Here’s a preview of Le Soleil or the Sun card from The Lenormand Revolution deck (La Révolution Lenormand), for which I’ve done the art in co-creation with the illustrious Carrie Paris. If you’re new to the Lenormand, it’s a card divination system popularly believed to have been designed by the French cartomancienne Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843), who was counsellor to Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France (the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte).  She also claimed to have advised several leaders of the French Revolution, including Robespierre and Marat. Lenormand historians assert that the 36-card Lenormand deck, known as le petit jeu de Lenormand was, in fact, created…

One afternoon, you’re shopping for furniture when you happen upon a half-insane, poverty-stricken, poetess/carpenter in her rickety Victorian house with oddly picturesque water-damaged drywall.  The woman who lives here appears to have fashioned a delightful little chair, almost as if by mistake.  Madly, she calls it her “Something’s Afoot Chair” and wiggles her eyebrows at you as she presents it, unadorned, in a glare of natural light.  You’re captivated.  It’s perfectly bespoke, a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture with humor!  You must have it! A wooden hanger, complete with its metal hook, forms the top brace of a sloppily whitewashed chair-back.  A wooden…

by Roz Foster Photo credit: AFP In 2012, Martine Aubry may become the first présidente (female president) of France.  In 2000, Aubry pushed through the 35-hour workweek along with universal health care for France.  She’s been mayor of Lille since 2001 and the leader of the French Socialist party (the first woman in the role) since 2008.  She is currently a candidate in her party’s primary (which will be held October 9, 2011) for the upcoming 2012 French presidential election.  On July 26 of this year, she revealed a key facet of her proposed presidency.  Publishing an article in Le…

Photo credit: Tommi Ronnqvist for the Guardian

The American artist Shepard Fairey was beaten in Copenhagen last Saturday after finishing a commissioned mural with which some locals took issue. According to the Guardian, he was commissioned by an art gallery to commemorate the controversial demolition of a youth house that had been used as a base for the left-wing community there. The Danish media reported, in error, that the mural had been commissioned by the city council. His attackers, apparently a part of the left-wing community who had lost their HQ, therefore, thought he was a government-backed propagandist, and after arguing with him outside a nightclub, they bruised one of his ribs and gave him a black eye. Locals also wrote, “No peace,” and “Go home, Yankee hipster” on Fairey’s mural, which features an image of a dove and the word ‘Peace.’…

Ce week-end je suis allée au MOCA, le musée d’art contemporain à Los Angeles, pour voir une exposition qui s’appelle «Art in the Streets» (L’art dans les rues).  L’exposition montrait plusieurs artistes de rue très célèbres, comme Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen et Space Invader.  Mais j’y ai aussi vu Rammellzee, qui était le plus intéressant.  Dans sa salle, où tout luisait sous les lumières noires, il y avait beaucoup d’étagères pleines de figurines que l’artiste a faites lui-même.  Elles étaient peut-être inspirées par les méchants des dessins animés des années quatre-vingts, comme «Megatron» de Transformers. …