Shirokuro

This new Japanese restaurant in New York's East Village looks amazing. Called Shirokuro, which means white-black in Japanese, the entire restaurant--including the wood floor planks, the bricks on the wall, and the traditional Japanese decor--is rendered in black lines on white ground, as though it is a page in a sketchbook...or an A-ha video! I bet it is a bit disorienting being there, perceiving the 3D world as though it is 2D!

Their website says:
"At Shirokuro, we didn’t just want to create a traditional Japanese omakase restaurant. Our vision was to offer something unique: a place where art and food intersect in a living, breathing sketchbook. Inspired by the precision and emotion of hand-drawn artwork, we chose not to use wallpaper or printed graphics, but instead hand-drew every single line."

If you are in or planning to be in New York City, drop by and slyly hum "Take on me..." while enjoying your agedashi tofu.

https://shirokuronyc.com/

BEAUTY: Art--Heather Sundquist Hall

Artist Heather Sundquist Hall whimsically shows us disco balls in their natural habitat in these wonderful gouache-on-paper works...

Top to bottom: Daylight Deals; Get The Action Going; Gotta Move On; The Heat Was On; Hoppening; Listen To The Ground; Party Animal; Super Balls; We Coulda Made It Cruising

You can buy original works at her site, and she takes commissions!
https://www.heathersundquist.com/

Snow Creations 2023

Retro/Vintage Holiday Illustration 2023

Know Your Hats

Not mentioned and missed: a boater, a beret, a shako, a fedora, a deerstalker (!), a Phrygian cap, a flat cap and its brother the newsboy cap, a campaign hat, a toque, a bucket hat, a Cordobes hat, and bicornes and tricornes.

Prosecco Popsicles

I am definitely going to serve these at a summer dinner party this year...drop fruit popsicles into prosecco and serve with a cheese plate! Couldn't be easier!

BEAUTY: Painting--Kelly Puissegur

The quirky work of artist Kelly Puissegur tickles me greatly. I love her sense of humor and of course the way she puts animal heads on human bodies, something regular readers will recall I fall for every time.

https://www.kellypuissegur.com/

And you can buy prints of these pieces and more on her Etsy shop!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/retrowhale

Rotary Telephones

By artist and cartoonist Jeff LeVine.

https://www.instagram.com/jefflevinecomics

I still have one. My father worked for the telephone company and he had a small collection of old telephones. I kept this one...it feels special somehow.

Happy National Sandwich Day 2021!

Meat and condiments between two slices of bread are being celebrated today. Observed annually every November 3rd, National Sandwich Day is taking center stage thanks to John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. Born November 3rd, 1718, he is credited with inventing the first-ever sandwich.