The image is created with a ‘happy’ coating like a regular family portraits, all smiling. The underlying message is much more solemn. It speaks about the separation, the longing due to the conscious selfishness to pursue one’s dream. The image is projected real time through skype so the process of such family portrait sitting is no different from the usual one. It’s also interesting to merge both time zone into one single dimension. ‘Being Together’ demonstrates once again Clang’s constant fascination with time. Thank you AeLi for sharing!

Ursa the Bear was created to be your friend and protector. She is strong and wise, with the muscles of a grizzly and the gentle nature of a Mama Bear. She’ll watch over you, and she loves to play too. Ursa is made out of Sustainably-harvested new growth beech wood and is more than 34 cm high (in standing position). Her powerful hardwood frame can hold many poses. Her elastic-band muscles and durable wood limbs make her almost impervious to breakage.

You can find Ursa the Bear via Anothershop.

Last week I was celebrating the opening of the first Red Wing Shoes store in the Netherlands and the store looked amazing. The store’s design is the result of a collaboration between a number of exceptional designers: Joachim Baan, Pim van Lingen, Kenneth Jaworski, Roeland interieurbouw and the gentlemen from Tenue de Nîmes.

The store pays tribute to the rich history of the brand, which was launched in 1905 by Charles Beckman, having spotted a growing demand for sturdy work boots. The shoes are displayed on top of steel and antique glass show cases, which are filled with coal. The dark, concrete walls have been decorated with workman’s tools that date back to the days when Red Wing was a fledgling company. One wooden wall, which itself was made from materials from an old Amish water tower, is used to exhibit most of the accessories on offer. Everything between these walls reminds you of the history of Red Wing, but in a contemporary setting.

Aside from all the beautiful leather goods, the store also provides shoe maintenance itself, a service for the true shoe fanatic: next to the entrance is a special chair, reserved for customers looking for a special treatment for his or her shoes.

The Red Wing Shoes store can be found in the “9 streets” area (Reestraat 15) of Amsterdam. Definitely worth a look when you visit Amsterdam. Enjoy some more pictures after the click.

In most of his work he captures real moments in life and build new realities by slicing through time and space. Creating new realities that seems convincingly real but also gives us a strange awkward feeling that we recognize the surreal within the image. He manipulates his work in such a way that the viewer will question the image more than ever. To open the viewers mind and look beyond the surface and let them be touch by the art. Expect to see more work from Clang in the future. Thank you AeLi for the beautiful book!

Lernert & Sander are two amazing dutch artists who decided that working alone was getting boring and started collaborating on art related projects. Since their first video Chocolate Bunny they’ve been working on commercials, leaders, art movies, documentaries and installations.

Their aim is to make simple and communicative works, that takes little note of the existing border between contemporary art and commercial projects. The work that they make together is brilliant. Their highly esthetic, humorous and dedicated works are often challenging the media and its viewer, in a simple but very effective way. I had the pleasure to work with Lernert for a while in the past and he became a great inspirational influence since. Expect to see more work of Lernert & Sander on asmileinthemind in the future.

Agnes Denes was one of the first artists to be involved with the relationship of science to art, and was also a pioneer of ecological art. One of the first artists to initiate the environmental art movement, her work involves ecological, cultural and social issues, and is often monumental in scale.

In 1996 Denes completed “Tree Mountain – A Living Time Capsule” in Finland. This massive earthwork and reclamation project involved the construction of a “mountain” on the site of an old gravel quarry and the planting of 11,000 Finnish Pine trees in an intricate pattern. People from around the world were invited to plant a tree which bears their name and those of their respective heirs and descendants for the next 400 years. It is an undertaking dedicated to benefit future generations with a meaningful legacy.

I want to share a refreshing drink that I enjoy for a long time now and still sparkles on the top of my tong. Fever-Tree, an independently owned company dedicated to putting quality back into mixers.

Fever-Tree first began with an Indian Tonic Water in early 2005, the brand name chosen due to ‘Fever Tree’ being the colloquial name for the Cinchona Tree in which quinine, a key ingredient for tonic, is found. The highest quality quinine was sourced from the Rwanda Congo border and blended with spring water and eight botanical flavours, including rare ingredients such as marigold extracts and a bitter orange from Tanzania. Crucially, no artificial sweeteners, preservatives or flavourings were added. The highly carbonated tonic, consisting of small ‘champagne’ bubbles for a smoother taste, is packaged in 200ml single serve glass bottles, the perfect size for a double measure gin & tonic.

The Fever-Tree mixer range blossomed to include an award-winning Bitter Lemon, Ginger Ale (using three natural gingers from Cochin, Ecuador and Nigeria), the world’s first all-natural lower calorie tonic water and more.

Fever-Tree’s premium mixers are available in more than 500 high quality establishments countrywide and can be found in six out of the top 10 restaurants in the world. Including the Fat Duck in the UK and El Bulli in Spain, where chef Ferran Adria turned it into a course in itself: ‘Sopa de Fever-Tree tonica’.

It’s time to enjoy a new music compilation by asmileinthemind. A monthly music compilation of new discovered tracks. This time a special compilation in collaboration with Bas de Boer. He is a designer, photographer and a dear friend with a great passion for music. He created a compilation that he describes in his own words as;

With this compilation I wanted to create the soundtrack of your loveliest night in the summer – great vibes, sweet words, deep talk and magical silences… For me, music goes along with every moment in a day. I’m always aware of the atmosphere around me and music is often the biggest support to make it feel right and comfortable. I like music that stimulate thoughts, sounds that lead you through a different mind state and shape moments that you couldn’t ask for…

You can subscribe to asmileinthemind music compilation through Spotify to listen to all compilations. And you can listen to a mixed version by Bas of this compilation through Mixcloud. Enjoy!

Once a consumer removes whatever was shipped inside their box, they can tear it up, plant the pieces and water them. In about two months, tree seedlings will emerge, nurtured by the mycorrhizal fungi. In about two years, the young trees can be planted in the ground where they’ll ultimately reside. Birches, alders, pines, hemlocks and cedars are among the tree species represented, a quarter of which will survive in 90 percent of the continental United States.

The Life Box company estimates that one tree from the hundreds of seeds in each box will survive for 30 years, allowing one ton of carbon to be sequestered. Those who planted them, meanwhile, can visit the Life Box site and enter their GPS coordinates, making it possible to see the emerging trees and track carbon credits or offsets for generations to come.