Kate Mothes

1 week ago | thisiscolossal.com | Kate Mothes

A quote widely attributed to Tom Robbins says, “At the typewriter you find out who you are.” Or in the case of one unique machine that’s been missing for decades, the same could be said for finding one, too. In January, Jennifer Felix and her husband Nelson were sorting through items in Jennifer’s grandfather’s basement in New York. They stumbled upon a typewriter like they’d never seen, with Chinese keys. Nelson posted a few photos in a Facebook group called What’s My Typewriter Worth?

1 week ago | thisiscolossal.com | Kate Mothes

Within the compartments of reimagined wooden crates or carved sculptures that open on to reveal inner forms, Adrian Landon Brooks and Jaime Molina explore the possibilities of found materials in mixed-media sculptures and paintings. The artists’ duo exhibition No Man’s Land at Preacher Gallery highlights their kindred yet unique approaches.

1 week ago | thisiscolossal.com | Kate Mothes

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was born in Japan on the brink of a national transformation. The Edo Period, characterized by the military rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate, had seen economic growth and sustained peace since its establishment in 1603. But 200 years on, the government’s staunch policies, hierarchical structure, and isolation from the outside world was beginning to erode. In 1867, just nine years after Hiroshige’s death, a new emperor restored imperial rule.

1 week ago | thisiscolossal.com | Kate Mothes

One of the inimitable joys of visiting an art museum is being able to view paintings up close—to see their textures, frames, and the way the surface interacts with the light. But even if you had the opportunity to step past security wires and get within inches of an original canvas, you’d still never be able to see the work quite like the new, 108-gigapixel scan of Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (1665).

1 week ago | thisiscolossal.com | Kate Mothes

Upwards of 17 million commercial flights ferry passengers across U.S. airspace each year. (It’s more than twice that, in total, worldwide.) Those hundreds of thousands of vessels share the sky with winged things that have been around way, way longer than airliners, but it’s not always an easy relationship. Through the work of people like Norman Smith at Boston’s primary international terminal, we’re learning more every day about a remarkable species and their evolving ways of life.