Friday Art - Personalized DNA Art ~

Okay so if you are as big of a fan of Candice Olson, you have seen this very personalized artwork. DNA 11 will apply genetic science to canvas to create the most personalized piece of art.



They offer DNA Art, Fingerprint Portraits and Kiss Portraits. FingerPrint Portrait DNA Mini Portrait DNA Portrait Kiss Portrait

In addition to your own DNA, they also create DNA Pet Portraits to celebrate your furry eared friend or virtually any type of mammal. And if you pet has passed on, if you have any remaining hair clippings, you are in luck.



Portraits are a bit pricey, they start around $300 - but this is definitely not your run-of-the-mill art and something truly unique to you (or your pet)!

Friday Art (well, sort of) - Anthropologie ~

So I don't know about you, but I love crusin' through Anthropologie. First of all the store is merchandised beautifully - always great ideas. And I love their home collections...rustic and a bit funky. Here are a few items that I thought were fabulous - Penny Candy Jar $98.00

Standing Magnifying Glasses $48.00-$128.00 Gladiator Bird, Finch with Key $298.00 (I think this one would be fun to create!)

The Monarch's Salt Cellar $28.00

Bell Jar Terrarium $78.00

All Sorts Dishtowel, Spoon $16.00

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Well we are still lounging around enjoying our relaxed state of vacation and hoping Monday arrives slowly when we have to hop on a plane and head home. I hope you have a great weekend!

Friday Art - Hooked on Subway Signs

Images from subwaysigns.com

I love subway signs. They add a graphic punch it any space. After searching around I found the expensive to inexpensive. You can purchase the original pieces (I would love one of these) or prints. Here are a few...

Jayson Home & Garden $2250.00

Restoration Hardware $795.00 each

Walmart $32.00


Amazon $29.95

I linked this post up to the last Hooked on Fridays over at Hooked on Houses. This is always such a fun linky party - always full of great ideas.

Friday Art - Horchow...

Here are a few great pieces Horchow is carrying right now. I just love this site, everything is always so rich and yummy. It is great eye-candy...especially when you are looking to be inspired! I love the wood panels and the giant hooks on top
(top is $1090.00 and bottom is $1195.00) and these just feel clean and elegant.
($650 each)

Now their art is amazing, but as you can see a bit pricey. Take these tapestries for instance,



Now I know they are beautiful and the later one is on hand-stitched leather - they are also $900 for the top and $600 for the other. Now compared to this that my Mom and I created: This cost us around $70 (excluding the rod and tassels - although they came from Tuesday Mornings) AND the stencil was $40 of the $70.
Yes it is on canvas (and I will admit there is a little bit of glue involved - no hand-stitching here), but from a distance...

And these lovely balloons are super fabulous at $199...

But these babies in our playroom I purchased at Ross awhile back and I think they were like $16.99 for the set!

So it does go to show that great art, doesn't have to be expensive and you can create it yourself! But I do want to make sure I am not taking away any of the beauty of Horchow, because I do really enjoy crusin' those fabulous pages. Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration!

Friday Art - A Little Change...

So I have decided to change up Friday Art a little bit. As much as I love to simply show off great works of art, I think showing off art that you can actually purchase for you home will be a little more useful.

So this week I am going to highlight a site that Janell from Isabella & Max Rooms showed us earlier this week. It is Better Wall. This site sells authentic street banners from museums around the world. And if that is not cool enough, a percentage of the proceeds goes back to the museum!

I think these are such great way to add a little character to a room.

Friday Art - Japanese Mandala...

14th-15th C., Hanging scroll, color on silk
138.5 x 122.2

Today I thought we would travel to a different time period. This is one of two mandalas that make up Ryokai Mandala or Two World Mandala. This one is the Taizokai Mandala or Womb World Mandala. The mandala is a graphic depiction of the spiritual universe and its myraid realms and deities. Much later the mandala was adopted as a powerful aid to meditation and concentration. It is believed that the oldest color mandala was brought to Japan in 859 AD.

In the Mandala artform five elements are considered inanimate - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. Only by adding the sixth element -- mind, perception, or spiritual consciousness -- do the five become animate. Phrased differently, there is “unity” only when the sixth element is added. Without the sixth element, ordinary eyes see only the differentiated forms or appearances.

image and description from here.

Friday Art, After the Bath

Edgar Degas - After the Bath, Woman Drying her Neck - 1898

I really enjoy the work of Edgar Degas. He was French artist most commonly identified as an Impressionist, although he preferred to be called a Realist. He is most popular for his earlier paintings depicting dancers and/or ballerinas preparing backstage or in the practice hall. Later in his career, he painted women showing off the simple naturalism of bathing. Like this painting above, the images were freely painted with simplistic backgrounds. I have a drawing (print) similar to the one above in our master bathroom and I love looking at it each morning. It is always so relaxing to me. It reminds me to live in the now and find beauty in the simple moments.

Friday Art: The School of Athens...

(this is a photo we took on our trip to Italy in 04!)

This is my husband's favorite! It is huge...it is an entire wall in the Vatican. Each wall in this room has a different theme of Knowledge. This wall is "philosophy" and all of the major philosophers of the time are depicted in this painting. The two figures in the center are Plato and Aristotle. There are another 19 philosophers portrayed, although the exact identities are controversial among most scholars.

The School of Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous paintings by the Italian Renissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza Della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated, and The School of Athens the second painting to be finished there, after La Disputa, on the opposite wall. The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the High Renaissance."

top photo and bottom description come from here