Pons

I know this image is meant to educate (it's a chart of a section of the pons, which is part of the brain stem), but I think it's also just a really aesthetically pleasing illustration.

Loretta Pettway

Devon Sproule

Devon Sproule Live In London excerpt from Anti/Type on Vimeo.

SMM

Greatness.

Elizabeth Hartsig

Before I actually went to Sacred & Profane, the annual art gathering and general Whooping-it-Up Fest on Peaks Island, Maine, I was a little... hesitant about the whole thing. Actually, that's not the half of it: I kind of resembled the grumpy old Jim Hensen guys in my attitude: absurdly curmudgeonly and jaded about the whole idea of it. For no reason.

Anyway, this year I ended up going, and it was a blast. Everyone piles onto the afternoon ferry, all bright colors and scarfs and little satchels on our backs, everyone in incredibly high spirits. And the gathering continues from there, with great art, great people, music, food, and views. It was windy and cold, and everyone's hair was in a disarray and everyone had rosy cheeks and we drank whiskey and kombucha and raised a RUCKUS.

I had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth Hartsig while out there. She's a fantastic photographer, and I've been following her work for a long time. Do check out her blog: it's a great place to get lost. Here is one of her pictures from the day; it totally captures what it feels like to wander through Battery Steele, looking at art, whispering to your friends, meeting strangers, feeling just the right amount of creepiness and awe and wide-eyed surprise.

Hombres grandes y peludos

I met Christian Fernández Mirón (a.k.a. Sef) at a Merce Cunningham performance in Madrid. He and his friend had snuck into the performance, and we struck up a conversation after the show. I've mentioned him on this blog before, but thinking about art swaps reminded me of this great little zine Sef sent me in 2009.

Kate De Para

This weekend I received the loveliest little package in the mail from the talented Kate De Para. Aren't her creations delightful? We decided to swap art: so fun! Let me know if you want to do an exchange too.

Interview: Martha Kearsley of Strong Arm Bindery

Martha Kearsley is such a badass. She’s animated and articulate, a bookbinder who makes playful and handsomely-crafted books, boxes, and stationery, as well as flower presses for drying flowers, Chump awards, and a huge variety of commissioned pieces. A long-time contractor at Harvard, Martha runs her own business—Strong Arm Bindery—from her studio in Portland, Maine, and also teaches at the North Bennet Street School in Boston.  I caught up with her in her studio last month, and we talked about her latest projects—which include camp logs whose plaid patterns are based on old thermoses and “Dude Journals,” leather bound books based on a form that dates back to the 3^rd and 4^th century. 

Left image via Swallowfield

How’d you get into bookbinding?

Well, I think I’d been out of school for about ten years. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I’d always liked books. And I went to the Chester Beatty library in Dublin—that’s a collection that’s all based on the word—the written word and the printed word. They had a collection of the most beautiful versions of religious texts from all different religions. And I looked at them, and they were all different, they were all crazy structures, and I thought, somebody has to make them, and I want to do that. 

And I moved back to Boston, and it turns out the premier bookbinding program happens to be there: North Bennet Street.  And then I got hired to do conservation work at Harvard. And I did that for a long time, even when I moved here and started my own business, I was traveling down to Boston, and still working with as many people as I could, because that’s how you realize, ‘oh, I don’t have to always do this the same way…’

Are there any new projects that you’re working on now?

Well, [the camp logs are one thing; they're based on old thermoses from the 1950s]. And then this, this has nothing to do with Camp Logs anymore, we’ve moved on to Dude Journals. This is one variation on a leather travel journal, and this is from the 1700s, it belonged to this guy, this dude, who was a boot-maker. It’s is called an occasional diary, a cash account while he’s moving around, making appointments…and it’s a form that I am crazy for… the way it wraps is a really old form—the earliest examples we have are from the third and fourth century . It’s a Coptic form—the copts were a Christian sect in North Africa, in Egypt, and they were famous for their monasteries. They would have a text block of papyrus and then wrap it with whatever leather they had around. Isn’t that nuts? And it was the fourth century so there were no rules, they were just like, ‘Well, we need something to protect it, so they just make this crazy band…’ and it works! It just totally got me going, I was so excited about it.

Corn Pumping Iron: Bomb Diggity Arts Program

This hat makes me incredibly happy. A perfectly suitable sentiment for a Friday morning.

VIA

Irina Alexandrovna Skornyakova

IRINA SKORNYAKOVA

Golden Shoulders: Patience Darling Patience

Osborn Desert Boots

Gorgeous shoes. And good feeling. The shoes combine humanitarian efforts and fashion; the idea started when Aaron Osborn met an out-of-work cobbler while doing charitable work in Guatemala. Also they are gorgeous.

I took this picture while looking out from a gompa (a Buddhist monastery) in Ladakh, India. 

William Eggleston VIA