon on Stage

Kevin Bacon is in a band with his brother. They're called The Bacon Brothers.

They're actually quite good.

And Kevin - he's fun to watch. He puts his whole self into performing. His brother has a better voice, but together - it works.

He has a pretty good life, I think.

Weekend Report: Watching, Reading, Eating

WATCHING: La Vie En Rose.

When Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, I felt slightly miffed on behalf of the American more experienced actresses who had been nominated: Laura Linney. Cate Blanchett.  Julie Christie!

Then, over the weekend, I saw the movie. It was gorgeous. Cotillard the movie star was virtually invisible; all I could see was Edith. Fragile, belligerent, talented, love-starved Edith.

From a scene on the beach in California in the '50's, where a reporter is interviewing Piaf:

What advice do you have for women?

Love.

What advice do you have for young ladies?

Love.

What advice do you have for girls?

Love.

x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x

READING: What is the What, by Dave Eggers.

I've had this book on my must-read list for months. Now it is breaking my heart, one masterfully-written page at at time.

From page 199 (paperback edition):

Death took boys every day, and in a familiar way: quickly and decisively, without much warning or fanfare. These boys were faces to me, boys I had sat next to for a meal, or who I had seen fishing in a river. I began to wonder if they were all the same, if there was any reason one of them would be taken by death while another would not. I began to expect it at any moment. But there were things the dead boys might have done to aid their demise. Perhaps they had eaten the wrong leaves. Perhaps they were lazy. Perhaps they were not as strong as me, not as fast. It was possible that it was not random, that God was taking the weak from the group. Perhaps only the strongest were meant to make it to Ethiopia; there was only enough Ethiopia for the best of the boys.

x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x    x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x   x

EATING: Kumquats. Whole: seeds + skin + all. I can't get enough of their bitter-sour-sweetness. I know I should slice them thinly and toss them in a salad; infuse them into something exotic; make them into a glaze and brush it over a hunk of meat. But they taste too good naked to fuss with them, so I don't.

And with sincere apologies to anyone who thinks that I am Very High Minded All of the Time, I can't help but wonder:

Don't kumquats sort of resemble... boobies?

 

Random Photo Friday: Melancholy Girl with Guitar

She was sitting on the sidewalk, strumming her guitar.

It was about an hour to sunset. The golden twilight cast a shadow on her guitar, silhouetting it against the garage door behind her.

She looked up at me with sad brown eyes, hair curling around her forehead. She said it would be okay if I took her photo.

I asked if I could email her a copy.

"No," she said dreamily, and bowed her head again, strumming. Lost in her thoughts. Beautiful melancholy girl.

Obsessions: 20x200, a Jen Bekman Project

ny.07.#34, by Jennifer Sanchez

The farmhouse walls of my childhood were mostly bare, save for a garish painting  made by my mother's cousin Robert that hung above the piano. Against a bright teal background, thick with brush strokes, Robert painted a simple vase, from which protruded the spindly stems of a dozen flowers. The flowers were modeled after a daisy, in colorful shades of red, white and yellow, each oblong petal distinct. At the center of each flower, Robert glued a shiny resin drop - gold, black, or clear - that caught the light and stared back at us, like unseeing eyes.

The painting was so hideous that it was compelling, so ugly that people who walked into the room could scarcely keep their eyes off of it.

It was lucky, I suppose, that we had the painting at all, as my father believed that art was a sign of vaingloriousness at best and the creation of false idols at worst, and thus we were encouraged to decorate the walls with dried flower wreaths instead.

Cousin Robert is no longer with us - bless his heart - and the painting has long since disappeared from the space above the piano. The edict on art at the farmhouse has changed, and now the walls are filled with botanical sketches and family photographs. I asked my mother about Robert's painting when I was home last month, and she vaguely recalled throwing it out at some point. I certainly don't blame her, but I feel an odd longing for another glimpse of its unabashed fugliness.

Which is a very long-winded way of getting to today, and my current obsession with art, and the ways I strive to collect beautiful pieces even though I don't have the cash to become a "real" collector in any sense of the word.

Hemi, by Don Hamerman

Ladies and gentlemen: 20x200, a Jen Bekman Project. Great art for hardly any money. Each week, the project reveals two original prints by an emerging artist: a run of 200 for $20 each, and a run of 20 for $200 each.

20 x 200 isn't news - it has been around since last September - but I wanted to write about it today, because, after following it for months, I love it more than ever. The whole experience - from viewing to purchasing to the pitch-perfect logo - is flawless.

The pieces are fabulous. I don't love them all, thank goodness, but they're always great fun to browse through. The Google Checkout experience is seamless - elegant and more intuitive than PayPal - and makes it easy (too easy?) to buy. Each piece comes packed inside a protective plastic sleeve, in a sturdy envelope, into which is nestled a certificate of authenticity and the edition number.

Every time I purchase one, I feel - well, giddy.

OTHER PLACES I FIND GREAT ART:

Kal Barteski's Tiny Art. I love the way she captures tender thoughts and feelings in these tiny pieces. I bought one a few weeks ago, and what can I say: I love it.

Ork Posters. My current favorite is the grey and yellow San Francisco screen print. Ooh, look - they're making one for Portland later this spring...

Inkdesigner. You never know what you're going to get when you purchase on Etsy - I've had both good experiences and "meh" ones, but that's part of the fun.

Where do you find art online?

Random Photo Friday: GROW Graffiti

With all due respect, empathy and consideration for the rights of property owners, I must confess to being fascinated with graffiti. I know it's not "okay" for people to deface property, but still: it appeals to my love of stark urban graphics that deliver a slap upside the eyeballs.

Here's a recent favorite:

It only lasted a few days; the garage door is now back to a uniform shade of pea green.

But yesterday! As I was wandering down random streets with Petra tugging at her leash, I saw another one of the same, the letters G R O W glaring out against a brick facade. Alas, I didn't have my camera. I'm going to try to snap it today, if it is still there....

I only hope this doesn't mean something awful and make me regret posting it.

Happy Friday! Now get out there and kick this weekend into shape.

:: PS: FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE ::