Color represents and brings vibrancy to life, something we always want to keep alive in the spaces in which we live.
We love Vincent Van Gogh because he was such a unique individual, and his expression of passion and radiance via color was amazing. He once said in 1888, "Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of colour to express myself more forcefully ... To express the love of two lovers by the marriage of two complementary colours ... To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a dark background. To express hope by some star. Someone's passion by the radiance of the setting sun."
Vincent Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night painted in 1888
To celebrate color and our new Color Knob series, we are running a contest today, like we do almost every Monday. The theme for our themed Monday? COLOR.
A knob from our new Color Series. This Matthew Langille design (image inside of the knob) is just an example. You can design or choose whatever image you want!
Answer our COLOR-themed questions first, and win.
1) What is the most difficult color to mix in paint?
2) What color does not actually exist in the light spectrum?
Tweet us the correct answers first, and we'll award you a Ghost Nest gift certificate to be use on our website whenever you want!
Written by Lucca The New Bboy In Town March 29, 2012
From now on, never say “breakdancing.” This is our interview with Xzist, the bboy. In his own words, “I’m creating something that nobody has done before in a style of dance.”
Bboying, if you didn’t know already, is a form of hip hop dancing, which is popularly known as breaking. It all began in the 1960s at block parties in the Bronx, New York. Bboys and bgirls, an abbreviation for “break boys” and “break girls,” dance to the break part of music.
I remember the first time I met Xzist, whose only name at work and school is David Joe. He carried a brown brief case, wore a patterned unbuttoned shirt, and flaunted a cool confidence as he walked up the stairs to join us on the San Francisco Art Institute’s (SFAI) rooftop. He introduced himself as a b-boy, a hip hop dancer, from Brooklyn who moved here to study performance and visual art. I recall him standing solitary during lunchtime: shades on, soaking up the sun and the newbie art scene.
Xzist, in a gray tshirt, dancing with his crew:
A couple weeks ago, Xzist and I chatted while sitting on his sunny Mission rooftop.
L: I was reading your crew's website, and it says, “It has come to be recognized as the ultimate in ‘One-on-One Battles’, staying clear of the well treaded contests that are ubiquitous among the scene, by bringing together a cast of characters drawing from talent pools from opposite geographical locations culminating in an energetic experience of stylistic dynamism.” What are ubiquitous contests?
X: What we do it... It’s a line of a few exhibition battles. There’s usually probably like eight exhibition battles. It’s not a contest. It’s an exhibition battle. So there’s no judges.
What we do is we get the top people from one city verses the top people from another city, and sometimes we have guests who fly in from around the world, and so they’ll end up competing. Sometimes we have a theme behind it, and sometimes we don’t, because sometimes we just need to fill in some slots. It’s a really hardcore match. People have to train months for this. Like to build up stamina, because it’s ten rounds…
L: What do you call your dance practice? Break dancing? B-boying? B-boy?
X: People who don’t really dance, call it “breakdancing.” If you are really a dancer, you’re a bboy, or you are a bgirl, and whatchu do is you are bboying or you’re breaking.
L: So you spell it “b-b-o-y-i-n-g.”
X: Yeah. You know people talk about… They’re like, “Oh, you break dance?!” You know, that’s the way people identify to it. And it’s kind of like a short cut for thinking, because if you don’t know about something and you are not involved in it, then you are going to call it by how you hear it. But if you are involved in it, then you know the real name for it, and you call it for what it is.
When I introduce myself to people, they’re like, “What do you do?” and I’m like, “I’m a bboy.” They’re like, “Oh, what’s that?” “I breakdance.” And they’re like, “Oh shit! For real?”
L: Yeah.
X: That’s how it goes. Because it is the commercial term for it.
L: So, where did that commercial start?
X: By the media – like early on in the 80s.
L: So that’s 30 years ago…
X: So I’m not a breakdancer, I’m a bboy. You know what I mean?
L: Yeah.
X: And you know what, in people’s dancing you can tell – even if they are bboys – um, some are not. Being a bboy is about being an individual and having your own style, identifying yourself and people can identify you for your style. But oddly enough, I’ve heard people saying that they’re not bboys they’re breakdancers, and I do see it in people too, because they are completely unoriginal and follow this generic foundation of doing other people’s moves. It’s like an artist copying somebody else’s painting…
L: Haha yeah.
X: It’s like people are just hopping [/copying] other people. They’re not adding to the scene. They’re just a part of it. It’s… It’s weird. Haha. You know what I mean?
L: Yeah.
X: People don’t think of it so much as an art. They just think of it like a dance. It took me a long time to realize that it was an art. I mean, it took me over five years or seven years to realize, “Shit. I’m an artist. I’m a performer.”
L: Yeah
X: I was just dancing. I was always learning my own moves –I was trying to innovate and bring something new to the table, and didn’t realize it was an art until one day it hit me.
L: Wow, yeah.
X: …That’s what I am doing. I’m creating something that nobody has done before in a style of dance. The way my dance crew dances, we don’t dance like anybody else in the entire globe. We have innovated so many styles. We brought contortionism to the table in the mid-90s - what crews were just developing and when it was just getting around the world, and we were one of the first ones to bring contortionism to the table.We also brought] left field comedy into the dance too. We were some of the most abstract people at one time. After us, all around the world people started doing very similar moves. They got the hit that we were bringing something new to the table, so everybody caught on to that. That’s what it was, and then so you know, it also goes to like when you are dancing. If you see somebody doing someone else’s moves, you’re going to call them a biter.
L: And your artist name is Xzist. How did you come by that name?
X: Well, nobody comes up with their own name. Your name should always be given to you. If you are a real b-boy, your name has to be blessed to you. You know, that’s how it always goes - at least for the history of it. My name came from my friend Legacy, who I grew up with in Miami. We were all dancing at the same time. We were all like, “We gotta think of names! We gotta think of names! What’s going to be a cool name?” And I went through a couple names before I could even stick to one, and when "Exist" was presented to me, I was still like, “Uhh, I don’t know how I can relate to this..” I wasn’t feeling it. I was really young at the time – like 13 or 14 or something. And um, I was like, “Okay, I’m going to go with this, but I don’t know how I feel about it.” And, later on in life... Well, I mean a little bit after that, I changed the spelling of “Exist” from its normal dictionary spelling to X-to the Z-I-S-T, and I started feeling more comfortable with it.
When I dropped acid for the first time, I found a whole new meaning in my name. It’s cause to exist means to be present, to be here now, and there’s this consciousness behind it. So sometimes when I introduce myself to people... Outside of school and outside of work, everybody knows me as Xzist. That’s the only thing I am known by. When I introduce myself to people, and I say my name like, “Xzist.” They think I am telling them a message, like I am giving them a positive message, and they’re like, “Word." *Laughter*
But yeah, I’ve got this new consciousness behind my name, and I’m a very live person. You heard the stories, you know today about my black outs and my antics and shit and so I’m very live, and I am pretty straight forward and shit. I call shit out, and I tell it how it is sometimes even when people don’t want to hear it... But uh, I’m live, and it’s like my whole energy. Being live is like existing. It’s like being present, you know? I always wanted to leave an impression on people just being myself, not actually trying, you know? So I have this demeanor about myself, and I’m like, “WOOO!!” all over the place.
And some people can’t handle that. Some people can’t even talk to me.
L: You’re like, “I am me!!”
X: “HEY What’s Up!? HOW’S IT GOING??” I’m like, “WHOaaaaaAAAAA!” I’m like to live for conversation or something...
L: You’re not, because we are having this conversation.
*Laughter*
L: Do you practice any other artforms? Do you think there is a relationship between dancing and other art forms, such as drawing, painting, singing, weaving, or playing an instrument?
X: I think dancing relates to every other possible art form.
L: What’s the connection?
X: The connection is the liberation - of being free… Expressing yourself through movement without having no control. No one can tell you how to move, what to do. It is same with painting. You do what you want. It’s the same kind of liberation. Personally, I think that dancing is probably the hardest art, and out of any other dance, bboy in particular is the hardest dance in my opinion, because, what other dancer could you see - besides bboys - go upside down and spin on their head? What other dance does that?
And what breaking does, it takes different kinds of styles. It takes a little bit of everything from all dancers, from all cultures, and put it in one, you do whatever you want. There are no rules. There are no restrictions, so you dance however you want, but you gotta keep it in like... You gotta have its foundation, which is the style of dance. You got the up-rock, which is dancing on top. Then you got the footwork, which is doing footwork on the floor, and then you got parmoves, which involves spinning. And then you got popping and locking, where you move your joints and stuff. So yeah, you have that foundation. That’s your foundation, but you take it and you take a whole bunch of other things with it and you recreate it. You make it your own.
Other arts that I do? I paint. I’m an improviser. I studied improve comedy for a year in New York. Improve relates so much to dancing. It relates to so much in life, but like, improvising... Me, particularly my crew... We are characters, so we are humorous, making the audience laugh and shit. So we try to add a little cabaret and sneak it in there. Since you can’t speak while you are dancing, there’s not anything verbal. The audience is not going to hear you, and there is music playing, so whatchu can do is you can pantimime. You could mime your whole shit out and do something funny. What I particularly do is, it is my best friend’s move, but what I do is, pretend to grab somebody head’s like this *grabs an invisible head in the air* take it [and place it] on the floor like that *stomps foot*, slam it on the floor, and then I will go like *quick chopping with hand* and I’ll do a line. Something like that.
Or like in the style of up-rocking? And so, when you up-rock against somebody, it is kind of like a fight - without fighting. This is how gang members resolved shit in the ‘70s, when breaking began. So if you go face-to-face against one person, it’s not one person goes on and then the other person goes on... It is not that back and forth. There are both at the same time, and they are both attacking each other on the beat. They are throwing punches, and they are throwing elbows and then they will take out a fake gun and shoot ‘em.. And then you go like that * and cut their head off you know? Stuff like that. It’s about being creative and fighting back.
L: So talk about Who Can Roast The Most and when is it?
X: Who Can Roast The Most is happening May 6th at Cell Space, which is at 18th and Bryant. It is the first time it is coming to the Bay Area, and it’s going to be really good ‘cause the Bay Area is actually really hyped about this event ‘cause it’s got world-wide notoriety. Everybody is going to be there, and everybody is talking about it, like who they want to see go up against each other.
L: Where can you be found in SF? (Bars, lounges, parks, studios,
museums…etc.)
X: Here in San Francisco you can find me at SFAI in the painting studios.. *Laughter* You can find me at my loft. We’re usually throwing parties here. Sometimes we have bands performing here. We have big crowds at my house. We have a lot of practices - a lot of dance practice that people just come to and just kick it. Bars and clubs are kind of random for me, because I usually go out to house dance.. If I’m not going to a house party, I would go to a club because somebody’s playing good house music, and find out about it online. Right now places that are happening with that right now are Monarch and Public Works.
Written and photos taken by Lucca The Art Of Origami, DIY March 13, 2012
First, a giant, crisp, and loving "Happy birthday!" to the grandfather of origami, Akira Yoshizawa, who passed in 2005. Tomorrow marks the anniversary of his 101st birth date.
Second, an American laser physicist is helping to keep the Japanese tradition of origami, or "paper folding", alive. Robert Lang dropped his job as a scientist to become one of the few professional origami artists in the United States. He inspires to find new forms of the art by exploring the form's relationship to mathematics and science. "'I have immense respect for him, because he's bridged the mathematics and science with a traditional art form -- origami, '" said fellow origami artist Linda Tomoko Mihara. Mihara herself, a third-generation Japanese-American, is world-renown for her origami cranes. She owns The Paper Tree in San Francisco's Japantown.
Together, Lang and Mihara worked on an animated TV commercial in which everything except for the car being advertised was created using origami. And in the future, they hope to create the first animated origami film!
You can find Mihara at the upcoming Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown of SF April 14th, 15th, 21st, and 22nd! Anyone planning to go?! If so, see you there!
How to create an origami dragonfly
1. Take a square piece of thin paper
3. Flip the paper over
4. Fold it horizontally and vertically
5. Place it in a diamond shape (in relation to your body)
6. Press the inward folds in and the top square down. Now the paper is in a smaller square shape with an opening at one of the diagonal ends
7. Spin the paper on the table 180 degrees, so that the opening is upward
8. Fold the outer corner to the center
9. Do the same to the other side
10. Flip the paper over, and repeat steps 8 and 9
11. Place the paper so that the narrow part points down (towards your body)
12. Fold the top triangle down and smooth the crease
13. Open all three folds. The top triangle and both sides
14. Take the furthest bottom point and pull it up
As you do this, push the outwardly-creased sides in
And now flatten the folds
15. Flip the paper over and do the same, repeating steps 12-14 on the other side
16. Fold the back flap down
17. Lay the paper down with the left side (shown above) facing up (shown below)
18. Fold the right bottom, up-most leg 90 degrees
Reinforce the fold and smooth the crease
19. Repeat step 18 for the opposite side
20. Now bend the right tip to the center, folding the top right triangle in half.
Smooth the creases and repeat this on the left side.
21. Flip the paper over. It will look like this:
22. Place the right point to the center, folding the right triangle in half
Do the same fold to the left side
23. Fold the paper in half
24. Take the right triangle and reverse fold it 5 times to create the head
25. Fold the wings down
26. Now we fold the tail using one reverse fold
26. Cut each of the two wings in half
27. Reverse fold once at the tip of every wing
Viola! You have your very own origami dragonfly!
Drop us a line with comments or a photo to share what you make!
You have till the end of tomorrow to answer any 1 of our Dramatic Looks questions correctly to win a $25 Ghost Nest gift certificate.
How it works:
We tweet 5 questions, which are about dramatic looks, beginning Monday 3/12 through Tuesday 3/13 at midnight (<- Yeah, we know this is technicaly 3/14. ;) )
You guess any one of the 5 questions correctly
We will DM (direct message) you on Twitter that you have won
You have by midnight Wednesday 3/14 to respond
We will give you the promotional code for your certificate for use on our website for any Ghost Nest interior hardware products
You pick any designs or create your own!
We ship you your goods within 15 days of your order
How to create your interior hardware:
Easy-peasy! Now get guessing, because these fantastic, chic, and custom knobs could be yours!
The Hot Glue Gun: Insider Tricks, History, 10 DIY Projects, And An Artist That Draws Sculptures In Hot Glue
By Lucca Raventinkie February 21, 2012
George Schultz's glue gun in 1971.
A hot glue gun is a device you control with your hand that takes a glue stick and deposits thick and hot glue adhesive. Patents can be found as far back as 1907, but with research, you will find that George Schultz is credited for creating the polygun, a hot glue gun, in 1971.
Artwork by Esma Paca Turam
Turkish artist Esma Paca Turam draws images with a hot glue gun, resulting in fantastic hanging curtains. She has received public attention in publications since around 2003 and shows her work internationally. (If you happen to find an earlier article, post it as a comment!)
She talks about living in a crowded city, and how she has “been fascinated with the communication between different people. Spectators (2002, solo exhibition, paper sculptures) was about this. I was focusing on the individual in its urban surroundings. The interaction between the people through their surroundings: windows and figures were emphasized people were watching and being watched through the windows or the laundry hanging on a balcony was giving away so much about the occupants of that house.
Artwork by Esma Paca Turam
“This was new to me, almost a shock,” Turam says about living in the city. “I had been living in a crowded city, but obviously I was making space for myself. My experience in Beijing led to the making of the “Curtain” (2004 Silicone Figurines). This work is the expression of the individuals floating in the crowd. Their individuality is expressed by emphasis on the movement and details, eyes and hair of the figurines."
Artwork by Esma Paca Turam
And about using the glue in her work, “I always liked watching the raindrops coming together, flowing down a window a meditative and peaceful movement. Probably with this idea, I had been working with Silicone since 1994. My technique is to use a hot glue gun and therefore the silicone works almost like a pencil for me. The outcome is transparent, flexible. It shimmers like crystal or glass, it is light in weight like paper and it is a direct material. Most important for me is that I can draw directly with this material.
I was looking for a lace type of effect for the curtain, to be able to look at it from both sides. Silicone just clicked in as the right material for the work.”
10 DIY projects:
Masquerade Mask
Seashell Bottles
Emergency Heater
Three Tiered Dessert Stan
No-Sew Bow Ties
Moss Balls
No-sew Clutch
Button Bobby Pins
Orchid Hair Clip
Paper Rose Reef
If you are a newbie, here is how to use a hot glue gun .
3 insider tips:
The glue sets fast, but you can remelt it with a hair dryer if you absolutely need to reposition something
Put a piece of paper under the tip of your hot glue gun, because the glue tends to seep out the tip a little
If you need to adjust the glue with your fingers, blow on it and wait 5-10 seconds, otherwise, depending on the temp, you'll end up with a hot glob o' glue that will peel some skin right off with it
Benefits of using a hot glue gun:
They are inexpensive
The glue sticks are inexpensive
You can use them for practically everything…
They are easy
They fit perfectly in your hand
Because they fit perfectly in your hand, you have lots of control
The glue dries quickly
The glue is durable
The glue is waterproof
It has long shelf life
Advantages over solvent-based adhesives
I hope you are inspired to whip out your trusty hot glue guns and let the bullets of possibility fly.
Share with us! Are you working on a project using a hot glue gun? Have any more tips or projects?
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