Inspiration
A couple days ago I stumbled upon a blog-post that made chills run down my spine. A liberal prank group, The Yes Men, created a fake (but very real looking) version of the New York Times dated July 4th, 2009 & distributed them across the region for free. The peoples reactions are priceless and the shear magnitude of the prank deserves a proper golf clap…Check the video
You can read the actual fake paper online at NYTimes-SE.com…Damn I wish I had a hard copy…
Speaking of Paper Boys, if you have seen the Mike Mills film ‘Paper Boys’? Add it to your Netflix. It’s classic!
Alan Fletcher’s book The Art of Looking Sideways has long been my favorite book and a never-ending source of inspiration. I was just looking for a few Alan Fletcher images online and stumbled upon this video of him speaking about The Art of Looking Sideways…Everything he says about the book I find to be true…
Pick up The Art of Looking Sideways…you deserve it!
**It makes a perfect gift around the Holidays…inspire someone!
Where was I?! I missed the boat; FOR REAL! I just stumbled upon this project called The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (via Fecal Face). The piece was designed and organized by printmaker and installation artist Swoon in collaboration with a ton of other talented artists and musicians.
“Swimming cities of Switchback Sea is a flotilla of seven intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the stretch of the Hudson River between Troy and the New York harbor this August 15th - September 7th. Imagined as a hybrid between boats and bits of land mass broken off and headed out to sea, the Switchback vessels will make stops in towns along the river bringing performances and music. Over the course of three weeks they will make their way toward their home port - an invented landscape tucked into a niche along the East River in Long Island City, Queens.” - Switchbacksea.org
These photographs (by Tod Seelie) feel like they are straight out of The BEST Dream Ever! More photos by Tod Seelie. More info about the project is available at Switchbacksea.org
While checking out the MEGAWORDS site(worth a visit!) I stumbled onto the blogspot titled ‘Awesome Tapes from Africa’. I was quick to realize that I had just discovered a true internet gem. The blog, which has been actively posting mp3s since 2006, is jam packed with tons of music! Something about music from other parts of the world fascinates & inspires me…a real gold mine!
You’re probably thinking “What the hell is Hamburger Eyes?” I thought the same thing when I first heard the name a couple of years back. In short Hamburger Eyes is a black & white zine out of San Francisco, CA. I’ve only seen a couple of issues in person but between my real life encounters and their entertaining blog I’d say Hamburger Eyes has been and continues to shake up the photography world. The short documentary below is a very nice glimpse of the world via Hamburger Eyes!
Hamburger Eyes from Nick Fogarty on Vimeo.
The Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship tonight. I haven’t followed the playoffs but the Celtics put together a pretty amazing performance tonight. Kevin Garnett’s post-game interview was pretty wild as well…so much emotion. Inspiring! When Kevin Garnett started yelling “Anything is Possible!” chills ran down my spine. It was tough to capture that energy and emotion but today’s sketch is of my television during the 4th quarter of tonight’s game!
My friend Sean of Sam Champion and his girlfriend Sarah have launched a small collection called FRIENDS. FRIENDS has a seriously refreshing personality in an era of IN YOUR FACE advertising, fashion, and multimedia. Self-described as a brand dedicated to runs of “seasonally specific” clothing items, FRIENDS first offering is a simple trio. A utilitarian (and very attractive) pair of swim trunks, a 7″ single, & a zine. Cover your privates, drop the needle on your record player, and sit back under the sunshine while you enjoy a xeroxed publication. I dig it.
More at Friendscanvastrunks.com
The other day a friend sent me a .PDF of The Artist Survival Guide. He said something like, “check this out, you may need it.” It just so happens he had stopped by earlier that day, probably took note of my messy studio area & my off-the-wall mind, and thought…”Damn, Nick is a trainwreck! I better send him some sleeping pills or something. Oh wait, look! It’s an artist survival guide. Perfect!” But in all honesty, this thing is pretty fun so check it out! I feel like I’ve seen something like this before, but I can’t remember where. Thanks Chris!
Download Artists Survival Guide (3 megs)
The Library of Congress joined flickr this year and has been posting photos on the regular. The photographs are wonderful for their content, but also because they are public-domain & copyright-free. Every designers dream! I really should keep this as quiet as possible but I’m not selfish! I love seeing old establishments embrace technology & the world wide web2.0! Thank you Library of Congress. Hopefully your COMPLACENT GOVERNMENT counterparts take notice! PS. Library’s are on the come up! SO HIP!
Eat your heart out! You’ll be looking for an hour! Library of Congress on Flickr
A while back I came across a video by BLU, featuring all sorts of creatures climbing over the interior walls of a building. It was amazing. MUTO, Blu’s latest project, in which creatures terrorize large scale walls leaves me without words. Blu describes the project as “an ambiguous animation painted on public walls.” The amount of time & energy and the shear magnitude of this project is mind-boggling! I’m SPEECHLESS!
Amid some morning chit-chat my friend Jesse pointed me to the video ‘Genius of Love’ by Tom Tom Club. I really missed the boat on this stuff, but it’s fantastic! After watching a number of Tom Tom Club’s videos its very apparent that this stuff was key to inspiring the work of ‘So Me‘ (Justice videos) and a heap of others!
I was in Boston this past weekend for the Legends of Style event at the Boston Center for the Arts. The show was jam packed with over 200 pieces of art work from some very talented street inspired artists, including but not limited to Kenji Nakayama, Ryan Lombardi, Jessica Hess! The Scion sponsored event had a great turn out, with DJs & Breakdancing throughout the night! I opted to enjoy the night and not have to worry about a camera but check Always on the Grind for photos!
Coincidentally this past weekend also happened to be the Open Studio weekend for Boston University’s Graduate Painting Exhibition. I made a point of checking out the exhibition and stopping into a few studios. I was blown away by some of the talent coming out of the graduate program at BU! The gallery at 808 Commonwealth Ave, as well as the studios on the third floor of the building, were filled with beautiful work. The show runs through May 4th so hurry up and check it out! A few of my favorites
L > R: Johnathan Daly & Lindsey Warren
L > R: Julia Fernandez-Pol & Lika Yurkovetsky
L > R: Karen Ann Myers & Adrienne Ginter (Hand-crafted Flowers)
