BOOKED! (1)

BOOKED! (1)

“The world is so full of a number of things,
I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

Today I celebrate an embarrassment of riches…a gaggle of glorious words and images exploring all manner of fascinating facets of the worlds of art, architecture, design, environmental art, maps and cartography, and more. And more to come.

The arts and crafts movement, at its height towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, influenced painting. architecture, craft, the decorative arts, and the design of books, textiles, furniture, and gardens, to name a few. The next two images are from this book, which is filled with richly colored illustrations replete with pattern, design and image.

Here is the magnificent main door at  Pownall Hall, Cheshire, 1886, set off by shots of floral color.  Though imposing, it manages to be warm and welcoming at the same time. What would it be like to come home to this door?!

Above, William Morris bed hangings at Kelmscott Manor, Gloucestershire. Looks like a magical place to lay one’s head at night…

A fascinating look at artists working “directly within the landscape”, and the groundbreaking (!) work they create/d. This volume contains images of earth/body/performance art by one of my long-time favorite artists….

Ana Mendieta. Above we see “Birth”, from the “Silueta” series: self-portraits …“in which Mendieta literally inscribed her presence onto the landscape….” using earth, mud, gunpowder, rocks, plants, and her own body

“The series encompassed an extensive spectrum of media, materials and method.”

Maps, which  employ line, color, shape, create composition, words, numbers, and images, are rife with meaning  that can bridge to message. To many, cartography begs to play a role in artmaking. Which came first, the art or the cart?

Above:  “Untitled”, by Guillermo Kuitca, made of acrylic on mattresses with wood and bronze legs..there are 20 beds which comprise this piece.

A closer view reveals more detail.

“Contingente”, by Adriana Varejao….unframed photograph, from an edition of 100.

Moving from the built to the natural environment…from the earth to maps of it, and back to the body and where we live. We begin to see how all is connected…did Ana Mendieta map the earth with her body as a form of art?

Stay tuned for part 2….as we delve into “bibliographics”, and art created from the book itself.  An embarrassment of riches indeed…just a book away.