The Big Draw Maastricht

In less than a month Maastricht will join in the world's largest drawing festival: The Big Draw.
One of the activities I particularly look forward to is the Big Window Walk where artists will draw on windows throughout the city center, creating a wonderful week-long exhibition.
My friend Sophie is one of the organisers of this wonderful festival and on the weekend we set out to decorate her window as a small preview of what's to come. Have a look below to see what we came up with, and make sure to check the little videos we made too; they are available on the Big Draw Maastricht facebook page.

A weekend in Paris

 
A few weeks ago I met my mum in Paris for the weekend. The main goal of our little trip was to go and see the Ron Mueck exhibition (which was amazing!) but we also did a bit of shopping and of sight seeing; it was lovely! Also, we stayed in this little studio just steps away from Sacré Coeur which was great.

A copy years later

Today I stumbled upon photographer Irina Werning's 'Back to the Future' series (via).
Irina chose old photos and asked the people depicted in them to pose for her in order to recreate identical shots years and years later.

I was completely drawn to each set of pictures, trying to imagine the thousands of things these people must have lived, felt and seen between their two shots. It's beautiful to see how people have grown and changed, yet how some of their features stay exactly the same...
And I am amazed by Irina's tremendous attention to detail: everything is so precisely reconstructed!

All photos from Irina Werning's website (BACK TO THE FUTURE and BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 (2011) collections)

To see more incredible pairs, check out her 2010 and 2011 'Back to the Future' collections of photos...

And if you enjoy looking at old photos and imagining people's lives, there's also 'Dear Photograph'. It's kind of in the same vein.

0 to 100

All photos are screenshots from the 0 to 100 app on the iPad.

To my absolute delight, I discovered this app today. It contains 101 breathtakingly beautiful portrait photos of people of all ages between 0 and 100. Each single shot is more amazing than the next. So clear, so real, so beautiful...

Not only does the app allow you to see the truly exquisite portraits photographer Sandy Nicholson took of people in Australia and Canada, it also gives you the chance to read a quote from every single one of them, and to watch short videos from some of the participants. And there's even an amusing 'mix-and-match' section where you can create new faces by mixing existing ones.
If you don't have the chance to have an iPad yourself, you can see all the photos here, or buy the book!

This is definitely one of the best surprises I've had with apps on the iPad so far. And did I mention it's free? Aah... life is good...

Colossal stuff

I think I might have stayed stuck on this blog for almost two hours the other day. I couldn't believe how many incredible artists, videos, installations and works of art are featured on there... it's a real treasure chest!
To give you an idea, here are the three things I remember right now:

• a humongous and incredibly amazing toothpick sculpture
• an incredibly ingenious invention to save people across the world
• some adorable automatons (i'm in love with the duck one)
  

There is SO much more though... I'd definitely recommend you go and have a look for yourself!

Photo from here (via here)

Fancy animals

Thanks to a friend on facebook, I just discovered the wonderful world of berkleyillustrations' fancily dressed animals. I find them so sweet and so special at the same time. They remind me a bit of the characters in this movie, don't you think?
You should definitely go and check their etsy page, you'll discover quirky details about each and every single one of them.

All pictures from here.

Ok go

I have tons of photos of Switzerland to show you, but Mum is now here in Maastricht with us for a few days, and so I don't want to spend too much time at the computer just yet. You will see them soon though, don't worry!
In the meanwhile, take a look at this amazing band (the music is pretty good, but what I like most is the wonderful creativity they show in their music clips). Thank you Mathieu for sending me their name; they are truly extraordinary!
Make sure you watch videos 1, 2, 3 and 4 of their website. I love them!

Screenshot from here.

Beat Zoderer

Photo sources: left right


I wish I could go to Basel this weekend, to see this fantastic fair and visit this wonderful gallery. And most specifically, I'd want to stare at the colours and structures of the artworks of Beat Zoderer. I somehow always get a happy and beautiful feeling when I'm facing one of his chef-d'oeuvres...