art

Thibaut Rassat

A former blogger that I loved (and still do) posted a link to … oh, heck, I don’t even remember the original link. It was a link to something regarding Paris which sent me down an amazing rabbit hole for a good hour or two. I am not particularly obsessed with Paris – je n’apprendes pas le français parce que je veux voyager à Paris ou en France. J’apprendes le français parce que c’est une langue très importante. Beaucoup d’Arabes parlent français et it’s an official language of the UN and thanks to the dark history of colonialism, it is spoken in many countries. However, it doesn’t hurt to be learning a language of a country which has some of my favorite things… le fromage (well, all dairy products, really), chocolate, coffee, and my love of pastries is legendary around here.

I am also currently hard at work on my senior thesis / capstone project for my studies at UW which has to do with the idea of the flâneur defined by privilege. The flâneur is a French word and “originated” in France (thank you, Baudelaire) so I also enjoy finding things related to urban spaces in Europe (my project is also focused on European urban spaces and American fetishization going to Europe to “flâner”).

So during my fall down the urban French rabbit hole this afternoon, I came across the Instagram and websites of Thibau Rassat. I’m sharing here because it’s worth sharing and I’m going to start posting all the cool things I find HERE, on my usual website, that I can’t work into my thesis project. I absolutely love his work and it’s further inspiring me to pick up some sketching classes again once I’m done at UW.

Trouvez le croquis ! Coincé en haut sur la barrière de l’escalier rue Villiers de l’Isle Adam #cachetoncroquis n.35 #75020 #Paris #urbansketchers #uskparis

A post shared by L’oeil du pigeon (@loeildupigeon) on Nov 28, 2017 at 1:39am PST

wandering Firenze

Lots of fun urban art and graffiti to be found, and there were quite a few repeated themes or pieces. This balloon, for example, with the word “last”.

I’m not going to lie – I think it’s a damn shame to go on these group tours rather than explore yourself, but a group tour on segways just cracks me up. With bright orange safety vests, no less!

Door of the Santa Maria del Fiore (aka “Florence Cathedral”) of Brunelleschi’s Duomo fame, which I have wanted to see for twenty years!

Santa Maria del Fiore (aka “Florence Cathedral”) of Brunelleschi’s Duomo fame, which I have wanted to see for twenty years!

You know you’re in Europe when you see Zara! (Not a fan, just find it amusing.)

I always love all the small (and brightly colored!) cars I see on my trips abroad.

Konnichiwa, Seattle!

Husband and I like to occasionally take an afternoon to romp around downtown Seattle – we really enjoy this city and our “favorite neighborhood” is constantly changing as we discover new things. Most recently, we (re)discovered Pioneer Square – particularly a couple of shops down there that I love. So when he said we were going to check out an exhibit at SAM (Seattle Art Museum), I asked to go to Elm Coffee Roasters first. It’s a new coffee shop & roaster that I love, but rarely have the opportunity to get to. (Their coffee is delicious, the location is cool, and the space is gorgeous.) (Also, I already got my coffee fix at Elm this time, but if not Elm then I would definitely get a latte at Caffe Umbria.)

This time, I got a cortado. So damn good.

Then we took a quick stroll around the ‘hood to pop into a couple other places we love. London Plane is a restaurant/flower shop that’s also new and we checked out a couple months ago. I could sit in their space all day, it’s lovely. Dry Goods design sells the most amazing fabrics and sewing notions, I cannot NOT take a quick peek in whenever I’m nearby. And I can’t ever leave empty handed. Same with London Plane, although we didn’t stop in for lunch or even take home any flowers. But WE grab a couple of cookies (my son is fascinated with their rose scented meringue cookies.)

And then we walked around for a few because Pioneer Square is a full of great sights. We stumbled upon something we’d never seen before and had no knowledge of – Seattle is the birthplace of the UPS? Huh.

Then we headed over to SAM downtown to see what there was to see. Sidenote: I first went to SAM a few years ago when my son was 2 years old. I took him with me to see the temporary Gauguin exhibit – we’d been reading to him from the “little artists” book series we had for him and Gauguin was one of them. The masks scared him a little bit but man, did he love all the cars hanging in the museum lobby! (see below – obviously unrelated to the Gauguin exhibit and still in the lobby years later.) Husband was really excited to discover the current exhibit of Pacific Northwest Native American tribes, particularly the Haida. He loves their artwork and totems (he’s got a Haida totem tattoo on his back that he adds to every few years as well as a Haida sun on his shoulder.)

And then… AND THEN we headed off to Volunteer Park and the Asian Museum (part of SAM) to see the Anime/Japanese Neo-Pop exhibit I’d been wanting to see. So fun!!