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Charc attack at Barvolo in Toronto. This is the way to do charcuterie. 

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Zara Checked Shirt With Contrasting Collar ❤ liked on Polyvore (see more red checked shirts)

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Whether you're looking to up your fall fashion game or just cover up your first "No 'Poo" attempt (like I am), a baseball cap can be your new best friend this season. These are a few of my current favourites - stay tuned this week for a DIY custom baseball cap project! 

Play Ball by lalalalaurav 

J.Crew hat / imogene + willie - Plus Cap / The Coco / Wax and Cruz / Fairends — Black Polka Corduroy Ball Cap

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This is my other blog. I post other stuff there.

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― Thornton Wilder, Our Town

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If anyone knows where to find this... -lv 

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Review: Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010

The sculptural works of Louise Bourgeois are heralded even before the visitor walks through the doors of the National Gallery of Canada. “Maman” (2004), previously unbeknownst to myself, gave me some initial insight as to what to expect from the exhibit.

            Compared with her contemporaries in the 1940s and 1950s, Louise Bourgeois’ inventive and disturbing sculptural pieces strike a different chord. Unfocused on extreme revolutions in the realm of art, as was the tendency of artists such as Jackson Pollock, the NGC’s Bourgeois exhibit almost evokes a more primitive state of art. Pieces such as “Paddle Woman”(1947) and “Breasted Woman”(1949) are stretched upwards with almost Paleolithic facial features and indentations, bringing to mind also the totem poles of Western North American indigenous tribes. Indeed, Bourgeois’ inspiration for her sculpted “Personages” falls along the same lines as the art of these ancients, as many of the sculptures in the exhibit were created in memory of her lost loved ones. Pulling from the idea of “the ghosts of one’s past” Bourgeois lives out the exhibition’s selected quotation, that “You cannot arrest the present. You just have to abandon everyday your past. And accept it. And if you can’t accept it, you have to do sculpture. If your need is to refuse to abandon the past, then you have to re-create it” (Louise Bourgeois).

            While some semblance can be drawn between Bourgeois’ “Personages” and the art of peoples long-since passed away, the exhibit as a whole can also be compared with images of a social gathering in any time period. Rather than dead or mourning, the Personages in any different configuration might appear to be in lively discussion, or even frozen in fear or time. In terms of perception, positioning means everything to this exhibit. The artist’s chosen manner of configuration is haunting from any angle, as the spirits and memories behind each work drive a sense of verisimilitude initially not registered.Whether up-close with each individual Personage  or experiencing the grouping as a whole, the figures are seen as representations of a different time in the artist’s life, separate from one another as well as their creator.

            Though the structure, shape and placement of figures in “Echoes” call to mind these aspects of “Personages”, the comparisons end here. Seeming to “Echo” the artist herself rather than anyone in her past, this grouping seems to examine Bourgeois’ own experiences, rather than contemplating the effects she may or may not have exerted over others. It is interesting to note the time difference between these two groupings – 60 years have passed since “Personages” – perhaps these worries and discontents have passed through the introduction of new memories and experiences. The arrangement is more uniform at this time, as well. Arranged in two parallel crescents, the sculptures themselves seem to serve as a pathway through the installation, guiding the viewer through the artist’s experiences.

            Perhaps the strongest sense of memory and humanism in the installation can be connected to #6 in the grouping, “Portrait of C.Y.”(1947-1949). At first glance, it could be a discarded piece of scrap lumber, propped in the mud of a construction site. “Portrait of C.Y.” stands out not only in terms of material and geometric design, but in the effect of the piece in the context of the installation. It is one of the majority of pieces that is painted white, but the only one in which a section of the wood has been removed, calling to mind a gaping mouth set above a heart stuck with nails. Overall, the colouring and texture of the piece varies from top to bottom, reminding the observer that this is a “Personage” and that none is perfect, nor can two be the same. Bourgeois uses a cluster of nails in the middle section of the wood to drive home her focus on memory – each nail seems driven into the heart of this Personage, as it stands alone in the back of the room. Having removed any obvious personalizing characteristics, “Portrait of C.Y.” could, to the viewer, be compared to any person left behind and tormented by personal insults directed, like nails, into the heart.

            Through her use of such unassuming shapes and materials, Bourgeois’ “Personages” are able to speak a host of universal truths about the themes of abandoning one’s past which the artist suggests in her explanations. Considered both individually and as a group, the artist shows through haunting placement and shadowing, her sorrow and respect for those she left behind. As the foundations of building, wood and nails are understandable in terms of other functions, so our pasts are the building blocks to who we have become.

-lv

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Grease - Summer Nights

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Nena - 99 Luftballons

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What Would Santa Do?

Laura Voskamp, one of Muse Magazine’s incredibly talented fashion contributors, made a great list of holiday buys for Muse Magazine -  we think it’s pretty cool. Check them out on her blog: 

http://lalalalaurav.tumblr.com/post/14638807789/what-would-santa-do-musemagazine-feature

Happy Holidays from the Muse Family!

YOURS CREATIVELY, 

Gabi Eliasoph, Fashion Editor 

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Dear Santa 2011 – Wish List #2

Make your wish list work double-time this year with Opening Ceremony’s Red Cross Japan tee. Not only is it 100% wearable, but 100% of the profits benefit the American Red Cross.  We feel like wearing this t-shirt might even help you make the early cut of the good-list for next year. 

(Written by Laura Voskamp for MuseMagazine at Queen's)