Uncategorized – Page 2 – everydaysparks

Sparks in the wild, Sydney sparks, Uncategorized

A puggle named Beau

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Cate

In exciting news for people who love animals, people who love Australia, or people who just love strange looking creatures with funny names, Sydney’s Taronga Zoo have announced that they’re now looking after a 40 day old puggle (that’s zootalk for ‘baby Echidna’ to you and me). Its name is Beau and it was found in a caravan park on the central coast. Presumably not on a surfing holiday, given Beau’s tender age.

Although, Beau might have been relishing an early taste of freedom – in what seems to me like a pretty severe form of grounding, adult female Echidnas generally “stash their young in a burrow from about 50 days old”, according to experts from the Zoo. And they don’t let them out for months. Although, they do home deliver food to their puggles, so that’s a plus.

And while we won’t know whether it’s Mr Beau or Miss Beau for some months yet, we do know that young Beau has a healthy appetite – according to the Zoo, “Beau resembles a mini vacuum cleaner, going back and forth making sure every drop of milk is sucked up – contributing to its ever growing belly”. You go, Beau.

So, there you go. A little story about Beau – from a trailer park on the central coast to a prime harbourside pad in Sydney, without the constraints of gender or hair. Good luck to you, pretty puggle.

You can check out more photos and videos of Beau on the Taronga Zoo website here.

Uncategorized

Hilarious Fingerprint Portraits by Artist Dito Von Tease

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Cate

Here at EverydaySparks, we love finger puppets. And these Italian designed finger folk take it to the next level – just incredible! Especially love the Dalai Lama and Ronald McDonald. Who’s your fave?

DENY DESIGNS

Recognize any of these fingerprints? Well you should thanks to the elusive Italian artist known only as Dito Von Tease.

Dito has embarked on a project called Ditology that features eerily familiar portraits of celebrities on the ordinary human finger. The faces produced on each solo finger range from the well-known public personality (Steve Jobs) and political figure (Che Guevara) to the fictional icon (Mr. T) and religious guru (Dalai Lama). There is no person that is off limits in this lighthearted, comical series. Every “person” in the presented portraits is intricately adorned, costumed, and given an appropriate backdrop.

In addition to the ongoing project’s humorous nature, the artist behind the work adds another level of playfulness through his entirely appropriate chosen name “Dito” that translates as “finger” in Italian, which would also mean that Ditology translates as Fingerology. What’s perhaps most ironic in all of this is…

View original post 26 more words

Uncategorized

Faking It at The Met

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Cate

Love this post on a new exhibition at The Met – as always, What We Like NYC gives a great glimpse into New York life. This collection looks amazing!

what we LIKE NYC

A new photographic exhibit opened at The Met this week with extraordinary examples of manipulated photographs made well before the age of digital technology. We thought changing photographs of models and actors in magazines to look thinner and younger was a relatively new trend, but this exhibition shows that altering photographs has been around as long as the medium itself.

Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before The Age Of Photoshop includes around 200 images taken between the 1840s and 199os. Subjects include art, politics and entertainment with the exhibition divided by section. “Politics and Persuasion” shows photographs manipulated for political gain, “Novelties and Amusements” brings together professional and amateur photographs taken intended to astonish and our favorite,”Pictures and Print” displays images in newspapers, magazines and advertising where the subjects were altered to portray a certain image.

The final section presents photographs by Yves Klein, John Baldessari, Duane Michals, Jerry Uelsmann, and…

View original post 129 more words

Uncategorized

For the Traveller

Posted on September 6, 2012September 5, 2012 by Cate

I’m getting excited about my holiday, counting down to departure day this week. And since I know I’m not the only one travelling, I thought you might like this John O’Donohue poem too – I think it works wherever you’re travelling, near or far. I first came across this particular poem on the fabulous blog of one of my heroes, Sarah Wilson (you can check out Sarah’s blog here) and since this trip of mine is to Ireland, the connection to John O’Donohue fits perfectly. I love it. You can check out more of the late John O’Donohue’s amazing work here. Bon voyage, travellers!

For The Traveller by John O’Donohue

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in,

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening a conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight.

You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence goes with you,
And if you listen
You will hear
What your heart
Would love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing.

Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you towards
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life;
And the urgencies
That deserve to clam you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home, more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

Arty sparks, Home sparks, Uncategorized

Oh deer

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Cate

I’m not sure where you stand on hunting. I don’t mean hunting for bargains at your favourite shop, I mean chk chk boom – there goes a defenceless deer / duck / clay pigeon. Hunting in the British Royal Family or Sarah Palin style. Hunting that sometimes leads to someone stuffing the head of the dead thing and sticking it on an otherwise perfectly nice piece of wood so that you can put it on display in your lounge room or men’s lodge or wherever. I don’t really get it, I must say, and have never understood the appeal. (NB, hunting for goodies at the post-Christmas sales, however, I understand completely.)

So I’m not sure if I should like this collection on etsy as much as I do. Bree in Los Angeles makes plush faux taxidermy figures and mounts them on wood, ready for displaying as a “creature trophy” in your home or office. Or kid’s bedroom, as long as it wouldn’t freak them out. These hand-stitched felt animals look nice and friendly – clearly they did not meet a horrible end like those other poor taxidermied critters. Bree has given her animals names and they seem to have a real personality. Well, as much as a felt head can.

I especially like her “backwards faux taxidermy” pieces. Whether you see it as a funny little bear trying to get back through the wall, or a stinging attack on hunters everywhere, there is a lot to like about this collection. If you have some space on your wall that could do with an animal friend (well, part of an animal friend), you can check out Bree’s etsy shop here.