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News for February 2012
Happy colorful art that influenced me as a child
While we’re having a record warm February in Seattle with a perfectly blue sky and more sunshine than I would have dared hoping for this time of year, Europe is experiencing record cold temperatures right now. But with that comes one of my favorite changes in my hometown Basel, Switzerland. The Tiguely fountain is once again iced over and transformed into a magical winter wonderland.
The photo below is from the Basler Zeitung. Isn’t this gorgeous? For those of you not familiar with this fountain on a non icy day, you can check out this video on YouTube.
As a child, my parents and grand parents often took me to this fountain, designed by Jean Tinguely, an artist from my hometown. I still remember how mesmerized I was with this fountain and it’s may kinetic details. Years later I learned that Jean Tinguely teamed up with Niki de Saint Phalle on several projects, including this gorgeous fountain outside Centre Pompidou in Paris.
I have always been and still am in awe with Tinguely and Sain Phalle’s use of happy bright colors and their ability to make art while clearly having fun with it. Below are a few of their pieces, to highlight some of their work and hopefully put a smile on your face. Enjoy!
Tinguely:
Saint Phalle:
ShareThisFeatured Artist: Isabelle Kunz
This post is way overdue. I just cleaned up my image folders and came across these picture. It needs a little explanation up front to put things into context.
When I was in Kindergarden, I had a sweetheart, his name was Daniel. Fast forward 35 years, he contacts me through facebook. He still lives in Switzerland, is now an architect, married to an architect with two children. I was happy to hear from him after all that time and thought it was fun to tell him that I, too am now married to an architect. Well, this is where the story gets interesting. I am telling him that I am a UX designer but spend a significant amount of my non work time, doing surface design and send him a link to my NadjaDesign.com website. It turns out that his wife, Isabelle, is also a surface designer on the side, so he gets me in touch with her.
This is where Isa and I become virtual friends. She in Switzerland, me in Seattle. She sends me resources on how to get our own fabric printed in small quantities (Spoonflower), webgo in together on getting breadboards printed to split the cost and just keep encouraging each other to move forward with our passion for surface design. All that happened in 2008/2009. In 2010 I am finally visiting Switzerland again and of course we meet. My husband and Daniel hit it off immediately, taking a day trip to Daniel’s construction site while geeking out over Architecture. And I feel like I’ve known Isa for years. We have so much in common with our passion for 2D patterns, color and form, architects, growing up in Switzerland… oh and did I mention that both of our dads were eye doctors! Crazy…!
I am a huge fan of Isa’s work, it’s just so heartwarming. Looking at her designs makes me happy!
You can check out her designs on her website: http://troismiettes.com
And her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TroisMiettes
Below is a picture of her beautiful work space that she put together in her house in Bern, Switzerland. It’s just so perfectly adorable, I want to move in!
And a picture of the two of us last August in her Kitchen (Isa on the right). She is as beautiful as her work.
Isa gave me a few of her new tea towels (literally fresh off the press) as a gift. I put them in my kitchen as art… my husband is not allowed to use them for hands or dishes! He’s okay with that, as long as I do the dishes. 
A Mexican love story
Last week, two of my favorite people got married. To celebrate their union, they invited friends and family to spend a week with them in paradise (aka Tulum, Mexico). It was a perfect week with lots of sunshine, beautiful weather, good friends and very much love!
Below are a few sketches that I drew on the beach. Happy life together Angela and Hernan!
