INSPIRATION

cowhide sculpture

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Sometimes, meat really, really disgusts me. Not just how it is handled and processed, nor the industry that enables us to eat it (I have yet to read Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight), but the pure carnality of it is sometimes shocking.

Cowhide on the other hand, is fascinating. I know it isn't really like using all the parts of an animal, but I like to think that by utilizing already existing cowhide you are being somewhat sustainable. If I ever got over my inability to look at raw meat for long periods of time, I would be interested in raising a calf and then, when the time comes, use every part of its body like my mom's family did when she was little (though, it did kind of scar her for life. I, instead had goats growing up and we never had to eat them). For now, I'll stick with eating eggs from my parent's chickens, and maybe finding a use for their fallen feathers.

South African sculptor Nandipha Mntambo also has a fascination for cowhide, creating ghastly yet beautiful fashion-forward sculptures out of them. Read more about her work in this article on Art Practical and hear her speak at this SFAI Visiting Artist Lecture event on Wednesday, November 6th.

Etxe San Francisco Mini Wallet

And if you are into a more traditional use of cowhide -- check out my handcrafted mini wallet in our online shop.

October Oasis

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OctoberOasisEtxePoolside Fall is the one season I can recognize in San Francisco. With our late summers, microclimates, and neighboring cities, we get the best weather during this time of year. I'm excited to pull out sweaters that I might actually get to wear all day, instead of the layers I usually have to deploy, and still bask in the sun! From Napa to Dolores park, I spent the weekend happy and super thankful to be here for another autumn.

Things that make me feel like another year has passed:

-it's cold enough in the mission to wear a sweater inside during the day -people are dressing up up for decompression -everyone is talking about trending Halloween costumes -sugar skulls are everywhere -the Phonebooth is decorated -seeing the pumpkin patch on the way to Napa -packing multiple swimsuits for a weekend North -spotting stranded bunches of grapes on the vine -the air is a bit more crisp -squash is served on pizza -no more Giants games [gallery ids="1496,1491,1487,1485,1497,1490,1488,1492,1486,1493,1494,1489"]

 

And the color of the year is...

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One day, a long time ago, my little sister was painting her room. She picked out the colors herself and spent all day working. I would go in periodically to check, but she wouldn't let me look. Finally, when she was finished, she pulled me in to see her masterpiece.

I scanned the walls and told her she did a great job. But then, I noticed some blue on the cherry railing. In fact, the whole cherry railing was the color of the tape blue. I said, maybe you should take off the painter's tape? And her face just melted. There was no painter's tape, she just picked paint that was the exact shade of painter's tape.

I laughed so hard that eventually she turned from embarrassed to mad and kicked me out of her room. I still feel bad about that, but she did later admit the shade was awfully close. Which is how I feel about Pantone's 'dazzling blue' (18-3949), one of the proposed colors of Spring 2014. A bit like painter's tape, don't ya think? I love it in these pieces nonetheless. You never know what gets stuck in your memory.