Painting #2. Was going to fill in the outlines but I think i’ll leave it as is, the colors look nice
First: blue & green
Then added red & pink acrylic (taking a break before I hit up yellow)
Obligatory detail shot
On to the last one. I like the toile look when it’s all blue.
Added red. Now it feels more John Robshaw
Work in Progress
Acrylic drippy paint on white set paper. 9′ x 9′
First look.
On set with Nicholas Suttle, Ian Bradley, Jillian Halouska, and Anne from Q models
Kenyan and I first met about six years ago when he was working at The Apartment, in Soho. I had my first exhibition of my artwork in their store windows and he hung the whole thing. Flash forward, and he is now the go-to guy for rustic prop styling- notable for the amazing aesthetic of Earnest Sewn and The Smile.
His and Grace’s house in Upstate NY, has been featured on The Selby. And for good reason. It is NEXT LEVEL. Straight out of a movie. There are like six bedrooms, each with its own array of curiosities and antiques. There is even a stable and barn. It’d be an amazing place to have a wedding, do a catalog or editorial photo shoot, or they could start their own bed and breakfast. Obviously, I like that idea.
While we were upstate, our gang of merry pranksters also made it up to the Renaissance Faire in nearby Tuxedo, NY. Lots of fat alterna-goths and families. It felt less magical than the one in Novato, CA. I guess 20 years of awareness will do that to you. Regardless, it was still fun dressing up in my 1905 lace wedding dress.
The weekend was amazing. At night we roasted s’mores, each meal was delicious: pancakes and barbecue and grilled burgers, flashlight tag, racing scooters and bikes in the field, photo shoots, dance parties in the barn, dueling in vintage medieval costume and handmade swords, karaoke.
These photos are a mix of ones I took and ones James took:
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Here are a handful of items I found at one of the Paris flea markets. All now are holding camp in my studio until I can frame them. I’ve tried my best at showing the details of the fabric swatches. I love the calligraphy and the way the words look on the faded paper. I’m guessing these came from a textile house in the late 30′s or early 40′s. The seller had several complete books, old filled sketchbooks, and pages and pages of lithograph prints from books on ancient textiles and patterns. The print by Enzo Mar and the floral ink and watercolor painting (later produced as wallpaper or fabric) were 5 euros each. Not too bad.
I’ll photograph the rest that now live in my apartment tomorrow.
Read while traveling. Perfect.
Just got back from Paris last night.
I found a ridiculously cheap ticket** and had a free place to crash so it seemed like a no-brainer. Just two days after finding the fare and booking my flight, I was on a plane, stopping over in DC. I arrived in Paris just in time for Bastille Day and spent the rest of my time with Ami and Joel and Josh Fontaine, an old friend from NY.
Here are some photos of the Marché Aux Puces, one of the many weekend flea markets in Paris. It was huge and crammed with a million things to look at. The prices really varied, but there were some really unique finds and lots more paintings and unique antiques with history than any other flea market I’ve been to. One of the coolest places to visit in Paris. Period.
I ended up with a random assortment of gifts and items for the home: a vintage rubber band ball, a 1950′s geometric paper puzzle, a wooden duck on a stick, a series of fabric swatches from an 1930′s textile company, a painting that was later used as the basis of wallpaper, a modernist poster, and a strange shell sculpture that the airport assumed was a bomb in my carry on.
**Seriously. I am genius when it comes to internet sleuthing. I found a roundtrip ticket from New york to Paris for 345 (ok ok minus tax) two days before the flight and during the most expensive time of the year. I used jetcombo.com which was even cheaper than “ita trip matrix.” I found that looking on different Europe specific search engines for flexible dates yielded better results than using standbys like Kayak or Travelocity. Momondo, Skyscanner, Mobissimo, and Vayama were some of my starting points. But like I said, best of all was Jetcombo!
I have been looking for some summer bedding and it’s led me into antique quilt research. At first I was convinced I wanted a “mattelassé” or “brides” quilt. They look sort of embossed and are often in white cotton with tons of intricate stitching all over. But I’m starting to think I actually want an antique hand-stitched quilt from the 20′s or 30′s.
The following quilts I could never pull off in my decor, but I find them inspiring, and they might end up referenced in future paintings. Some actually look like something Jonathan Adler or Dwell would produce today. One seems straight out of a Ryan Trecartin video even though it was made in the late 1800′s.
Quilts from the late 1800′s through the early 1930′s: