A Retrospective on the Art Show, Lanktrospective

This past Friday night, with hubby and child, I attended an art reception at Gallery 219, put on by SAGE Coalition, for the artist Lank, aka Jonathan Conner. Lanktrospective! All I have to say is, awesome! The music was pumping, the crowd was buzzing and there was an all around good vibe in this gallery space on an unsuspecting street. Before even entering the gallery, you know you're entering a whole new world where the arts dominate. Bringing street art inside. Love it!

Jon is a friend of ours that we have known for the past few years and watching his work develop has been inspiring. He currently teaches at Monmouth University and Mercer County Community College. He also maintains a blog, where you can see some of his other work, http://www.jonathanconner.com/. He works mainly in stenciling, which if you are into the street art scene, then you may be familiar with some artist who stencil, such as Banksy, Gilf! , and Joe Iurato.

The show was mainly a collection of work Lank has developed through out the past few years. What I enjoyed about Lanks work was that I felt like I was peeking in on a brief history of his family time line. These pictures appear as ghost like images that have come back to visit distant loved ones for one last pose.




The rest of the show consisted of a collage of commissioned work he has created. Lank has also been a part of performance art shows where he has created his work live. Watching Lank at work can be a bit intense. While these pieces of work look like they were done with ease, there is quite a bit of work that goes into getting these complete. The images are intricately cut and applied in layers. It takes patience, commitment, and focus to get it done. In some of his pieces he includes a patterned background which adds depth and makes the focal point pop even more.

          


I find stenciling to be very inspirational.  I’ve dabbled in the stencil world a bit myself, and the results can be quite satisfying. A lot of work, but very much worth it. What I love about stencil art is the simplicity it offers in the design scheme. Usually there is a limited color palette which can create a dramatic look. The lines are clean and the statement is to the point. I also think that incorporating this type of art into your space can be great and easily personalized.

Washit, a green way to clean clothes.

Doing laundry never seemed greener. My goodness, lets take sustainability to a whole other level. Amazing! Do your laundry while you clean your body using Washit. Hmmm....

Let's face it. There's a water problem. We know there's a problem. I remember being a kid and my mom saying not to run the water while I brushed my teeth. No, it doesn't make headline news every day. It's one of those topics,we'll get to it when it's a problem. Meaning, when there are droughts and all of a sudden your being told to hold back on your water use. We try to conserve but perhaps there are other ways as well.

I have a neighbor who moved here recently from Nigeria and I asked her what did she like so far about America. Her answer was not about our culture, not about entertainment, or fashion. She said, "I like that I don't have to go fetch water five miles away. It comes straight from the tap." Oh my! Imagine all of the other countries around the world that face this very same problem. Are we taking our water supply for granted? Will our taps, one day, not run freely?

So now, here's this fabulous idea, which after reading the above, you may look at this design a little differently. Here, we have the Washit system which will take your bath water and use it to wash your clothes. I know, it doesn't sound that appetizing using your dirty body water to clean your clothes, but, do you really want to go fetch water someday?

Design team Ahmet Burak Aktas, Salih Berk Ilhan, Adem Onalan, Burak Soylemez came up with the concept to design something that would help with conserving water. Ok, so it's not like your dirty body water goes straight to the clothes, it does go through a filter before moving on to washing the clothes.

This is clever and I see this in our future. The types of spaces Washit can be used in is limitless. There are designs for both home and public spaces.

Really, Washit can be used at home for personal use, when guest are over. I think I'm more in love with the public use scenario, because this can use at work, school, the gym, airport, the list goes on. Anytime you've been in a situation and thought, I wish I could shower and wash my clothes.

To learn more , visit  Washit .

Upcycled Clothes in Frenchtown NJ.

I was just recently in Frenchtown, which is a neighboring town about 15 minutes away from where I live. The hubby and I love to go get a cup of coffee and then walk on the Tow Path along the deleware river. This quaint, eco concious town is known for the Tow Path which connects to Lambertville, NJ. You can even rent really cool bicycles and ride along the river.

Down the road is an old fahioned roller rink. Also a little eatery, lovin oven, where you can get gluten free pancakes or a yummy salmon salad. Frenchtown is a great spot to be low key and enjoy the delights that are scattered in book stores, quaint eateries, home decor and fashion boutiques.

A store Pantaluna caught my eye this last time we visited. Pantaluna adds to the ecclectic and unique fashion scene here.



The changing room above, is made entirely out of vintage t-shirts. The poles inside that support the shape of the tent are old pipes. I love it!






Illia Barger started this company after she cut up old cashmere sweaters to make comfortable pants for herself and her partner Glen Capelle. They opened their first workshop in Rosemont, NJ and then two years later moved to Frenchtown. Pantaluna makes skirts, pants, dresses, curtain tassels, and rugs using vintage t- shirts. Wow!

The Artist Gilf! At Gallerie Swanstrom.

Clockwise: Little Seismic Girl, Empower Equality, To Tehran with Love, The Big Swim, Oh Yeah?

"Motivated by the idea of inspiring people I perhaps will never meet, I hope
to breathe hope into many of the issues we face as a global society. My goal is to
create art that provokes thoughtfulness and motivates a change of the zeitgeist." gilf!

Sometimes, you come across an artist that expresses your exact thoughts. The paintings above are images that definitely represent the times we are living in. In the "The Little Seismic Girl", her bang is a seismic graph at the peak of the earthquake in Fukishima, Japan. Polar bears wearing floaties in "The Big Swim", or the best one, the Statue of Liberty, which is a self portrait of the artist, drinking the Kool-Aid. The artist Gilf! is making a bold statement through the subtlety of her work and I love it!

Artist Yun-Woo Choi Makes Amazing 3-D Sculptures.

Artist Yun-Woo Choi creates expressive structures of 3-D art using materials like newspaper,magazines, wire, resin and light. Choi's style is a refreshing representation of contemporary art.

Choi describes his work as being an expression of his studies on theoretical physics. His work is organic in movement and offers a mysterious presence. It's interesting how his body of work through out the years concatenate, based on what he describes as a conceptualization of the fragments of his mind in a spiritual sense.

Andrea Clears the Air

Indoor air quality has been recognized by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) as being quite poor due to a variety of causes such as radon gas leaks, second hand smoke, mold and synthetic plastics used for furniture and other products that can emit airborne pollutants such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene which causes off gassing. It is also possible these pollutants can be associated with causing health problems such as asthma, allergies, heart failure and cancer. Improving indoor air quality is a great concern and there are simple things you can do to avoid having a toxic interior.

Clean air filters and check for radon leaks regularly. NASA identified that there are several plants that can be used to absorb toxins in the air. These plants are the gerbera, philodendron, spathiphyllum, pathos and the chlorophytum are plants/greenery that can absorb toxic gasses cleaning the air.

The Andrea Air Filter has found a way to optimize the filtering of these plants. Basically the plant of your choice (from the above list) can be placed in this box of aluminum and Pyrex which is designed as a natural filter which has three components; the leaves, the roots and a humid bath. Genius!

Lilipad Studio Makes Delicious Childrens Furniture.

Lilipad Studio is a privately owned small business that makes hand crafted and hand painted childrens furniture. Located in Hailey, Idaho, Laura Higdon and partner Ben Sinnamon are devoted to creating pieces of furniture using healthy design techniques.

Michelle Brand

Thoughts that come to mind when looking at some of the beautiful designs of Michelle Brand are "Wow", "Amazing", "So delicate". These items made from recycled bottles are intriguing and well executed.

Michelle Brand is an Ecological Designer living in the UK. Michelle was determined to take garbage which is considered useless and turn it into something functional and beautiful at the same time. She was extremely successful in doing that by creating room dividers, lamps, and window shades.

Not only are these creations brilliant and dazzling, but they are also very functional. This is what Up Cycling is about. Turning something useless into something you can hold on to for a lifetime.

Green Spray Paint? And not just the color.

Whether you're looking to paint a chair or paint a wall, spray paint has been quite questionable when it comes to it's effects on the environment and health. Well, now there is an American made spray paint that claims to be safer than others for the environment.

OK, so maybe this paint is mostly intended for the serious artist with claims of no drips, bright and vibrant colors, and can be used indoors or outdoors. This is a fabulous step towards the right direction and it's nice to know that some manufacturers are just as concerned as we are about our health and the environment. In comparison to some of the other popular brands out there that may not be so Eco friendly, Evolve is affordable while bringing you just as good results. A set of 12 cans with the most popular colors can be purchased for $48 on eBay.





Graffiti Getting Wise with Furniture

Who would have ever thought that graffiti could turn eco friendly? The history of graffiti has always intrigued me as a child living in NYC. Graffiti was urban eye candy that was uplifting for many communities. Although, with it's many positive attributes like, beautifying fallen neighborhoods and keeping youngsters out of trouble, graffiti still managed to be viewed in a very negative way. With a rich history, it has survived a lot and has transformed into many styles of street art that is respected all over the world. And yet again, this art form is on the path to morphing it's way into another area of design and art.

MadC is a famous graffiti writer and artist who introduced a fabulous concept with one of her latest projects. After painting a massive wall that covers 680m2, she decided to use some of those empty spray cans to make, a chair.



Mad- 700 Chair

This chair was carefully designed with some help from friends. The chair was shaped in the letter "M" with the Molotow empty cans used from the "700 Wall".



The Mad 700 chair is quite beautiful in design. The Molotow spray paint can labels were carefully removed and after some incision being made they were aligned perfectly to create a subtle slope. The concept behind it is amazing. To take tools that were used to create such an intense piece and that have no further use and then to turn their use around by creating a functional sculpture that represents the left over blood, sweat, and tears of hard work. Impressive!

It's hopeful that this piece could serve it's true function in someones home or office. Whether it does or it doesn't, it is something interesting and inspiring to look at. If anything, it paves the road for the "what if's" of future wise designers.