Summertime: Outdoor Art

One of the cool things about art is the varied forms it comes in. Traditional paintings, sculpture, live art … the list is endless. I came across these pictures of outdoor art installations on Architectural Digest and just had to share. These pieces seem larger than life. There are so many different perspectives to experience them from.

Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer

I remember following this story as this 340 ton granite boulder made a slow, at night, 105 mile journey to its place at the LACMA. I’d love to be able to walk around and under it like the visitors shown in the picture.

The Rainbow: Certain Principles of Light and Shapes Between Forms by Michael Jones McKean

All my life I have shouted “there’s a rainbow” when I see one just after a rain storm. In this piece Michael Jones McKean captures that emotion as he creates a rainbow twice a day using captured rainwater in Omaha, Nebraska.

Joana Vasconcelos Versailles

At first glance, this pieces looks like a tall, out-of-place structure situated on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. It is actually a 30 foot structure comprised of thousands of LED-lit champagne bottles. A nod to the extravagance of the reign of Marie Antoinette.

Doing Nothing Garden by Song Dong

I love the message to consider consumption and waste conveyed in this piece installed in Germany. It is a 23 foot high “mountain” made of garbage, topped with sod covered in neon Chinese characters that spell “Doing” and “Nothing”.

Color Jam by Jessica Stockholder

I love this lively piece in Chicago. How fun would it be to walk through that intersection every day!

How I Roll by Paola Pivi

This piece in New York City provides ongoing entertainment as a Piper Seneca is held in the air and rotates and flips steadily throughout the day. I wonder how loud it is?

Have you experienced any cool outdoor art installations in your neighbourhood this summer?

all images via Architectural Digest

Kids Play: A New Piece of Art

I am on a mission to lighten up our front room in our house. I love the wall colour (Benjamin Moore Davenport Tan), I love our couch but I wanted to inject some new colour in the space. It just felt too dark. More on what else I am going to do to change things up later but today I wanted to share with you a project I did with my boys … perhaps budding Picasso’s?

We took a giant canvas I had bought ages ago at HomeSense and made it uniquely ours!

First I painted over the bright colours.

Here they are all ready to paint!

Then I pulled out extra paint that I had lying around … and let the boys at it.

We dried it on the grass in the bright, hot sun …

And hung it up!

I love the lighter canvas and the fact that it is uniquely ours. We even signed the back! So simple and such a fun project for us to do.

What have you created with your kids lately?

A Piece of Art … Just for Me!

It seems I spend so much of my time thinking about art for other people’s walls. This time I’ve chosen a pretty little piece just for me!

Let me introduce you to Posterjack –  an online Canadian company that allows you to transform your digital pictures into pieces of art. When the kind people at Posterjack contacted me to take one of their products for a test run I had a zillion ideas pop into my head of what picture to use.

I have been all about bright colours lately and in thinking about my recent post about Spring I knew I just had to use this picture:

The pink gerbera daisy just makes me happy (insert grin here). My mother would probably roll her eyes to hear me say I like pink but I think I’m having a reaction to living in a male dominated house!

There were a bunch of options to transform my picture. I could frame it or mount it, do an acrylic print, mount the photo on Birch wood or metal. Zoiks! So much choice.

I decided to go with a gallery wrapped canvas – made it feel like an original piece of art to me. Uploading my photo and ordering was super easy.

Still trying to figure out a special spot for “wee pink” but for now it’s being closely watched by my beloved Easter bunnies.

Posterjack’s prices are very reasonable and I got my canvas super fast. Be sure to check ’em out if you get a minute.