Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary Japanese artist who puts dots all over her world. Her obsessive compulsive nuttiness is close to my heart and Kusama’s is definitely one of my all time favourite artists. Since December 2011, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) has been showing her work in a ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever‘ exhibition. Part of this event is a seriously cooltown interactive installation for children called The Obliteration Room – a series of rooms were painted completely in white where every room surface, piece of furniture and decoration was treated as a giant white canvas. Over the course of two weeks, kids were given thousands of colour dot stickers and were encouraged to make their creative contribution towards transforming the white space into one exploding with vibrant colours…

It is very un-Australian of me to be posting (and working) on Australia Day, but I feel as though I have no choice. Luckily today is Design Free Thursday so this should be relatively quick and painless. To Resolve Project by Chris Streger features downloadable wallpapers which are perfect for keeping us reminded of our New Years resolutions! Download one of their templates if you would like to create your own design. Brilliant!

Ok, now I’m off to have a Vegemite sandwich and a Lamington. Or something…

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (which is most un-yellowtrace reader like, btw!) no doubt you would have noticed that THE food trend of the moment on the Sydney dining scene is all about South American cuisine. Brazillian, Argentinian and modern Mexican restaurants and takeaways have been sprouting like…. umm sprouts(?) all over our fair city for a little while now. Many of these places, particularly the Mexican variety, have taken on the stereotypical “Mexican aesthetic”, unlike the interior I wanted to share with you today.

Barrio Chino in Potts Point was designed by Mandy Edge (see her previous project featured on yellowtrace here), completed in a quick time frame and on a modest budget but with a lot of passion and heart. Mandy chose to steer clear of the more obvious visual references, and crafted an interior which references the raw, robust and gritty Mexican aesthetic subtly and effectively. Nice work lady! Another proof that budget should NEVER stand in the way of a successful interior. Below is a little Q&A with Mandy and her experience on this project…

Billie Achilleos is a young British artist who was recently commissioned by the French luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton, for their 100th anniversary celebration of small leather goods. Keeping alive the skills of a forgotten craft, Billie created a miniature zoo of fantasy animals made exclusively from LV’s wallets, purses, belts, and accessories titled Maroquinaris Zoologicae…

Yelling out “WOOHOO” at the top of my lungs feels like the only appropriate way to greet you in this first post for the year and to welcome you to our brand new site!! Man oh man, what an EPIC adventure this has been. Little did I know how much work was going to be involved in redoing the site and migrating all the content – I have a new found respect for web dudes and their craft. This new site simply wouldn’t be possible without the help and dedication of the two leading men in my life – my super awesome kick-ass code busting kung-fu web developer brother, and one and only supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Husband with mad Ninja-skills (who recently took his very own Leap of Faith to join me on this yellowtrace adventure full time – oooohhh the excitement!!)

Over the last few weeks, our days were filled with many tekkie adventures – some happy, triumphant and hi-fivey, others definitely not so much. But this steep learning curve has made us even better at what we do so that we can continuing to build on what we’ve learned and work on ongoing improvements of our site…