Web tour: Boston Sunday Globe: First impressions

Yin Yu Tang at the Peabody Essex Museum, a destination cited by Smee

It’s Tuesday, and as usual I’m still sampling the Sunday paper. Over breakfast I read Sebastian Smee’s “In praise of first impressions” about the rewards of an open mind when viewing art. He suggests we approach art as a discovery, in much the same spirit as the art was produced. Smee writes, “It’s easy to forget…that artists – at least the best ones – create things not because they know stuff and want to tell us about it, but precisely because they don’t know stuff, and want to explore that state of not knowing, to feel it out, to prod it, isolate it, and reconnect it with other kinds of experience.” Touché.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Web tour: Boston Sunday Globe: 1% pro bono

The Globe touts the 1% pro bono campaign conceived by Public Architecture, a nonprofit design firm founded by John Peterson in San Francisco. The campaign has created a network of architects and designers who commit one percent of their hours to pro bono projects. According to the Globe story, Brandy Brooks the executive director of Community Design Resource Center of Boston, a non-profit partner with Public Architecture, said “I think there’s a lot of confusion about what architects do… People don’t recognize that they have a right to well-designed buildings and spaces. That this isn’t just an artistic service. It’s essential.” A worthy attitude for a worthy cause.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Web tour: NYT: Edward Hopper

With this post I’m starting a new Web tour category where I’ll link to intriguing web finds about house, garden, and related creative arts in New England (and beyond). Today’s New York Times has a fun interactive feature about Hopper’s Cape Cod then and now, comparing his 1930’s paintings with photos of the same locales today. My photo above, of a Provincetown classic, may not have been one of Hopper’s subjects, but it reminds me of his Cape Cod.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast