Letters from 2013

Unblogged signage and assorted typographic encounters from the last year. (Still trying to wrap up 2013.)

Spelling debacle on the contents page of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Click image to enlarge

I stood in awe before these sample alphabets by an early 20th Century sign painter, offered by Ricco Maresca at last year's Metro Show. This year's show  is in a couple of weeks. Here's another grid of alphabets from the same series.

Vintage record carrier

Papel picado with the names of the bride and groom festooned the pre-wedding fiesta, just north of the border.

The Elkhorn Saloon's claim to fame is that it is the second-longest operating bar in California. The humble, historic watering hole has been serving drinks in San Miguel continuously since 1853.

A visit to the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market on 39th St., followed by
one to the Cupcake Cafe.

I must visit Baltimore again when it's not blistering hot.

Colonoscopy humor? This evacuation-route map was posted in my gastroenterologist's office.

Works by Christopher Wool at the Guggenheim. Show closes January 22nd.

Driving through Maine

Cornell in early June. Ithaca was at its finest--rainy and lush. New, since my college days, are the safety nets now flanking bridges that cross the gorges.

On Thanksgiving morning, the clowns meet up at 81st St. and Central Park West to "Join the Parade!"

Instead of apologizing for in-store construction with "Pardon our appearance," Bergdorf Goodman tunes into their customer base with "We're Having a Little Work Done …"

The Magritte show at MoMA, which just closed, was filled with the surrealist's enigmatic use of words, carefully lettered. MoMA senior designer, Sabine Dowek, describes how she arrived at her design for the wall lettering here. 

Robert Indiana

EAT (top): Farnsworth Museum, Rockport, Maine

EAT, LOVE: Whitney Museum show

Crafts Jamboree

The photography and fashions in Crafts Jamboree are so thoroughly time-specific, that I probably don't even need to tell you that the publication year was 1977. Why the hairstyles are date-stamps  in themselves!

So far, this has been one of the few successful instances of the "All My Eyes Catch-and-Release” program. That’s how I give myself permission to even consider bringing home a thick book like this one, that I certainly have no space for. I tell myself that I will blog about it and then back into the wild it goes. This one was easy. I know I can always find a craft or diy "tute"(short for "tutorial") online if the urge to make candles ever arises.

Endpapers

Unblogged in 2013

Original National Geographic Illustrations

While I’m full-throttle into the New Year, I can’t quite leave 2013 completely behind knowing that I’ve been holding out on you. Maybe it's because I only completed 44 posts in 2013, that I have a substantial backlog of unposted material.

So to clean house a bit, I've rounded up some of the visual miscillany that never made it onto All My Eyes during the last year. This is the first of at least two, perhaps even three posts.

Superachiever Josh Gosfield balancing an earlier Sweeney-Gosfield collaboration.

At the end of January, I attended a book signing at the Steven Kasher Gallery for Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield’s The Art of Doing. The bonus surprise of the evening was the exhibit of vintage illustrations and photographs from the archives of National Geographic gracing the gallery walls (online exhibit)

Let’s just say that for the shoe-obsessed, Shoe Obsession, at the FIT Museum did not disappoint. (Flickr set)

I had no idea when I visited the Mission San Miguel Arcángel, that I would find exquisite fresco painting in the church, dating back to 1821. This is the only surviving original church interior of California’s 21 missions. (Smithsonian Magazine article about the mission, with pictures.)

There was lots of hype about James Turrell at the Guggenheim. Yes, the color shifts were tranformative, but the mosh-pit crowds precluded my hoped-for transcendent experience. 

I was sick and tired of making mistakes by accident, so in May, I finally decided to learn how to make them on purpose at Laurie Rosenwald's super-fun workshop, How to Make Mistakes on Purpose. And now you can too. There's a workshop coming up in NYC, January 16th.

Can you think of a better way to start the year than with some intentionally perpetrated screw-ups?

Andy Williams had an amazing collection of Navajo blankets that was auctioned at Sotheby’s. Who knew? (link)

Nothing like a June evening at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate, to put things into perspective. 

Disney+Animal House+pornography. Paul McCarthy, in his restricted WS at the Armory ("This exhibition contains mature content. Entrance is restricted to visitors over 17 years of age.") was definitely onto something.

Not a conceptual-art piece (unfortunately). “The Little Shooter” onesie was for sale at the general store in Blue Hill, Maine.

Woody and Soon yi on a Sunday afternoon on the Upper West Side. 

Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800, at the Met was fascinating, but overwhelming. A small, simple map accompanying each piece, would have been tremendously helpful to visitors. Closes January 5th.

This preview of works by Les Lalanne to be auctioned, was indoors at Sotheby’s. The "aerial view" carpet, below, hanging at the Salon Art & Design Fair, is a Lalanne piece as well.

Wall constructions by American artist, Charles Biederman (1906-2004), were also at the Salon Art & Design Fair.

A sample of some of the profound wall verbiage featured at the  Christopher Wool show at the Guggenheim. Show ends January 22nd.

Late-November leaf-peeping in my own backyard.

Documentary filmmaker Therese Schecter’s new film, “How to Lose Your Virginity,” made its U.S. premiere on the big screen at DOC NYC. The film’s tag line, “If sex sells, why is virginity so valuable?” truly only begins to hint at the contradictions, and underlying issues of power, money, and personal freedom inherent in the subject.

See how young women today are navigating this treacherous terrain in the upcoming NYC screening, February 25th, at Anthology Film Archives.

Our very own Banksy on West 79th Street! (Interactive map at nymag.com)