*Gasp*

If a museum curator were to ever freak out on a celebrity, this would have been the moment. I actually learned about this clip through a weekly museum education e-newsletter; you would not believe the uproar this caused amongst preservationists.

Sekyung Lee

Yesterday at LUX while discussing artists who should exhibit with us, an artist was brought up who uses human hair to create her designs. Her name is Sekyung Lee, a Korean artist who exhibits mostly in Germany. All of the intricate designs, bellow, were made with dyed human hair.




What they reminded me of was a piece titled "Fur Breakfast" by the Surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim in 1936. Fur, soft and usually comforting, when combined with the cup and spoon becomes repulsive; the thought of drinking from it has always creeped me out. The same applies for Sekyung Lee's dinner ware, which is deceptively similar to traditional porcelain. However, knowing that those designs would leak little bits of hair into my food if I ever tried to eat off of them is more than I can handle.

She also creates large, hair covered rugs; the image bellow shows the progression of a rug designed for an outdoor pavilion in Germany. Notice the boxes of hair, take in the scale of the rug, the intricate design, and imagine what it must feel like between your toes. Disgusting!


Sekyung also does tile designs, which are surprisingly intricate, and I am more secure with because I would never be asked to eat off of them or have to walk barefoot upon them.

Happy Birthday Meghan and Sherry!!!

I dedicate this Rick Springfield concert to you, because I know you will both appreciate it. Happy Birthday, I love you both.

"I wish I were an Oscar Myer weiner."

Chris took the train down from Orange to see me this weekend, and as we were driving around this morning he caught me off guard by yelling "Oscar Myer weiner! Turn around! Turn around!" Yes, the Weinermobile was in Solana Beach today and we stopped to check it out.

I don't think he saw me take this because he was so caught up in the aura of the Weinermobile. I thought Chris' excitement was something that had to be captured in some way, so here is my picture of him documenting the hot dog on wheels. Too cute.

It's a Glamorous Job

Today at LUX we began taking down the old show, Tomas Rivas, to make room for the next show, Astrid Preston. Tomas works mostly with dry wall that he carves into, creating interesting architectural images. The pieces are fragile and not really meant to last forever, but it is our responsibility to make sure they make it back to Tomas in one piece. This meant that I spent a large portion of my day with blue painters tape in hand taping down the little flaps on his work, so they could lay flat for shipping.

After awhile, all the works that had started out like this...

...ended up covered in this. Let me jut say, I was grateful when the time came for me to enter donor names into an email list. Sheesh!

Lunch with Alfred

One of the benefits of working where I do is that I'm in close enough proximity to the beach that I can eat my lunch there. It was beautiful today, so I did just that. I drove down to the coast, found a nice spot on the wall over looking the water. I turned on my ipod, and took out my sandwich while taking in the view.

Before I knew it I was surrounded by seagulls; they settled around me, just outside of my comfort zone, which would have been fine except for the fact that they kept switching places. Flying over my head and then readjusting, jumping around a little, and then settling in again. The noises they made reminded me a little bit of finding Nemo where all of the seagulls gather around the fish shouting "Mine!? Mine!? Mine!?"

In reality though? It was more Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", ominous creatures out for my lunch. A shady looking seagull sported a little red spot on it's beak that resembled blood. One large, grey, seagull seemed like the leader of the group; with every bite of food I took he would jump around and squawk, instigating the others. After I was done with my lunch they left as quickly as they'd arrived, no doubt to rumble with some other gang of birds.

As I stood to leave my perch I looked down the shore and saw a photographer busily working with three guys in tight jeans and flowy white button down shirts. I assume it was a photo shoot for some cheesy boy band; I was thoroughly amused and wanted to stay and watch, but my break was nearly over so I returned to my car and chuckled to myself about how strange my lunch break had been.

Beautifuly Broken

Today while reading an old issue of Time magazine in our break room, I found an interesting quote by architect Frank Gehry "My name's Frank Gehry and my buildings don't leak." The quote is in reference to the lawsuit MIT has initiated against Mr. Gehry, citing that the $300 million dollar building that Gehry designed for the school was poorly designed and has developed issues with leaks, mold, and poor drainage.

Well, MIT, it's Frank Gehry. What else would you expect? The man has often been reviewed as an architect who creates "function-less forms". His design ideas come from the forms created by dropping string and following the pattern it falls in to. He's a sculptor who has found a niche in architecture. If an architect can't construct a building that effectively serves it's purpose, why spend $300 million dollars to have him create a complex for your school? I'm not surprised that his building is leaking. So Gehry is a big name, but a big name doesn't guaranty a perfectly functional building. Even Frank Lloyd Wright had problems making vision meet a functional reality. Oh MIT, this will be an expensive lesson for you.

LUX Update

Yes, life got crazy and I haven't blogged for a week; though I honestly was planning on blogging tonight before I got the guilt trip from my favorite big sister. Today was my second official day at LUX; I was allowed to answer the phone, and *surprise* I know how to answer a phone in a professional manner. A side note on this, museum patrons are so much easier to deal with than Toyota customers...or panicky locksmith customers for that matter. Also, I took a few pictures today. This is in no way a complete tour of the museum, but it's a start. Here is the current main building; there will one day be a much larger building attached, but for now there is this one which is our offices, gallery, and artist residence.

This green and purple trailer is the original building. The institute has been around for about a decade now, but operating out of this trailer and doing mobile art education. This is why it's such a big deal that there is now a large official building. The trailer is now a classroom for the various educational programs at LUX.

This is the view from my desk; unlike Toyota, I have nature to look at instead of an ugly gray wall.

This is the other direction from my desk, it's exciting, I know.

This is the sculpture garden thus far, vacant chair anyone?

Songs About Art

"The Art Teacher" by Rufus Wainwright

Tea Anyone?

Today was the first day of my internship at the LUX Art Institute, and while some of the glitter of my trial day has worn off a bit I was still extremely happy to be there and wished more than anything that this was more than a part time job. I never once had to calm down an angry Prius owner, or explain the process for turning off a maintenance light. The LUX office is a very quiet place, which is much different than my Toyota office; three calls in a row is considered a rush and even the clicking computer keys follow a different rhythm than the ones I usually hear. I was given the freedom to browse art catalog after art catalog in order to find the best work each artist had to offer.

Retyping the catalog essay for the upcoming show proved to be interesting; largely because the director's handwriting resembles my grandmother Visel's. Discerning what corrections and additions she intended with her notes was a bit of a challenge. Then there were the debatable issues; is it "Plein-aire" or "Plein-air"? Do you really need that many comas? Is it proper to omit the first names of famous artists? The answer to the last question is no, every artist in an academic paper should have a first and last name when first introduced in the essay no matter how famous the name is, but for the sake of word count I went along with omitting Edgar from Degas and Claude from Monet. Also, tea is offered almost every time some one gets up to go to the kitchen. Why do I only get to do this once a week? Oh yeah, rent.