Nature is a Grand Material Engineer

 

Artist, Designer and Engineer, Neri Oxman by Noah Kalina

"Nature is a grand material engineer, we already know that it can generate abalone shells which are twice as strong as our high-tech ceramics and silk that is five times stronger than Steel."                                                                                Neri Oxman

MIT Media Lab Professor, Neri Oxman, and her students are committed to learning and applying the processes of nature to address the architectural challenges of the modern world. Their studies have included silk worms, bees, and plants to gain understanding in how nature grows structures. 

In addition to their structural relevance, the projects Oxman and her team have created are also beautiful works of art. Her work is part of the permanent collections a number of museums in the United States and Europe including the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Pnuema 2 by Neri Oxman, Photo by John Cummings

In 2016, the group published a paper on a 3D Printed Multimaterial Microfluid Valve which provides better control in printing using fluid materials including molten glass. While it had been possible before to 3D print with glass by binding glass powder and subsequently sintering the powders, the results were not fully transparent. The MIT process provides structural control and full transparency.

3D Printed Glass by Neri Oxman

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Emma and Elsie from A Beautiful Mess

The weather isn't the only thing that's hot in Missouri.  The show-me state is home to wonderful art, craft and design bloggers. Here are some of the best:

A Beautiful Mess - Elsie and Emma believe in taking time each day to make something pretty. They believe in lifelong learning. Most of all, they believe that life doesn't need to be perfect to be beautiful. On A Beautiful Mess you'll find daily inspiration for crafts, recipes, fashion and decor.

Whitney Scott Photography - Once there was a girl who loved photography (but for some reason felt she should deny her artistic inclinations and pursue a Masters degree in Psychology) One day while surfing the internet when she should have been working, she met a boy (who wasn’t into photography, but was into computers… hence, the internet). Together David and Whitney are magic and their blog is filled with amazing images and insights.

One Canoe Two - Carrie and Beth are childhood friends who always loved to draw. Now the two are all grown-up and work together as professional illustrators, designers and printers. The name 1canoe2 comes from years of the two dreaming up big ideas around a campfire and floating down a spring-fed Missouri river in a canoe. Two girls, one canoe. One canoe, two.

Paper Muse Press - Dedicated to all the lovely things that surround and inspire, Emily, Sarah and Rowena are constantly on the hunt for pretty, inspirational things.  Their blog features DIY tutorials, indie finds, event inspiration, art and illustrations, recipes, and a lot of other lovely things.

Hammerpress - Founded in 1994 by Brady Vest after attending the Kansas City Art Institute, they make all sorts of really nice letterpress greeting cards, posters, art prints and other paper goods.

Ampersand Design Studio - Carrie & Morgan's mission is always to create looks and lives that are creative, harmonious and happy. Their shared aesthetic — fresh, innovative, and energized by shots of surprising color—infuses everything they do.

Skunkboy -  Here you will find fashion, crafty things, music, and more.  Katie hopes to always leave people feeling inspired and encouraged when they pop by her corner of the internet.

Sincerely, Kinsey - Kinsey is a photographer planted knee deep in the Midwest. At Sincerely Kinsey you can expect to find photographs from recent shoots, craft projects and fashion inspiration. Her goal is to inspire individuals who aspire to live a creative lifestyle.

Danny Joe Gibson - Danny is a fine artist in Missouri and this Tumblr page is 100% visual and presents his art and inspiration through a set of unique and quirky eyes.

Handmaker of Things - Emily specializes in floral design and jewelry and accessory design. On her blog, she shares her latest work, things that inspire her and a peek into her everyday world.

These are only a few of the craft and design blogs in Missouri.  Do you have a favorite?

5 Reasons You Should Be on Pinterest

If you are involved in any image or graphic centric field, you need to be on Pinterest.  Pinterest is a rapidly growing social network where people “pin” their favorite images to virtual boards to share with their friends. When people see an image they particularly like, they can “repin” it to one of their own Pinterest boards. Here are five reasons why you need to join:

1. Entertainment - If you enjoy art, photography or design, what could be more fun or refreshing than spending a few minutes each day looking at the images selected by your friends?

2. Community - Like any social network, Pinterest is a way to find and interact with people who share a common interest in a particular type of imagery. Online interactions strengthen real world connections and often lead to new real world connections.

3. Discovery - New trends in design and photography will be visible on Pinterest long before they are reported in the mainstream press. If you make a point to follow the trendsetters in your field, you will be able to see the evolution in their artistic sensibilities as it happens.

4. Exhibition - The items that you choose to post and repin demonstrate your tastes and skills to your followers. Over time, you will gather a collection of followers who appreciate your unique point of view.

5. Optimization - When you pin images from your own website or blog to a Pinterest board, the image links back to your own site. Those links and the links from every repin will lead people to your site and improve your search engine results.

Your strategy on Pinterest should be, to quote Seth Godin, to be interested and interesting. No different than any other social interaction.

Here is a link to my boards on Pinterest. As you will see, my interests include portraits, places, paintings and photo book ideas.

Hansol Kim is someone I enjoy following on Pinterest.

What are your thoughts on Pinterest?

The Price of Canvas

The Card Players by Paul Cézanne

The most expensive painting ever sold is Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players which was purchased in 2011 for over $250 million by the royal family of Qatar. This masterpiece of French Post Impressionism, finished in 1893, measures approximately 38 x 51 inches. What were they thinking?

A new canvas of approximately the same size can be purchased from Dickblick.com for $251.10. For an additional $82.13 you can order a master oil paint set with 8 colors, a painting knife, three brushes and an instructional DVD. With the canvas, the paint and couple of passes through the DVD, could’t they have created their own painting of two card players?

The difference is the art! The original painting was made by the hand of a creative genius who saw the world in an exciting new way. It was painted after decades of devotion to painting which started with drawing classes, was strongly influenced by the Impressionists and evolved into something completely new. 

Portraits by Natalie Licini

The difference is the art! That difference is important today when couples and families decide how to capture and preserve the memories of their senior year, their wedding and other important milestones. Most of us know a friend who owns a professional style camera and takes pretty good pictures. If they take some pictures and burn them to a DVD, we could use the kiosk at Walmart to order a photo book.

Albums by Black River Imaging

The difference is the art!  A handmade leather album crafted from portraits captured by a talented professional photographer reflects the years of devotion that the photographer dedicated to learning the art of photography. The portraits reflect the attention to detail required to capture the beauty of the event. The pages reflect the care the artist dedicated to selecting, cropping and retouching the images during the album design. The final album shows the loving care of the photographer and the craftsman who assembled and bound it all together.

Like any fine art, the value of portraits will increase with the passing of the years. Sharing memories with your friends, your children, and eventually your grandchildren, makes them grow richer each passing year.

Invite your friend with a camera to preserve the memories of your next birthday party. Hopefully you will have many more. Use a real professional photographer for those once-in-a lifetime events.

Aren’t your memories worth it?

Portraits by Dawn Shields

Print Can Be Art

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My last two posts have been very iPad centric and have projected that tablet computers like the iPad improve the e-reading experience enough to accelerate the trend away from printed publications.

Print is not going away.  But I predict a steeper decline in the quantity of utilitarian printing. There will be fewer printing jobs and smaller printing jobs where the primary purpose is the transmission of purely informational content.

But print is more than content. Print can be art!

The story of a wedding day!  A celebration for a special friend!  A blank wall or an empty coffee table! These are events that cry out for a beautiful printed book, card or poster.  On the right paper with the appropriate finishing and binding, print can touch hearts.

How has your heart been touched by the art of print?

Pinhole Press Specializes in the Art of Print