Dec 9
Jaume Plensa’s “The Alchemist” at MIT (Photo: DaydreamTourist)
Many modern artists find themselves returning to familiar themes for continued exploration. Catalan artist Jaume Plensa has created a catalog of large curved metal sculptures shaped into contemplative figures. I find something other-worldly about these figures, especially those made of letters, as if this were some futuristic totem waiting for us to decode them.
Dec 8
Newly installed LED lights illuminate the Louvre pyramid (Photo: Christophe Ena/AP Photo)
New external lighting are inaugurated at the Louvre, the worlds most popular art museum, at the Pyramid, the three pyramidions and the Colbert pavilion of the Louvre, with the warm glow of new LED lighting , Tuesday Dec. 6, 2011 in Paris. AP Photo/Christophe Ena. (Text and Image from artdaily.org)
This isn’t the first lighting change the Pyramid went through. Switching to halide lamps in 2005 from 100W halogen lamps changed the glow from orange to white. It looks like this latest lighting change has unified the illumination through the pyramid so that is evenly bright. I think it enhances I. M. Pei’s work and punctuates the Louvre courtyard.
Dec 5
Decorating with travel photography always looks sharp and certainly inspires trip day-dreaming on a daily basis. While you can get some amazing global images from amateur and professional photographers, I find myself coming back to stylized city illustrations. It’s fun to see a location distilled to its essential elements and I have always loved stylized graphic design. In honor of the Holiday shopping season, here are a few of my favorites from etsy.com with links to their stores below. (If they don’t have your favorite city, it doesn’t hurt to ask if they could do it.)
Washington DC by albie design (Etsy.com)
San Francisco by Matte Stevens (Etsy.com)
Images Credits:
Portland, OR by Loose Petals
Washington DC by albie design
San Francisco by Matte Stevens
Daydream Tourist 