Ghost Nest

A Celebration Of Color

Color represents and brings vibrancy to life, something we always want to keep alive in the spaces in which we live.

We love Vincent Van Gogh because he was such a unique individual, and his expression of passion and radiance via color was amazing. He once said in 1888, “Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of colour to express myself more forcefully … To express the love of two lovers by the marriage of two complementary colours … To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a dark background. To express hope by some star. Someone’s passion by the radiance of the setting sun.”

Vincent Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace at Night painted in 1888

To celebrate color and our new Color Knob series, we are running a contest today, like we do almost every Monday. The theme for our themed Monday? COLOR.

A knob from our new Color Series. This Matthew Langille design (image inside of the knob) is just an example. You can design or choose whatever image you want!

Answer our COLOR-themed questions first, and win.

1) What is the most difficult color to mix in paint?

2) What color does not actually exist in the light spectrum?

Tweet us the correct answers first, and we’ll award you a Ghost Nest gift certificate to be use on our website whenever you want!

The New Bboy In Town

Written by Lucca                                                                                                             The New Bboy In Town                                                                                              March 29, 2012

From now on, never say “breakdancing.” This is our interview with Xzist, the bboy. In his own words, “I’m creating something that nobody has done before in a style of dance.”

Bboying, if you didn’t know already, is a form of hip hop dancing, which is popularly known as breaking. It all began in the 1960s at block parties in the Bronx, New York. Bboys and bgirls, an abbreviation for “break boys” and “break girls,” dance to the break part of music.

I remember the first time I met Xzist, whose only name at work and school is David Joe. He carried a brown brief case, wore a patterned unbuttoned shirt, and flaunted a cool confidence as he walked up the stairs to join us on the San Francisco Art Institute’s (SFAI) rooftop. He introduced himself as a b-boy, a hip hop dancer, from Brooklyn who moved here to study performance and visual art. I recall him standing solitary during lunchtime: shades on, soaking up the sun and the newbie art scene. 

Xzist, in a gray tshirt, dancing with his crew:

A couple weeks ago, Xzist and I chatted while sitting on his sunny Mission rooftop. 

L: I was reading your crew’s website, and it says, “It has come to be recognized as the ultimate in ‘One-on-One Battles’, staying clear of the well treaded contests that are ubiquitous among the scene, by bringing together a cast of characters drawing from talent pools from opposite geographical locations culminating in an energetic experience of stylistic dynamism.” What are ubiquitous contests?
X: What we do it… It’s a line of a few exhibition battles. There’s usually probably like eight exhibition battles.  It’s not a contest. It’s an exhibition battle. So there’s no judges. 

What we do is we get the top people from one city verses the top people from another city, and sometimes we have guests who fly in from around the world, and so they’ll end up competing. Sometimes we have a theme behind it, and sometimes we don’t, because sometimes we just need to fill in some slots. It’s a really hardcore match. People have to train months for this. Like to build up stamina, because it’s ten rounds…

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Origami Art, DIY Dragonfly

Written and photos taken by Lucca                                                                                         The Art Of Origami, DIY                                                                                              March 13, 2012

First, a giant, crisp, and loving “Happy birthday!” to the grandfather of origami, Akira Yoshizawa, who passed in 2005. Tomorrow marks the anniversary of his 101st birth date.

Second, an American laser physicist is helping to keep the Japanese tradition of origami, or “paper folding”, alive.  Robert Lang dropped his job as a scientist to become one of the few professional origami artists in the United States. He inspires to find new forms of the art by exploring the form’s relationship to mathematics and science. “‘I have immense respect for him, because he’s bridged the mathematics and science with a traditional art form — origami, ‘” said fellow origami artist Linda Tomoko Mihara. Mihara herself, a third-generation Japanese-American, is world-renown for her origami cranes. She owns The Paper Tree in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Together, Lang and Mihara worked on an animated TV commercial in which everything except for the car being advertised was created using origami. And in the future, they hope to create the first animated origami film!

You can find Mihara at the upcoming Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown of SF April 14th, 15th, 21st, and 22nd! Anyone planning to go?! If so, see you there!

How to create an origami dragonfly
1. Take a square piece of thin paper

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Contest + Themed Monday: Dramatic Looks