Juxtaposition -I Heart Paige Russell

RV's and 4 x 4 vessels
I love it when I discover something that feels both new, and familiar. Meet designer Paige Russell, and her funny and beautifully modern ceramic work, as featured on her ETSY store.

Talk about must-have. Her Bad Beaver vase, is on my wish list, and certainly the entire set of 4x4 and RV vessels are too. ( not to mention the paint-by-number backdrop, which perfectly shows off her pieces, and would be a requirement for display. After all, the only problem with this work would be where to actually 'display' them, for they are more art, than object, and they demand vintage wood paneling or paint-by-number, certainly.


Bad Beaver Vase by Paige Russell

A feature animated film on a Mac?

This August, check out Sita Sings the Blues, a remarkable achievement created by one amazing woman, who WIRED magazine calls "A One Woman Pixar". Meet Nina Paley, a woman who not only designed and created a feature animated film, she did it at home, on her Mac. Although animation is not new to Nina, since she is a longtime veteran of syndicated comic strips, creating "Fluff" (Universal Press Syndicate), "The Hots" (King Features), and her own alternative weekly "Nina's Adventures." Things changed in 1998 when she began making independent animated festival films, including the controversial yet popular environmental short, "The Stork."
In 2002 Nina followed her then-husband to Trivandrum, India, where she read her first Ramayana. This inspired her first feature, Sita Sings the Blues, which she animated and produced single-handedly over the course of 5 years on a home computer. Nina teaches at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.

Now, her greatest achievement yet, is winning major awards at film festvals around the world. Sita Sings the Blues is a story about Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."

The art is amazing, stunning even. I can't wait to see it myself for many reasons. The artist in me wants to be inspired by the visuals, the girl in me wants to be moved by the story, and the animation director in me wants a kick in the ass to go make my own film!