I’m hard on headphones. I wear them daily at the office so I don’t disturb the folks who work nearby. I wear earbuds almost daily too, walking to and from work. Over the past few months I’ve been trying out a few different brands in the quest for a nice pair that feel comfortable and I have to say its been a bit harder than I anticipated.
Last night I got to meet one of my all time favorite designers, Jonathan Adler. You may recognize him from such television reality series as Top Design (which sadly won’t be coming back). But well before “See You Later Decorator” fame, he was, is and always has been a talented and gifted potter, designer, and entrepreneur.
With 16 actual stores, and an amazing online store you have no excuse to not buy yourself or your loved one something with a bit of whimsy this year. Each year I end up dropping vast amounts of money in his shop on Melrose and I thought I would share with you all my 5 favorite Jonathan Adler finds this year for the holiday season! Trust me, when you give a gift as sharp and fresh as these, no one could possibly be disappointed!
From July 15 to the 17th, downtown LA hosted Future City – Little Tokyo Design Week; a four-day festival celebrating innovations in design and technology. With the evolution of sustainable urban development as its chief goal, this first installment of LTDW showcased container exhibits, film screenings, fashion shows, dance parties, product demos, performances, music, and awards ceremonies. And a caravan of LA’s finest food trucks, of course.
Two weeks ago it was time for San Francicso’s comics convention, WonderCon – and what’s a giant, gleeful nerd-out without its afterparties? The party selection was plentiful this year, but, as always, time is the enemy. Decisions had to be made, and one of my choices for after-con-fun-time was the Burlesque reception at San Francisco’s brand-new Artifact Gallery. A choice I shan’t regret, despite getting lost walking to and from the party. These things happen, and I am grateful to the kindly hobo who helped us find our way home.
La Luz De Jesus recently hosted the 14th installment of Everything but the Kitschen Sync – a mammoth group art exhibit with no theme, that showcased over 225 pieces from over 100 artists.
Sorrel Smith is one of the most glamorous creatures I’ve ever met. A painter and costumer working in Paris, Sorrel is a fixture at the Carnival in Venice, runs Dr. Sketchy’s in Paris, and never leaves the house without being fully decked out in vintage finery. Her art is equally awe inspiring- meticulously historical paintings of pinup beauties stripping their flesh off rather than their stockings. In our interview below, we talk about glamor, influence, and what to wear to a costume party in Constantinople.
Alex Queral gives new meaning to the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” With modern technology and the growing popularity of Internet-accessible smartphones, bulky phonebooks are becoming increasingly obsolete. Most of the Yellow Pages that arrive on doorsteps end up a) thrown in the recycling bin or b) presented as a curbside gift to the neighborhood garbage man. This might seem wasteful, but what else can be done with them?
Being the resourceful artist that he is, Queral has found a creative ‘plan c;’ he collects phonebooks and uses them to create celebratory pieces of art. Queral takes an old trashcan-worthy phonebook and, with the use of a pen, exacto knife, and razor blade, transforms it into an intriguing work of art. The finished product reveals faces of some of the most notorious public figures sculpted into a phonebook. Queral has created his phonebook sculptures of everyone from Bob Dylan to Clint Eastwood and President Barack Obama.
In an exclusive interview with ChinaShop, Queral explains his obsession with hoarding phonebooks, his process for choosing his subjects to sculpture, and how he single-handedly may be elevating the market value of the paper phonebook.
In an effort to fully relate to and understand the creative process of some of his idol-worthy colleagues, Joe Fig set out to produce mini studio replicas of his favorite artists. Fig began intricately studying the studios of his muses, down to the finest detail. He conducted interviews, took photographs, and collected research, which he used as a blueprint for his studio replicas.
Fig’s research led him to publish his comprehensive findings in a book titled, “Inside The Painter’s Studio.” The book takes the reader inside the mind of 24 of Fig’s idolized artists and walks you through a day in the life of their artistic process.
Fig gave ChinaShop a behind-the-scenes peak inside the project and shared his techniques for completing such an intriguing task.
CHROMA, An annual event at SXSW Interactive is unlike anything I’ve been to before. It’s a multimedia explosion of music, state of the art lighting, dancing, live art displays, and even a lil’ burlesque thrown in for good measure. The show is hosted at Austin’s famous triple level bar Mohawk and is a collaboration of ConceptArt.Org, The Art Department, and Art Seen Alliance along with close to 100 volunteers, performers, and artists.
Wedged in between two subdivisions and a huge church in the middle of Koreatown, Phyllis Navidad’s Pop Tart Gallery is perhaps the last thing you’d expect to find in any suburb, really. A collage of transvestite/transsexual/glammed-out portraits that would make Ratt and Poison look like a bunch of Steve McQueens, tonight’s Your Face Here, curated by Lenora Claire, featured work by celebrated photographer of all things glam-n-drag Austin Young: Huge pictures of Margaret Cho, Perez Hilton and other gender-defying celebs adorn the white walls of this tiny gallery with a great big heart — while a chick/dude in a Dangerous-era Michael Jackson outfit spins mutant strains of classic disco mixed with modern R&B. All as you grab free cocktails. Then Kilsonic, a 50-piece ensemble brass band emerges, just in case you weren’t paying attention.