“Animated Anatomies (an exhibit at the Duke University Library) explores the visually stunning and technically complex genre of printed texts and illustrations known as anatomical flap books. These publications invite the viewer to participate in virtual autopsies, through the process of unfolding their movable leaves, simulating the act of human dissection. This exhibit traces the flap book genre beginning with early examples from the sixteenth century, to the colorful “golden age” of complex flaps of the nineteenth century, and finally to the common children’s pop-up anatomy books of today.”
https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/anatomy
Discovered by Rick Gordon (via: https://laughingsquid.com/)
This is the back cover of a new Abrams book titled: Artists’ Handmade Houses, by Michael Gotkin and Don Freeman. It shows my late cousin Mike Kahn’s sculptural house in Arizona, which he called Eliphante. The other houses in the book are not as wild as this. It’s a pretty nice book, worth checking out in a bookstore.
(There are 8 pages of Mike’s compound of sculptural houses in our book Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter.)
Godfrey Stephens, the Northwest Coast artist and carver featured in Builders of the Pacific Coast, just sent me a bunch of pictures of his sculpture “Three Graces.” Also, pix of two adzes.
The great First Nations carvers had tools that were art objects in themselves, each one meticulously crafted, things (tools) of beauty.
This young Māori artist makes beautiful New Zealand jade pendants. From Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver, BC, Canada:
“Tamaora Walker
(1984- )
Māori
Te Arawa
Tamaora has worked with Māori jade artist Lewis Gardiner since 2004 and has quickly developed his own style. Tamaora’s work was included in the Spirit Wrestler Gallery’s Mini Masterworks II (2008) and Kaitiaki—Guardians (2006) exhibitions. He was also recently featured in the Toi Māori: Small Treasures event at the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2008).”
https://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=55&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2011-04&sort=6d&page=3
From Bill Castle of Pollywog Holler: “Barb proved that the “Big Moon” Sat night was not really big but it did get close enough to the Earth, for her to grab it…”
(Check out Bill’s unique hand-carved tables: https://is.gd/billstables.)
Master natural materials builder SunRay Kelley and his partner Bonnie have just returned from a 6000 mile trip to Mexico in their in-process solar powered biodiesel Toyota camper (see https://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=10883512 for stuff on my blog about SunRay).
SunRay’s looking for a project. The last one he did was a beautiful little sculptural timber-cob studio in Northern California, which I photographed for a feature in our forthcoming tiny houses book. He brought all the wall and roof sheathing with him, cut and milled on his Washington property, then got posts and beams in the local woods. He told me a few days ago that things were slow in Washington and he was looking for a project. He’s done projects as far away from home as New York state and Mexico.
I couldn’t recommend anyone more highly. His structures utilize almost all natural materials in ingenious ways, are beautiful, and finely crafted. Call 360-333-0364 or email Bonnie at sunray@sunraykelley.com.
Just north of Gualala are these welded steel dinosaurs, viewable from Hwy. One
“I work as a film location scout in New York City. My day is spent combing the streets for interesting and unique locations for feature films. In my travels, I often stumble across some pretty incredible sights, most of which go ignored daily by thousands of New Yorkers in too much of a rush to pay attention. As it happens, it’s my job to pay attention, and I’ve started this blog to keep a record of what I see.…
Chances are, you’ve noticed Greenwich Locksmiths in your travels through the West Village. It occupies a small storefront just south of Commerce Street on one of the stranger parcels of land in Manhattan…The new design is made up entirely of keys:”
https://www.scoutingny.com/?p=3534
Barista art sent us by Jan Janzen from Vancouver Island, BC
“…Two of the more remarkable things about the Harris’s home and studio are that there are no blueprints other than a sketch on a piece of paper, and J.D. built most of it by himself, with little help.
‘It’s all in his head,’ Cathy said. ‘He just sketched it to show me what my new home would look like. Every cut and nail is in his head.’
‘It’s all two-by-fours and one-by-twelves,’ J.D. said. ‘I can see this so clearly in my mind, and it stays. It doesn’t just come and go.…’
Others have constructed sloped roofs, J.D. said, but he came up with a way to do it without steaming the wood, which would be impossible for some of the lengths he’s using in his roofs. He figured out a way to put two 2x4s together, put pressure on them and then nail the joints with nails at different angles so the planks hold their curvature.
How did he get 40 feet in the air to do this?
By building the walls from the ground up and making a hand- and foothold “ladder” out of pieces of 2×4 nailed to each vertical section. ‘He hung upside down by his toes from these to do some of the work,’ Cathy said. ‘I couldn’t watch.'”
https://www.lovelycitizen.com/story/1641288.html
Sent us by Fred W. Weisenborn
