Man! Now here's a contest!

As a sure sign that times is hard, Sub-Zero is sponsoring a Dream Kitchen sweepstakes with a grand prize worth $50,000. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Sub-Zero would some day have a sales promotion of any kind, let alone a give away. But this is no ordinary sweepstakes. As with everything else they touch, they are doing this in a big way. The lucky winner of this random drawing will receive:

A Sub-Zero BI-30UG Glass Door Refrigerator/ Freezer, a Wolf 30" Gas Range and a 30" Wolf Ventilation Hood.

And if that weren't enough, the winner will get a Sub-Zero 424 Wine Chiller.

Then, they're throwing in $5,000 worth of Kohler fixtures.

And $5,000 in Ann Sacks Tile.

Three walnut swivel counter stools from Maguire.

A Shansi dining table from Baker.

Two Guild arm chairs from Baker.

Four Guild side chairs from Baker

And if all of that weren't an embarrassment of riches already, the winner will receive a years' delivery of Fiji water and 48 bottles of wine from Uncorked.com.

As I said originally, Sub-Zero does everything in a big way.

This contest is only open to folks who live in the contiguous United States and the District of Columbia. Sorry Canadian, European, Hawaiian, South American, Asian, Australian and New Zealand readers. Did I miss anyone?

So Lower 48ers, you have until August 15th to sign up for this things so get on it. All you need to do is register. There's no test or tasks involved, just register.

Mosaics as art, presented by Mosaic Art Now

I mentioned Mosaic Art Now the other day in my post about the mosaic in the Bronx MTA station at Bedford Park Boulevard. Mosaic Art Now (MAN) is an organization dedicated to celebrating the mosaic as an art form. MAN was founded in 2008 by mosaic entrepreneur and artist Bill Buckingham with the publication by Mosaic Rocks Press of the first issue of the magazine, Mosaic Art Now. Since then, MAN's operational scope has grown to include a website, blog, and a Facebook page. With MAN's expansion into cyberspace, Buckingham has been joined by co-editors Nancie Mills Pipgras and Michael Welch.

Spin-off (detail), Sonia King

In its mission statement, MAN describes itself succinctly:

MAN promotes the international understanding and appreciation of contemporary mosaics through quality publications and a lively online presence. We deliver provocative and inspirational content for artists, curators, architects, designers, collectors and educators.

I applaud their efforts on behalf of this ancient and often overlooked art form. What's really cool about MAN is their devotion to the history of the mosaic while at the same time embracing how the art form is expressed today. And besides, this stuff is just cool.

Mosaic Art Now, the magazine, is a 76-page, full-color publication. As its highlight is The Mosaic Gallery, an exhibit in print featuring the works of 34 artists from around the globe. Artists whose work the editors selected for their excellence in mastery, innovation, audacity and intent. Thought provoking and educational articles about mosaics and the artists who make them round out the magazine's content. You can order a copy from Mosaic Art Now's website. This publication page also lists the magazine's back issues which are now available as CDs.

Maria, 2008 --Michael Ferris, Jr.

In addition to being a print publication, Mosaic Art Now is also a blog that combs the Internet every day to find and share interesting work and ideas. It is on MAN's blog that I found the MTA piece I wrote about the other day. Nancie writes the Mosaic Art Now Blog in a knowing, passionate voice. Her understanding and insight leap off the screen. I learn a lot about this medium through her enthusiastic descriptions and that's a good and welcome thing. Here was one of her insights into that Community Garden project from the other day:

Check out the cat's paw shadows. That considered use of tesserae flow, or "andamento" not only separates the shadows from the background, but indicates which way the sun is shining.

This is what separates the "duplicators" from the artists of fabrication. Brilliant.

--Nancie Mills-Pipgras, 6 June 2009

I noticed the shadows when I first saw the photos of that installation, but I lack utterly the language to describe them. Or should I say I lacked them in the past tense. Thanks to MAN and Nancie, I feel like I know a bit more about all of this.

Mosaic Art Now maintains an extensive Facebook page as well. Follow this link and become a fan, I have.

Many thanks to Nancie and the rest of the gang at Mosaic Arts Now. Keep up the good work and I'll be sure to check in regularly.

A Walk with Blue, Lynne Moor

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see

The brilliant Phil Plait, an astronomer who writes the blog Bad Astronomy, posted this yesterday and I am amazed.

You can see embedded spirals in this image in green, pink-orange and blue. Well, wonder of wonders, the green and the blue are actually the same color. Phil popped the original image into Photoshop and isolated the "two" colors to be sure. Here they are side by side.

Sure enough, they are both RGB 0, 255, 150.

Human brains are amazing machines, but cameras they are not. I deal with identifying colors for a living and I'm pretty aware of the tricks my brain can play when I'm trying to judge what color a specific color is. I always look at colors in isolation when I can and have been known to mask off whole sections of carpet patterns so that I can really see the color I'm looking at. I warn people all the time about looking at paint chips in a fan deck --don't do it! Your brain can't judge with any degree of accuracy a color that's displayed in a line up of similarly hued and tinted colors.

So let's look at what's going on with this fantastic optical illusion.

These look like different colors because this illustration is shortchanging our brains' ability to contextualize these "blue" and "green" colors. As you can see in the close up, the magenta and orange stripes aren't continuous. The orange stripes don't go through the "blue" spiral and the magenta stripes don't go through the "green" one.

Without any conscious awareness of it, our brains are forced to see the "green" stripe in contrast with the orange stripe and the color reads as green. Similarly, the same "green" color, when we're forced to compare it to magenta reads as blue. To prove this, concentrate on the spot where the "blue" stripe butts into the orange stripe on the right side of the image. If you stare at it long enough it will read as the same green as the stripes on the left side of the image. But only at the point where the two colors intersect. It's wild! If I stare at that intersecting point, my brain will let me see the green but only at the intersecting point. If I widen my focus slightly, it still looks blue in the center of the stripe.

Human brains are amazing things but they cheat and play fill in the blanks all the time. As a designer, I think I'm pretty aware of this and I'm pretty adept at forcing perspective and hiding flaws. Usually, I'm pretty good at seeing though these kinds of optical illusions. I have to say though, that this one surprised me. I love this kind of stuff!

I feel like an A-Ha video

Here I am in Paul’s blog. I feel kind of like the A-Ha video from the ‘80s, where the girl suddenly finds herself in the middle of a comic book…

Please don’t throw me into the trash can when it’s over, Paul!! ;-)

Next week while Paul is slacking off in the Bahamas — I mean working hard reef diving and eating rice & peas — a few of us are going to help him keep his post-a-day record intact by guest blogging for him. I thought I’d take a shot at writing a quick post today before the real pressure is on, to make sure everything is working OK.

So… I’m going to take this opportunity to give you a little sneak preview of the giveaway my blog partner Victoria and I are announcing this Friday on our blog, DesignTies. Yes, that’s a shameless plug :-D What can I say, I have no shame ;-) We’re giving away something that was created especially for us by a talented artist in North Carolina. I won’t hold the fact that she’s a Tar Heels fan against her. Even though North Carolina won the 2009 NCAA title and Duke choked as usual and didn’t even make it to the Sweet Sixteen… but really, I’m not bitter… ;-)

But I digress… here are a few hints for you — can you guess what we’re giving away??

1. It’s purple.

2. It’s glamourous.

3. It’s smaller than a breadbox. That’s my subtle tie-in to the KITCHEN part of Paul’s blog name :-)

OK, to be honest, you’ll never guess what it is based on these hints. So you’ll just have to come check out our blog on Friday and see what it is!! :-)

Now I have to think of something clever and interesting to write about for my post next week. Paul is a hard act to follow!! But I’ll do my best to entertain you, inform you, and hopefully not offend you :-)

Kelly

P.S. Hey Paul, did you notice I typed ~ ’80s ~ properly?? :-)

Purple flower from Flickr

Marilyn picture from VIPortraits

Eva Solo Bread Box from Living Comforts

Mosaic Art Now

I've been growing more interested in mosaics as an art form over the last couple of months and I've been meeting some really great people who live their lives in the world of the mosaic. I'm captivated by this idea of mosaic as art. In the hands of a genius, the seeming restrictions of geometry and the medium itself are transformed into assets to be reveled in and the resulting work offers a perspective not available by any other means.

There's an organization out there called Mosaic Art Now, and it was through their blog that I first became aware of them. I'll write more about the great folks at Mosaic Art Now later this week, but in the meantime, one of their posts from earlier this month really got me excited and I want to pass along some of my excitement.

This stunning work is in a subway station in the Bronx, the Bedford Park Boulevard Station to be precise. I'll say one thing about the MTA, they are serious about bringing real art to the subway riders of the great city of New York. As evidenced by this work, Community Garden, they're committed to the outer boroughs as much as they are to Manhattan.

Artist Andrea Dezsö was commissioned by the MTA to create this mosaic, and it was interpreted and installed by master mosaicist Stephen Miotto. Andrea Dezsö is a visual artist and writer. She was born and raised Romania and is ethnically Hungarian. She brings a whole new definition to the term multi-media artist. Dezsö makes drawings; small, densely worked up one-of-a-kind artist's books; intricate, multi-layered paper cutouts; embroidery; sculpture; installation; animation and large-scale murals. She's won numerous awards and accolades and she is an Assistant Professor of Media Design at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.

This is great art executed flawlessly and the people of the Bronx have to feel a little warmer, a little more joyful, every time they walk past it. On miserable days in February and March I'm sure that effect is increased tenfold. Three cheers for the MTA and thank you Mosaic Art Now for letting me know this work exists.

My old favorite MTA art was Tom Otternesses' Life Underground in the station at 14th Street and 8th. However, Bedford Park Boulevard's Community Garden has made me forget (sort of) about those clever bronzes. Sorry Tom.