All Photos By Gail
One of the most joyful surprises awaiting visitors to the New York Botanical Garden’s Flower Power exhibition isn’t growing in the gardens — it’s parked right up front. Covered from bumper to bumper in vibrant flowers, psychedelic lettering, and saturated rainbow colors, artist Snoeman’s painted bus immediately transports visitors back to the optimistic spirit of the late 1960s — specifically 1967’s Summer of Love.
Photos By Gail
Among the many fashion trends born during the Swinging Sixties, few captured the era’s spirit of experimentation quite like the Nehru jacket. Distinguished by its streamlined shape, stand-up mandarin collar, and lack of traditional lapels, the style represented a dramatic break from conventional Western tailoring. Named after Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose achkan knee-length long coats inspired the look, the jacket became an unlikely symbol of the counterculture and flower power movements, blending Eastern influences with the decade’s appetite for bold colors and new ideas.
Continue reading Eye On Design: The Nehru Jacket and the Psychedelic Spirit of the 1960s
All Photos By Gail
Sana, Sana Mi Corazoncito/Heal, Heal My Little Heart (2026), draws flowers from the Codex de la Cruz Badiano (1552), the earliest known book on herbal medicine from the Americas. It was compiled and illustrated by indigenous physician Martin de la Cruz, and Latin scholar Juan Badiano, both faculty at the Collegio de Santa Cruz in Tlateloco, the first school of higher learning for indigenous peoples in the Americas. The book features 185 color illustrations and blends indigenous knowledge with some European medical concepts.
Continue reading Blanka Amezkua, Heal, Heal My Little Heart at the NYBG
Photo By Gail
Karl Wirsum (1939 – 2021) used the clean style of commercial graphics and the abstracted form of a dissected frog Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1968). who used this painting as the cover for his album Because Is In Your Mind (1970). Best known fir his 1956 song “I Put a Spell On You” and his sensational live performances, Hawkins appears here in full song, raining amoeba-shaped sweat down on a man wearing “armpit rubber,” like old fashioned galoshes, to keep the moisture at bay.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins By Karl Wirsum
Photo By Gail
If you’re looking for a holiday visual that practically shouts “Step Into the Vortex,” look no further than this groovy pink window display I spotted at The Grove in Hollywood. Viewed from the street, the storefront is covered in a bold, radiating swirl of hot-pink stripes that create the illusion of being pulled into a fabulous, candy-colored wormhole.
Continue reading Pink Thing of The Day: Psychedelic Pink Holiday Window Display
