A Christmas card: Snowflakes in New York

Dear readers! I wish you some happy holidays, however you celebrate them and whereever you celebrate them - here it will be done by winding very much down after some busy weeks, no months, for my little family, where work has taken most of our energy. Also some of the energy I usually put into my Christmas DIY postings, I'm afraid - but I hope you have enjoyed the couple I did manage - I have already gotten some very sweet feedback, and that really makes me glad! 

Here is a Christmas card, of sorts. This little story has been on my mind, since I saw a mention somewhere, many many months ago, but it was a winter story - so I forgot about it. And randomly got reminded again via Instagram, the other day! So here goes... 

Everybody knows the iconic Flatiron Building in New York - but you probably have to be around it, at street level, so to speak, to know about the activities in the small glass pavillion (the so-called 'prow') at the bottom. For some time, a local gallery - the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, has curated art shows in this small glassed-in space. Always colorful, poetic, spectacular and eye catching stuff, it seems. I discovered this via This is Colossal, a rather cool visual arts blog. 

In February 2016, a young New York paper artist, Chelsea Hrynick Browne, made the most fantastic installation of literally thousands of small kirigami papercut snowflakes, suspended on lengths of nylon string - to make the space look like a rainbow colored blizzard was happening. 

Here it is, in an actual blizzard - photographed by Michele Palazzo (more photo credits at the end).

I do have a soft spot for anyone who gets so obsessive with their scissors, as you may know. Check some of my other posts tagged paper artist!

I also love snowflakes in windows (discover some of my earlier mentions here!)

Chelsea Hrynick Browne is interested in mathematics, patterns and repetitions - and I can't imagine how long it takes her to complete a task like this. All the snowflakes you see, are double layered (apparently laminated in some kind of thin, shimmery film), and very detailed. They are all cut by hand, by her.

Here she is, at work, hanging the installation - and a couple of images from her Instagram shows some more detail of how her square motifs typically look.  

Photos: Street evening photos from: untappedcities.com.

Portrait and details from Chelsea Hrynick Brown's Instagram
Detail of flake hanging in window from: fibonaccisusan.com

Just for fun, I'll wrap up this post with a nice old photo: the Flatiron Building with it's distinctive prow, just seen at street level, at the 'point' af the building - looking probably much as it does today. 

Spring favorite # 3: Vivian Maier, street photographer

I went to Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg and saw the exhibition of the photographs of the mysterious Chicago and New York nanny, Vivian Maier (1926 - 2009), who turned out to be a world class street photographer, but only received the recognition she so enormously deserved, after her death - and by sheer chance. 

The story of this private and unusual woman, who earned her ways as a nanny for wealthy Chicago and New York families for more than forty years, but simultaneously managed to take hundreds of thousands of sublime photographs of street life in the 50ties and 60ies - is quite amazing. 

Check out the documentary 'Finding Vivian Maier', it is a really intriguing story! (It's on Netflix at the moment).

Here is a very small taste of her wonderful work (starting with one of her many odd self portraits). So full of human empathy, so gentle - and yet sharp and unflinching. And her mastery of graphic composition, is almost like a thing secondary to that fantastic eye. I will never stop being curious about just what it is (besides a certain technical knowledge) that makes a great photographer. She sure was one. 

See much more on her official website - and be prepared to browse for a long time!

The Isamu Nogushi Museum in New York

The other day I picked this print up at the frame shop, and I immediately had to dive into my (yet not quite sorted) folder of images from our US-trip last year. See, I bought the print (brilliant red ink on almost transparent washi paper) in a very special place....

On a sunny day in June, I left my family to their own devices, and hopped on the subway to go visit a place in my own slow company: The Isamu Nogushi Museum in Long Island City - just a few stops from bustling Manhattan, but an oasis of quiet and beauty. The Japanese-American artist Isamu Nogushi designed the place himself, and it is created as a place where he would sum up his life's work in a small, intimate exhibition building and sculpture garden. There is so much to say about both Nogushi himself, and the exquisite museum space he created - I will lead those curious for more on to these sources:

Wikipedia on Isamu Nogushi

About the museum and the museum garden

It landed on my top ten list (I think, actually!) of breathtakingly beautiful architecture, I have had the good fortune to see, here or there. Seen as a whole, because you could not remove one sculpture or pine tree from the garden, or anything. It is perfect. Everything in balance, and warm, welcoming, sensual and approachable in every detail. Just wow.

On the last image you see his characteristic initials, on a stone fountain in the garden. 

The practicalities: Take the yellow N/W subway line and get off at the Broadway stop. It's a nice half hour walk from there, and you may want to check out the Socrates Sculpture Park, or other interesting things in this rather cozy and very down to earth neighborhood.

The museum has a café (and a really nice shop selling - among other things - the lovely Akari lamps) - BUT if you are hungry, I have one really hot tip for you. I had lunch in this diner on my way to the museum, and it was just the best eggplant parmigiana sandwich with an ice cold Coke on the side, I have ever had!

The Bel Aire Diner is on the corner of Broadway and 21st Street. Much recommended!

Confetti System on the last day of 2014

It's the last day of the year, and I am making very rich chocolate-pecan pie and vacuum cleaning everywhere, in honor of our guests, arriving later this afternoon.

New Years Eve is always a bit weird for me, it will never be my best evening - I get too moody and reflective, but I insist on a bit of celebration all the same. I love champagne, and kids can stay up as long as they like. People may kiss or cry as they prefer, and on this one night of the year we do hook up our mirror ball (on display all year round) with its little spin-around motor.

Let's pretend I was a lady of independent means with enormous ceiling height in some vast space: then I would throw a grand ball for everyone I like - and you, all you out there, who have found your way to these pages and enjoyed them through the seasons - you'd be more than invited.

I know exactly who I would summon to do the blingbling-ing for this fantasy party: Confetti System.
They are my paper craziness heroes: a duo of artists from New York, who have taken tissue paper and all kinds of metallic foil to very sophisticated heights.

Read more about them in this article from www.dwell.com.
You could also check out their blog.

Now, back to my fantasy party. There would be champagne, of course. It is one of my favorite beverages in the world. There would be ice cream. There would also be drinks with fresh mint in them, because we mustn't forget our vitamins, and there would be a salsa band playing all night long. Since no band can play non-stop, they would take turns with this very fantastic classic motown disco-type band, with a kick ass horn section. If you wanted to rest your feet, there would be a bonfire outside and cosy chairs around it.

And you could stay as long as you liked.

On this note I will post the last images this year: various projects by the amazing Confetti System.

Happy New Year!

I have just discovered Jacob Hashimoto

Jacob Hashimoto is an American artist (born 1973), based in New York, who works in mixed media, and most especially paper of all different kinds. His Japanese roots and a fondness for making paper kites, is a main theme in his work, and what he does with all those kites, is quite something. He makes enormous and insanely intricate room installations, and wall pieces of layered and layered paper and bamboo objects that are powerful and fragile at the same time.

His gallery in new York is Mary Boone Gallery, and the image above (image: Wallpaper magazine on Instagram) is from a show that just opened last week. It is called Sky Farm Fortress and I would be running very fast to see it, if I were anywhere near those parts. I find his work wildly inspiring and have been studying him on Google all afternoon.

Now you can do the same....!

From the installation Gas Giant at MOCA Pacific Design Centre, Los Angeles, 2014.

Click HERE for a time lapse video on YouTube, showing a 2012 hanging of this work

Click HERE for another video, where the camera slowly explores the Gas Giant in detail

Here are some of his incredible wall hangings - photos courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery.

The last one (below) is called Plunk - also Mary Boone Gallery. I love the way he explores one simple idea - here: the plaid pattern made with the tape - and just goes on and on and on! It is a kind of chaos, but a very controlled one. Repetition is a great trick, and working in cheap, accessible materials - that is just great. I hope I get to study his work up close some day.