Self-Driving Cars and other good design
a guest post by Sandy Quang 1968 Jean-Pierre-Ponthieu concept-car of the future. Some ideas just never get the respect they deserve. Inspired by a short conversation about self-driving cars this weekend, I decided they would be a wonderful thing to investigate. Imagine what a car that didn’t have to dedicate a quarter of its internal …
Falling apart
American Landscape with Indian Camp, by Ralph Blakelock, showing the damage that can result from tinkering with technique. Yesterday I mentioned the deterioration in Albert Pinkham Ryder’s paintings. He was not, by any means, the only painter whose work has suffered over time. Prior to the 19th century, painters had a limited range of materials …
Nobody owns technique
This recipe doesn’t spell anything out for you; it presumes you understand how to bake. (BTW, confectioners sugar no longer weighs out at 2.5 cups to the pound. I’d guess it’s milled differently today.) In 1954 a woman named Doris passed this cookie recipe along to my mother. Its telegraphic style always makes me smile. …
Start with the canvas!
Autumn leaves…. as done by a painter. When the gifted Shibori dye-master Jane Bartlett offered to help me make fancy cookies for an event, the planning revolved not around the baking, but what array of icing colors would yield the most natural fall colors. “I suppose I have to get up early and make the …
Giclée this!
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Van Gogh–impasto and all–hanging on your wall? His Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889, for example. I really love Van Gogh, but never felt like hanging a print of his work on my wall. Paintings which sing through their brushwork tend to look anemic in prints. Printing technology has …