Fun with the new Photoshop Express App on my new iPhone 5!

And these photos were taken with the old iPhone, can wait to start using the camera on my new one!

Pendulum Painting #2

My Week in Review (Cindy Sherman, A Quick Jaunt to Chicago, and My Lazy Cat)

I realize it has been a while since my last post. What can I say other than work has been really crazy. Here are a few photos from the past few weeks, which included a whirlwind week of traveling to Philadelphia and Chicago, a trip to the always inspiring Museum of Modern Art, and a narcoleptic cat.

This was the view out the plane window on my flight back from Chicago. I was literally in Chicago for 6 hours total - flew out at 6am and back that afternoon. I had to go give a last minute presentation for work, and to be honest I was a little nervous. I spent the entire plane ride there prepping for the presentation, but for the plane ride back I purchased Glamour and Rolling Stone magazines, some granola bars and coconut water, and spent the 2 hour flight alternating between reading articles on Jennifer Lawrence (I saw the Hunger Games and am now obsessed (and apparently so is every magazine)) and enjoying the view out the airplane window (I always try to get window seats so that I can do just that). One thing that will never cease to amaze me is the view out of plane windows. I've been flying my entire life so you would think that the novelty has worn off, but every time I look out the window and see the tops of the clouds, I can't help but be fascinated by the extreme beauty and grandeur. It really is amazing that we routinely fly above the clouds, having the opportunity to look down on the earth, and yet think nothing of it...

Changing gears a bit, last weekend my husband and I went to the MOMA to see the Cindy Sherman exhibit. Although the exhibit runs through June, I really wanted to go and we both have access to free MOMA tickets through work, so we took advantage of our empty schedules on Saturday afternoon to wander through the exhibit. Verdict: I was not really impressed. Now, in full disclosure I had not seen too many Cindy Sherman pieces prior to this exhibit. I knew about her mainly from my Art History courses in college, in which we looked at a few slides of her work, focusing mainly on this one where she photographed herself in a Caravaggio portrait.

The exhibit at the MOMA was quite extensive, featuring work of hers from the 70s through to 2008. Each room had a slightly different theme but all the pieces were tied together by the main feature of her work: they were self-portraits of the artist with over-exaggerated makeup and costumes, applied to make the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable and to make a statement on the roles of woman and the extreme lengths to which they will go for appearance. As I mentioned, I was not really impressed with the exhibit but I can't articulate one solid reason why. Her photos are slightly disturbing, and they're not anything I would ever look at and think "wow, I would love to own that and hang it on my wall." Additionally, I didn't feel like here statement was all that revolutionary, but I guess her place in photography, especially as a female photographer is quite impressive, so I have to give her that.

And lastly, I did a giant load of laundry on Sunday. This by itself is not noteworthy, but right after I folded the laundry and sorted it on the couch, I took the first portion into my room to put it away, and when I returned someone had decided that the pile of clean, nicely folded clothes made the perfect bed. The first photo was snapped while she was peacefully snoozing. The second one, where she is glaring at me, was snapped after I tried to gently wake her up so that I could put the rest of the laundry away...she was not amused.

Pendulum Painting!

I'm painting again, which is pretty big for me. I've always been into art and spent tons of time drawing and painting in high school and college, but unfortunately once I entered into the real world and had to get a full time job (which has actually ended up being a full-and-a-half time job), I've stopped making art.

But, last weekend my brilliant husband had a really good idea inspired by some art he had  recently seen. His creativity combined with his engineering skills led to a giant 6 foot home-made pendulum taking over the space in our living room last weekend. We then created a crazy, ingenious contraption to suspend from the pendulum base, filled it with different paint colors, and purchased some large canvases. As most of last weekend was filled with designing and building the pendulum as well as purchasing supplies from Michael's, we did not get to do much painting. But, we did a few test canvases. (photos below). Fabulous, no? I can't wait to try it out on some of the larger canvases, and I have a few really great ideas for future works. Fun times!

Anthropologie's Artsy Window Displays

Yesterday, when it was so nice outside, I went for a quick stroll at lunch to the Anthropologie at Rock Center for some window shopping. And taking that term literally, I spent most of the time looking at their impressive window displays. They had set up mannequins in mini artist studios with paint everywhere and beautiful abstract canvases propped nonchalantly around the "studios". It made me immediately want to start flinging paint around.

Fashion of the Armory Show 2012

As mentioned in my previous post, the Armory Show was a great place for people watching. The fashion was almost as inspiring as the art. Below are some photos of both the chic and the strange. Please note, I took most of these photos while walking around using my old iPhone, so they are blurry (I had taken a bunch more but about half did not come out (including the one of an 80 plus year old woman in tight black leather pants...))

Art of the Armory Show 2012

On Saturday I went to the Armory Show, located on Riverside and 55th, piers 92 and 94. This world-renowned event showcases the best art from galleries around the globe. One pier was modern art and one pier contained contemporary art. I was very impressed by the large amount of galleries represented and of course the wonderful artwork. In addition to wonderful canvases and sculptures, the fashion was truly inspiring. It was clear that New York's chic fashion-forward art crowd had come out in full force. I tried to take some photos of the fashion, and will do a separate post on that.

Here are some photos of my favorite pieces.

Click the link below for more photos!

Sarah Esteje Animal Portraits in Pen

These amazing animal portraits are by a young artist Sarah Esteje who creates the large-scale works with a ball point pen. So incredibly impressive! I think my favorite is the hippo.

via Design Collector