Plastic makes life possible in America. I come to this conclusion after trying to live one day without it. As you can guess, I didn’t make it far. From Barbies and Legos to laptops, food containers and cars, plastic is the modern clay.

Tara Donovan, Untitled (Plastic Cups), 2008 (Photo by: Dennis Cowley/ Courtesy Pace- Wildenstein, New York)

We’re looking forward to a big IMA exhibition this April by contemporary artist Tara Donovan, who works in the medium of plastic. I’ve had plastic on the brain since watching the recent documentary Addicted to Plastic, directed by Ian Connacher:

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Musings

I <3 panoramics.  It’s a great way to bring a much larger perspective to a single photograph.  One thing that has caught my eye for some time is the Polar Panoramic.  How fun, turn our nice little 360 panoramic into a planet shaped oddity.

The snow came down this weekend, and the grounds of the museum made perfect conditions for doing such a panoramic.   So I grabbed my tripod and headed out to the grounds to finally work on my shot.  I wanted to do something slightly different, so instead of using a single 360 degree shot, I took 2 and put one inside the other.  And this is the tutorial on how I did that so that you can make your own panoramic as well.

Step 1.  Take a series of shots for your panoramic

Grab your trusty tripod and find a good spot.  Pan across the scene taking a shot every 15 degrees or so.   Make sure your photos will merge together well on the left and right sides.  And you also want to pick something with a neutral top and bottom portion of the scene.  This will make cleaning up areas later on much easier. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Technology

The Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

Blog: The Sartorialist

thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

Like Depeche Mode, we just can’t get enough. The popular fashion blog by Scott Schuman started when he began carrying a digital camera around on the streets of New York City, taking pictures of people who had dressed in some way that caught his eye, and then posting them to his blog, sometimes with comments about what he finds. Check out his talk on ArtBabble.

ArtBabble Video: Sparrow Lane

Filed under: Art, Design, New Media

So we know the IMA doesn’t actually look like this today… but we can pretend, right?

(via hanginthere)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Filed under: Art

I have the incredible privilege of spending four weeks at the American Academy in Rome as an Affiliate Fellow, representing the IMA. From time to time I hope to post some of my adventures and discoveries here. What a ride! (To read the rest of the posts in this series, click here.)

I had powerful motivation to recover at least most of my strength by Friday, Oct 16. Katharina, a young classicist from Columbia University, and I were scheduled to go on an excursion to see several castles and palaces with amazing gardens in the hill towns Northwest of Rome. I am very thankful to say that when Friday morning came, I did not feel feverish, my cough was manageable, and I bundled up for the trip in crisp fall weather.

Castello Ruspoli

Katharina and I took a train from Termini Stazione to Orte, where professional garden tour guide Lisa Finerty met us at the train station, accompanied by another American expat, Julie. A few words about Lisa: She is a former Merrill Lynch executive, a master gardener and a garden activist. She’s done some fantastic work with schools and marginalized communities in Chicago. She has that combination of acute observation and quiet confidence that comes from working close to the earth. What a day we were in for! Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Education, Travel