This is not a new story, but it’s just so beautiful that I had to write about it! Jiyeon Song created this amazing, experimental, typographic, and literally poetic sculpture called “The One Day Poem Pavilion”. The words to the poem are revealed as the sun passes over the sculpture, shining through a series of perforations. Depending on when you happen to walk by, you’d only see one or two lines of the poem… unless you sat very still, from 8am until 4pm, and watched the words slowly appear and disappear, revealing the entire six line poem. So amazing. But wait, there’s more:

“The specific arrangements of the perforations reveal different poems according to the solar calendar: a theme of new-life during the summer solstice. During the summer solstice, the poem will contain the theme of “new life”. During the winter solstice, the poem will be on “reflection and the passing of time.”

Yep, I’m in complete awe.

Ok, if my telephone books and bill envelopes looked like the work of Canadian artist {aka paper cutting genius} Kristiina Lahde, I would never need to recycle again! Gorgeous.

ps. The tower of phone books is titled, quite perfectly, “Hive”. Oh, and thanks so much to Sheila for sending me a link to Kristiina’s work! I was thrilled to add such a great portfolio to my bookmarks list… my telephone book, on the other hand, was not so happy about it… snip snip!

Orange thread… mountains… gold… stripes… wood… STOP! I can’t take any more – it’s all so amazing! I love these sculptures by LA based artist Aili Schmeltz. Stunning, sharp geometric shapes married perfectly with soft organic elements. I was going to try to explain what this work is all about, but it will be so much easier to let Aili do it:

My most recent body of work examines my fascination and love/hate relationship with the city of Los Angeles, where I currently live. Los Angeles has a sordid environmental history as a strange apocalyptic theme park. It’s plush, manicured landscape is a reminder of both a forced growth in an otherwise desert geography and as a monument to man’s ingenuity made possible by diverting an unfathomable amount of water from distant sources. I am fascinated by the hybridized structures and blatant artifice of the city in both it’s natural and man made environments where hill top homes float precariously overhead on earth that has a topographical complexity of embedded catastrophe.

{I found the gold piece, titled quite appropriately, “Bling”, on the always fabulous Design for Mankind}

Tracing paper and wheat paste… delicate, organic, beautiful, light-filled tracing paper and wheat paste. That’s it. Seriously. Sigh. I love this sculptural work by San Francisco based artist Mary Button Durell… and don’t even get me started on her workspace!* I want my studio filled with lovely cells and cones made solely from tracing paper and wheat paste!!!

*The last three images are shots from her studio.

{via folk-art-life}

Big letters. Little birds. Why? Well, I’ll tell you – these cute little birds are called house sparrows, and in India their population is on the decline due to, well, a lack of houses. With so many high rises going up and the urban jungle constantly expanding, there are fewer places for these sweet birds to nest… until now! Thanks to Mumbai based designer Nishant Jethi, and this project, titled Living Typography, they are getting cozy in a stylish number ’86’, and settling down for the night with “MONA”… lucky little birdies!

{via Junkculture}

Ahhh, does this make anyone else want to go swimming… in a room filled with floating furniture? Me too! This installation, titled Green House, is the perfect combination of surreal and serene. It’s truly amazing what Korean artist Kyung Woo Han has done with some old furniture, an empty room, the most lovely shade of green paint, and just a touch of optical illusion.

It’s kinda hard not to have a design crush on Kelly Beall of Design Crush. She is a graphic designer, based in Oklahoma, with impeccable taste, and a great sense of humor. We “met” through Twitter, but I was so excited to see her pretty face, instead of a teeny-tiny icon, last January at Alt Summit. She is sassy, funny, & oh so fashionable… yep, totally crush-worthy! I knew when I invited her over for the weekend she’d show us something amazing… and she did not disappoint!
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I’m jealous of Kate MccGwire

The first time I saw Kate MccGwire‘s feathered works I literally had to stop and catch my breath. I’d never seen art that felt like it was breathing until that moment. I’d never been intimidated by a mass of feathers that somehow managed to feel both evil and serene. And I’d definitely never had to look away to gather myself because something was so horrifyingly beautiful. Kate’s work does all that to me and more. The labor of love that lies behind every time intensive piece inspires me to persevere, while the juxtaposition of menace and beauty has me looking at everything I see through a different set of eyes.

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Whoa. Gorgeous! Thanks so much lady! Hope to see you in Salt Lake City again in 2012 ~ xo

Oh my word. I love every single one of these ceramic faces… who knew that beady eyes, big foreheads, and thin lips could be so beautiful? Well, British artist Claire Loder, that’s who!

Beautiful, geometric sculptures that I want to hang on my wall… or on my shirt. These little pieces of art are brooches made from bits of colorful polymer clay by an Athens based artist/Agricultural Biotechnology student named Eva. Yes. I said Agricultural Biotechnology student.  Apparently, when she doesn’t feel like studying, she’s busy filling her Etsy shop, nomilk today, with all sorts of wearable art to make me jealous … make sure you check out the earrings, necklaces, and rings too! Love.

{via Pikaland}

Umm, I just have to get this out – that pink balloon is killing me… killing me! Ok, let’s move on. So, you’re not going to believe what these amazing sculptures, by Australian artist Amy Joy Watson, are made from. Ready? Balsa wood. Watercolor stained, carefully cut bits of balsa wood, delicately hand-stitched {hand-stitched!!} together to create these geometric shapes that are, you guessed it, killing me!!!

{…thanks to Paula for sending me a link to Amy’s beautiful work. Oh, and while we’re talking about amazing art made from wood, pop over to sfgirlbybay to see my latest curated collection. Today’s theme… yep, wood.}