France By Watercolor #3

Getting back into the swing of quarter this week so this is a day later than I wanted to post it, but here is the third of Claire's watercolor paintings. Funny because it was actually the first one she did. Let me know if you're following this series of posts and if you would like any changes, etc. Now let's hear from Claire about this piece. ~ TW

"This was the first painting I did, shortly after arriving in Annecy. It was getting dark and a storm was coming in over the lake and I was mostly thinking wtf am I doing in France?"

Art CULTURE outside the museum

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Check out a video on San Paulo art known as "pixacao" at Cool Hunting.

You might consider it just graffiti, but these street artists risk their lives for it!

Alternative Co-op in Baltimore

The last two weeks of Winter Q were horrendous, but as always, I managed to make it out alive.  The check-list studio was over, I had survived a corrosive chemical attack, and I had even experienced UC's hilly campus on crutches.  All that hardship and still no co-op job in sight. SIGH... but wait, enter the "alternative co-op option." 

The choices were laid out: volunteer, participate in a research project, or travel (not just a lazy beach vacation).  I settled on the first of these and packed my bags for Michigan, unpacked, laid on the couch for a week, and then packed my bags again and boarded a plane for Baltimore! 

Just into my first week, and my alternative co-op had involved some rather unconventional tasks.  I attended the Transmodern Festival and filmed interviews, joined a team of MICA students on a real marketing campaign that required me to measure a bus shelter and freight elevator, and most surprising of all, I helped out at a real mini-documentary filming of a local saxophone legend.

I never anticipated my 3rd co-op to be spent away from a cubicle, but I am actually having fun and learning invaluable lessons (no AutoCAD necessary)! 

France By Watercolor #2

Hello again, I'm posting the second of Claire's watercolors today along with her comments on it. A little background information is necessary for you to understand her story.  As Claire was finalizing the details of her co-op and flying to Chicago to pick up her work visa she found out she had a number of inexplicable tears in her retina. She had to undergo an emergency surgery on both eyes and was confined to her room, blind, for several days. Claire was forced to wait several more weeks for her follow up examination to hear the doctor's evaluation.  Without approval she would not be able to fly again which would end her co-op before it even began. Happily she was cleared to fly and quickly left for Annecy and a French residency. One of the reasons I post Claire's work is to celebrate this story.~TW

"I was sitting on a bench at the far north end of Lake Annecy. While I was painting this I mainly thought about my recent intensive eye surgery I had right before I moved to France and how glad I was to be regaining my eyesight."

Reuben Margolin

OMG this rulez.





"Reuben Margolin, a Bay Area visionary and longtime maker, creates totally singular techno-kinetic wave sculptures. Using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects, Reubens artwork is diverse, with sculptures ranging from tiny to looming, motorized to hand-cranked. Focusing on natural elements like a discrete water droplet or a powerful ocean eddy, his work is elegant and hypnotic. Also, learn how ocean waves can power our future. Learn more about Reuben at http://www.reubenmargolin.com"

France by Watercolor

Hello to anyone stopping by. Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting updates from a close friend co-oping in France. Claire is a fashion major with a passion for graphic and industrial design. She is in the middle of a six month co-op with Salomon sports in their Annecy office. Annecy is near the border of Switzerland so Claire's first day of work included testing their ski equipment in the Alps. During her free time Claire does water color paintings and she has submitted them with descriptions for me to post. Check back regularly to see her work and follow her experience in France. ~ TW

"I went on a three hour walk along the lake and found this view to paint. Lake Annecy is the cleanest lake in all of Europe so every part of the lake is quite natural and beautiful to look at. Downtown Annecy has a population of about 50,000 people, but as you walk along the lake you don't get a sense there are that many people around. It's very peaceful."

DUNNE AND RABY

"A collection of adult furniture for the Medici Gardens in Rome.

The spaces in the gardens of the Villa Medici are like rooms, outdoor rooms without furniture. We would like to furnish them, and provide suggestions for how these neutral spaces could be used. Parks are strange places. During the day happy families play out idealised
scenarios of modern life, while at night, they become sites for a variety of illicit activities. Our furniture will make some of these night-time activities more convenient and at the same time, offer a critique of the kind of design that is always trying to make things nice, convenient, user-friendly, efficient and ergonomic (especially public furniture)." - Dunne & Raby


ALSO...





"Hideaway Furniture is part of the Designs for Fragile Personalities in Anxious Times series. There are three versions. They are designed to meet irrational but real needs, in this case, a fear of alien abduction."


AND...



"A building project. A studio and a home. The architect and builder Cassion Castle worked very closely with us. The main requirement:'A place of calm'. It sits hidden behind the shops in Bethnal Green in a tiny street next to garages used by the market traders. Only one south facing facade can be manipulated freely."

AND...



"Parasite light: A light that feeds off the leaky radiation of household electronic products; it only works when placed in electromagnetic fields."



They have so many cool things on their website. I highly recommend you explore their website dunneandraby.co.uk if you're into this stuff.