Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are film is coming out tomorrow. The world's favourite book has had a 'wild' affect on everyone. I've seen no end of billboards, TV ads and even Urban Outfitters are getting in on the act. They have their own line of WTWTA toys, cushions, t-shirts, and other merchandise. As I also found out there is a Maurice Sendak exhibition on at the Animazing Gallery in Soho NYC, called 'Sendak in Soho: the artwork of Maurice Sendak'.



'Sendak in Soho' is the World's largest Sendak exhibition and sale of his original illustrations and etchings (they have over 200 of them). The exhibited work is a mix of conceptual illustrations and published work. It was a privilege to see the works in progress, tracings, early drafts, limited editions and etchings of one of the books I grew up with.

Those lucky enough to afford the artworks will be in for a treat, but it was out of my range especially as my favorite turned out to be $185,000...ouch. Some of the proceeds will benefit the Rosenbach Museum & Library and Jane Goodall Institute, an organization dedicated to the well-being of real-world wild things. This show coincides with the film release as well as the critically-acclaimed Sendak retrospectives at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. It's fitting that he has two exhibitions in his native NY (he was born in Brooklyn in 1928). You couldn't take photos inside, so here is what I could take:

"I never thought I'd sell this artwork. It holds a place in my heart almost too dear for me to part with it. But, as I age, I find myself letting go of things I never thought I would. Now, with the Wild Things movie about to be released, feels like the perfect time. Having worked with Nick and Heidi at Animazing Gallery in the past adds to my comfort in selling these pieces." - Maurice Sendak

This free exhibition runs from Oct 2 - Nov 8, 2009. In a few weeks time I will experience my first US Halloween, and I'm already betting that I will see many Max's or other characters from the book. We shall have to see!

Jan Constantine, cushion Queen!

I've been an admirer (I guess more distant window shopper) of Jan Constantine's beautiful cushions for a long time now. I've always wanted one, but could never justify spending that much on a cushion. Luckily for me, one of my best friends bought me one as a leaving present when we left the UK, more of a memento to remind us not to forget Blighty! And I was hugely touched. It now sits proudly in the middle of our HUGE American sofa. I don't have the photo of this at the moment, but here is the cushion (as always, click on the images for more details)...



They are expensive, but totally worth it. Each felted wool cushion is uniquely hand embroidered with cross stitch and blanket stitch detail. The central appliqued heart adds the Constantine touch. Jan Constantine has many other colour and textile variations of cushions, pillows, blankets, tea cosies, handbags etc. Not to mention they are all created with natural dyes and yarns. They sell a good selection of them at the V&A.

British born Jan has a design background in fashion, interiors and styling, which comes across in her collections. She has gathered most her inspirations from her grandmother and great aunts, who taught her how to embroider. I really appreciate hand crafted items and the importance of keeping skilled traditional crafts alive, which is why I like her work ethics especially as she has employed a team of talented craftspeople in Cheshire. She hopes that her items will also get handed down the generations and become heirlooms, I will do my hardest to look after mine, and keep it out of the cat's reach!

Her style also reminds me of Paul Smith's 'Love Too' needle point wall hanging (made from hand spun wool, designed by Paul Smith for The Rug Company) which for those of you SATC fans, you will have spotted it in Carrie Bradshaw's newly decorated apartment from the first film. Delicious!!

Terry Allen & Gail Anderson

Terry Allen and Gail Anderson have jointly created this lovely poster for the School of Visual Arts
in New York.

Allen illustrated the poster (in his signature retro style) and Anderson added her typographic eye to it. Strangely I can't seem to find much of a write up about Allen, but I know that he has an extensive list of clients including Perrier, Nike, Quiznos, Esquire and Forbes:


However I did manage to find out more about award winning, Bronx born Anderson. She worked at Rolling Stone magazine for many years, where her talent in conceptual typography defined the magazine’s feature pages. She now works for Spot NYC as the Creative Director. She has also co-authored with Steven Heller several times, their books include American Typeplay, Graphic Wit and The Savage Mirror.

Justin Richel - sweet things

If I said to you draw a picture which incorporates cakes, coffee and furniture you'd first probably ask why?! Secondly, you'd probably struggle to think of what to paint, but not for Jersey born Justin Richel. Richel has a thing (I'm told it's almost an obsession) for these 3 strange concoctions, so much so that the main body of his paintings are just that. He also likes to draw birds, portraits, big wigs and history - but never mixes these categories in the same piece. I'm a big fan of cakes myself, so I was immediately drawn to his works. They are all painted in gouche, beautifully intricate and playfully composed. His series entitled 'sweets' is impressive, and I salute him for taking on such a challenge and being strict with his subjects, but annoyingly he makes it look so effortless...See his website and Esty shop for more of his works.

Elbow-Toe

We went to the Brooklyn flea last weekend in DUMBO and walking back to the subway, we walked past an interesting looking door and this caught my eye - which I thought was sweet.

I didn't think anything more of it until I saw this one in Union Square...

Now I noticed a pattern, so with a bit of research I discovered that they are the creations of Elbow-Toe, a Brooklyn based street artist. He has been creating hand-coloured linocuts pasted on walls for a while now.
"His artwork for the streets is grounded in myth, symbolism and poetry and is primarily executed in woodcut, stencil or large-scale charcoal drawings. His oeuvre is a study of human gesture as communication and he utilizes public spaces as stages for private moments. He is particularly interested in the ability of environmental forces outside his control to create a timeless quality to the work thereby allowing it to feel as if it has been memory and is part of the collective unconscious." He has also been busy on the side of the pond in London, like this one taken from his website:

Artmongers - update

On 10th August, I posted about the Artmongers and the public art they do around SE London. The day before we flew I saw their customised wheelie bins in New Cross...this project was called 'Moo Cross' Cowbins - a pilot in collaboration with: Lewisham Council, Source Communication and Taylors, to read more click on the link Feed the Cows. I think they are fun, but they missed a trick - they could've painted the underside of the bin in pink for the udders! That would have been funnier.

Graham Carter - East Meets West

Wow it has been a loooooonnnggg time since I last blogged. We've finally moved to NYC and settled down and it has taken it out of me more than I thought, so apologies for the lack of postings. Before we left the UK there was so many things I wanted to post from the exhibitions and quirky things I stumbled on, so I will try to keep on top of it now! Not to mention there have been so many fun things that I've found in the Big Apple, so I'm excited to talk about these things too...Anyway, that is enough of my ramblings...

Last week I popped into London to meet a friend for a farewell lunch when I decided to swing by the Conningsby Gallery in the hope of seeing something, and how lucky was I?! There is a lovely exhibit of Graham Carter's work (actually the exhibition finishes tomorrow - 12th September - so definitely work a peek...).

Graham's 'East meets West' exhibit is a homage to his adulthood influences of eastern cultures (such as Japanese mythologies, folklore and design) and childhood inspirations of western cultures (such as 1940s & 50s American comics). He has created some beautiful screenprints and giclee prints for this exhibition as well as some very cool 3D laser cut perspex images mixed with screenprinting (you can't really appreciate it from the photo below).

Whilst there I found myself completely immersed in his fantastical and nostalgic worlds of robots, origami creatures, yeti's, monsters and cute Eskimo styled characters. It was also helped by his choice of lovely muted colour pallets - every print contained no more than 3 or 4 colours. Needless to say we walked out with a print, we just couldn't resist!



I'm really going to miss this gallery, but I know that there are plenty more galleries for me to scope out in my new habitat.