And just in time for summer vacation. I will be getting there by way of the Monroe Street Library. How will you make your way to Bordertown? Here's a head start...

Cement Eclipses: Tiny Street Art Sculptures by Isaac Cordal

Both the sculpture themselves and the photos are wonderful. Enjoy!

Literally

Alimation - Annecy Festival 2011 from Alexandre DUBOSC on Vimeo.

A Cosby sweater! (This is a charming project.)

Yarn bombing, knitted graffiti, crafty tagging... Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you've seen it in the wild. This street art has been around for at least a decade (possibly earlier) and is now getting notice in The New York Times. The article is brief, but very interesting and informative.

I found three things to be particularly worthy of note. First was the contrast between the male dominance of traditional graffiti and street art, versus the traditional feminine orientation of the yarn-based work.

Next was the degree of "I'm better than that because I've been in galleries" attitude from one of the knitters profiled:

Olek, whose work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide, considers yarn bombing to be the trite work of amateurs and exhibitionists.

"Lots of people have aunts or grandmas who paint," she said. "Do you want to see that work in the galleries? No. The street is an extension of the gallery. Not everyone's work deserves to be in public."

Deliciously snobby, neh?

Finally (and not entirely surprising) was the fact that was started out as DIY, crafty, underground, etc has been co-opted by a number of Fortune 500 companies for advertising purposes. Certainly not the first time for such a thing.

You do not want to miss this amazing panoramic, high-resolution photographic image of the library at Strahov Monastery in Prague, taken by Jeffrey Martin. It took him five days to shoot. The image is 40 gigapixels, and is composed of 2,947 separate photos, which have been joined together into one incredible, enormous 360-degree panorama.

If you have Javascript active for the site, you can pan around the room, including up and down. You can also zoom in onto small details with startling clarity. The tremendous size means that you can spend quite a while examining things and still not see it all.

Today (ETA: yesterday, at this point), I am taking part in an Edgewood College writing retreat at Painted Forest in Valton, WI. There is no internet here, but my plan is to prep a series of entries, to be posted later.

Our group drove over from Madison a little after 8. The drive through the Driftless Region was absolutely gorgeous. I am in love with the rolling hills and winding roads in this area. The "400" state bike trail runs near here, and I think I may wish to take a ride on it at some point this season.

Painted Forest is kind of a two-part location. The main activity of the retreat is taking place in the Art Studio and Study Center, which was built in 2004. I am tucked away in the sleeping loft, which is cozy and quiet and warm. Perfect!

Painted Forest proper is an old meeting hall for the Modern Woodmen of America from the 1890s. On the outside, it is just a plain, white wooden building. But on the inside, it is covered from floor to ceiling by murals painted by Ernst Hüpeden, a German immigrant who taught himself to paint while wrongfully imprisoned. The murals are weird and wonderful, full of symbolism and scenes of the organizations initiation rituals. My favorite parts were the areas were the murals move from wall to ceiling, with the tops of trees silhouetted against a blue sky, dotted with friendly white clouds.

It is a great location to do some work, without the distraction of the rest of the internet. (Though I was careful to make sure I opened a number of new tabs last night, so that I could make use of the internet in a slightly more static way.)

Brazilian designer Jum Nakao made a collection of gorgeous paper dresses for Fashion Week in Sydney. The dresses were then torn up by the models at the end of the show "as a reminder that fashion is a medium and not an end in itself."

They live on in photos, and are a delight to behold.

8 bits to be precise.

Enjoy!