Please join me in loving the java-themed paintings of Boston-based artist Susan Jane Belton. Her charming works of disposable coffee cups emblazoned with a plethora of logos are deceptively simple. They illustrate the prevalence of branding, the ubiquity of corporate identities--less-than-friendly artistic subjects--and transform them into provocative works of art. Her renderings of piles, stacks and rows of empties not only highlight our mass consumption but our addiction (and yes, guilty as charged) to this universal elixir that's magically both energizing and soothing.
Belton expresses it so eloquently on her artist's statement:
"This work is about what I do while I write letters and think about
all these urgent, global concerns and feel frustrated and powerless.
I drink coffee. I drink a lot of coffee. It's a constant in my life. I drink
it to think. I drink it to comfort. I drink it to celebrate. I drink it to
socialize...I wonder if there is any connection between global issues
and our private, automatic behaviors, like drinking coffee."
These delightful, often mesmerizing, paintings are really a brilliant comment on the modern world. You can see more of Belton's work on her site.
All art © Susan Jane Belton
A few more things to love today:
You know what always breaks my heart wide open? An unlikely animal friendship. Witness that of a female wolf and a male bear captured in the Norwegian wilderness by photographer Lassi Rautianen. Via Bored Panda.
Photo © Lassi Rautianen
I love these never-before-published photos of Brooklyn Heights and the story behind them. In 1958, a young Truman Capote, shortly after the publication of Breakfast at Tiffany's, was being profiled by Holiday magazine. He took the assigned photographer on a tour of his Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. Only four of Dave Attie's shots were featured in the article.
The rest of the 800(!) photographs were stashed in the back of a closet for decades, only to be unearthed by Attie's son and published in a new book Brooklyn: A Personal Memoir with the Lost Photos of Dave Attie. I feel like this is such a common street photography story, and I'm always fascinated by it. Via Atlas Obscura.
Photos © Dave Attie
And tomorrow night (Thursday, 12/10), photographer Vincent Laforet shows from his new book Air, a series of his gorgeous, nighttime aerial photography at Fahey/Klein, 7-9 p.m.
Photo © Vincent Laforet
That's all for now. I'll be back soon with more to love. xoL
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