ART + ARCHITECTURE
On the Streets Where We Live
by Rick Meghiddo
Stradaccie (pronounced stra-da-che) means “ugly streets” in Italian. It is the plural of stradaccia, a pejorative of the Italian word strada, street.
The street is the primary urban space for people. It acts upon us 24/7 throughout our lives. It not only synthesizes what we are as a culture, but it also contributes in shaping what we are as More...
A Mother’s Influence, in Art and Song
As a loyal Cultural Weekly reader, you'll remember Weba Garretson's album Such Is Love, which we featured as a Kickstarter of the Week. (Did you know that more than 75% of the crowdfund projects we share with you achieve full funding? You readers are the best!)
Weba has just released this video love letter to her mother, who was a profound influ More...
History of Typography in 5 Minutes
If you're design junkies like we are, you know that choosing the right font can be a make or break decision. That's one reason we love typography, and we especially love this delightful animated video that goes back to the very beginning. More...At the Epicenter of China’s Edgy Art, Beijing’s Factory 798
by Tod Hardin
Nestled in the northeast corner of Beijing is a funky little enclave that has come to be known as the city’s hub of avant garde artistic expression -- part SOHO, a dash of Left Bank, a smidgen of Mao and a great deal of Mad Max. Sound interesting? It is.
The 798 Art District, or Factory 798 as some call it, is a former military industrial co More...
Who’s the Greatest Band Ever?
Here's a project that's crowd-funded and crowd-voted.
Night Shift Design Cooperative creates projects that use both crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing to allow people to get more involved in design. They're creating an infographic-style poster that answers the question, "Who's the greatest band ever?" They've launched a Kickstarter campaign and ne More...
Why Contemporary Portraiture Shouldn’t Show Its Face
by Sharon Knettell
So you have decided to have a portrait commissioned, say of your child or lovely wife. Maybe you are a big deal corporate executive, politician or president of an exclusive club. The one thing you will all have in common is that for the most part, your precious portrait will be worth less than you paid for it as soon as you sign the check and will More...
Animated Short: Pablo Neruda’s ‘The Me Bird’
Courtesy of Brazilian motion graphics and design group 18bis, here is a gorgeous free interpretation of Pablo Neruda's short poem. More...On the Act of Drawing – Thinking and Making at Hand
by Michael Strauss
Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one’s consciousness, making of every image a privileged place.
- Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
Drawings we make of things we see are not just what we perceive with our senses, but something more and also something less. They are conceptions of what we perceive, not the perceptions t More...
Creative Salon in the Hidden Arroyo
by Rick Meghiddo
This is a story about a contemporary salon in a unique place, created by a unique couple. It is called “The Salon of the Spiritually Creative Life.” One may drive the Ventura Freeway over the Arroyo Seco for years without ever becoming aware of the idyllic place that Carol Soucek King and Richard King have created underneath. The eye is u More...
Put Watson and Holmes Into Print
This one is just plain cool.
Watson and Holmes, by Karl Bollers and Rick Leonardi, is a re-envisioning of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson as African Americans living in New York City's famous Harlem district. Watson, an Afghanistan war vet, works in an inner-city clinic; Holmes is a local P.I. who takes unusual ca More...
