May

Hey, Could You Please Block My View of This Mural?

by Bruce Goldstone on May 12, 2014

Mural in Buenos Aires, Argentina, illustrating how street art appreciation thrives on interactions with the public. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Thumbing his nose at the rules of art appreciation?
© Bruce Goldstone

Obstructions and Street Art Appreciation

Like many photographers, my eye is constantly drawn to vibrant murals and colorful street art. I often stake out a spot in front of an exuberant wall and wait for the perfect, pristine moment to capture the image.

Art appreciation guidelines suggest that the artist’s message is best interpreted with as little interference as possible between you and the art.

I’ve spent plenty of time waiting for everyone to get out of the way so I can snap the perfect picture, free of unplanned interlopers. But now I’m not so sure that’s really the best way to catch the spirit and meaning of art created on public surfaces.

It’s Alive!

More and more often lately, I’ve stopped waiting for everyone to clear out. I just snap away.

An addled face responds to the rhythms of street traffic.
© Bruce Goldstone

When I go back through my photos, I find that the shots with people in front of them often capture the sensation of viewing street art much better than the pristine gallery shot.

An “Oh, I see” moment came when I was trying to choose the best picture of a mural in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. The shot I took of only the artwork was a fine, clear record.

Nice pic, but something’s missing,
© Bruce Goldstone

But the photos with people passing by the mural do a much better job of capturing the playful way the giant apes interact with their close-kin cousins on the street.

Three photos of a mural in Buenos Aires, Argentina, illustrating how street art appreciation thrives on interactions with the public. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Add a few more primates and a hidden energy springs to life.
© Bruce Goldstone

I’ve come to realize that the interaction between the passersby and the art is an important part of the message in street art.

Random Acts of Finesse

The more photos I take of people in front of murals, the more instances I find of happy accidents and lively synchronicities. Of course, these visual events happen whether or not a camera’s there to record them. They’re a built-in part of the street art experience.

Follow the bouncing arrow
© Bruce Goldstone

A rubbery arrow seems to push this woman along the sidewalk.

A passing red jacket adds a vibrant burst to the color palette.
© Bruce Goldstone

Colors recombine in surprising and appealing ways, turning people—and their clothing—into part of the design.

Waiting for the game to start
© Bruce Goldstone

Contrasting energies create tension and interest. A young soccer player waits for friends to arrive, while the wall in front of him is already in full play mode.

Part of the Art

Even though it seems contradictory, I now believe that street art looks best when you can’t see everything clearly. Obstructions are constructive.

Blending in and adding dimension
Bruce Goldstone

It’s the reason that gallery shows of street are are so often disappointing. The sterile viewing conditions of a museum don’t enhance our view of street art—they limit it.

Visual overload can be a good thing.
Bruce Goldstone

Of course, murals and other street art are best viewed in person, surrounded by the pulsing action in which they were created.

But since I can’t curb the desire to capture this energy in photos, I’ve adjusted my street art appreciation to include the web of people, pets, and other features that I once thought of as unwanted obstacles. Now I see them as part of the art.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Bruce Goldstone Comments

Argentina/The World's Art & Design

May

Do Wind-Up Toys Have Inner Artists?

by Bruce Goldstone on May 1, 2014

Artwork created by a tin toy showing how wind-up toys can unleash creative expression. (Image © Echo Yang)

Guess what the artist was thinking. Now guess again.
© Echo Yang

Creative Expression Unleashed with the Turn of a Key

When we look at art, we often try to imagine what the artist was thinking: How is this artwork a creative expression of the artist’s thoughts and feelings? Take, for example, this vibrant starburst of primary dots. What did the artist have in mind?

In this case, chances are pretty good that the artist didn’t have anything in mind at all. That’s because the artist was a tin wind-up toy. Wind-up toys are great, but great thinkers they’re not.

Here’s the wind-up chicken that painted the artwork, armed with a watercolor-dipped cotton swab.

Artwork being created by a tin toy showing how wind-up toys can unleash creative expression. (Image © Echo Yang)

The artist at work
© Echo Yang

OK, to be fair, this wind-up toy didn’t grab the swab and start painting. The set-up was done by artist and graphic designer Echo Yang, who has created a series of autonomous artworks, turning the repetitive gestures of a variety of machines into vivid, creative artworks.

In addition to toys, her team of artists has included an alarm clock, a vacuum cleaner, an electric razor, and a hand mixer.

By attaching mark-making devices to these normally reticent machines, Yang uncovers the hidden beauty in the shapes they trace while working.

The Fun in Function

In Yang’s explorations, function becomes the motor of creation. This video shows Yang and her mechanical collaborator at work.

http://vimeo.com/70360563

If the video does not display, watch it here.

The resulting forms are surprisingly elegant, expressive, and playful.

Happy trails
© Echo Yang

The Tracks of My Toys

When I saw Yang’s creations for the first time, I had two immediate reactions. First: “Hey, I have a wind-up bird that’s an awful lot like that one.”

Then: “I wonder if my bird wants to be an artist, too?”

There was only one way to find out.

I began my experiments by taping a thick marker to my bird’s back. I wound it, placed it on a newsprint pad, let it go, and waited to witness the magic of mechanical creation.

Except my bird didn’t budge.

A tin toy trying to create art showing how wind-up toys and unleash creative expression. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Some artists can be quite stubborn.
© Bruce Goldstone

Apparently, the heft of the chunky marker was too much deadweight for my little toy. If I was going to find my bird’s inner artist, I needed to consider the capacity of its tiny inner machinery, too.

So I attached a smaller, lighter marker to see what my bird was dying to show me. This time when I wound it up and placed it on the pad, the bird hopped along nicely.

A tin toy creating art showing how wind-up toys can unleash creative expression. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

This artist prefers a light touch.
©Bruce Goldstone

But the feeble results looked like, well, chicken scratching.

If my bird wanted to be an artist, it clearly wasn’t approving of my choice of medium.

Perhaps my bird preferred paints?

For my next attempt, I tried a light brush dipped in watercolor gouache.

Artwork created by a tin toy showing how wind-up toys can unleash creative expression. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

A brush with success
© Bruce Goldstone

Eureka. My toy scampered along happily, its usual happy hopping only slightly interfered with by the awkward new encumberance.

Some Toys Shouldn’t Quit Their Day Jobs

While Yang’s toy hopped in spirited circles, mine tended to follow a more arching track each time I set it down. The results in green gouache somewhat resembled fern fronds.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

We decided to add a couple of pink passes for contrast.

Art created by a toy showing how wind-up toys can unleash creative expression. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

I didn’t know ferns had berries . . .
© Bruce Goldstone

Careful analysis of the final artwork led to an “Oh, I see” moment: Maybe all wind-up toys want to be artists, but there’s still such a thing as talent. And my bird . . . well, he’s very cute.

Where Yang’s artwork is graceful and suggestive, my bird’s artistic hand is rather leaden and sluggish.

Yes, of course, I blame the bird.

My conclusion? Wind-up toys and other machines can indeed foster creative expression. But it takes a true artist, like Echo Yang, to uncover those hidden impulses in a genuinely artistic way.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Bruce Goldstone Comments

The World's Art & Design

Apr

The Kale Project

by Meredith Mullins on April 24, 2014

Kristen Beddard, creator of The Kale Project, toasts her new life in Paris.
© Meredith Mullins

Life-Changing Experiences in Paris with a Leafy Green Vegetable

This could be a story about many things.

a crusader
an expat trying to feel at home in a new country

inspiration for healthy eating
how to awaken an interest for something lost and forgotten

persistence
persuasiveness
success against challenging odds
the ability to see a problem and create a project to fix it
life-changing experiences

Or, this could just be a story about kale.

A kale leaf, part of Kristen Beddard's life-changing experiences with The Kale Project in Paris

In France, kale was a forgotten vegetable.
© bhofack2/iStock

A Tale of Kale: The Story of a Crusade

In fact, this story is about all these things, punctuated by “Oh, I see” moments of the best kind.

The two main characters are kale and a young American woman, Kristen, in Paris. Both have superpowers.

Kristen Beddard is a kale crusader. America embraced kale years ago, and even overmarketed it into a hashtag. It is the leafy green vegetable that has it all (the food you should probably vote to have with you on a desert island).

However, France needed a nudge. Kale was a légume oublié, a forgotten vegetable.

A nutritious staple in the Middle Ages in Europe and even in WW II in the UK, kale was unknown to most contemporary French farmers and consumers. They hadn’t ever seen it. It just didn’t exist in the French culinary world of the 21st century.

Kristen Beddard with a kale salad, part of her life-changing experiences with The Kale Project in Paris (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

A Leafy-Green Destiny

Enter Kristen—to the rescue.

Destiny? Perhaps.

In the third grade, the students in her class were asked by the teacher to associate the first letter of their name with something that was meaningful to them.

Kristen did not hesitate. “My name is Kristen and I like kale.”

Although most of the kids in class had no idea what kale was, Kristen had been raised with it . . . and many other organic foods. Home was healthy—a place where watermelon was dessert, carob cake was for special occasions, and the words Ding Dong could never be uttered.

“My mom believed in nourishing food,” Kristen says. When I was sick, she fed me brown rice, miso soup, and kale. I associate these things with home.”

kale soup, part of Kristen Beddard's life-changing experiences in Paris with the Kale Project

Making Paris a Home

Kristen arrived in Paris two years ago when her husband’s job brought them to France. As with all new expat arrivals, she knew it was important to find a raison d’être, a meaningful plan to pass the time and a way to feel at home in new surroundings.

For Kristen, kale served both purposes. It grounded her with her organic past and made her think of home, and it provided a challenge for her present and future.

She had a mission. She would reintroduce kale to Paris. The Kale Project was born.

All Things Start with a Seed

seed packet for The Kale Project, part of Kristen Beddard's life changing experiences in Paris

The first Kale Project seed packet

The first step was to convince farmers to grow this lovely leafy green. Like Johnny Appleseed, she gave seed packets to likely candidates and provided (in her words) a “wholesome, earthy, and fresh” taste of kale to tempt producers and consumers.

A former NY ad account manager, Kristen knew how to sell. She knew the kale headlines in the U.S. were a plus (kale was trending). She knew its nutrition value was unsurpassed (protein, calcium, vitamins A and C, wrapped up in just a few calories). She knew, instinctively, “if you grow it, they will come.”

She convinced several farmers to give it a try.

A kale field, part of The Kale Project in Paris and the life-changing experiences of Kristen Beddard

On the Trail of Kale

The next step was to gain the attention of restaurants and boutiques. She talked with chefs. She organized several kale events in Paris to make kale a topic of conversation in the community.

She even briefly pursued being a kale chef, bringing huge bags full of kale from Normandy on the train and turning her kitchen into a production haven for kale chips, kale pesto, and kale salads.

kale chips, part of Kristen Beddard's life changing experiences with The Kale Project in Paris

(This was a period of frustration for her husband, since the refrigerator full of kale was designated for her clients and not for their own dinner. Kale, kale everywhere, but not a leaf to spare.)

Her passion and drive had results. She began to note on a Google map on The Kale Project website the places where kale was appearing—in markets and in restaurants. The kale network grew.

Jay with kale leaves, the result of the successful Kale Project in Paris and the life-changing experiences of Kristen Beddard (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Jay, of Cantine California in Paris, makes a mean green kale juice, chock full of kale plus apples, cucumber, and kiwi.
© Meredith Mullins

New Horizons

Now that kale sightings in Paris are more frequent and The Kale Project could be considered a success, what’s next for Kristen?

She has many projects that keep her entrepreneurial spirit busy, including helping people in the south of France and other European countries bring kale to their farms, markets, and restaurants.

close up of kale leaf, fresh from the fields, a goal of Kristen Beddard's life changing experiences related to The Kale Project in Paris

Like any good environmentalist and champion of local produce, she would like kale to be planted wherever it can grow, so it travels only short distances from field to market.

She will always be a kale supporter. However, she did mention that it’s been hard to find dandelion and mustard greens in Paris. Is there a new movement in the making? Time will tell.

What we do know is that we need more crusaders like Kristen. One person CAN make a difference.

These are the life-changing experiences that make the world a better place.

Ready for some interesting kale in your life? OIC offers this download of great kale recipes by Kristen Beddard:

For more about Kristen and The Kale Project, take a look at this film made for Dark Rye. If video does not display, watch it here.

If you’ve always wanted to know more about how to massage kale (who hasn’t?), check out this massage video. If video does not display, watch it here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 10 Comments

France (Paris)/The World's Entrepreneurs

World Views:

Topics

Category Archives: Creative World

Hey, Could You Please Block My View of This Mural?

Obstructions and Street Art Appreciation

It’s Alive!

Random Acts of Finesse

Part of the Art

Do Wind-Up Toys Have Inner Artists?

Creative Expression Unleashed with the Turn of a Key

The Fun in Function

The Tracks of My Toys

Some Toys Shouldn’t Quit Their Day Jobs

The Kale Project

Life-Changing Experiences in Paris with a Leafy Green Vegetable

A Tale of Kale: The Story of a Crusade

A Leafy-Green Destiny

Making Paris a Home

All Things Start with a Seed

On the Trail of Kale

New Horizons