If you’ve never seen the work of illustrator Bill Zeman and his daughter Rosie, you’re in for a treat. At the request of his daughter, Zeman illustrates scenes that she dictates and lets her judge the results. Some pieces are grudgingly approved, others adamantly denied, as Rosie does her best to pull “good art” out of her father.
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Tiny Art Director started as a blog, and was published as a book in 2010. While humor is the main goal of this work, Zeman also raises an interesting point about encouraging children to view art critically. Recently Rosie the Tiny Art Director has learned the best way to express something is to do it herself. How do children express their imaginary worlds? What art do they like and not like – and more importantly, why?
1951
Cristobal Balenciaga Eizaguirre started his first fashion boutique in San Sebastian, Spain in 1918, at the age of 33. Following great success after the Spanish Civil War, Balenciaga relocated to Paris, where his revolutionary designs became hot commodities, dressing royalty and celebrities. Despite his move to France he never lost his love of Spain, and many of his earlier items were heavily influenced by flamenco dresses and historical Spanish garb.
Balenciaga never gave an interview during his career, and so for many existed as a man of mystery. After his retirement in 1968 the house of Balenciaga stopped all production until 1986, when Jacques Bogart re-opened it with the goal to create a new ready-to-wear line. Bringing designers from all over the world, the Balenciaga name is at the forefront of modern innovative fashion.
2009
2011
If anyone is visiting San Francisco between now and July 4th 2011, be sure to check out the De Young Museum‘s exhibition Balenciaga and Spain. This retrospective examines the ways in which Spain as a nation influenced Balenciaga’s designs over the years.
BBC is doing a new TV series called Human Planet. Photographer Timothy Allen followed the filmmakers on their journeys around the world, and captured the stunning images below. To see more photographs visit BBC’s site here.
I’m so inspired by this photo project, Young Me Now Me. Check out their site for more images, and their blog for anecdotes about the images.
Happy Fashion Week! We’re loving the range of creativity and talent that’s showcasing this year. One designer that stands out for us is Joaquin Trias, a Spanish designer from Madrid:
We love the minimalist simplicity and warm colors of his new collection. To see more of his work you can visit his website here. The New York Times also did a fun interview on Trias here.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Below we’ve compiled some of our favorite ways to say “Te Amo”, courtesy of the countless talented artists over at Etsy.
“10 Thousand Besos” by the bigharumph
Clockwise: “Imma Bee Yours” by Tutucrafts, “Tiny Valentine’s Card” by ohmycavalier, “Cats Cradle” by badbooks, “Giant Burrito” card by amywalters.
The New York Times came out with an interesting article yesterday on Picasso, specifically focusing on his work with guitars. We love Picasso’s guitars, and were inspired by them to create our Guitarra Tee (see below). For more information have look at our past blog posts on the Cubist Art Movement, and Cubism and Guitars.
Growing up in Santa Fe with an artist father, I experienced my fair share of galleries as a child. My dad would drag me along Canyon Road on nights with lots of gallery openings, and my attention would be held for about 0.2 seconds in each space before I got restless. It must have paid off though, as now I love galleries and museums and any opportunity to see art. But how can we help make viewing art, especially in museums, interesting and fun for kids?
Red Tricycle has a great article about visiting San Francisco MOMA with kids. They recommend visiting on Family Days, where there will be other kids to interact with, and signing up for museum tours that are specifically catered to children.
Many museums cater specific programming and events to be kid friendly. You can get information on the following museums below:
SFMOMA – San Francisco
De Young Museum – San Francisco
Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York
Museum of Fine Art – Boston
Museum of Contemporary Art – Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago – Chicago
Walters Art Museum – Baltimore
Baltimore Museum of Art – Baltimore
Getty Museum – Los Angeles
MOCA – Los Angeles
What are you favorite ways to share art with your kids?
We love these ocean surf images by Yosigo, a young Spanish photographer:
To see more of his work check out his website here.
White Box from makoto yabuki on Vimeo.