Adventures of Yoo

August 30 2016

The Secret to a Color-Coded Bookcase

For years now, I’ve been in love with color-coded bookcases. That’s why I was happy to see this one, created with the help of designer Hannah Crowell of Nashville’s Crowell + Co. Interiors. Their secret? Because the couple who owned the home had such a large space, 20-foot arched ceilings and a massive bookcase with 120 shelves, they filled it by buying books by the foot from New York City’s legendary bookstore Strand and color coordinating them in ombré patterns.

Like most of us would do, the designer started out by buying really nice art books to fill the space but quickly realized it would take thousands of dollars to fill it. Ordering 500 feet of books — 50 feet of white books here, 30 feet of orange books there — seemed more economical, but there was one caveat. “You’re not getting the best books; who knows what you’re going to get?” she says. “It becomes completely about filling the bookshelf. You don’t want to look too closely, or you’ll find weird mystery books, Oprah’s biography and stuff you might buy at an airport in the 1980s.” Seems like a neat way to get some eclectic books on your bookshelf. Like a mini surprise.

It took about 14 hours to get the ombré look that goes through the whole rainbow. That’s a whole lot of time but, in the end, wasn’t it worth it?

via [Houzz]

Photography

August 30 2016

Beautiful Portraits of Musical Artists by Danny Clinch

What makes a celebrity portrait stand out? I’ve been told that you have to have your subject get comfortable with you before you start snapping your shots. Makes sense, right? If that’s the case, it’s no wonder that such musical icons as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder have let Danny Clinch take pictures of them. The man loves music. (That’s the first line in his bio.)

“He listens to it, plays it, photographs it, and films it. Through this passion, Danny has established himself as one of the premier photographers across the entire music scene.” Clinch’s photographs have graced the covers of hundreds of album covers and have been in publications like Vanity Fair, Spin, Rolling Stone, GQ, and Esquire.

The man even plays harmonica professionally, in the Tangiers Blues Band, and will occasionally put down his instrument in the middle of the set, pick up his Leica, and begin photographing his band members. Talk about dedication to both crafts! “During times like these,” he writes, “Danny Clinch is a very happy man.”

I love how he lets each of his subjects’ personalities shine through. After thoroughly looking through Clinch’s website, I can clearly state that this man’s portfolio is insane.

Danny Clinch’s website

Style

August 29 2016

New Monster-Themed Clothes at J.Crew

I’ll always be a kid at heart. That’s why when I opened up my latest J.Crew catalog and saw this new set of clothes, I wanted to scoop everything up! They call the furry guy Max the Monster. “He’s so terrifyingly cute, we put him everything…” the brand writes. Now only if they could make the t-shirt, sweaters, leggings and shoes in my size! (Also, I’m loving this cat hoodie.)

J. Crew website

Photography

August 29 2016

The Prettiest Portraits (Involve Flowers)

You can always count on flowers lighten up any mood. They can even take a photo from just good to absolutely breathtaking. Today, I thought I’d round up some of my photos of people surrounded by flowers. Dreamy, aren’t they? Must try this technique out myself.

Above: Alexander Bel

Annie+Jacobs+-+VSCO+Kodak+Gold+100+++Alt+2+-++annieelenaphoto.com

By Annie Jacobs

via Wandered Unicorn Tumblr

By Michelle Du Xuan

By Emily Soto

By georgiarosehardy

Life

August 26 2016

Celebrating My 40th Birthday

Since tomorrow is my birthday, I’ll be taking the day off. Don’t have definitive plans yet but hoping to have a nice lunch at the beach. See you all on Monday!

Photography

August 25 2016

What Makes a Successful Composition?

I just started a new photography class on Lynda.com called Exploring Composition in Photography. (I quit my Skillshare subscription and signed up for Lynda. They have tons of photography courses.) Photographer and educator Taz Tally shares these four things that help make a successful composition. I thought it was worth sharing.

Simplicity
Asymmetry
Eye Lines
Point of View

“In images where you put it all together, where you have nice simplicity, beautiful asymmetry, good eye lines and an interesting point of view, you can create successful compositions on a consistent and regular basis.”

Photo by NunoAndrade.

Art & Design

August 25 2016

Clever Street Art Plays With Its Environment by Alex Face

One of my all-time favorite pieces of street art is this giant mural by Poland-based artist Natalia Rak. In it, a young girl is holding a painted watering can above a real life tree. To me, this is the creme of the crop when it comes to street art. While many street artists paint murals on walls with no particular meaning, there are a select few who really study the urban environment and create works that cleverly interact with the real life objects around them. (Ernest Zacharevic is a genius at this.)

Today, I was pleased to to come across the works of Alex Face, a well-known graffiti artist in Thailand. Face wanders the streets and alleys of Bangkok looking for the perfect building he can use as his canvas. In many of his pieces, you can’t quite tell where his works begin. Are you looking at real life props like wires, branches and leaves or did Face draw them in?

One of my favorite pieces is the one he created with first graders at a local elementary school. The messy, spray-painted scribbles are the perfect backdrop for Face’s funny baby. Speaking of baby, what led him to center all of his work around an adorable toddler? According to Widewalls, the baby idea was inspired by the birth of his own daughter. He draws the baby with a third eye because, “I believe in the spirit, that is how I grew up, I feel the spirit” he says. The third eye in his drawings represents another dimension “it’s something that we can feel but can’t see with two eyes so I add the third eye which can see what we can’t”.

Alex Face’s Facebook

Art & Design

August 25 2016

Dreamy Street Art of Children by Amanda Mando Marie

I’ll always have a place in my heart for street art, of course no one comes to Banksy but Ernest Zacharevic, Os Gemeos, Etam Cru, and Seth Wall are all up there for me as well. One artist that has popped up on my radar recently is Amanda “Mando” Marie. The Colorado-based painter is known for her eye-catching stencils that are made with acrylic and aerosol and displayed as murals or as paintings on canvas or paper.

There’s a unifying theme to her work, her paintings often consist of children playing or floating in the air. Though some have described her work as “nostalgic storybook-like imagery that is at once playful and ominous,” I don’t understand that feeling of darkness. Marie’s works are inspired by vintage 1940s “Little Golden Book” era illustrations and there’s a recurring visual theme of “twinning” imagery, or a repetition of a child to create doubles. I love the paintings where she creates stars in the children’s eyes, they create a magical mood. Also, notice how gigantic Marie’s murals can be. If you look closely, in the first picture, you can see the artist working on the piece. She looks tiny!

Currently, my favorite art gallery, Thinkspace in Culver City is showing a collection of the artist’s work. You can see them from now through September 10. Marie also contributed a mural piece to this year’s POW! WOW! Antelope Valley, and is featured in the Lancaster Museum of Art and History’s show The New Vanguard, on view from August 13 to October 30.

How I’d love to collect her work!

Here are some paintings by Amanda “Mando” Marie that I enjoyed, too.

Amanda Mando Marie’s website, Facebook, and Instagram

Life

August 24 2016

Disneyland and Everyday Life With Two Toddlers

On Monday, after work, Sam and I took the boys to Disneyland. It was in the high 80s and was pretty packed so we just played some carnival games, ate a few churros and left. On a side note, I hate to admit it, but I had to drop my 365 day project because it got too difficult. It ended up that I would put up almost any random picture up instead of carefully crafting my photos. On a happier note, I bought a new VSCO Film Lightroom Preset, No 5. I now have Film Essentials, No 1, No 2, and No 5. It’s easy to get out of hand with these presets but they’re fun to play with.

Now here are some pictures from the past two days.

On the side wall of the new Starbucks, at Downtown Disneyland, is a mural of the Starbucks’ mermaid (from the logo). Parker liked playing in the grooves with his car. They became a racetrack, in his eyes.

Almost everything is too loud to Parker, especially fireworks and roller coasters.

Logan loves playing the fishing game.

Here’s Sam feeding a churro to Logan.

Back at home, Logan is a fan of garbage trucks.

Here are the two boys playing together.

The two boys actually posed for this picture. (Please excuse their poofy hair, they are in bad need of haircuts.)

Art & Design

August 23 2016

A Japanese Forest is Bathed in a Rainbow of Colored Light

“A place with mysterious lights spread out over a Word Heritage Site forest.” One of my favorite art collectives, teamlab, is up to it again, this time bathing a Japanese forest in a rainbow of lights. Near Shimogamo Shrine, they present Resonating Trees, colored lights that shine on individual plants before subtly fading away. As visitors or animals approach the trees, the lights change color and a musical tone emits from the forest. This satisfies both my love for art and rainbows. See it in action by watching the video, below. This breathtaking installation can be seen from now through August 31, 2016.

teamLab website
via Designboom

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