I picked this book up at one of the best used bookstores I’ve ever visited, ABCD in Camden Maine (though my Great Uncle Frank Piskor, a huge bibliophile, used to say they had “New York prices.”). It’s a MoMA book from 1961, and Uncle Frank was right; it was $6.50 new, and $75 used forty years later. I’m going to let the jacket sum up Futurism for you because I would use up all of my blogging hours for the month trying to do it myself and I would not do half as good a job:

The Futurist artists…set out to create an art as exhilarating as Marinetti’s promise. They translated the kinetic rhythms and the confused, intense sensations of modern life into potent visual form, creating works of art of extraordinary emotional impact. The Futurists’ approach to art, their manifestos and demonstrations set a pattern for many art movements which followed, such as Constructivism, Dada, and Surrealism…and the sympathy between certain Futurist procedures and current endeavors is largely responsible for the growing interest in Futurism.”

-Joshua C. Taylor

The Futurists looked to the past to rebel against it than to be inspired by it, and they had a tinge of anarchy running through their movement. Alright, enough art history, think about what was going on in the 19-teens and you’ll get it. Onto the inspiration of color, shape, movement, and composed confusion:

Severini: The Boulevard 1910

Boccioni: The Street Pavers 1911

Balla: Mercury Passing Before the Sun as Seen Through a Telescope 1914

Balla: Iridescent Interpretation 1912

Balla: Girl Running on a Balcony 1912

Boccioni: Iron Man. Just Kidding! Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913

Carra: “Free-Word” Painting (Patriotic Celebration) 1914

Boccioni: The Calvary Charge 1914

Hmmm, O.K., so the late fifties/early sixties are the time of the “current endeavors” Taylor alludes to. That makes total sense when you think about the art scene in the sixties and beyond. I’m seeing a lot of inspiration here for Jim Dine and Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol. Think of whatever Cooper is hanging in his office on Mad Men, think of how the space race would have effected art the way the industrial revolution and speeding cars and airplanes did decades earlier.

It makes me wonder what kind of art will come out of this tumultuous time in history. We’ve seen the architecture, we’re seeing how the fear of a crashing plane affects design, how security concerns keep campuses from planting shrubs, how we memorialize heroes and events. How are tumultuous times and technology and all of the new ways of presenting media and communicating affecting art today? Please tell me what you think as it’s kind of blowing my mind just thinking about it at them moment.

Ten Uncomfortable Pieces of Furniture (via Styleture)

Love playing with color and looking for something to do? Check out the Pantone Fall Fashion Color Combos at Design Evolution. I think this is a really great idea – grab a few colors and throw a room together. Michelle is posting the best ones. It’s funny, a year or two ago the colors Pantone chose were AWFUL, but I think they are fantastic this year!

Check it out! It’s jefdesigns on Cougartown (that show is funny by the way – it’s by the same dude who did Scrubs, Courtney Cox has some great comedic timing, the other actors are hilarious and best of all, there is no laugh track):

(check out jefdesigns here. They are even ON SALE!).

Mystery Link: From whom did I swipe this image? For some idiotic reason I thought I would remember. The image says “thefind5″. Please tell me in the comments if you recognize it!:

From return to bohemia: Does this count as performance art? Liz Rywelski gets a new outfit, styling, and Olin Mills portrait for whatever story she comes up with that day. My personal favorite is “PARENTS GIFT FOR THE HOLIDAYS; MOM LIKES JEWELRY, DAD LIKES HUNTING.”

• image 1 by Helmut Palla via Styleture via Women’s Day.
• image 2 via Design Evolution
• images 3 & 4 from jefdesigns
• image 5 via ??? PLEASE HELP!
• image 6 by Liz Rywelski (and Olin Mills) via return to bohemia

Well, O.K., they aren’t technically on Flickr yet, and I took all of them on my camera phone, so they aren’t exactly going to win any awards, but here’s the deal: My DSL connection here in Maine sucks, WordPress is wigging out, I’ve somehow copied the gallery pictures into the gallery twice, to bring up flickr would take an eon or two, and actually viewing our Fresh New Spaces Group contributions would thus take an eternity, and I don’t even have the software to crop my own foot out of that shot of the rocks at Crescent Beach. There – excuses excuses! However, I thought it would be worthwhile to show you some Maine color as fall is just arriving. The red maples are already on en fuego here, and the goldenrod are just going starting to go by. Sorry for all of the odd spacing in this post, it’s just going to be an imperfect post today – what else is new?!?!?!

Bonus: The Dream House. Honestly, in this setting, all I need is a humble shack, but they sure did do a beautiful job on this home.

Here’s the view from the dream house:

I’m off to get some pancakes from this joint (their burger was named Best in Maine by The Food Network):

This past Labor Day I proposed the question to my significant other, “Signifcant other, what would you like to do this holiday weekend?” His answer: “Complete our bathroom makeover.” So we did. ***disclaimer: we like the color white.

Our bathroom had been quite a sore sight…pea green walls, a sink that was cracked and looked a bit like a urinal, a tub with chipped paint, no storage…overall blahness. The ultimate low was storing our bathroom goodies in tupperware containers or plastic bags on the floor under the sink.

So, starting with the sink area we redesigned the space to provide maximum storage within a small corner of the room. The walls were painted white, a new towel hanger was installed and the tub was painted black (this part was done some time ago).

Finally, all of our orphaned toiletries have a home and I can brush my teeth with a peaceful state of mind.

These shots show some scrumptious color. I never really thought a yummy snack could inspire a room, but now I realize I was wrong (from flickr member leinestein):

I am loving these green mums from flickr member emma lamb:

Loving these cheerful paper lanterns from the fabulous ninainvorm:

A blue door and a party from veronikanika:

Last week I was feeling uninspired and started the week off with some favorite works by Paul Klee. It seemed like a very good way to start off the worst day of the week, so today I’m going to treat you to some inspiration compliments of Raoul Dufy. Speaking of, did anyone manage to make it to the exhibition in Mississippi this summer? Does anyone know if that the end of the tour? I can’t seem to find any additional cities after Jackson. I kept thinking I’d make it, but sadly I never did.

Taormina

Casino at Nice

Red Concert

Harbor at Deauville

Blue Mozart

The Orchestra. I like to compare this to his sketch below. It reminds me just how much I stink at line drawing when I see how masterful his is:

I found all of these in a little book from The Pocket Library of Great Art. It cost me $2.50, a whopping 2.5 times the original cost, which was 95 cents in 1953. What a little used bookstore treasure!

Do you ever get in the design doldrums? Clearly you are a blog browser – do you ever get style ennui? Sometimes I feel very overloaded with so much information that I fail to see freshness because my brain is short circuiting. How do you get the juices flowing again?

One thing I do is climb up and take down one of my many art and design books (I’m a bit of a book hoarder and I’m starting to get a little scared for myself after watching this crazy show called Hoarders on A&E the other night (by the way, this show is really good at inspiring you to clean out the attic, the basement, the fridge, and any other place clutter can gather!). Last week it was this charming little book on Paul Klee that I picked up at my favorite used bookstore on the planet for two bucks. Not only was he a master of form and composition, but Paul Klee mastered color baby! Next time you are in the design doldrums, I highly recommend going to the library and checking out a monograph. For now, I’ll show you a few that jump-started my creative engine:

The next time that I fear picking out FLOR tiles is overwhelming, I’m just going to grab some that make this pattern:

Or this pattern:

This color palette is very Don Draper’s office:

Hmm, in a room this combo might come out looking a little 1980’s Miami, but it could still be great in a nursery or used with the just the right amount of each hue:

Seriously, if you are a clutterbug and you want to be scared straight, check out Hoarders over here.

The last post has me jonesing for more turquoise bits. Here’s one from flickr member veronikanika:

P.S. Veronikalaka just won a Livingetc. contest. Check it out here.

This aqua sheep comes to us compliments of flickr member herzenart:

Here is yet another shot from flickr member lyckeliv:

and a newly repainted shelf by flickr member atelierpompadour:

Through our Fresh New Spaces Group today I found flickr member Liz and Mabel’s steal of a mid-century sleeper sofa, found on craigslist for $65:

By the way, love the outfit, the pooch, and that aqua mini-gourd lamp too!

I absolutely love this lady’s smashing style! After perusing the Liz and Mabel flickr sets I found Mabel’s House blog, and I am absolutely smitten with her trips, photography, entertaining and fresh writing. Also, this woman has got a real eye for transforming forgotten furniture pieces with colorful paint. For example, I love this big blue mirror project:

I love the pops of turquoise all over this home. Here’s one more, check out the rest here:

Here are some of my favorite blue rooms:

This one comes from flickr member peachheights:

This relaxing bedroom comes from supershoppertoo’s photostream:

I love how purplepleasuredesigns has transformed this IKEA dresser with blue:

If you are scared of bright colors, experiment in a closet or a laundryroom like peacock-feather did here:

Love the shade that .YOKOO picked for this workspace: