I have searched the forum and can't find a post about this. I thought it would be interesting to have folks post images of their favorite thing. Not things the've seen on line, or things they'd like to have, but their favorite thing they currently own. The object that makes them the most happy, that gives them great joy. Either their most comfortable chair, their favorite piece of pottery or glass, an artwork, car or appliance. Any art or design- related object that enriches their life the most.
I'll start. Mine is constantly changing, and I'd be hard pressed to pick just one piece from our collection of furniture, but we got this sculpture back in April, and I absolutely love having it in our house. It's by a sculptor named Charles Farkas and is made of bronze. A dealer I was friends with in Michigan had it in his home and I'd told him if he ever decided to sell it to please let me know. He passed unexpectedly a couple of years ago. This spring I got a call from his widow. Apparently he had made a note to himself that I'd expressed great interest in the sculpture. She was kind enough to offer me first chance to buy it. I'm thrilled to now be the custodian of this wonderful piece and having it in our home gives me great pleasure every day.
I'd love to see your favorite thing. Care to share?
great story
and thanks for sharing.
Wonderful sculpture. And the story behind it is priceless.
Much more meaning than my recent purchase of some stacking stools.
It was a charity auction so the cause was worthwhile but i have no feeling for
them really.
I would much rather continue to remain minimal and wait for such a gem.
I do have some great art from friends over the years...
I like
your sculpture. And I think this is a great topic.
I'll contribute, and possibly corrupt the idea by posting something I made myself. But, other than a peculiar leafed branch that I treasure, this paper lantern is probably the thing I most enjoy staring at, in my living room. I made it almost twenty years ago, and never seem to tire of it. It was made of kraft paper, a brown paper bag, and white paper. The particle-board plinth came first.
The intention was to make this lantern out of sheet copper and glass. I've not done that yet.
As you can
see, the 15-watt refrigerator bulb, lighted 24 hours a day, has slowly deteriorated the once-small vent hole at the apex. And a recent accident, by a drug-crazed neighbor, has finally damaged the piece more severely. It will have to be re-made. But that was probably inevitable -- and I never liked the inked "louvers" at the bottom, added impulsively when I thought at first that the bottom "glass" was too tall.
What I like most is the unintentional irregularity of the spacing and the shape of the main elements. They slowly sagged and curled, making the whole thing more like a rough sketch than a finished prototype.
A few years ago I made more perfect parts, of MDF and heavy paper. This is how that came out (placed on the same plinth). Actually, I prefer the paper model.
If I
were a potter I think I'd try to make the brown paper parts of fired clay, with the same sags and curls as the original, and perhaps a translucent porcelain "glass" ? Then it could even be placed outdoors, where it probably belongs.
For what it's worth, here's that wind-blown and dried little branch. I found it like this in a gutter. A lovely dark ochre, with a few berries of some sort on it. I don't know what it is.
20 years! Then again I've...
20 years! Then again I've been working on upholstering a piece of bent plywood for about 4 years. I take long breaks from it, when it gets tiresome, which it does quickly.
My favourite thing at the moment is obviously my lathe. . But my default favourite thing is a Hans Olsen super long feather filled sofa which I've sat in about 6 times at my sisters house because I don't have space for it. I think she thinks I'll let her have it one day. Snowballs!
Great reply SDR
And a very cool lamp. I also understand your affection for the branch. I have a long-dead dried bonsai tree that keep to this day. I don't care who made the thing you most enjoy, or what it is. It can be ANYTHING. From art to industrial design. Perhaps an electric toothbrush or coffee maker, maybe that long sought after Bertoia bench, a found photograph that you find haunting and mysterious, or that once-in-a-lifetime find that excites you even today. Whatever it is, let's see it.
I'm afraid
I'm afraid my one thing is also self made. In school we had to reproduce a painting by an artist we admired. I choose James Ensor, and the (original) painting is below. My copy has always stuck with me in places of prominence as a reminder to get off my ass and get some work done.
The painting depicts three skeletons representing the arts (painting, music, & architecture) huddled around a cold stove, whilst a 4th and 5th skeleton look on. The script on the stove reads "there is no fire today, perhaps there will be some tomorrow".
The skeleton poking his head in from the left is thought to be Ensor himself, a character who futilely pursued his art, receiving little recognition until late in his career. His paintings reflected what he saw as the ugliness and cruelty rampant in humanity: skeletons fighting over scraps of meat; a miniscule Christ amidst hoardes of zealots, prophets and politicians (oddly appropriate these days); and crowds of people around empty dining tables.
I keep my copy because it reminds me that life is not futile, and that good can be found despite the cruelty and chaos.
Another homemade reproduction
Several years ago, while on an Op-Art kick and in possession of an empty 3' square frame, I decided to recreate a Yaacov Agam "kinetic" painting, similar to one I'd seen in a book. Because the design is painted on a zig-zaggy surface the image seems to change, depending on the angle from which it's viewed.
Charles Farkas' sculpture
Are you the original owner of this sculpture? Mr. Farkas is selling two of his sculptures from about 1968 from his studio that he is closing in NY and his family wanted to know if you are interested in them?
They are both bronze. Please let me know, I am a friend of the family. I will then send you photos.
Barbara
How to choose?
I have so many favorite things, but ok, I'll pick just one for now. It's a framed original comic strip by my oldest brother. It was published in Art Police comics long ago. I love my brother's work. He started drawing before he would read or write and hasn't stopped. I think he's wonderful.
I also love it against the orange wall. It's hung in a hallway so that you can get up close and read it and appreciate the little details.
(the third photo is a closeup of another strip of his)
The cable cars of San Francisco...
They are absolutely the most perfect fit of transit to place ever conceived of anywhere, any time. Everytime I ride one, and I try to ride one every chance I get, I feel more human, more alive, more grateful to be alive, than I did before I rode. That they exist is one of the wonders of the world. That they have been permitted to continue to exist is one of the few bits of incontrovertible evidence of intelligent life on this planet. No one loves buses. No one loves light rail vehicles. No one loves trains, or bullet trains. No one even loves cars for commuting. But almost everyone loves cable cars and so, of course, every engineer, every designer, every city planner, in every city is absolutely determined never to build another cable car system. It is insane really. The people's love of the cable cars of San Francisco is endless and authentic. They appeal to all ages, to all races, to both genders. And yet no designer, no engineer, no city planner will lower him, or herself, to simply build another cable car system an integrate it as the hub system in a constellation of diversified mass transit. Why?! Why won't they ever listen to people? Why must they let their trained minds endlessly close their hearts to people? Why don't they just give the people the things they delight in? Why do they always have to give them something better, something that is different, something that is more uniform, something that everyone will always feel is not as loveable, or as pleasing, as something else?
I would love cable cars in a small town in Nebraska. I would love cable cars in Bangla Desh. I would love cable cars in Patagonia, or Switzerland,or the Gobi fucking desert. I suspect I would, with a space suit, prefer a cable car on the moon to a lunar rover, or a subway, or an LRV. But noooooooooooooooooooo! We have to build sterile light rail lines, or dead subways, or dreaded buses.
"To be where little cable cars
Climb halfway to the stars!"
These little cable cars reveal something deeply flawed about humanity. They reveal that even when we know how to give people what they like, some dark force of human nature prevents us from giving it to them...even when we can, even when it works, even when we ought to.
The sign of the next great enlightenment will be when society stops force feeding technologies down peoples' throats, when there are other technologies they would gladly swallow without being forced.
Does it matter why people love them more than LRVs?
No.
Should they be the only form of mass transit?
Of course not.
Should they be a component of every city's mass transit solution?
You bet your sweet as they should be.
Maybe if every city had a cable car line, they wouldn't have to pull teeth getting people to ride the other forms of mass transit.
Maybe if people had little cable cars that climbed half way to the stars, as an occassional reward for riding mass transit, they would look more positively on voting for migration to mass transit.
Come on, some city planner needs to wake up and smell the expresso on this one.
Great idea for a thread,...
Great idea for a thread, your sculpture looks great Pegboard.
As for picking my fav item, that is nigh on impossible, even more so with my furniture collection - I love everything I own. One item that does give me pleasure though each time I walk upstairs is this 1959 abstract by Julius Goldstein..
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