The Abstract Expressionists

Paintings from Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, and Jackson Pollock are set on an awesome collection of stamps. I think they're too pretty to mail, and $4.40 makes for a really cheap way to get some master paintings. I think I'll get a set and hang it on the wall.

Print is dead. Or is it?

A clever video by the Penguin Publishing Group.

Walking Man I = $104,300,000

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Last month Albert Giacometti's famous statue won the award of being the most expensive piece of art ever sold bringing in a whopping $104,300,000 at auction. Isn't it fascinating that art can still bring in record dollar amounts in the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression? GOOD magazine created a great infographic showing the top ten most expensive pieces of art on the ever sold and the rest of the dollar amounts are just as staggering. I had always dreamed of one day owning a van Gogh or a Renoir but it seems like I'll be settling for some stuff I find on Etsy. Wow.

There's snow in my heart

There is something so wonderful about a big snowfall. I have fond memories of sitting inside by the radiator and watching the snow inch its way higher with big fluffy flakes. I love the purplish-gray color of the snowy night sky, and the way snow can balance itself on power lines. I also love the calm that comes with a big snowstorm. Nobody goes anywhere. Nobody expects anything. Everybody just wants to sit in the warmth and listen to the quiet.

I don't have those moments in California. "Summer year round," as my friend Phran calls it, has its low points. "This time of year, most gardeners around here are on a break from outdoor chores," Phran says in her Garden Report on Philadelphia's KYW News Radio. A break from gardening to lay inside and watch the snow fall sounds so delightful that I almost, for a second, thought I could live in the cold again. That was until I remembered shoveling.

This week's good stuff

I love the internet and the internet loves me. I read all sorts of things and these are my favorite finds from this week.

It's been about a month since I did my last "good stuff" post so I thought I'd better put some attention back on this poor blog. The people that invented Facebook and Twitter should really be sent to a concentration camp so they can concentrate on how much time I waste because of them. However, I am ghost-tweeting for a client of mine now so that means I'm getting paid to waste time, er, I mean, market a product on Twitter. And it's actually doing really well, and this article by Chris Coyier was really helpful.

But back to my blog and back to the wonderful things the internets have provided to me this week.

I absolutely love this post about Maya Lin's original Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition submission. It is not only beautiful in it's composition but it keeps reminding me that design is not only about the finished product, it's about the process of getting to the finished product. As a designer I sometimes leap past a few steps of the creative process and this drawings makes me want to slow down, get out some pastels and let my mind wander.

I've been wanting to put my creative process to work on a pet project of my own -- I want to incorporate my portfolio into my regular website. This of course takes more energy than is humanly imaginable simply because I am my worst client, well besides my dad... and my uncle but that's another story for another time, because I want it perfect and perfect can mean a wide range of different things depending on the day or the hour or the minute, etc. So my process starts by spending hours looking at how other designers display their portfolios, and I've been doing that with the help of this great post by noupe.com. It breaks down a new portfolio design into a 12 step process and shows good examples of each tip.

But outside of my office it's getting chillier. Our nights have hit 49˚F! What? I know. That is too cold for humans. But what if we warm up with some of this awesome white chili from my friend Pretty Ditty. Autumn is here. Which means we're one day closer to Halloween and I think this is the perfect trick-and-treat.

I grew up in a college town, and one Halloween our doorbell rang and we opened the door expecting to see trickortreater—but what was in front of our open door—was another door! Like, a full-on wooden door, that had a sign that said “Please knock.” So we did, and the door swung open to reveal a bunch of college dudes dressed as really old grandmothers, curlers in their hair, etc, who proceeded to coo over our “costumes” and tell us we were “such cute trick or treaters!” One even pinched my cheek. Then THEY gave US candy, closed their door, picked it up and walked to the next house.