craftspeople flogging anyone

It's such a crass idea - you're either in love or out of love. Damien Hirst

Today, I'm in love with inflatables!

Picture taken a year ago, how many of these toys do you think are still in existence?

But on the other hand, here's something that works on a temp basis as needed for cover:

Big inflatable structures are not only for children’s amusement: The Air Forest, a dream inspired pavilion created by Mass studies for the Dialog:City event in Denver, is a 1,400 square meter structure with social pourpouses: it’s easy to transport and provides a big space protected from the sun.

The air forest is a technical wonder, because it is “fed” by a natural airstream and sunbeams, which stabilize its pneumatical structure.

Works just like plastic bag sculptures stuck on heat grates:

To expand on this a bit further, the technology can also used as a prototype for homeless shelters-  easily transportable from place to place, and when tied to a building's exhaust system, warm and dry.

American artist Michael Rakowitz's paraSITE project proposed to take advantage of the exterior ventilation systems on existing architecture to give the homeless a temporary shelter.The deflated structure have handles to be easily transported or can be carried on one's back. Once he has found the outtake ducts of a building's HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system, the user attach the intake tube of the structure to the vent. The warm air leaving the building inflates and heats the membrane structure.

From Chad Person's statement:  Nothing lasts forever. The greatest and most abundant resources: Water, oil, air, sunshine; will all dwindle away. One by one will slowly exhaust them, unnoticed until it's too late. Ubiquitous Icons share this fate. The prowess of every icon will crest as it is saturated within our collective unconscious. As time moves forward, context is lost and the icon is forgotten. 

Today, collective humanity is aware and indeed occupied by the reality of scarce global oil supplies. Foreshadowing this situation, Pegasus, the former Mobil Gasoline logo has been retired from its role as color guard to the worlds most profitable corporation. Once everywhere, resource and icon alike are now vanishing, and we are forced to move on. 

Philippe Parreno  'Speech Bubbles"

Scattered Crowd, by William Forsythe, is a magnificent spacial installation featuring thousands of balloons by German choreographer William Forsythe. The multi-disciplined artist forces visitors to his site-specific installation to not only take in the gorgeous, magical effect of the piece, but to also interact with the space.Walking through a maze of dreamy white balloons varying in size and opacity, one can’t help but become part of the piece in an unusual dance whose choreography lies in the audience’s own power. Whether they choose to physically touch or delicately maneuver around each suspended balloon is entirely up to them. Forsythe’s intention with the piece is to reflect human emotion and decision. The abstract representation is, in fact, a catalyst in an interesting performance put on by visitors themselves.

Not quite having the equipment to blow up my own inflatables, I get very excited when I see them.  To me they look like they are inhaling and exhaling, temporary living beings.

But, coming back to earth, yesterday I was able to spend four full hours i the studio.  I took my son and DIL with me because they have a project they're working on for a client that they want to make some progress with rather than just basking in the sunshine.  They sat and knocked work out at their big table while I worked on the computer and cut pages for two different books.  Son, being an art director is appalled at my lack of Photoshop skills-  everything in that department comes intuitively to him at this point because he uses it daily in his work.  Me, not so much.  So, as the day was winding down I felt him looking over my shoulder and deeply sighing at the way I was accomplishing my tasks---not to mention my 'poor' choices of type.  SO, he started giving me tutorials over my right shoulder and I tried to keep up.  Told him I'd pay for a ticket to come back down here to my 'peninsula' for a few days of heavy photoshop training.  Mind you I CAN get things done, it just takes me a long time because I don't know the tricks.  SO, I got 6 pages ready to print for the Serials book, many more to go but I get it now and can crank them out. Also, I finally got all the printing finished in the Hands book, now I am auditioning how to put it together.  While they were working and before he felt the need to save me from my poor choices, I got the Circles book a bit further along, glueing some pages together and seeing if my make-shift tabs would work (they did!).  Can't wait to get t these both when they can have my undivided attentions for a few days.  SO, I have one book with a finished cover and no pages, another book with all the pages done and no cover, and a third book that I just have to assemble.  

I found a $100 flight back from Boston but have to fly on a Tuesday so my trip back will be longer than I anticipated, but also cheaper.  Ill have to fill my schedule with seeing old friends and the little kiddos again. Maybe a movie.  And of course sitting there waiting for the contractor...

'A Little  Something to Wear While Waiting For My Contractor'

1985

revisited for no particular reason