Even More Car Free Day

Car Free was so great I had to include as many pictures as possible, epically the free bicycle parking that was available. There was also a booth where you could try out the bike racks that are on the front of buses, I thought this was ingenious because my silly fear of those things has kept me from using them.

Hula-hoopers making us of their new found freedom on the empty road, good uses of the space also included lots of chalk art (is there anything more cheerful than kids chalk art...probably not) and one genius family who set up a small kiddy wading pool and lawn chairs.

loved this sign in the window of a shoe store (it looked really chic considering it's only paint and a stencil, the colours are great)

More Car Free Day

Blim, Vancouver's community based art resource center, had lots of artists and craftsters with tables in front selling their wares. Including Poodlebreath's beautiful work



I espically love the stumps, I can imagine them in a whimsical terrarium. Her glazes are so gorgeous and I like the functional aspect of her pieces, like using the hand plaques for necklace holders. You can find her work on etsy at poodlebreath.etsy.com/


(the pictures aren't the best, taken in the hot overhead sun - she has much better pics on her etsy page)

Vancouver Car Free Day on Main St.

view of the crowd on Main St.

On Sunday I went to Main St. for Vancouver's car free day http://www.carfreevancouver.org/, it was an awesome event with great weather, live music, local artisans, community information booths, and a fabulous vibe of community spirit. The festival closed down streets in four communities this year including main street in an effort to encourage healthy communities, sustainable living and authentic cultural celebrations (woo that!)

One of the best things about the event was that it was attended by so many different kinds of people; hipsters, parents and kids, seniors, lots of dog walkers, craftster mavens, onlookers, hippies, hula-hoopers, tai-chi enthusiasts, typists, musicians and many more. I had a great time just strolling down the middle of the street, it sounds simple but it's pretty neat to walk down the middle of a normally busy street.

The Regional Assembly of Text ( more on them in a later post) had a letter
writing station along with a button workshop.

More on the event plus more pics in next post

Book Review: Gig Posters

Title: Gig Posters Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century
Author: Clay Hayes
Publisher: Quirk Books
Pages: 208 pages
Price: $55.95

Gig Posters : Rock Show Art of the 21st Century by Clay Hayes of gigposters.com Includes over 700 poster images and 101 ready to frame posters. Gigposters.com is worth a post in itself, it is (as the books introduction states) "the world's largest historical archive of this art form". The website itself is vast, and at times it's not worth the effort to sift through to find the really good work hidden among the average. The book however contains only the very best.
The designers and illustrators are mostly North American with a few European artists. Each artist's work is featured in the form of one full sized poster and a few smaller thumbnails along with a brief, organized bio including info on their education, preferred mediums etc. Each full sized poster is detachable so it can be easily framed. but thankfully the perforations aren't so deep that the pages will detach by themselves over time. The work is exceptional, especially the conceptual images of artists like Jason Munn of The Small Stakes.
The book is oversized, measuring 13.9 x 10.9 x 1 inches so the posters are seen in a more true to life size, than if they were featured in an annual or your average book.

Hang-Tags: who knew they could be so great

Hang tags are often overlooked and usually nothing special, this one puts all others to shame.  I'm not really sure what the story is on the faux newsletter inside, but I love the attention to detail and the beautiful tea stained bag.

Japanese Craft Books and More

Who would have thought the foreign language section of the library (or bookstore) would have so many awesome books?  One of the perks of shelving books at the library is getting to see so many different books (and get paid at the same time).  I discovered Japanese craft books via other blogs several years ago, and was thrilled to discover they could be found in my very own library.  Even though I can't read the text, the pictures and even the design are really inspirational.  Craft books have everything from adorable amigurumi patterns to refined, organic embroidery designs. As long as you know to look in the 700s section of each language you can browse the japanese, korean etc books to find some great stuff.

Probably the best website on Japanese craft books is http://www.craftlog.org/craftingjapanese/ , with tons of links to people who have posted pictures of various Japanese craft books they have purchased.  The website has links to stores like amazon japan and other online booksellers. I know in Vancouver I have seen a good selection at Sophias Art Books and a couple at Book Warehouse.

One book I found in the Korean section was a home décor craft book.  You can see from the pictures the directions are fairly straightforward and easy to follow.

A beautifully designed Japanese cooking book, I love the hand drawn elements and clean use of a grid system.

 

Some Korean book covers. I espically love the one with the bird, it has such a clean, ethereal, feeling.

 

What are the 700s?

 

Why is this blog called the 700s? Because it’s my go to dewey decimal number, the art section of any library. With books on sculpture, colour, design, painting, decorative arts, textile arts, animation, and even numismatics (study/collection of currency). Art books are full of information and inspiration, I surround myself with them and find even the most inane come in handy when my creativity needs a little visual inspiration to get warmed up.

I plan to fill this blog with reviews and recommendations of art books, both ones I own, and ones I wish I did.  Content will also include, my insider information (I work at a library) about great books hidden in surprising places (like the foreign language section) as well as showcasing sites, images and other sources of inspiration.