Archive for February, 2010
Love this unique site, where each click brings an animated fresh chalk sketch, complete with sound effects. The faint impression of the previous sketch is even subtly left behind on the chalkboard. See it for yourself at: starbuckscoffeeathome.com
You’re not in Denmark anymore…although you’d never know it. For sweet aficionados this side of the pond, European confectionery delight can be sampled just a hop, skip, and a jaunt from Los Angeles. Without having to fly to Denmark to embark on this culinary journey, one can get their pastry fix in Solvang, California, a Danish village located in Santa Barbara county. Downtown Solvang is no ordinary California city. It’s home to Scandinavian shops, wine bars, and eateries that all architecturally appear to have been plucked out of a picturesque village outside Copenhagen. Yes, Danish flags flap in the wind. Yes, store clerks strutt traditional costumes. And yes, Smorgasbord feasts and aebleskivers (Danish pancakes) beckon from restaurant windows. Solvang even boasts not one—but three—historic windmills!
When I first saw Lady Gaga strut her stuff in her infamous G-string leotards, truthfully I was a bit put off. But, as I saw more of her, I started to recognize the sheer daring creativity of her costumes, and meanwhile her music got me dancing. Her songs are a fun combo of pop dance energy and dark luscious lyrics that present stark juxtapositions to each other. You gotta love her energy!
(…CLICK HERE FOR MORE GREAT GAGA AFTER THE JUMP!)
This week Sotheby’s sold Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture, L’Homme Qui Marche I, for $104.3 million, pushing Picasso out of the highest grossing spot. The importance of this news isn’t the sheer amount of the purchase, which went to an unknown buyer out of New York, but the fact that the work auctioned for three times the amount Sotheby’s originally anticipated.
Does this mean the wealthy have decided that art is once again a safe investment? The answer appears to be a resounding yes. Great news for both artists and art lovers around the world that have been witnessing a downward spiral of the art market over the last year.
Another interesting point is that the Giacometti purchase could signal a rising dominance of modern art in the marketplace. Most of Giacometti’s work falls between 1940-1965, possibly signaling a move away from the market dominance of great masters and towards more contemporary—and potentially still producing—artists.
Wayne Thiebaud is one of my absolute favorite artists, and I had the chance to see his latest exhibit Wayne Thiebaud 70 Years of Painting at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, which closed this weekend. The works were stunning. Imagine walking into a room of painted delicatessen goodies that look so delicious your stomach audibly grumbles. Gazing at the pies, cakes, and donuts in the painted bakery counters made me seriously want to run off for pastries after the show. There were bananas bursting with so much color they looked practically jewel encrusted. Candied apples were painted with such deep reds they seemed to drip right off their sticks. The cheeses were life-sized creations with paint so buttery I wanted to devour it. And the landscapes! The landscapes were a dizzying collection of crooked San Francisco streets that dropped off at impossible angles and wild curves, making you feel as though you were about to tip over.
A prolific painter born in 1920, with hundreds of paintings to his name, Thiebaud is often grouped with the pop art movement, although one look at his paintings is all it takes to tell that he is truly in a category of his own. With his use of intense colors and deep shadows that almost seem to form their own shapes, Thiebaud’s work is amazingly beautiful.
