Storque articles by PeteCorrie

Etsy Finds: Love It and Leave It

2008-09-25T09:51:00Z

Sometimes to really love a city you have to leave it. New York's history as an art capital is long and venerated, oddball and full of fits and explosions. This volatility and excitement is what has drawn generations of artists from Europe and the Midwest, to try their hand at causing one of those infamous art world fits. But in a city where you can't rent a studio the size of a watercolor set for less than what Damien Hirst sells his smallest dot drawings (Sotheby's estimate: $60,000!) it might be time for those artists to head home. But, before you pack up and head back to the future art capitals of Richmond, Kansas City, Montreal, Mexico City, Berlin or Detroit (where I'm fairly sure you can rent an entire block for the cost of a Manhattan lunch), make sure you take something to remind you of the city you loved and left.

Brownstone Neighborhood

This print captures the crowded, hectic energy of a city constantly reinventing itself. By sweetbabu, $33.

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Three Brothers ORIGINAL

A more stoic and European cityscape, this painting nonetheless has the light hand of a city dweller always on the move. By artquirk, $70.

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Crowded - Original Art

What it must look like from a 24th floor window in Midtown. Vertigo and awe is a heady combination. By lisachow, $75.

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2312 Lyndale Ave., Original Watercolor

This watercolor slows down to notice the quirky beauty of a single door. By patchofsky, $30.

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City Buildings

I think of the Metropolitan Museum's rooftop when I look at this deceptively controlled painting by MaeveW. It has the landscape of the Upper West Side and the brash color scheme of a Miro I just saw down in the Modern wing. By MaeveW, $192.

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city building print

The cramped homeyness of this tenement hearkens to the New York my grandfather grew up in. By missbrigette, $20.

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large NYC print

Here the city is both contemporary and a fantasy of the past, a living city constantly reworking the myths of its artistic forebears. By matteart, $60.

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Little Boxes...Original Illustration

The subdued color and element of collage in this picture show you that even in the busiest of cities one can carve out a place of one's own. By michelemaule, $40.

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In the cit

In the end, New York has always been a winter town, so maybe stick around for one more year. You never know, the next sensation could be right around that crowded, loud, city corner you can't help but to love. By shelbyhealey, $20.

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Looking for more Art Finds? Try these links:

Art Showcase | Art Collectors' Gift Guide | Items tagged "original cityscape"

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Etsy Finds: Measures

2008-06-23T09:26:00Z

Today's Etsy Find was curated by Peter Corrie, Etsy Brooklyn's Office Ecologist aka Office Manager aka my husband. He's an artist and he has awesome taste, but he spends half the week installing things or building things or plunging things for the staff at Etsy Brooklyn and doesn't get nearly enough opportunities to show it off. Today, I let him. — Anda

OMG. Someone is always stealing my measuring tape at Etsy Labs. I have spray-painted it blue, written my name on it, I even got one with millimeters because I thought it would be less useful and thus a less likely target for theft (no disrespect for the mm, I love you!) Perhaps if I could just find a stash of wondrous, measuring-tape trinkets to distract everyone, I could go and measure the windows for A/C units (it's hot!)...

Tape Measure Bracelet - Choose Your Size

I really like the hardware on this bracelet, super classy! By CNYResinCo, $15.

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Maroon Measuring Tape Mini Cosmetics Pouch NEW

Speaking of thieves, no one will suspect that you keep anything but your sewing kit in this rad pouch. By kaylah7, $8.50.

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42 - Photography print 5x5

The juxtaposition of diagonals and parallel lines in this print is subtle and effective. By tiinateaspoon, $10.

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Measured BlackAndWhite ) Bifold Wallet

Yowsers! This wallet has it all — even cool faux bois inside. By QuietDoing, $28.

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Vintage red tape measure ribbon (for 1 yard)

This is where it all began...By mykonos, $3.50.

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small measuring tape tree kit

This tree sculpture is cool, but it is even more amazing that you can buy a kit to make your own tree sculpture. I love sculpture. By sewmaryann, $10.

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Measurements, Waist 8x10 Print of Original Mixed Media

This collage reminds me of some really smart ad campaign for ladies' undergarments from the 50's. By SpinachNPeace, $20.

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Bright white porcelain button with tape mesure print

I love what people are doing with buttons these days. I also like the idea that you could measure something small in a pinch, just by holding it up to your coat. By veronicabuttons, $15.50.

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Tape Measure 16x20

The color of this print makes me think of the honeysucke bushes in my backyard when I was a wee boy. By beardandhowell, $75.

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Love, Pete

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About Us: Peter Corrie

2008-06-18T15:20:00Z

Pete aka PeteCorrie is an artist (he sells work out of his shop TUBULARIST) and works on the Etsy Labs team: he's kind of our offline admin. He keeps us all sorted and comes up with ways to make the office flow in an environmentally friendly way. Pete is a sort of a tattooed — and very handy — angel of fixing things over here at the Labs.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We'll be posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Etsy Wooden Cut-Out Photo Op!

2008-06-13T15:48:00Z

So, you know those things? You stand behind a piece of wood or cardboard and put your face into a hole and when your friend takes a picture it looks like you are a circus strongman, or a politician, or a two headed girl with a pet unicorn? What are those things called?!

Whatever they're called, Etsy is going to have a super awesome one this weekend at Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, NY. This one was built out of scrap wood that was hanging around Etsy Labs, designed by Anda and painted by DanielleXO. Renegade is June 14 and 15 and we'll be there all weekend talking Etsy, meeting new friendlies and listening to The Kinks, feeling like a Wes Anderson movie in the heat of McCarren Park Pool. Check it out!

We're hoping Renegade-goers will post their photos on flickr and link em in the comments below!

Etsy Finds: Dads Like Zines

2008-05-28T10:13:00Z

My first Father's Day is upon me (!) and I don't feel much like a real dad yet even though I have been reading the instructions. I think I passed the first test though (phew) last week when I was forced to distract Sido from the pain in her belly associated with digestion and, ahem, the end product of digestion. How did I do this? I acted like a monkey. I made those shrieky monkey sounds, scratched my armpits, pretended to pick bugs out of Sido's hair and jumped on the table for 15 full minutes. She went bananas.

So, for my first run at Dad's Day, I think I deserve to get back to weird comic loving Pete and lounge around with my sweatpants on backwards. I'd like to start with cereal, coffee and Space Junk Issue 2 by ANDREWNEYER. This art book/ zine/ comic is 64 three-color wicked screenprinted pages, comes shrink-wrapped AND in a HANDMADE CEREAL BOX! Totally sweet.

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More posts about zines right here!

Father's Day Showcase | Gift Guide for Him | Father's Day Gift Guide | A Dude's Perspective

Etsy Finds: "Mom's Day" To Day

2008-05-08T10:29:00Z

So, this is my first time giving a Mother's Day gift to Anda, my lovely wife and the mother of our amazing super most radical daughter Sidonie. What, oh what to give her that could ever show my eternal love and admiration, as well as appeal to her love of drawing?! I found craigatkinson a ways back while perusing the healthy variety of books and zines on Etsy, and immediately loved it. He has a classic sense for composition and a scratchy line, a combo that I can't resist. And, even though it's different than Anda's style of illustration (featured all over Etsy!), I know she'd appreciate it, too. So, if your baby mama (or your mom!) is an artist, book and zine collector — or just likes rad artwork — keep this artist/ publisher from across the pond in your brain.

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Handmade Weddings: A Last-Minute Article about My Last-Minute Wedding

2008-04-11T14:20:00Z

One last real wedding to sneak into the Handmade Wedding Series!

We were married last September in Virginia but procrastinated almost everything until maybe a month beforehand. Together we were working about 10,000 hours a week at Etsy and I was wearily navigating my way through the first trimester of pregnancy.

Inwardly, I was positive that if I ignored planning my wedding hard enough, a wedding fairy godmother would swoop down in a magical monsoon of glitter shimmer tulle and take care of everything for us somehow.

That actually did not happen. But, I am here to tell you that it is okay to have a wedding by the total seat of your pants. A really great wedding, even.

This is my husband, Peter. He also works for Etsy.

Like any little girl, I had always vaguely daydreamed of what my my wedding dress would someday look like. I did not daydream myself five and 1/2 months pregnant, however. We had gotten engaged in January and then just became a little too impatient. So, I designed and made my own super beautiful knocked-up wedding dress with a ton of help from Beni of Burdastyle. When I say "help" I actually mean that she sewed the entire dress for me while I whined about how difficult it all was. I have a phobia of sewing patterns and hadn't even attempted to make anything from one since Girl Scouts in 1986. It was a totally harrowing and last-minute experience and I actually used a stapler to hem it and handsewed the snaps in our hotel room the morning before the ceremony, but it cost me $80 and I still sort of resembled the ballerina princess fairy I knew I was inside.

Burdastyle is this clever website where you can download and print patterns and get sewing help and all kinds of other essential things for making your own fashion. Had Alchemy been around on Etsy last year I probably would have gone down that road and saved poor Beni from having to deal with me, though. A dress that hides, yet accentuates, a baby bump is definitely a custom request.

We got married in the Japanese Garden of Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia. Next to a waterfall. How ridiculous is that? The best part was I had never seen the place in my life and chose it on blind faith when the date was nearing and we had no location in mind. The week before the wedding I kept saying, Don't we need to get some flowers or something to, you know, decorate it?

And then when I finally saw it, it was like, Oh, duh, it's an insanely beautiful unicorniverse paradise already! Because it was outside next to a waterfall. Lesson learned: you can avoid the hassle of choosing flowers and stuff if you just hold the whole thing outdoors where it's lovely.

If you are trying to plan a wedding from five states away and not do anything except occasionally glance at the calendar and panic, then you'll definitely need a friend to coordinate it all for you. We had Almitra, who coordinates things for a living and was able to swiftly handle all of our crises. She found us a cake (made by a really sweet lady in central Virginia) and a caterer (an old friend of hers who owns a restaurant in Richmond) and a couple cases of champagne, all amidst me crying on the telephone about how tiredly pregnant I was and sending her IMs like PLS HELP EVERYTHING IS A SHAMBLES I AM CRYING.

Neither Pete nor I have a family minister or church and we were at a loss for an officiant who could legally marry us. Eventually we gave up on the legal part and convinced our friend Brooks to do the honors as he was "our most stately friend" and we thought he could convincingly lead the ceremony.

We actually got legally married a month and a half later at the City Clerk Office here in Brooklyn. Friends, if you're crunched for time, take my advice and just fake it.

Pete wrote our vows the night before the rehearsal and I bobby-pinned them into a vintage copy of Treasure Island. We googled wedding vows and then added a really long Rilke quote to pad it. The ceremony still only was about two minutes long because we were all very nervous and spoke too fast.

But the best part of our wedding was the reception.

We held a reception at our friend's, well, cement lot in Southside Richmond. It's called The Bike Lot, and a bunch of folks we know rent garage space to work on bikes or mopeds or whatever else out there, they have a bunch of homemade ramps and the whole space is covered in beautiful graffiti. So we basically invited everyone we knew to come and have a big sweaty drunken dance party barbeque with us.

Everyone had a really great time. Pictured above on the left are Pete's sister and brother, in the latter stage of drunkeness.

My best friend Luke had pulled a wedding band together for me and managed a few superb covers of songs by Jawbreaker and the Misfits, among others. We had two other friends play records and our first dance was to We Built This City by Starship.

Etsy customer support expert Lori Weaver joined in with vocals at one point. I think this was a Gorilla Biscuits song.

And for days afterwards, Pete's motto was "If you can't skate at your own wedding, when can you skate?"

Here is the top of our melted cake. The cake toppers were a gift from Pete's mom and dad. They had accidentally dropped and broken the foot off the bride figurine at an antique shop, and had been forced by the shop owner to buy them. Pete's mom glued the foot back on and mailed them to us as a gag, but I sort of loved their weird Precious Momentsesque charm.

Our friends had decorated the Bike Lot with a zillion paper airplanes and not much else, which was totally sweet and beautiful. Someone had found a tandem bicycle and tied cans and such to the back, and at the end of the day we rode off together while everyone flung glitter and the contents of their cups at us. And we lived happily ever after. The end!

Wedding Gift Guide | Wedding Category | Wedding Showcase | Handmade Wedding Series

Etsy Finds: Outdoor Sculpture

2008-01-31T10:52:00Z

I've just finished reading "A World Without Us" by Alan Weismann, and according to him, metal sculptures may be some of the longest lasting human artifacts besides PCB's and Plutonium 239. That means that parts of JackProctor's sculptures will be around long after we're all gone. In the meantime though, pieces like "Shape One of Five" are fine takes on modernist sculpture in the vein of Alexander Calder and Niki de Saint Phalle, with a folksy twist and even a hint of some Keith Haring style neon. These would be excellent additions to a sculpture garden, gallery show, or my living room.

What's your sculptural inspiration? Who do you like? Post it in the comments!

Etsy Finds: Seasprayblue

2007-12-27T09:24:00Z

So, only two (!) months after moving in to our new place we've finally finished unpacking. With the landscape of boxes bulldozed, flattened, and recycled, I now set to the task of punctuating our bare, white walls with art. I have started with some work by my super talented friends and even a few pieces of my own, but still need more. Seasprayblue has amazing prints that will fill that void. I like the quirky linework and bits of text, and the subject ranges from love to skyscrapers, too many teacups to jealous birds. Radical.

Etsy Finds: Your Costume is Sick!

2007-10-18T07:21:00Z

Poison cufflinks?! Not only do these sweet cufflinks reference The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (a serious art school fave), but they also might be the super cool accessory to your costume. The details of a costume are really what stick in people's pickled brains, so don't overlook the small stuff. Gents, we're all growing up a little so this year's costume should reflect the smart, sophistocated mayhem you plan to raise.