Image: www.malinkadress.com
Maree and I don't watch TV. We don't even watch many movies on DVD. Instead we blog hunt by night and cram each other's inboxes with extraordinary art, craft, contemporary art, weird poems, eco-activism, recipes, interiors and, yes, clothes we can't afford (yet). I used to be a bit cynical about craft and good taste blogs. I thought they were a symptom of some sort perverted lifestyle saturated neo-Victorian needlework neurosis. Yet my seduction was swift. In a single sweep, tea in hand, I might find a Swedish dress-shop that sells Liberty print dresses (see image from Malinka) or a living room where the blogger has hung paper flowers from her ironing boards like a Japanese conceptual artist. Recently i read an interview with the founder of design*sponge. For the sake of content freshness, she claimed that she no longer searches the web to unearth new talent but art and design colleges. I understand this. But for a reader/artist and non-editor, blog hunting is incredibly illuminating and touching. I love the attention that people (mostly women) pay to their inner lives, to the quiet moments in the day that give solace, and the generous spirit of community that pulses through all the link listing and art praising. Certainly there is a commercial imperative, but the best blogs are not flogging anything, and if there are items for sale they are usually things made at home, made with human hands and heart. Sometimes I am too sleepy/wired/visually saturated to note the blog I am digging and in the morning it's gone, like a disintegrating dream. Always I wonder how the best bloggers find the time. Children are mentioned and often photographed. The woman who writes and collates the excellent artroomplant blog spot is an art teacher and she often features her student's work. How they must love her! I admit that many of the best recent sites were found on her favourite's list and then those sites lead to other blogs and I wind up on a Swedish dress designers site looking at a girl in a shrunken dress standing in a wheat field with white legs. And I just sigh and say YES. Romance is everywhere. Creativity is OUTSIDE mainstream shops, TV and glossy magazines...well outside.
Blogs and websites we adore right now...
www.malinkadress.com
www.girlferment.blogspot.com
www.boboho.blogspot.com
www.mairakalman.com
www.book-by-its-cover.com
www.theartroomplant.blogspot.com
www.littlegentle.blogspot.com
www.larabeeandliza.com
www.pingmag.jp.com
www.udessi.blogspot.com
www.finelittleday.blogspot.com
Here's to the 'nocturnal blog hopper' that lives in all of us! :)
ReplyDeletex Charlotta