Check out U Gallery

Since I've been on an art kick lately, check out this painting.

That's Three Guys in the Trees by Will Halstead from the University of Arizona. It reminds me of a memory of my brothers. It's pretty funny actually. Three men sharing the same space yet all three looking in different directions.

Here's another one:

That's The Red House by Rachel Miller from the University of the Arts. It takes me back to the small town I called home when I was a kid. And how about this?

That's a collage called Caught by the University of Georgia's Cosumina Hardman. It's a snapshot of why I live near the beach.

Great stuff, all of it. And it's available through a unique website called U Gallery. U Gallery sells student art from around the country and it grants a huge audience to artists who would otherwise toil in anonymity. Student work has a raw energy to it that I always loved when I was a student myself, and it's something I appreciate still. Think about it, student artists are in the process of finding their voices and the same time they're cocooned  in an environment that encourages and challenges them to take risks. The galleries on U Gallery's site speak to this eloquently.

This site's a great way to fill your home and your life with art. What a great thing to do too, buying student work. Starting out as a painter or a sculptor or a photographer has to be the toughest lot of all, yet some people still do it. As a culture, we're better for it immeasurably. To get a sense of what I mean, go over to U Gallery and see for yourself.

And then I got "friended" by an artist whose work I admire

After hanging out with my nieces and nephews a couple of weekends ago, I went out and joined Facebook. At the time, I thought it was a grasping for my lost youth, but once I got my profile up and running I got the bum's rush from all kinds of people from my past. People my age even. Amazing. It's really neat to touch base with people from my newspaper days in Pittsburgh, my wild days as a vagabond or even people I knew in High School. And while all of these people are climbing out of my past, all of my nieces and nephews and current are in there too. I've moved around a bit in my day and it's an amazing thing to see all of these people who have known me at various stages of my life all arrayed in one place. Check it out.

Well on or about day two I ran into Portland, OR-based artist Matte Stephens, whose work I profiled in a blog entry on 11 July, Great rooms deserve great art. Matte's work is gaining more attention in the art and design world and he still sells prints of his work through Etsy. His Etsy shop is called Braniac: the Art of Matte Stephens. I love this guy's stuff as much now as I did when I first became aware of him last spring.

There's a playfulness to his work that really appeals to me, but it's working on an adult level. There's a studied whimsy and a sense of adventurous joy to his paintings, and he takes his simple shapes and spins a narrative that just draws me in. Really, I could look at this stuff for hours.

So pop on over to Matte's shop on Etsy and see the rest of his work there. It's a great way to spend some time and to spend some money. The man's going places, believe me.

More great concrete from Gore Design

I wrote yesterday about the beautiful concrete sinks Gore Design Company designs and makes, and I have to admit that I'm really taken with them. I'm pretty smitten not only with the sinks, but the rest of the stuff Gore Design Company does too. The same studied awareness that attracted me to their sinks is written large all over their other offerings as well.

Here's a table in their showroom in Tempe. The table's called, appropriately enough, the Fern Table. It looks for all the world like something you'd come across during a hike in the back country. But only just enough to serve as a reminder of that hike. These guys know precisely when to pull back and whisper rather than shout.

Check out these detail shots from the same table.

Here's a counter from their studio. The gang at Gore seems to love cantilevers as much as I do. Note the lack of support of this counter. Cantilevers are a smart person's design element. Their use requires a thorough understanding of the laws of physics and there can never be enough physics appreciation, I say. Anyhow, here's that counter.

And here's a detail shot of it. You can see the same topographic map/ erosion effect that's in the sinks I was gushing about yesterday.

And speaking of cantilevers, check out this table.

As cool as that table is though, I think my favorite thing on their website has to be this lounge chair. And yep, it's made from concrete and wood. Astounding.

I could go on for days about the wonders in their portfolio, but rather than my babbling, head over there yourself. Once again, here's the link to Gore Design Company. One last thing though, I've been in touch with Brandon Gore (he put the Gore in Gore Design company) and he sent me some photos of some things they are working on now. Man. I'll be writing about these guys for a while and wait 'til you see what's in the works.

Concrete done right

As a tie-in to my hot lead on new sinks from Web Urbanist this week, I came across a sink they'd highlighted that stopped me in my tracks. Here's the sink in question.

It's gorgeous and unlike anything I've ever seen before. I have a thing for maps, the more technical and topographic the better. And that sink reminds me of the contour lines on an orienteering map like this.

It's part orienteering map and part nautical chart and all breathtaking. Here's an overhead shot of that same sink. Ahhhhh.

I followed the link on Web Urbanist back to the source for these beauties and found myself on the website, Gore Design Co. Gore Design Group is a Tempe, Arizona-based purveyor of fine concrete, according to their website. They are also artists who heed the call of a different muse and I find their philosophy to be intoxicating. From their website:

2004 – who we were:
A raw, unconverted industrial space. A few years’ worth of savings and a bunch of credit cards. One guy who’s decided he wants his own design company. Who believes in sustainable design, who knows he wants to work in concrete. Who knows this is absolutely what he wants to do and who knows he has absolutely very little idea how to do it – how this is supposed to work, what comes next, how, exactly, one runs his own design company.

2008 – who we are:
A full-blown green design studio. Fewer credit cards. One guy plus a small creative team who’ve decided this is where they want to be. We’re a little off-kilter. We like caffeine. We were damaged by soul-draining corporate jobs. We’ve recovered. We wear shorts and T-shirts to work. We eat a lot of sandwiches. We recycle. We make beautiful, functional art. We’re believers in change. There’s little that we don’t see within our reach. We love what we do. We know we can do more, and we will...

Man, what's not to love? I see a lot done with concrete --sinks, counters, floors and the like. Most of it's really heavy-handed and ungainly. Until I wandered onto Gore Design Company's website, I have never seen something made from concrete that could be called graceful. That's exactly what these sculptural sinks are though. The very poetry embodied in the buttes and washes of the American Southwest has been breathed into these forms.

Wow. Once again, their website: Gore Design Group. Spend some time looking over their portfolio and tell them I said hello.

GE has a bright idea

GE has a bright idea all right and a pretty helpful website when it comes to lighting design. If you go to GE Lighting's website, there's a hot link on the right side with the title Design with Light. That Design with Light section offers a wealth of practical ideas and applications of lighting design. Accurate and sensible approaches to lighting design from a consumer's perspective are next to impossible to find. From my perspective, I'm happy to see that there's a lot on that site for me to learn too. It's a win win and GE deserves some praise for getting this right.

So far as practicality goes, there's a section titled Mood Lighting. Mood Lighting takes a lighting goal for a room, explains how to go about achieving that goal and then recommends GE products to make it all happen. Unlike a lot of corporate how-to stuff on the web, this one's pretty transparent and they don't go overboard on the corporate BS. Check it out and learn how to make a room

Welcoming

Cozy

Creative

Peaceful

Motivated

Dramatic

Intimate

Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.