Sabbatical Hideaway

George Bernard Shaw built this writing hut in his garden in Hertfordshire. The minimalist 8x8' structure rests on a base designed to rotate like a lazy Susan. Shaw could rotate the hut to follow the sun or change his view. Tours of Shaw's Corner, including his house, hut and garden are available in the summer months through the National Trust.


Dearest Readers,

Thank you, as always, for visiting. I am going to take a break from blogging here to complete another project for the next few months. I'll return in time for the winter holidays.

Although I don't have a hut or even a shed to re-purpose for my sabbatical hideaway, I can always dream! Stay well, and have a great summer and back to school season. I look forward to catching up at the beginning of December.

With love from 973


Photo: National Trust, Matthew Antrobus

Celebrating British Sensibility, Too

 Photo by David Parker

This wonderful boat was part of the flotilla that accompanied HRH Queen Elizabeth down the Thames as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration.
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English Landscape Sculpted

Image courtesy of Cowley Manor © Amy Murrell

This summer, make your way to Cowley Manor, a country house hotel in the Cotswolds, where eight graduate students from the Royal College of Art have temporarily installed their site-specific sculptures.

Strolling the grounds, you might see an eight-foot-tall wire tornado frozen mid-swirl on one of the lower lakes, or the word H-E-Y spelled out like a truncated version of the Hollywood sign at the foot of a grassy meadow. The latter, conceived by Wonwoo Lee, has won the juror’s prize and will permanently remain at Cowley Manor. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Cradeaux Alexander’s amusing installation of “garden plaques with a twist” throughout the grounds. In front of a wooded trail is a sign declaring “A Path of Unusual Morals” and adjacent to a nearby shrub, “A Bush of Great Character.”

The RCA/Coutts sculpture exhibition will be on view until September 3rd and is open to hotel and restaurant guests as well as picnic goers.

The Queen Portraits (2004)

This short video, taken from a documentary, offers a fun look at the Queen during a photo shoot at the Palace in 2004.

In 2004 Chris Levine was commissioned by the Island of Jersey to create a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The portrait was to commemorate 800 years of allegiance to the crown by the Island. A body of work was shot at Buckingham Palace over two sittings and the title works Equanimity and Lightness of Being have been widely acclaimed worldwide.

EQUANIMITY, the first holographic portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, was displayed at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, in 2004.

Jersey Heritage Trust commissioned light artist Chris Levine to create a portrait of Her Majesty to celebrate 800 years of loyalty to the English Crown. Having originally seen his work in a British Council Touring exhibition, the Jersey Museum decided that Chris’s work was so original that they commissioned him for this historic celebration. Jonathan Carter, Director of Jersey Heritage Trust, said: “We think Chris’s work exemplifies the 21st century and the links between Jersey and the Crown. It is a tribute to Chris that he has created such a fascinating piece of contemporary art.”

To create the over-life-size three-dimensional portrait, Chris Levine took over 10,000 images and 3D data-sets of Her Majesty during two sittings at Buckingham Palace. The final hologram is mounted in glass and illuminated by a strip of blue LEDs. The work shows The Queen wearing the Diamond Diadem, created for George IV and worn by Her Majesty for the procession to her Coronation in 1953.

EQUANIMITY was displayed at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from 17 July until 3 October 2004 with the exhibition George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste (until 9 January 2005).

The Jersey Museum, St Helier, Jersey exhibited  EQUANIMITY from 23 June until 2006, when the work went on permanent display at the historic Mont Orgueil.

ROYAL COLLECTION, BUCKINGHAM PALACE / Press Release

Guardian TV Interview

Redesigns for Damaged Communities

A new type of exhibit is open at the Museum of Modern Art, through July 30, 2012.
Foreclosed : Rehousing the American Dream

Alexander J. Felson, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale School of Architecture writes about his role in the study and exhibition.

Creative design and interdisciplinary exchange were two ingredients MoMA sought to foster in the Foreclosed project. Under MoMA’s guidelines, the teams leaped into uncharted territory, investigating new economic models for restructuring suburban land allocation and radical ecological means for management and adaptation. Respecting the location of foreclosures largely on the outskirts of urban areas, the task was to work through design interventions and enhancements, rethinking human-nature relationships given the suburban adjacency to the hinterlands. Team concepts grew organically through discussions, site visits, and research—culminating in a reconfiguration concept coined “misregisration.” This was intended to tweak the suburban model to restructure relationships and take advantage of potential overlaps and adjacencies within the suburb and its surroundings for social, ecological, and economic gains. For example, rather than thinking of each component of the suburb—lawn, driveway, house, and infrastructure—separately, we sought overlaps and slippages that produced multifunctional landscapes and enhanced value.

Click here for the interactive project map with views of current and future urban concepts for each area.

Happy Birthday Ansel Adams

This week marks the 110th birthday of the late photographer and environmentalist, Ansel Adams (Feb. 20 1902 — Apr. 22, 1984). For more breathtakingly beautiful images, click here.

Follow the link below for more on the Ansel Adams photos in the National Archives.
http://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams/

Happy Valentine's Day

DIY Heart Shaped Rings

Jumping right ahead to Valentine's season, here's a project you'll definitely want to try. This red wire heart ring would be a very fun and romantic gift for your Valentine, or a sweet gift for your Mom.

Thanks to Cut Out and Keep for posting the step-by-step here.


Like fiddling with twist ties? Here is an even simpler ring idea, you can make and share with your brown-bag lunch-mates. Or tie them on your friends as a reminder that you love them!


Thanks to YellowGoat for the tutorial here.