Design Cooking is a serious and competitive business and professional cooking schools can have the air of military camps where fear and strict order dominate. Nothing wrong with that in the world of celebrity chefs, fame and Michelin stars. But for the rest of us, cooking is either a fun and enjoyable creative endeavour or a boring daily necessity best avoided at all costs. Many consumer-facing cooking schools, sensing a growing market niche, are offering relaxed, fun classes in cool surroundings that don’t intimidate the participants. The all-female Japanese ABC Cooking Studio has more than 125 casual cooking studios in Japan, Hong Kong and China. Black ceilings, light wood accents and white main features keep the studio’s ambiance clean and professional, avoiding the all-so-common trap of too cute that would have opened up with the introduction of pink, baby blue or yellow. The elegant use of wood is the key attribute in The Culinary Art School.
GR8: Protective Art Self-proclaimed messiah Shoko Asahara spreads his message with sarin gas through the Tokyo subways frying people's nasal passages, a Japanese atomic plant has a meltdown giving people skin like Gamera, and Miyazaki, an animation otaku, watches too much Ranma and kills and eats little kids. These are some sample types of headlines that scare the shit out of artist and sculptor Kenji Yanobe. His work is a partial reaction to events like these which are happening to the "otaku generation" -- kids who watched robot shows, animation, and read comics. Somehow, being invited to speak on a panel discussion on Giant Robots and manga culture at the San Francisco Yerba Buena Gardens Museum along with Fred Schott, the manga knowledge king, and Kenji Yanobe, artist, I was dwarfed. It turned out that Kenji had been in San Francisco for a week or so building new projects for this and his following exhibit in Switzerland. Having only read about Kenji's work, I had yet to see it.
The Violet Hours One of the best parts about living in New York City during the holiday season are the sidewalk Christmas tree vendors. Every few blocks, you walk through a tunnel of yummy pine air, over a temporary, trampled carpet of green needles. And you see people walking home with a tree slung over their shoulder, just ripe for the decorating. To give the tree it's best chance at a lasting through the month, the vendors will slice off the bottom of the trunk (kind of like cutting your roses before putting them in water). So the sidewalks are often littered with small tree stumps that are just tossed out with the trash. Tree trash is a crafter's treasure. Well, dear readers, this craft marks the last in my 10 day series of projects leading up to Christmas. Have a very merry and bright Christmas! xx
YANOBE KENJI ART WORKS /// ヤノベケンジ アートワークス belle maison Kenji Yanobe - Artists - Online Gallery of Japanese Contemporary Art Azito Born in 1965 in Osaka, Kenji Yanobe attended Kyoto City University of Arts and received a Master of Arts degree in 1991. Since the early 1990s, Yanobe has been incorporating the theme of survival in present-day society into his work, creating numerous large-scale mechanical sculptural works that may be attached to one’s body or ridden and controlled. With the dawning of the 21st century, Yanobe shifted to the theme of revival, and in 2003, he held the exhibition Megalomania, the culmination of his work up to that time, at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (on the site of Osaka Expo ‘70 world’s fair). Education Official Artist W
Cute Idea: Recycled Crate Planter Boxes | DigginFood Cute Idea: Recycled Crate Planter Boxes I’m a total sucker for old wooden crates. So I was thrilled when I recently spotted not one but two (!) The first sighting was a wine crate filled with zinnias on the patio at my friend Robin’s house. Then when I was over at Lorene’s making pickles I popped out into her garden and spotted this little box filled with pea greens. Lorene and Robin are both bloggers and you can check out their gardens at Planted at Home and Garden Help. Be Sociable, Share! September 2, 2009
plenty of colour