8 posts tagged “art”
Since Moleskines are still out of stock at Fully Booked and PowerPlant, I had to settle for the next best thing - a teNeues notebook that obviously is going for the Moleskine vibe.
What I like about this line? the colorful covers. There are so many to choose from, from different aesthetics and styles.
They are also reasonably priced, around half the cost of a Moleskine.
This is the one I actually bought. I like hearts and colors.
These lined journals come in two different sizes. The smaller one (like the one I got) is 10x15 cm, has 152 lightly-ruled pages, sewn binding, ribbon bookmark, elastic band closure, and inside pocket for receipts and business cards - just like Moleskine! gasp!
"Spring", Lawrence Alma-Tadema
In 2002 I was in LA and a friend of mine, Marian Domoje, took me to the Getty Museum. It was an utterly beautiful place. I could have stayed there the entire day, wandering the quiet, well-lit halls, admiring the paintings and photographs, sculpture and antique furniture.
In one of the halls I chanced upon this work. It was hung close to the entrance and reached almost floor-to-ceiling. This and all other photos I have seen do the original work no justice. Up close, it is breathtaking. Each brushstroke is pure genius.
I like my art "traditional realist". Abstract and modern leave me cold - those splotches of color? Ik could do as well, if not better. It takes real drawing and painting skills to create works that live and breathe, that are like windows you could step through to enter another world, the artist's world that he created from his own imagination.
Immerse yourself in art and visit worlds of wonder. Please - you'd be doing yourself a favor.
See more of Alma-Tadema's works and those of other realist painters at www.artrenewal.org
Caffeine perks up brain's memory centres - study
Wed 30 Nov 2006, 3:05 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Brain scans confirm what many coffee drinkers already know -- caffeine perks them up. The caffeine found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate stimulates areas of the brain governing short-term memory and attention, Austrian researchers said on Wednesday.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging scans performed on the brains of 15 subjects who had just consumed caffeine equal to that found in two cups of coffee showed increased activity in the frontal lobe where the working memory is located and in the anterior cingulum that controls attention.
"We are able to see that caffeine exerts increases in neuronal activity in distinct parts of the brain going along with changes in behaviour," said Austrian researcher Dr. Florian Koppelstatter of the Medical University Innsbruck.
Participants who were subjected to a 12-hour period without caffeine and a four-hour period without nicotine, another recognised stimulant found in cigarettes, were better able to remember a sequence of letters after consuming 100 milligrams of caffeine. Reaction times on short-term memory tests also improved.
Caffeine is the world's most widely used stimulant, according to the research presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Global daily consumption of caffeine averages 76 milligrams, equal to 1 1/2 cups of coffee. In the United States, average consumption is 238 milligrams per day, equal to that found in 4 1/2 cups of java.
This painting is a prime example one of my favorite movements, Art Nouveau, which I first enjoyed through the illustrations of John R. Neill, who did for the early editions of the Oz books. Art Nouveau was popular from the 1890s till around 1912.
This is "Dance" (1898) by the progenitor of this art form - Alphonse Marie Mucha. He used it mostly for commercial purposes - product and theater posters, the latter for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt.
More from "quiltscape" Rebecca Barker - "Butterflies on Nine-Patches".
A "nine-patch" block is one where the elements are in a 3x3 grid. It could be a Simple Nine-Patch (each square is just one piece of fabric) going on to more complex designs where each square is made up of even smaller shapes in different colors. Designs like those usually have their own names.
I have loved sewing ever since 3rd grade at St. Scholastica's Academy (Bacolod City) when we were taught basic mending and embroidery stitches on a retazo or scrap of fabric.
In 5th grade at Pasay Adventist Academy, we learned more elaborate stitches and had to embroider a throw pillow cover in cross stitch. Since the latter had a deadline for submission, our househelper at the time helped me complete it, but it was something I really enjoyed doing.
In high school, also at Pasay Adventist, we were taught dressmaking. I remember stitching up a particularly ugly dress in an ugly shade of lavender that was my favorite color at the time. Definitely, dressmaking was not my strong suit but I did learn how to baston my own jeans.
I rediscovered the magic of needle and thread after I got married and was bored just staying at home. I've always been creative, and always need to do something whether its writing, cooking, or sewing.
In the early 1990s, cross-stitch became a fad and suddenly there was an explosion of x-stitch shops such as Dreams (which still has branches in Megamall and Glorietta). Supplies such as DMC floss and US and UK patterns became plentiful, unlike before, when the most you could get was the standard Japanese book published by Ondori which only had mostly simple border patterns. It is in fact still available at National Book Store - talk about "never going out of print".
I snapped up a lot of magazines (from Booksale and National), floss and Aida fabric from the market (cheaper than buying at the mall), and stitched up a storm. I had even begun to teach myself hardanger on linen (which is really hard).
But after countless throw pillows and framed pictures (including wedding presents) later, my "been there done that" mood kicked in and I looked for something new to learn.
Enter quilting, which I promised myself I would never ever do. I picked up an old quilting mag at Booksale whose headline screamed, "You too can make this quilt!" The cover showed an unattractive Baskets quilt in my unfavorite colors of yellow and green. I was struck, though, by the beauty of the pattern and the mag's claim that anyone could learn patchwork.
Having taught myself to quilt after reading countless magazines (Booksale is such a godsend!), my linen cabinet is now stuffed to the ceiling mostly with queen-sized quilts, a few twins, a lot of wallhangings and the ubiquitous throw pillow covers.
My favorite quilting activity was participating in online quilt swaps. I spent loads on postage during the mid- to late-90s, during the height of my quilting frenzy. I ended up with many queen-size quilts (around 80x90) composed of traded quilt blocks and signature squares, which are squares of muslin, say 3" or 4" or whatever the agreed-upon size is, signed in permanent colorfast ink by the quilter.
I was happy to have participated in several Y2K swaps. Just before the millenium turned, quilters all over the world traded for 2000 charm aquares and "siggys" to make millenium quilts. I still have my swapped charms, as well as quilt blocks from theme swaps, just haven't gotten around to sewing them up, but that's okay, lots of quilters have UFOs ("unfinished objects") that they swear to finish one day.
Though I am very busy now with work, and until recently, school, and have not been able to sew for two years, I still love quilting very much and have kept all my supplies - the special Omnigrid quilting rulers I bought in the US, rotary cutters and mats (for cutting shapes accurately), yards and yards of 100% cotton (US textile company brands) from Divisoria, and pattern books and magazines.
I also collect anything with a patchwork pattern, and my friends who know of my addiction give me "quilty" gifts as well.
The photo above shows "Dove in the Window" by artist Rebecca Barker, who has made a name for herself as a "quilt landscape" painter. The name of the artwork is actually the name of the pattern.
My friend Thea Arnone (my roommate when I lived in the US in 2001) gave me a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas with this design. Upon my return to the Philippines, I had it completed and framed at the Jigsaw Puzzle shop in Glorietta. It hangs in my bedroom, where the pinks and greens go wonderfully with the celadon walls.
It lifts my heart to see this beautiful artwork everyday!
Other favorite quilting websites:
Keepsake Quilting (quilt supplies and the best catalog in the world) www.keepsakequilting.com
Connecting Threads (quilt supplies) www.connectingthreads.com
Leisure Arts (craft books) www.leisurearts.com
World Wide Quilting Page (for swaps and trades) www.quilt.com
McCall's Publications (including Quiltmaker) www.mccallsquilting.com
Q-Snap (best quilting and embroidery frames) www.qsnap.com
Counted cross-stitch was one of my favorite hobbies. I still have all my supplies and most of my patterns from the early 1990s when I was first hooked on the craft.
I still have several WIPs (works in progress) stashed away. The one I want most to finish is a linen sampler "English Cottage Garden", designed by artist and cross-stitch pattern designer Teresa Wentzler (first and only one I've done in linen). Her designs are "inspired by things mystical, mythical, and magical." (see photo)
My mom sent this from the US as a kit, complete with beads. Beautiful. I jazzed it up with Kreinik gold and pearl thread. I hope to finish it before the decade ends!
Cross-stitch (From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia): Cross-stitch is a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches are used to form a picture. Other stitches are also commonly used in cross-stitch, among them ¼, ½, and ¾ stitches and backstitches. Cross-stitch is usually executed on easily countable evenweave fabric, or more rarely on non-countable fabric, on which a countable fabric is applied that is removed later, by drawing out every thread of it under the embroidery. This fabric is called waste canvas. The stitcher counts the threads in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance.This form of cross-stitch is also called counted cross-stitch in order to distinguish it from other forms of cross-stitch. Sometimes cross-stitch is also done on designs printed on the canvas, showing every single cross (stamped cross-stitch).
It might not be the best or the tastiest or the greatest coffee in the world, but like I've said all along - they're selling the experience, not so much the coffee.
Though I think their coffee is just fine and what I crave when I need a hit of the mojo that makes me walk and talk - caffeine.
Yup, Starbucks is the best caffeine delivery system in the world!
Photo: If Bacchus were around today, he would ditch the wine for a quad venti mocha frapuccino light blended coffee with raspberry syrup. No, really, he would.
Image from gridskipper.com
