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Design in mind

Is it a statement on homophobia, or on meat-eaters, or on the Slow Food movement? Choose your own interpretation of Stephanie J. Carter's 2009 pseudo-edible sculpture "Coming Out Vegetarian to My Parents." It's fashioned from colored pound cake and a poured hard-candy shell (pictured at right).

Whatever the piece means, I smelled it before I saw it, which is always interesting in an art gallery. The work is currently part of the "Design Unassigned" exhibition on campus.

The thought I had, helped by the sickly-sweet odor and the unappetizing colors, is that whenever you sit down over a family dinner to break something gently to your parents (0r children), it rarely goes the way you want. Emotions run high, your stomach flips, and even the choicest food turns chalky in your mouth.

Or, this could represent a wary parent's idea of what his poor newly vegetarian daughter will be reduced to eating from now on.

Strolling through the exhibits regularly put on by the design students always yields unexpected results. This show, which runs through April 25, also features Danika Patrick's playing cards made from recycled soda cans and auto paint; and Paul Braun's modern, sand-cast aluminum take on the traditional Chinese hot pot.

In a dark corner, John Hollendoner's topographic map of Mount Rainier gleamed in acrylic. A silvery mountain, not something you could climb, perhaps more at home in outer space. It's amazing how kids see the world these days.




Pictured above: John Hollendoner's Mount Rainier sculpture. Behind it is Matt Freshman's 2008 "Acrylic Illuminated Object," which changes color. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Sondheim and Ebert

No particular Palo Alto angle today. Just two great arts stories about two of the arts world's greats.

Here is a lovely New York Times write-up about the recent 80th-birthday tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC. I would have given many, many things to have been there.

If I could have heard only one of the numbers? Ah, I'd pick Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin teaming up once more to sing "Move On" from "Sunday In the Park With George." And I love that La Stritch wore a hat when Patti LuPone sang "The Ladies Who Lunch" to her. ("Does anyone still wear a hat?")

Secondly, a rich Esquire piece about Roger Ebert living with cancer and without the ability to speak. The way Ebert has been freed to express himself on the page -- the words simply flowing -- was deeply moving. Chris Jones' article is as much a portrait of an artist evolving (and of a remarkable marriage) as it is an inspiring piece about survival. The occasional flashes of humor are startling and gutsy, like when a woman at a party writes Ebert a note, and the film critic simply points to his ears as if to say, "They still work, y'know."

Pictured: A New York Times photo of the Sondheim celebration, taken by Sara Krulwich.