Hiatus Interruptus?

Selfie on the bus

It's hard to know whether this post is a hiatus from a hiatus, or the end of one. Only time will tell ...

Dead Horse Bay revisited

Anonymous snapshot

Jeff Koons sculpture from his show at the (old) Whitney.

MANA, Morris, Meier

Earlier this year, I visited polymath, Debie Morris at her weaving studio in MANA, the multiuse art center in Jersey City.

The materials Morris incorporates into her pieces range from rarefied filament imported from Japan to scavenged marine rope, foil, and recording tape. She also spins plastic bags into yarn, shibori-prints yardage, and generates surface design with mathematical software.

In addition to her adventures in fiber, Morris performs with a gamelan orchestra, is an accomplished cook, and teaches herself foreign languages.

MANA is the new home of the Richard Meier Model Museum. Meier has designed the MANA Exposition opening Saturday May 10. There will be shuttle buses to and from Manhattan.

Drop in on Debie Morris if you are visiting MANA this weekend.

Apologies for the out-of-focus image, but I couldn't not show you this vintage step-stool recovered in African-printed fabric.

Debie Morris amongst her looms.

The hanging scarves are printed with mathematical software-generated patterns.

The Richard Meier Model Museum houses over 150 models including that of the Getty Center, above.

Late-Afternoon Valentine

I collected these heart-shaped rocks from the beach this past summer on the island of Gotland, in Sweden. Weathered, scarred, and misshapen, the bad poetry absolutely writes itself.

I usually keep my hearts of stone in a box (you see what I mean about the bad poetry?), but I took them out today for Valentine’s Day.

Three Objects

Unfinished shoe last, turning section still attached, 1930s.

(Collection: London College of Fashion)

Industrial polishing tool, wool and other fibers,1984.

(Collection: University for the Creative Arts at Farnham)

Tapestry beater, 20th C.
(Collection: University for the Creative Arts at Farnham)

These digitally "found" sculptures are from VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) of the UK, which is a phenomenal collection of archives pertaining to the visual arts. It was created for the academic community and is meant for educational and research purposes. They’ve got everything from Charles Rennie Mackintosh´s sketchbook to war posters and Guinness ads.

Remains of the Bay

As part of Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, Dead Horse Bay is now a protected environment along with the other historic and natural sites in the area like Floyd Bennett Field, Fort Tilden, Jacob Riis Park and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Though hardly pristine, the stretch of beach is a far cry from its years as a garbage dump for New York. From the New York Times:

Dead Horse Bay sits at the western edge of a marshland once dotted by more than two-dozen horse-rendering plants, fish oil factories and garbage incinerators. From the 1850's until the 1930's, the carcasses of dead horses and other animals from New York City streets were used to manufacture glue, fertilizer and other products at the site. The chopped-up, boiled bones were later dumped into the water. The squalid bay, then accessible only by boat, was reviled for the putrid fumes that hung overhead. A rugged community of laborers, many of them Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants, lived in relative isolation on neighboring Barren Island, which shared the bay's unsavory reputation. (story) 

You can read about life on Barren Island in even greater detail, in this New York Times article from 1939. It is a report on the last 25 families to remain in the area as it was being cleared for construction of the Belt Parkway.

Here are some finds from a hot sticky early summer outing ...

Calling All Calipers

Serifs or feet?

I have no explanation for how or why this has happened, but I’m crazy for calipers these days. Evocative of typography, anatomy, and instruments of torture, these specialized devices have an expressive nature. Some calipers are bowlegged, double-jointed or have well-developed quads. Others have exotic diacritical marks or could quite believably be monogrammed onto fingertip towels. And then there are the ones you know had to have been invented by a medieval dentist or Victorian gynecologist.

Feel free to free associate …

Photos are from eBay or other auction sites unless otherwise noted.












The largest of the above set from Designer Pages, is 55 inches.

The collections of "brackets" are from Lost Found Art,
via Accidental Mysteries.



The woodturner's double calipers, above, allows for two measurements to be taken without changing tools. From Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, by Peter C. Walsh.The triple calipers, below, are available on eBay.









These golden mean calipers are
hand crafted in New Zealand
by Nick Taylor.

Then there are those who refuse to leave
anything to the imagination.