Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
Design
May 3, 2018

Designer Spends a Year Creating Logos That Subtly Reveal the Meaning of Words

Art director Daniel Carlmatz looks at language as more than just words on a page. For one year (November 2016 to November 2017), the Swedish creative challenged himself to visual wordplay by turning otherwise ordinary terms into playful logos. He did so by manipulating letterforms and incorporating a few clever additions to the minimalist compositions. Though subtle, the results are ingenious. Carlmatz’s minimalist designs reveal the definition of the word it is illustrating.

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Installation
April 27, 2018

Yayoi Kusama’s Latest Installation “Obliterates” an Entire Apartment in Red Flowers

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is a living legend thanks to her whimsical, awe-inspiring installation art. Perhaps best known for creating immersive and infinite spaces called Mirror Rooms, another facet of her career revolves around the Obliteration Room, in which viewers “obliterate” otherwise ordinary interior spaces with colorful dot stickers. One of her latest commissions tweaks the obliteration concept ever so slightly and makes it feel totally fresh.

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Portrait Photography
April 20, 2018

Photographer Transforms Everyday Subjects Into Fractured Versions of Themselves

The contact sheet has a rich place in the history of photography. Long before the days of digital, the positive print of negatives allowed you to see all of the images on a roll of film as a page of thumbnails. Photographer Thomas Lang reimagines this tradition through his series Gestalts—a German word that translates to “patterns” in English.

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Inspiring
April 16, 2018

Photographer Born Without Hands and Legs Reveals How He Shoots Gorgeous Images

If you’re truly passionate about something, then you find a way to pursue it—even when there seem to be insurmountable obstacles in your way. Indonesian professional photographer Achmad Zulkarnain is a shining example of this fact. Born without hands and legs, he has gained international attention for his work, all of which he does on his own. In a short video by Great Big Story, we get a peek into Zulkarnain’s world.

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.