Three of my favorite things come together in this YouTube video I found online. Very funny… and just a little bit creepy. Kinda makes me think that this is what might happen if Eddie Izzard ever became a potter?!

Click here to see the video “Rolling Clay With Keith.”

I found this really cool video online. It’s basically a feather balancing act… and a lot more! His name is Madir Eugster and he’s apparently known for balancing a lot of crazy things. This time it’s a feather… and that’s a lot of contraption to lift one feather!!!

Just balancing one feather wouldn’t be so impressive. But add a few more pieces…
and then it’s kind of like and Alexander Calder mobile. Be sure to watch to the end when he removes the feather!

Click here to see the video of Madir Eugster and his amazing balancing feat.

Click here to see the same trick done by his daughter Laura Jacobs Rigolo.
Who I believe is now performing this act in Cirque du Soleil’s new show “Amaluna.”

Last night I hung out with some friends at Lillstreet Art Center before making it upstairs to my studio. Such a fun distraction to have the classrooms downstairs with a lot of great fun & art going on down there. Last night my friend Terry Hogan was once again working on her incredibly intricate pierced porcelain creations. Up until recently, they’ve been on the smaller size. But lately she’s been expanding (literally) and going for some larger, sculptural pieces. Still with that crazy perfection & attention-to-detail.

And how does she do it one might ask? Well, with a crazy amount of creativity & patience!!! But also a pretty cool pile of tools for poking, piercing, pricking and pointilism-ing!

I don’t know much about this… except that I love it. And I want one.
Okay, not just one… but a whole wall. I saw it on Facebook and knew that I had to share.

According to artist Ned Kahn’s website…
A 25-foot tall by 110-foot long, wind-activated artwork that consists of 3960, 9”x 9” squares of aluminum chain maille. These hanging panels of metallic fabric are extremely lightweight and responsive to subtle changes in the wind. The kinetic facade extends inside the building and covers a floor to ceiling wall inside the lobby where it is animated by the ventilation system of the building. The artwork installation was designed in collaboration with Davis Davis Architects in San Diego.

If you want to see the video, and trust me, you do… click on Ned Kahn “Chain Of Ether.”

Look at what goodies my brother-in-law Scott found for me. Yeah!!!
Now I just need to figure out to do with a whole box full of fun.
I can’t wait to dig through the box to see what all is in there!

Okay, so I may not be religious, but I do enjoy a little religious humor now & again!
I couldn’t resist…

If one or two of something is fun, a dozen is even more fun.
If a dozen is more fun, thousands of dozens is just downright CRAZY COOL!!!
And when that object turns out to be coffee stirrer sticks… even better!!!

Found this online and just had to share…

Most people don’t think twice about their coffee stirrers once they’ve fulfilled their mixing
duties, but artist Jonathan Brilliant has found another purpose for the common wooden
sticks. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based artist has constructed numerous spatial art
installations over the years that incorporate the coffee stir sticks, perhaps the most eye-
fetching of them being “The Sumter Piece.”

The site-specific structure, installed in 2007 in Sumter, South Carolina, included 60,000
wooden stirring sticks expertly woven together. Brilliant produced a meticulously crafted
sculptural piece that expanded across two floors. It reached over a second floor balcony
and suspended from the ceiling of the first floor, artistically wrapping around an
illuminated chandelier.

The abstract creation took 14 days to weave together and install on site. It’s hard to believe,
but there were no additional tools on hand. Brilliant says, “No adhesive was used and the
entire structure holds itself in place because of the tensile strength of 7” rounded end
wooden coffee stirrers. After nearly six months the piece eventually separated and the
materials were donated to a local school.”

C’mon now… No armature. No super-structure. NO GLUE!!! Really?!
And wouldn’t have loved to see it when it “eventually separated” and came crashing down?!
Now THAT’s the video I want to see!!!

And let me just say… Did anyone else see “America’s Got Talent” when “The Kinetic King”
made these incredible contraptions out of tongue depressors?! he interwove them kinda
like this… but when he knocked one stick, it started a huge chain reaction where every
stick flipped out and fell down like racing dominoes. Click here for the video.

Imagine what would happen if these two stick artists collaborated?!!!
Even crazier. Even cooler!!! But I digress…

Okay, one more thing… one more tangent…
Doesn’t this somehow have future Summer Camp project written all over it?! I’m just sayin’…

For more about the artist Jonathan Brilliant, his incredible installations and projects,
click here for his website. He’s crazy… crazy cool!!!

It’s February… and it finally SNOWED in Chicago!!!
Sure, we’ve had flurries & dustings of snow. But today I woke up to a couple
inches of snow. Which looked especially fun on this great “bike-frame-fence”
I found along my way home from Step Class.

Generally I’m not a fan of graffiti.
I think if you feel like you need to paint something, find a canvas, a board, a piece of paper.
Don’t deface the side of a building or public space that other people enjoy as it is.

But then sometimes you’ll see something really cool & unexpected. Not just some random
spray paint on the side of the wall. Not just some crazy block letters tagging a building.
But actually some incredible graphics. Beautiful designs in unexpected places. In this
case, it was on Grand Avenue beneath Lake Shore Drive near Chicago’s Navy Pier.
Propaganda posters slapped onto the concrete walls along Grand Avenue. Love ’em!
Sadly, like most graffiti… it might not last for long…

So I realize that these images are all part of a marketing campaign. Shameless propaganda.
Yet I LOVE the bold graphic design, the stark black & white contrast, and the dynamic
flourishes, patterns & crisp sense of whimsy. And while the above “segments” are great,
the entire posters were even better. So here they are as they were designed…
although some of them are showing signs of deterioration already.

But then sometimes, the reality of the structure gets in the way of a great art installation.
Couldn’t quite move around the pipes, so they had to be where they were… right in front!!!

Yes, each poster is pretty great.
But the entire “under bridge wall” plastered with these posters was quite a dramatic sight.
So similar in style, yet each one of them a beauty on its own!

Oh, the things you’ll see while playing on your bike…

With a freezing rain today in Chicago, looks like my sunrise bike rides may be
on hold for a bit!? But after watching this video, suddenly I’m feeling like my own
morning rides are a bit anti-climactic. This is a beautiful video with some
incredibly crazy riding… that I won’t be trying any time soon!!!

Maybe it’s just me… but wouldn’t you think there must have been a smooth &
obstacle-free paved road around there somewhere?!

Here’s a link to the video… click on “Danny MacAskill.”

So watch the video. It’s beautifully filmed & edited with a great soundtrack.
Love his sense of adventure & whimsy. And I hope he has a good helmet…
or even better, he should be shopping around for a good helmet sponsor!!!