Category Archives: SUSTAINABLE LIFE + DESIGN

TOPICS FOR CONVERSATION AND INSPIRATION

July 25, 2008

I received the email below from friend Sarah Lewis after she visited the Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960 (through October 19, 2008 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City). And while I am not in New York myself to see the exhibition, my entire body of work has been very influenced by the photographs of Walker Evans (along with others from this era) and particularly his work with John Agee in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

I love the text below. Here is Sarah’s email:

I am sure you heard of the photographer Walker Evans…!?

“Watching Allie Mae Burroughs work with a simple broom kept in the kitchen corner, Agee mused that everything in the house might be licked with the tongue and made scarcely cleaner.

Evans photographs of the tenant farmers’ tidy kitchen are distilled essences of domesticity. “

From the MET photo exhibit,

“Kitchen Corner, Tenant Farmhouse, Hale County, Alabama, 1936.”

And his predecessor, Sherrie Levine, “After Walker Evans.”

…I think of you no less than every other day…

Xo
Sarah

Learn more about the exhibition here and start your own discussion about the role of the historical in contemporary work:

Sherrie Levine: After Walker Evans 2, 1981

 

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THE BEAUTY OF THE FORGOTTEN AND EVERYDAY

July 23, 2008

I had actually forgotten that I had a subscription to The (New) Oxford American. I had not received a copy in some time and then miraculously the “Best of the South 2008” was in our post box last week.

I have heard rumors of complaints about the magazine but I have to say that while the new design does not appeal to me in the same way as my old archived copies, I always find a good story, quote or picture in the magazine. (Well, when it arrives, I suppose. I mean who cannot just love Roy Blount, Jr.?)

This issue is no exception and I was delighted to read “The Collector of the Everyday” about Joseph Mitchell by Sam Stephenson.

I think of myself as a very well read person and developed a love (obsession) with books when just a little girl. I have read everything from the entire works of Milan Kundera to Nancy Drew and am constantly on the lookout for a new author that will feed my desire for knowledge. So, how could it be that I never heard of Joseph Mitchell?

Not only was Mitchell a journalist and novelist but also a collector of everyday objects. The photographs of his meticulously collected and documented objects are spectacular and stir a feeling in my stomach that I have known this person intimately.

After investigation, I found that Granta 88: Mothers contains an extensive piece with the photographs. I ordered the issue immediately. The images are rich, moving and everything but everyday.

Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories is on my bedside table. And I will be on the lookout for vintage New Yorker magazines with Mitchell’s stories.

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SPOONFLOWER

July 16, 2008

I guess that I am the last person on the planet to learn about printing fabric with Spoonflower – well, just happens that way sometimes…

BUT, I have signed up on the list and can’t wait for my turn.

Until then, I will occupy myself playing with these great instructions for making repeats in Photoshop:

Learn more: How do I repeat an image to make a pattern?

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ADIEU WHITE LILY

July 12, 2008

From The New York Times, June 18, 2008:

Biscuit Bakers’ Treasured Mill Moves North

By SHAILA DEWAN
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.

FOR generations of Southern bakers, the secret to weightless biscuits has been one simple ingredient passed from grandmother to mother to child: White Lily all-purpose flour.
Biscuit dives and high-end Southern restaurants like Watershed in Atlanta and Blackberry Farm outside Knoxville use it. Blue-ribbon winners at state fair baking contests depend on it. On food lovers’ Web sites, transplanted Southerners share tips on where to find it, and some of them returning from trips back home have been known to attract attention when airport security officers detect a suspicious white dust on their luggage.
White Lily is distinctly Southern: it has been milled here in downtown Knoxville since 1883 and its white bags (extra tall because the flour weighs less per cup than other brands) are distributed almost solely in Southern supermarkets, although specialty stores like Williams-Sonoma and Dean & DeLuca have carried it at premium prices.
But at the end of June, the mill, with its shiny wood floors, turquoise and red grinders and jiggling armoire-size sifters, will shut its doors. The J. M. Smucker Company, which bought the brand a year ago, has already begun producing White Lily at two plants in the Midwest, causing ripples of anxiety that Southern biscuits will never be the same.

Read the whole story here…

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APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA

July 3, 2008

From St. EOM’s birthday party, we are on to Apalachicola for swimming, oysters, and Tupelo Honey with friend and storyteller Frank Venable.

Maggie keeps saying over and over again, “Mommy,  going beach, Mommy,  going beach.”

Don’t miss Working the Miles by Joe York, a tribute to the men and women of 13 Mile Oyster Company, honoring Tommy Ward who like his father before him, has served as a guardian of the Apalachicola Bay.

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EARNEST SEWN PRESENTS “A NEW HIVE”

July 2, 2008

EARNEST SEWING - BEE BAG

“The honeybees are disappearing, and it’s …. scary, considering that our civilization kind of depends on pollination and all…

Shining a spotlight on this catastrophe is Earnest Sewn with the latest in their ongoing installations: “A New Hive.” Bee-inspired works by Derrick R. Cruz, Caroline Priebe, Natalie Chanin, Cory Gomberg, Monica Byrne and others will be included in the exhibit at Earnest Sewn’s flagship store in NYC’s Meatpacking District. The hope is to bring attention to this extremely pressing issue, because as Cruz puts it: “Curiosity leads to contemplation, internalization, and then to genuine concern.”

 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICAN AND ST. EOM

Happy Birthday America and St. EOM or better known as “Vacation Part 2″:

Angie swears that she is making a cake for the competition and I am seriously considering Snake Calling – see you there!

Buena Vista, GA – Independence Day this year will bring a special day of celebration to Pasaquan, the famous visionary art site located near Buena Vista. July 4th, 2008 will mark our nation’s 232nd birthday as well as the 100th birthday of the man who created Pasaquan — Eddie Owens Martin — who called himself St. EOM.

Eddie Martin was born in Marion County, “at the stroke of midnight on July the 4th” in 1908. After living in New York City for many decades, Martin returned to his rural Georgia home and began building what would become one of the most remarkable and colorful environmental art sites ever created. Since his death in 1986, the unique site has been managed and maintained by the non-profit Pasaquan Preservation Society.

Events of the Day

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of St. EOM’s birth, The Pasaquan Preservation Society has planned a relaxed schedule of interesting and fun outdoor events, suitable for adults and children alike. The festivities will begin at noon with picnicking and music on the cool shaded lawn that lies beneath Pasaquan’s stately pecan trees. Visitors are welcome to bring their picnic baskets, coolers and lawn chairs, or they may take advantage of the pizza, cold watermelons, cooling soft drinks, and other festive food and drink that will be on sale at Pasaquan that day.

Following lunch, a series of laid-back afternoon contests will be offered for the enjoyment and entertainment of all who attend. Included among the planned Pasaquan-related activities will be a snake-calling contest, a Pasaquan costume parade and competition, and a St. EOM birthday cake contest. In addition, there’ll be several surprise activities.

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WEEDS – PART 2

June 28, 2008

Blair’s post - “Weeds” - seems especially fitting after reading this article by Tom Christopher for The New York Times Magazine:

Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis?

From the article:

There are countless definitions of weeds, ranging from the hardheaded one necessarily observed by farmers, that a weed is any plant that interferes with profit, to the aesthetic (a popular gardener’s definition of a weed is “a plant out of place”), to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s sanctimonious assertion that a weed is “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”

Photo: Richard Barnes for The New York Times Posted at 6:36 am

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RINNE ALLEN

June 27, 2008

I received the most lovely pack of 3 x 5 photographs from Rinne in the mail a few months back. The photos were like a photo album from the last three years of my life and included our old offices, my daughter at three weeks old, and my grown son. But the loveliest of all was this picture of Butch’s installation:

Birds of a feather will fly together.

I have this photo pinned above my desk to remind me each and every day that we are here to fly.

See more from Rinne:
http://www.rinneallen.com/

And all of her work for Hable Construction: http://www.hableconstruction.com/

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