Bovetti Chocolates

by Ami Kealoha

Probably to quell our jealousy, a CH colleague recently brought delicious Bovetti chocolate bars back from a weekend trip to Paris. It worked. The artisan Tablettes de chocolate are wide bars of rich quality chocolate sprinkled with a single ingredient on one side.

We sampled a dark chocolate with sesame and enjoyed both the complexly flavored chocolate and the subtle nutty accent of the seeds. While the even distribution of the sesame made for a pleasant experience (for each bite you can decide which surface faces your tongue), a white chocolate and apricot bar left us pinching off bits of the two smallish apricot pieces.

Other flavors combos include dark chocolate with carmelized cocoa beans, violet with white chocolate, and milk chocolate with banana chips. Besides going to their factory and museum in Terrasson, France, the chocolates are available at several retailers in France and online from Boutique Chocolat.

Miranda Donovan

by Leonora Oppenheim

British artist Miranda Donovan apparently finds herself at a dead end on a daily basis. In this case it's not a lack of inspiration but rather a source of it, leading her to an interesting interpretation of landscape painting.

Expanses of brick wall cover her canvases almost like the enormous skies of Dutch landscape paintings, with graffiti hovering like heavy clouds. The small detailed landscapes at the bottom of the canvas appear dwarfed by the towering solidity of the wall, creating an almost claustrophobic atmosphere. These works remind me of the moment in The Truman Show when Truman believes he is escaping by sailing off into the distance only to crash his boat into a wall of sky moments later. (Click images for detail.)

By contrasting the language of traditional rural landscape paintings with the language of street art Miranda says she is “bringing various issues into conflict. Have the boundaries, of city versus country, in our modern world become blurred? Are our ever expanding cities posing a threat to natural environments? Or is it just graffitists having fun?!!!” Miranda is reversing the graffiti artist’s process of taking art out into the streets by pulling the loose style of street art into the more constructed and refined world of fine art. It’s a provocative mix.

Miranda Donovan is one of the many artists who have submitted their work for the Saatchi Gallery Showdown; a competition for Your Gallery and Stuart Gallery artists where artworks go head to head in a public vote. You can see her Your Gallery page here and vote for Miranda’s work here until the end of this week.

Hummel 8.4 PIO FGX

by Tim Yu

Years in development, Hummel Footwear recently received their new limited edition (2000 worldwide) 8.4 PIO FGX from the production warehouses. Creativity and technology infuses the new product, a culmination of the Danish athletic wear maker's recent re-branding efforts. Packaging design, sockliner technology (using heat to mold to feet), laser-etched goat skin uppers and an outsole designed with a combination of stud shapes—suitable for any pitch and also limiting injuries—makes the shoe a good choice for fashionable athletes looking for an alternative to more staid brands.

Footwear Department Manger Richard Kuchinsky, also of First Pullover, oversaw the development of this new boot and his upcoming new Directive Collective, a footwear and brand design consultancy group, is one to watch.

Find a store near you at Hummel.

Beautiful Decay Issue R: Richard Stipl

by Tim Yu

If you missed this year's Scope New York, Beautiful Decay worked with Scope to feature some participating artists showing at the 2007 fair in their issue "R." One that caught our eye there and that's also in the magazine is Richard Stipl, a Czechoslovakian-born painter and sculptor. Similar in to the plasticine realism of Ron Mueck's work, Stipl uses himself as a model to create his hairless, ill-postured sculptures, which interact in awkward and sometimes comical manners. His grotesque miniatures— often missing limbs or playing with them—at once repel and attract our gaze.

See more of Stipl and other engaging artists in Beautiful Decay issue R, available for $6 here. Past issues are also available.

Alter Boutique

by Ami Kealoha

The shop Alter is the most recent retail addition to Greenpoint's Franklin Avenue, and the new boutique is the perfect showcase for the owners' mutual obsession.Three years ago, Tommy Cole and Roy Caire's started the collection This Old Thing, reworking men's vintage items into bespoke conversation pieces. Now, the newly opened storefront has been transformed into a two-room shop and an homage to their elegant recut-and-resewn line. It's filled with their deconstructed designs, like the trench that became a cropped jacket ($98), an old wooden chair sawed in half functions as an artful display with black roses. There's also a smattering of jeans and T-shirts from Cheap Monday, exclusive black diamond jewelry from This Old Thing ($120-$320), and hand-picked men's and women's vintage ($25-$100). Merchandise is added weekly, but the lot is essentially seasonless and based on what the pair find on their routine trips to the Goodwill.

Check back for CH's picks from Alter over the next several days.