a thing of beauty…

the joy is in the customer support…

I have this account on Joomeo to store my photos and last May there was a 50% discount on all offers so I jumped on the opportunity to take the “Infinite” plan (which I had wanted to do anyway) because for one there is no limit to the number of photos you can upload per month, but mostly it is the only offer where you can upload photos in RAW formats (with no preview however).

It worked well with the photos of my Canon 5D (CR2) but when I tried to upload RAW photos taken with my Lumix LX-3 (Panasonic Raw format is RW2) it just did not work. I let some time pass, and last week I had some more photos to upload and so I decided to send them an email to see whether it was normal that they did not support the Panasonic format, and if so did they plan to do it in the near future. I sent my message Sunday around 1:30 am, got an answer Sunday afternoon around 3 pm telling me that they did not support the RW2 format but they did now. I then send an email thanking them and telling them that I had tried to upload pictures from my Panasonic some time ago but I had not checked recently whether it now worked or not.

The answer I got from them in the evening was the sweetest ever : in fact they did not support that extension until today, but they had added it following my email.

How cool is that ?

Joomeo

thelonious sphere monk

Archisponge (re 11) by Yves Klein

Not so long ago, in my favorite coffee place, I heard that some were revisiting Monk. Not that they shouldn’t, but it felt somehow strange. And I realized then how much I loved Thelonious Monk.

I only listen to Monk alone.

Trinkle Trinkle, Meet Me tonight In Dreamland & Nice Work If You Can Get It are from Thelonious Monk the London Collection Vol.1 (1971).
You Took The Words Right Out Of My Heart from Thelonious Alone In San Francisco (1959).
MP3 player plugin WPaudio by Todd Iceton.
The link to amazon above is not an affiliate link.

marc newson for boucheron

Julia by Marc Newson for Boucheron

I love Marc Newson, he’s one of my favorite designers. I discovered his creation for Boucheron on Alain Truong’s blog while writing about Helen Mirren’s photograph by Snowdon.

Click here for a larger image of the necklace. Below is a detail.

I will not pretend here to understand anything about fractals so besides the Boucheron website, you can read about the creative process here.

Unique in all senses and simply stunning.

Marc Newson
Boucheron
Marc Newson for Boucheron
+ boucheron par marc newson @ STONED with carl

heidi klum for vogue germany

Heidi Klum by Francesco Carrozzini for Vogue Germany June 2009

In my last post I was telling you about Amber Rima’s blog Sprinkled In Pink and I couldn’t help but notice that she hearts Heidi Klum which is a nice coincidence since I love her too and Oh Joy! Project Runway has just returned.

I love the show. I watched seasons 2, 3 and 4 this summer waiting for season 6 (I even tried to watch Project Runway Australia for a bit but couldn’t go past the first 4 episodes or so, they just seemed to be bitching all the time and the truth is I missed Heidi and Tim).

Francesco Carrozzini for Vogue Germany June 2009

So Vogue Germany devoted its June issue to Heidi. It’s truly “All About Heidi”, something like 70 pages with her, no other model, and 4 editorial spreads shot by 5 photographers from May 28 to April 3. Cover is by Francesco Carrozzini, fashion editorials are as follow : “Desire me” by Alexi Lubomirski, “Heidi” by Francesco Carrozzini, “Rodeo Drive” by Claudia Knoepfel & Stefan Indlekofer, “L.A. Confidential” by Paola Kudacki. (The latter was shot in the Harpel House by architect John Lautner.)

There’s a nice making-of of about 30 minutes which you can see here.

Francesco Carrozzini for Vogue Germany June 2009

As you can see, I really love Francesco Carrozzini’s photos. But I also love that one by Alexi Lubomirski, because even though she’s a brunette, it still looks very much like her :

Heidi Klum by Alexi Lubomirski for German Vogue June 2009

In fact, the whole story by Alexi Lubomirski “Desire Me” is very beautiful.

I chose only B&W photos here, but there are plenty of color shots. “Rodeo Drive” & “L.A. Confidential” seem to be all color while “Heidi” seems Black and White only. “Desire Me” is mixed. You can see 3 of the editorials here and the scans where a lot of the pictures you find on the web come from are here @ achAT’s fashion scans …

Heidi Klum @ models.com
Francesco Carrozzini
Alexi Lubomirski
Claudia Knoepfel + Stefan Indlekofer
Paola Kudacki

helen mirren by lord snowdon

Helen Mirren by Lord Snowdon, 1995 for Vanity Fair

So the other day Alexandre, my sweetest neighbour Alexandre, lent me the first 2 “seasons” of Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren. I had seen some of the episodes on French television a few years ago and my recollection of the series was that it was quite good but mostly it was worth watching for the female detective played by Helen Mirren.

And sure enough, the thing is a bit dated now, but then there’s her.

Helen Mirren.

I love her. Totally. Absolutely.

I looked for a picture of her to post here, at first couldn’t find anything with a mention of the photographer – because who cares, right – until I stumbled on this article by photographer Amber Rima on her blog Sprinkled In Pink.

This portrait by Lord Snowdon was featured in the exhibition that took place at The National Portrait Gallery in London from February to May 2008 entitled “Vanity Fair Portraits / Photographs 1913 – 2008″. (The exhibition is about to open in Canada. It will be at the Royal Ontario Museum from September 26, 2009 to January 3, 2010.)

But back to the Mirren/Snowdon picture. Something funny happened and browsing the web I found myself living my own little version of “Blow-Up”, for I found on the site of the Chris Beetles Gallery a version of the photograph with a different “framing”. Also the coloring is quite different. It seems much more orange. See below :

Helen Mirren, 1995 by Snowdon.

It is not unusual for the press to cut into the pictures, to reframe them, so Vanity Fair kept the square format but zoomed in on Helen Mirren. My guess as to the different color tone, is that their version being less yellowy feels a bit more modern.

(There has been a retrospective of Snowdon at the National Portrait Gallery in 2000 and you can see the photo of Helen Mirren with the same warm tone and framing as the one @ the Chris Beetles Gallery.)

Now the funny thing about all this, is that I found a different photo of the same shooting on this article at the Daily Mail Online and she’s actually smiling :

Helen in her dressing room, 1995, by Lord Snowdon.

Photograph of Helen Mirren © Snowdon.
Snowdon @ the Chris Beetles Gallery.
Vanity Fair
You can buy the book Vanity Fair: The Portraits: A Century of Iconic Images @ the Vanity Fair Store.
&
96 images from the book are available for purchase as gallery-quality custom prints here.

mary osmundsen

blue organisms with red tips by Mary Osmundsen.

This is an original drawing. In fact, Mary Osmundsen only sells originals in her shop at the moment and for that reason alone hers is a rare place @ Etsy.

I stumbled upon those fascinating drawings about a week ago and I immediately knew I wanted to post about them. They have this strange compelling beauty which seems to emanate as much from their “alien” nature as from their extraordinary beautiful color palette – I am so in love with that muted earthy palette! I find myself constanty returning to them and truly they are much more complex than they may seem at first.

organism with coiled neck, original drawing.

Here is a biological world, a world of “organisms”, “cells”, “pods”, etc. but – and here lies the magic of it – you may well see just what you want in them. I see extraterrestrial organisms, life at work in the Universe…

You can read Mary Osmundsen’s artist statement @ The Drawing Center’s Viewing Program. (You have to enter her name to reach her portfolio, statement and bio).
See her complete portfolio on her Flickr.
She will also be selling her art @ mash handmade, a “brick and mortar” shop in Kansas City.

sara paloma pottery

White Matte Bottle Collection by Sara Paloma Pottery.

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful, more perfect, more sensual and inspired than those bottles by Sara Paloma?

Surely there must be words to express the sheer beauty that they are, but I have not found them and it is not for lack of trying you see, for my mind is of the kind that when presented with a challenge or problem to solve will not rest till it finds a solution. And so, because of the notion I have that since I am posting photographs of other artists’ works on this blog it is only fair for me to write a few nice things too, there I was trying to find something smart to say about those bottles. Angels (or spirits) of creativity were evoked then Picasso, I was on my way to ZEN, when I realized I was getting nowhere for there was nothing I would write really that would match the ultimate perfection of these bottles, and so I should just keep quiet…

For sometimes, that is the smart thing to do. Stay quiet. Just watch. And admire.

Large Bottle Trio.

Sara Paloma.

fourreau noir by serge lutens

Georgia O’Keeffe, Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV, 1930

Yesterday I received an invitation from the Salons du Palais Royal for the launching of the latest Serge Lutens perfume Fourreau Noir (there’s promise of champagne…) and since I have been obsessed with Georgia O’Keeffe for the last couple of days I immediately thought of this stunning painting by her.

Fourreau Noir will be a Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido exclusive so I guess my favorite non-blonde will have to rely on samples to test it. Or else make another trip to Paris…

However, there was another release this year which is not an exclusive  : Fille En Aiguilles. (Other reviews in French here and here and in English here @ Perfume Shrine.)

I am quite curious about those two but not in such a hurry to test them for my wishlist of Lutens perfumes is already very long and includes such gems as Borneo 1834, Fumerie Turque and Vétiver Oriental, the great MKK being on top.

I currently wear Daim Blond.

Serge Lutens @ the Non-Blonde, @ Nathan Branch and @ Perfume Shrine.

The painting of Georgia O’Keeffe, Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV belongs to the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

I’m back

I’m back and I’m so happy. I love this blog. I love this blog and I love blogging. I wanted to return earlier but it took me longer than I thought to change the theme. I had to find a theme I liked, and even though there were a couple nice candidates there was always something bothering me, and since I am no css master there’s only so much I can custom, so first find a nice theme and tweak it a little, then tweak it some more, change nearly everything really – and I am not sure I am finished with that either, I feel I want to simplify even further, probably discard the sidebar altogether, but I’ll do that as I go along, it’s quite nice as it is now – and so it feels like a new blog, I am totally excited and it is going to be more personal too…

Plus last week I dowloaded this great plugin by Matt Mullenweg called random redirect on Wordpress and it is the coolest thing ever. When you click on the link it takes you to a random post on the blog. How fun is that?

I have put the link on the top of the page, just below the search box, and those might well be the only things I keep aside from the posts…

the colored crocheted jewelry of studiokarma

Yellow Brown Necklace With Large Crocheted Rings (detail) by StudioKarma.

I am always amazed by the beauty of felt or crocheted jewelry. There are a few extraordinary shops @ Etsy – you regularly find their items on the front page – and StudioKarma is one of those. Her necklaces are simply gorgeous.

They are OOAK, but you can ask for custom items anyway. I found this one below in the sold section, and it is one of my favorites :

Multicolored Nacklace With Various Crocheted Rings.