Ula Einstein’s work is, in a word, ephemeral. While it looks impressive in photos, they are also somewhat deceptive by failing to capture its intricacies: filmy layers, delicate threading, fine surface slices or topography-like depth. If you have the pleasure to view her work in person, it beckons you to move closer, to reach out and touch. (more…)

Most people are usually a bit confused when they look at Belgian artist René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images for the first time. The painting is of a simple smoking pipe with the phrase “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (”This is not a pipe”) written below it. (more…)

It would appear green is the new black and I am not talking about the color. If you Goggle eco fashion, you will come up with hundreds of companies who have jumped on the green bandwagon. (more…)

Humble accessory no more, the shoe has graduated into becoming any ensemble’s main focal point. Like little sculptures for the feet, this new breed of shoes escape their traditional form and construction while challenging current footwear archetypes (more…)

Androgynous fashion lines have been crossing for decades and while we will probably never see a man going to the office in a floral skirt, we have seen even the manliest man arrive in a floral print shirt or tie. (more…)

Its name will probably create a vision of a piece of a lychee resting on a Petri dish, awaiting tingling currents to come from some electrode to touch its white, almost translucent flesh, in an attempt to perhaps invent something (more…)

Coffee stains are now an art form. Every drip, stroke, brush and blot of this everyday beverage (decaf or not) on canvass, can create bottomless servings of brown watercolor-like paintings that are potent enough to keep one’s art senses wide awake. (more…)

Green is everywhere, literally. These days, you can’t turn on the television, radio, open a magazine or surf the web without seeing ads of eco-friendly products and services. One green area which is taking off in a big way due to consumer demand is eco-home furnishings (more…)

“It may have escaped your attention,” says Elizabeth Costello, the title character in a 2003 novel by J.M. Coetzee, “but I slipped in, a moment ago, a word that should have made you prick up your ears. I spoke about my essence and being true to my essence.” Costello, an aging writer, has dropped the bait. She has invited the other writers, artists and scholars in the room to (more…)

We’ve all seen that woman walking down a busy city sidewalk looking like she just stepped off a fashion shoot for Vogue. As she moves her way down the street, her confidence radiates to the point which could be construed as snobbish. Is it her clothing which gives her such poise? I know for myself, when I’m dressed in a suit rather than sweats, I feel better; but why? Why do clothes make us feel so good? (more…)