I recently spent three weeks in New Zealand driving on the “wrong” side of the road. Needless to say, it was sometimes a challenge, especially in cities like Wellington and Auckland. As the map above shows, in most countries, people drive on the right side of the road (red=right side; blue=left side). Have you ever driven on the opposite side of the road that is normal for you? How stressful was it?
In the holiday spirit, here’s the pop-up book Chanukah Lights, published by Candlewick Press in 2011, with a text by Michael J. Rosen, illustration and paper engineering by Robert Sabuda, and additional design work by Simon Arizpe and Shelby Arnold, explores the eight day Jewish “festival of lights”.
The book presents “eights scenes that, like the flame of the shamash candle, illuminate places and times where Jews have celebrated” the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of the lamp therein: the Temple in Jerusalem; a desert encampment; the hold of a refugee ship; Jewish settlements around the world; a shtetl in the shadow of imperial Russia; an early 20th-century American tenement; an Israeli kibbutz; “and a spectacular final scene in which city skyscrapers become menorahs that call upon the stars to be their flames. In each window into history, the Hanukah lights reflect freedom’s promise, hope rekindled amid oppression, and the unflagging faith mirrored in the eyes of all who gather for this Festival of Lights.”
written & illustrated by Maryline Poole Adams
This little small press book explores many traditional aspects of Midwinter holiday festivals, including the mysteries of mistletoe. It looks at various stories, legends and traditions from around the world, and is illustrated with two color hand cut linoleum block prints. I bet that did you know that mistletoe is actually a parasite that grows primarily on oak trees.
“Mistletoe was printed letterpress with 6 pt. Deepdene type, and linoleum blocks, on dampened paper handmade at Barcham Green. Design, printing, binding, linoleum blocks, and marbling hand done by M.P. Adams.“ –Colophon
h/t University of Iowa Library
Beijing-based graphics studio 39 degrees north created this animated version of author Neil Gaiman’s dark Christmas poem Nicholas Was. I never was that into the holiday any way. Ho.Ho.Ho.
This unique take on the Little Free Library project is outside the PCC Natural Market, West Seattle
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is one of my favorite go to places in the city. In fact, I’ve been visiting the Met since before I could walk. The museum’s grand entrance hall never fails to awe. This month, the space has been enhanced by an extraordinary addition of a pair of large murals by the Canadian First Nations artist Kent Monkman.
Monkman’s twin paintings, Mistikôsiwak , uses images, motifs, and techniques from art history to explore the experiences and histories of North America’s Indigenous people. The murals subvert typical Eurocentric narratives of history, while confronting contemporary cultural and political issues.
The paintings’ title derives from a Cree word meaning “wooden boat people” that was originally applied to Europeans who colonized North America. Each of the related murals features the large figure of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Monkman’s shape-shifting, time-traveling alter ego, who pays tribute to the tradition in Indigenous cultures of the “Two Spirit,” a third gender and non-binary sexuality. Miss Chief, whose name plays on the words mischief and egotistical, also refers to the Cree trickster figure, who challenges conventional beliefs and wisdom in traditional stories.
The paintings will be on display at the Met until April 2020.
On November 30th, the legendary author George R.R. Martin officially launched his own bricks and mortar bookshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Beastly Books—named for Beauty and the Beast—is located nextdoor to the cinema that Martin purchased and rehabilitated in 2013. A major motivation for the project was to create a space for readings, book launches, and signings.
This captivating 11-minute film by Michelle and Uri Kranot is a mysterious, melancholy animation in which a diverse group of people slowly gather in a snow-laden field in Denmark. Nothing really happens in Nothing Happens and that’s kind of refreshing.
Travel Between The Pages 