Alexander Calder's 114th birthday

Courtesy "Sweet and Swanky Cakes" via Flickr

It's Alexander Calder's 114th birthday!  I was hoping for a reappearance of the wonderful Google doodle that we saw last year, but I don't see it.

Here is a link to it in case you missed it last year.  It's a great representation of a Calder mobile and you can even make it move around!

http://www.google.com/doodles/alexander-calders-113th-birthday

Wilco

Wilco is one of my favorite bands...I even named one of my mobiles "Wilco" because the inspiration for it came to me while listening to their album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot".   I keep hoping that someday I will get an email from Jeff Tweedy asking me to make one for their recording studio.

"Wilco" mobile by Unigami

Wilco is also known (at least by me) for having some of the best concert posters - very original and creative stuff.  I've thought about collecting them.  Here are a few of my favorites.

And here's one that just appeared recently.  I really love this one...a Wilco mobile!

I'd like to think that maybe I had something to do with that particular idea....

Tim Prentice

A new book has been published by one of my all time favorite artists -Tim Prentice, entitled "Drawing On the Air".

If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Prentice, I encourage you to check out his website and to consider purchasing his book.  His work is sometimes described as a mixture of Calder and George Rickey.  I actually like his work better than Rickey...he has a way of creating sublimely minimalistic mobiles that are comprised of complex structural elements that in themselves are a thing of beauty in their repetition, design, and function.  I just love studying the way that he builds these beautiful objects and I'm always thrilled with I spot one in my travels.
http://www.timprentice.com/


Purchase at Amazon

Alexander Calder Flamingo "Travel Edition"

This is a very clever idea by designer Victor Fong - a travelling edition of Calder's monumental sculpture "Flamingo"   Be sure to check out his website for more images.

Victor Fong - Designs

Design by Victor Fong

A New Calder Gallery

A new Calder gallery has opened at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland. The gallery will feature a series of Calder exhibitions being planned, the first being a tribute to Mary Calder Rower, Calder's daughter, who passed away last year and bequeathed her 1,000+ piece collection of Calder works to the Calder Foundation.

This video features an interview with Theodora Vischer. the curator of the first exhibition, and Sandy Rower, grandson of Alexander Calder and founder/president of the Calder Foundation.


 

"Owsley" Hanging Mobile

"Owsley" - hanging mobile by Unigami

I'll Plant My Own Tree

My wife was watching "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) last night on Netflix streaming and started yelling "LOOK!  A MOBILE!!!!".

This is probably the best scene in the entire movie - watching Susan Hayward standing in the middle of a huge rotating plexiglass hanging mobile singing "I'll Plant My Own Tree" strangely captivated me like a car spinning out of control for two and a half minutes.

Susan Hayward and the huge hanging mobile in The Valley of the Dolls

By the way, Judy Garland was originally slated to play this part but was fired when she came to work drunk.