.

2009-09-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

Mark Shaw captured these images of Henrietta Tiarks (who would later become the Duchess of Bedford) at Palais Royale in Paris in 1959. The photos are outtakes from a fashion assignment for LIFE magazine and were never intended for publication. The Duchess is modeling a green Jules-François Crahay suit. That's Monsieur Crahay himself (below) ogling his creation at the Nina Ricci salon.

Prints of these images are available, along with a host of other Mark Shaw photographs, at the Mark Shaw Photographic Archive.

:mark shaw; other images of the duchess of bedford at the national portrait gallery

2008-11-12T11:37:00.002-05:00

John Rawlings (1912-1970) was one of the most prolific photographers of the 20th Century, with more than 200 Vogue and Glamour covers to his credit, as well as numerous ad campaigns and nude studies.

Rawlings’s three-decade affiliation with Conde Nast began in 1936, when he was hired by Vogue Studios as an apprenticed assistant working alongside many legendary masters, including Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene, Irving Penn and George Platt Lynes.

Memo headline: Women in Necessary Civilian Jobs

Although his early work for British Vogue showed the strong influence of Hoyningen-Huene and Horst, Rawlings slowly departed from their style. "Rawlings was certainly the first major Conde Nast photographer to demonstrate a truly American eye ... John Rawlings's photography has a practical, no nonsense feeling ... he focused his lens on the vibrant world surrounding him," writes Charles Dare Scheips Jr., former director of the Conde Nast Archives, in his introduction to Kohle Yohannan's book, John Rawlings: 30 Years in Vogue. "Rawlings brought a realistic visual style, presenting fashion as a force rather than a decoration."

:john rawlings via foto decadent

visionaries: tim walker

2008-09-15T09:09:00.000-04:00

Tim Walker's evocative images are full of textured nuance and intriguing detail. Stunning sets and lavish locations juxtapose the everyday with the absurd and the fabulous, to create captivating, original photographs.

Walker loves turning "funny daydreams into funny photographs," adding that he lives much of the time in an imaginary world, a world rooted in real-life and memory, specifically the British countryside of his childhood.

How does he pull off such elaborate productions? According to Andrew Thomas, one of Walker's agents:

Every season there comes a conversation with Tim on his ideas for upcoming stories. Tim is going to suspend a model on a giant hook; float a bathroom in the sea; paint various animals in pastel shades; attach a bed to the top of a classic car and then drive it; a roomful of rabbits; a tree in a house; a horse in a house. Then it dawns on you: how on earth is all of this going to be accomplished? Eventually, somehow, it all comes to fruition.

Walker's work is on exhibit at The Design Museum through September 28. Has anyone out there been lucky enough to see it?

Anyone?

:tim walker; daily telegraph; images © tim walker pictures

2008-09-15T08:04:00.006-04:00

This Tim Walker shot of Sacha Pivovarova in Kizhi, Russia, appeared in a 2006 issue of British Vogue. One of Walker's assistants, Michelle Duguid, was there for the shoot. She recounts this lovely backstory:

Four generations of a family lived in this cramped house. We ended up unpacking the clothes in a room where four of the oldest members of the family slept, while Tim set up his tripod in an adjoining room surrounded by a further 17 staring members of the extended family. The two sisters sang us old Russian folk songs about the death of traditional country life, a subject close to our hosts' hearts. The singing moved Sacha to tears.

:daily telegraph; image © tim walker pictures

a man's castle is his home

2008-05-23T17:32:00.002-04:00

Several years ago, Kohle Yohannan was riding his motorcycle through Yonkers and passed what appeared to be a castle. He circled around, found his way to the property, and began trying to get in. For months, he knocked on the door and left notes. Yohannan told New York Magazine in a recent interview, "Finally, one day, the creaky door opened and the cats were flying and a little old lady came out. I told her some of the history I knew [about the castle], but it still took me a long time to get in.” He ended up offering the owner slightly under half a million dollars. “She told me that she sold it to me because I was stupid enough to think I could fix it!” says Yohannan.

Yohannan moved in seven years ago; since then, it’s been one long, painstaking restoration project, but the delight of unearthing treasures far exceeds the tedium of scraping paint. Example: The castle has a seventeenth-century carved-oak ceiling and Tiffany-glass windows. Ballet Russes choreographer Michel Fokine and his wife gave classes there when they owned the castle in the late thirties—and they left behind trunks of Diaghilev-era costumes that Yohannan stumbled on in the attic.

Yohannan now rents the house for films and photo shoots. "You never own a house like this," he says. "It owns you."

:new york magazine; images new york times

2008-04-16T12:43:00.001-04:00

Words Are Pictures. Awesome.

antea: beguiling, strange beauty

2008-04-10T06:26:00.002-04:00

Antea was painted in the early 1530s by Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino (1503–1540). This captivating painting is on view at The Frick through May 1. While there is no known evidence definitively linking the woman Parmigianino depicted to a specific person, her identity has been the cause of speculation for centuries.

Holland Cotter notes in his Times review of Antea: A Beautiful Artifice, that 'we enliven objects with our attention.' The bewitching Antea has captured mine. Truth be told, I'm most intrigued by her adornments and their composition — her gold satin dress, the marten fur, pearl drop earrings, ruby ring and gold chain; the lavish ruby and pearl jewel in her hair; her apron and the cuffs of her underdress decorated with delicate blackwork embroidery — not to mention that implausibly long right arm. I have returned again and again to dote on this Frick visitor; I hope to see her one more time before she leaves.

The woman in the painting was first identified as “Antea” in 1671 by the artist and writer Giacomo Barri, who claimed she was Parmigianino’s mistress. As Antea was the name of a famous sixteenth-century Roman courtesan, it was assumed that this was the woman to whom Barri referred. She has been identified alternatively as the daughter or servant of the artist; a member of an aristocratic northern Italian family; and a noble bride. It is most likely, however, that the Antea represents an ideal beauty, a popular genre of portraiture during the Renaissance. In such portraits, the beauty of the woman and the virtues she stood for were the primary subject, while the sitter’s identity — and even her existence — were of secondary importance.

More from Holland Cotter's review:

We know that the name “Antea” was attached to the picture only in the late 17th century, after the artist’s death. In classical mythology it referred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In the 16th century it was associated with a Roman courtesan of high renown, though there is no reason to think Parmigianino had either in mind.

Attempts have been made to determine the social status of his subject through a close reading of her sumptuous attire, though the results are contradictory. One scholar concludes that her apron indicates she was a servant, but another points out that noblewomen wore aprons too, fancy ones. Marten fur stoles like the one draped over the woman’s right shoulder were emblems of fertility, suggesting an identity as a young bride. But in other contexts the marten was a symbol of unbridled lust. The head of the animal preserved on the stole, its teeth as sharp as the fangs on a Japanese anime demon, looks rabid rather than nurturing.

In short, after much interpretive parsing and sorting, we know nothing at all about who this woman called Antea was, or what she meant to the artist, or to anyone else.

:parmigianino’s ‘antea’: a beautiful artifice is on view through may 1, frick collection.

true nature

2008-03-15T20:16:00.002-04:00

Birds’ nests are ephemeral, often abandoned once the young have fledged. But the sheer ingenuity of these miniature marvels of architecture is as durable as the impressions left by San Francisco photographer Sharon Beals who captures them in their lasting glory.

:audobon magazine

holi: spring arrives in india

2008-03-13T09:06:00.004-04:00

The Inimitable Persephone of What Possessed Me and Sarah the Intrepid of Passementerie are two of my most favoritest, most fantacularly well-traveled blogging comrades.

Sarah is journeying through India right now - having recently overcome a combination of formidable in-country lodging and weather and physiological challenges. Follow her here. The other day, Sarah got me thinking more about Holi, India's festival of color, when she left this comment on another post:

...we arrived here in Varanasi on Holi which is the celebration of springtime (as far as I can gather) and the city is still liberally daubed in pink, blue and green dye, even some of the goats are brightly coloured!

Holi is the Hindu festival which celebrates the time when Krishna paid amorous attention to young women tending cows by spraying colored water over them. (Interesting.) Holi occurs each year, the day after the full moon in early March. Holi and Divali (the Festival of Light which occurs in October or November) are India’s most celebrated holidays.

I've just noticed that P very recently posted some remembrances of travels past, here. She trekked to a friend's wedding in Mumbai earlier this year - go here for a sample of some sublime visual treats. You can also screen P's slideshows from the expedition to India as well as her solo backpacking tour of northern and eastern Ethiopia here. Wondrous gorgeousness.

The images on this post serve as double homage: to those who literally fulfill the promise of Oh, The Places You'll Go! (and who possess the skill and desire to share their stories with the rest of us) - as well as to the intriguing, exuberant traditions of a beautiful land.

This painting (above) depicts the Indian deity, Krishna, celebrating Holi with Radha and the Gopis (great name for a Hindi jazz-rock fusion band, don't you think?).

:flickr

leonard cohen: you're our man

2008-03-10T09:40:00.001-04:00

This evening, Leonard Cohen will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My reaction? It's about time.

Few artists in the realm of popular music can truly be called poets, in the classical, arts-and-letters sense of the word. Among them are Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell and Phil Ochs. Leonard Cohen heads this elite class. In fact, Cohen was already an established poet and novelist before he turned his attention to songwriting. His academic training in poetry and literature, and his pursuit of them as livelihood for much of the 50s and 60s, gave him an extraordinary advantage over his pop peers when it came to setting language to music. Along with other folk-steeped musical literati, Cohen raised the songwriting bar. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum)

I love this line from Cohen's Anthem. It may just be my favorite lyric. Ever.

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

I recently discovered a remark that Cohen made about this bit of his poetry: That’s the closest thing I could describe to a credo. That idea is one of the fundamental positions behind a lot of the songs.

And regarding his work and method:

You know, you scribble away for one reason or another. You’re touched by something that you read. You want to number yourself among these illustrious spirits for one advantage or another, some social, some spiritual. It’s just ambition that tricks you into the enterprise, and then you discover whether you have any actual aptitude for it or not. So I’ve always thought that I, you know, do my job OK.

It thrills me to know I'll share an area code with Mr. Cohen - at least for the evening. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will air live from the Waldorf-Astoria on VH1 Classic tonight at 8:30 p.m. EST. BTW, Lou Reed will present Mr. Cohen.

O Canada. You must be so proud of this Native Son.

K.D. Lang performs Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Juno Awards, Winnipeg, 2005. (Of the 10,983,477 listens to the guskillion covers of Hallelujah on YouTube, I claim 795,517. K.D. gets into it here, for sure.) Word has it that Damien Rice will perform Hallelujah at the induction ceremony this evening.

Rufus Wainwright performs Everybody Knows. This is a clip from the Cohen-tribute film I'm Your Man. Rufus talks about meeting Cohen for the first time; Cohen says a word or two. The song begins at 1:51.

Martha Wainwright performs Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song. Late Night with Dave.

Our Man himself, performing Hallelujah. (Love the set. Looks to be borrowed from The Muppets, c. 1985.)

:The Vancouver Sun; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

vivienne in pink

2008-02-28T14:18:00.002-05:00

Vivienne Westwood, arguably the most influential British fashion designer of the twentieth century, revels in incendiary provocation and a defiance of convention, but nonetheless finds beauty and inspiration in the past. This apparent contradiction, to attempt to upset the status quo while clearly having a consciousness of tradition and history, made Westwood the most representative designer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's 2006 exhibition AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion. Given Westwood’s violation of expectations, it's really no surprise that the designer so associated with torn T-shirts, bondage jackets and punk rock (see last image, below) is also capable of creating astonishingly rigorous examples of tailoring and dressmaking.

At the time, Westwood said that this dress was her most important work to date. Comprising a beautifully constructed and boned bodice as its base, the gown has been draped, fitted and spiraled around the body in one unbroken length. Yes, one unbroken length. It is an aesthetic marvel, all the more important for the virtuosity of Westwood’s approach, at once conceptually reductive and technically audacious. While the gown might evoke the French haute couture of the 1950s and an attendant impression of retardataire elegance, Westwood’s subversion is in her breaking of any prior conventions of draping and dressmaking.

Yowzah.

:images metropolitan museum of art; vivienne westwood (british, b. 1941). “propaganda” dress, fall/winter 2005–06. lilac silk faille; shoes, autumn/winter 1990. hot pink crocodile-embossed patent leather.

dianamuse feature: yellena's temple and allusion

2008-02-25T21:52:00.004-05:00

Temple

If you haven't met Yellena James, allow me to introduce her to you. Yellena is a 29-year-old artist who lives on the Central Oregon Coast with her musician husband and two cats, Masha (good kitty) and Fisher (bad kitty). Yellena explores flow, movement and organicity in her extravagantly fanciful creations. She loves to invent new relationships between shapes and colors from those that exist naturally.

Flirt

Yellena was born in Sarajevo and lived there until the end of the civil war, in 1995. During the war, she would sneak past snipers to attend a high school that was dedicated to the arts. That's where she grew passionate about her own art. The school had electricity most of the time—which meant heat and music—and like-minded people who just wanted to create and get away from the horrors of the world outside. After moving to the United States (Orlando, FL), Yellena received a BA in graphic design from UCF and eventually made her way to the West Coast.

Breeze

From a (pilfered) interview on etsy, used here with Yellena's permission:
What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? How and why did you make it?

When I was seven years old, I was in a city-wide competition to do a drawing that had a '21st-century' theme. I drew a bunch of robots wearing aprons and baking cookies. I wish I still had that drawing. It took second place.

Magic

What inspires you? Where do your ideas come from?

I think that my works come from a desire to put something in front of myself that I would really want to look at later. Inspiration is everywhere: the works of other artists, books, design blogs, catalogs, my husband, my sister (danca dot etsy dot com), my friends, vintage patterns, fine-point pens, velvet paper, felt, deep-sea creatures, Julie Mehretu, music, cacti, moss, wallpaper, micro-cosmos, macro-cosmos, pebbles, plants, animals, the universe. That's about it.

What are your favorite materials?

Pens, inks, markers, good quality paper. I also love to work with acrylics. I could spend hours in an art supply store, just touching everything.

Allusion

:yellena's shop, blog, gallery

o + m feature: leigh wells

2008-02-13T20:23:00.003-05:00

During her successful career as a commercial artist in New York and California, Leigh Wells simultaneously created an entirely separate body of personal work "exploring complexity and the unknown in the physical world, human life and culture, with an interest in attempts by science, religion and history to address these issues."

With inspiration as diverse as scientific diagramming, early Chinese ceramics, theoretical physics and extreme religious beliefs, Wells transforms her materials—gouache, acrylic, graphite, collage and found materials—into fascinating and beautiful abstractions of tangled strands, shadow objects and cosmic conglomerations that swirl together to form a dynamic whole.

I've had this grouping of Wells's work waiting in the wings (how's that for an alliterative run?) for some time. I thought to pull them out and put them up after recently spotting a Wells painting at sfgirlbybay—one I'd not seen before. There's something about the combination of contained chaos, underlying calligraphic form, Wells's wit and her judicious use of color and emphatic use of red that makes my heart beat a little faster.

:leigh wells

charles and ray go postal

2008-01-22T21:53:00.001-05:00

In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored this summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.

Charles and Ray achieved their monumental success by approaching each project the same way: Does it interest and intrigue us? Can we make it better? Will we have "serious fun" doing it?

They loved their work, which was a combination of art and science, design and architecture, process and product, style and function. "The details are not details," said Charles. "They make the product."

A problem-solver who encouraged experimentation among his staff, Charles once said his dream was "to have people working on useless projects. These have the germ of new concepts."

Their own concepts evolved over time, not overnight. As Charles noted about the development of the Molded Plywood Chairs, "Yes, it was a flash of inspiration," he said, "a kind of 30-year flash."

With these two, one thing always seemed to lead to another. In the early 1940s, when Charles Eames was working on MGM set designs, he would return to the small apartment where he and Ray were experimenting with wood-molding techniques that would have profound effects on the design world. Their revolutionary work in molded plywood led to their breakthrough work in molded fiberglass seating. These discoveries led to a commission from the U.S. Navy in 1942 to develop plywood splints, stretchers and glider shells molded under heat and pressure.

After World War II, they adapted the technology to create inexpensive, high-quality chairs that could be mass-produced. The process eliminated the extraneous wood needed to connect the seat with the back, which reduced the weight and visual profile of the chair and established a basis for modern furniture design.

A magazine contest led to their highly innovative "Case Study" house. Their love of photography led to film making, including a huge seven-screen presentation at the Moscow World's Fair in 1959, in a dome designed by their friend and colleague, Buckminster Fuller. Graphic design led to showroom design, toy collecting to toy inventing. And a wooden plank contraption, rigged up by their friend, director Billy Wilder for taking naps, led to their acclaimed chaise design.

A design critic once said that this extraordinary couple "just wanted to make the world a better place." That they did. They also made it a lot more interesting.

:design museum; usps.

all that glitters is silver

2008-01-18T08:28:00.001-05:00

"In everything he loved magnificently lavish abundance," wrote 17th-century chronicler, the Count of Saint-Simon of France's notoriously bling-bling Sun King, Louis XIV.

From man-size silver candelabras to 770-pound silver tables and 930-pound silver mirrors, Louis XIV's chambers at the Versailles Chateau have been redecorated for a spell to serve as a reminder of the extravaganza of silver celebrated across Europe at the time.

Titled "When Versailles Was Furnished in Silver", the exhibition runs through March 9 and brings together 200 massive pieces of silverwork gathered from the collections of European royalty, a third of them from Denmark. The display design and concept is by interior designer Jacques Garcia.

"This is the first exhibition ever in the king's apartment," says Beatrix Saule, Versailles' chief curator. "It will also be the last as there'll never be anything else grand enough to place there. Our aim was to show why European royalty and visitors would rave after seeing Versailles' silver furnishings."

The silver cabinets, stools, chandeliers -- and even an indoor fountain -- are on loan not only from Denmark's Rosenborg Castle but from England's Windsors, the Prince of Hanover's Marienburg castle, the Prussian Prince's Hohenzollern, Chatsworh in Devonshire, the Esterhazy's Forchenstein, as well as from the Kremlin and the Dresden castle.

Silver, some of it from Peru, some mined in Europe, was viewed as the most prestigious metal of those times, said Saule. "Louis XIV wanted his silver to serve his image," she said. The silver pieces of furniture, so heavy they had to be carried by several men, were a sign of his power. They had to be the most beautiful, the most numerous, the most modern.

Over some two decades Louis XIV had his silver metal turned, for the first time, into very massive works of art by the finest silver-workers available, working off designs often penned by official painter Le Brun. The pieces initially travelled with the court, wrapped in leather. But when Louis XIV moved to his just-finished palace at Versailles in 1682, the silver furniture and silver tableware graced his chambers. A one-ton silver balustrade was placed around the royal bed (good night, Irene).

As reports of the opulence of the Versailles court spread across Europe, making it a benchmark of lavish living, the fashion for silver furnishings took off in other European courts, many made in the southern German city of Augsburg, some in solid metal, others plated.

The exhibition, lit by candlelight to evoke the three weekly soirees of 1,000 people hosted by the king through the long winter months, conjures up the magnificence of the court, its wining, dining and its games. But the Sun King's silver period was short-lived. Faced by war against the Augsburg coalition of countries in 1689, and short on cash, Louis XIV coolly decided to melt the furniture down to fund his troops. Estimated as having cost 10 million pounds -- the currency at the time -- to produce, the king hoped to raise six million, but actually received only two million pounds from the molten metal. This never-before-never-again exhibition brings together many of the pieces that were spared Louis' desperate efforts to refinance his troubled monarchy.

:versailles, trekearth

mad about mad men

2008-01-15T19:38:00.001-05:00

I'm surprised that those of you (you are many) with a predilection for all things mid-mod haven't yet posted about this terrific series. Perhaps you young people aren't inclined to watch AMC? Perhaps you've got a post buried somewhere and I haven't yet discovered it? Don't know. But I predict that this show—with its star, Jon Hamm—is going to rock the cazbah at upcoming awards events (or...er...announcements).

So forget for a moment that Mad Men is the best new thing on TV. What really fuels the series is pure, undiluted mid-century Manhattan Glamour. With its intoxicating styling and set design, Mad Men is a super-crisp reflection of what many New Yorkers think of as their own personal alternate universe, a place where men wear fedoras and lipstick leaves dark stamps on everything it encounters. The show is heaven for design geeks and retro romantics alike.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm - pictured just below) is an icon of male confidence—a cynic with smarts who, like so many New Yorkers, has erased his own history and learned to control the city that would swallow him up. Each day, he dominates a midtown playground, one outfitted with eight-martini lunches. Unlike, say, Entourage, Mad Men is willing to acknowledge its rat pack’s ugly streak (Don's casual insensitivity to his wife tops the list of his ugly). But thank heaven for decent character development.

Mary Corey, a lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles who specializes in post-World War II intellectual and cultural history, said Mad Men is a dead-on depiction of the era, with its vast inequities between the sexes. “It is at the very moment that the party is almost over for American men,” she said. “It’s extremely accurate — the sadness and loneliness of the women.”

Professor Corey described the era as a “roiling mess” about to explode. “The show explains why the ’60s had to happen, because it can’t stay like that,” she said. “The surface tension is too profound.”

Bonus: A bit of John Hamm's backstory (if you don't already want to know something about this guy, give it time):

“Nothing [in Hollywood] happens without incredible luck,” says Hamm, 36, “being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of what you have.” Times were hard (until relatively recently!) for Hamm, but he was used to it. His mother died when he was 10. His father followed 10 years later. “What my mother left me was a trust that was used to pay for my high school and a little bit for college,” he says. “And my father had nothing when he passed away. My mother—it sounds very Dickensian and romantic—but my mother’s dying wish was that I go to this particular private [high school], John Burroughs School in St. Louis because friends had gone there. I have to say it was the single most profound, resonating decision ever made in my life. It wasn’t made by me, but it’s what every mother should want for her child.”

Hamm went on to finish college with a major in English. “By the time I graduated college I managed to talk them into giving me a theater scholarship and then into hiring me to do plays ... I went back to my old high school and said, 'You’re the reason I am the person I am today and I would like to inspire other people in the way this place has inspired me.' They thought it was a good idea, and I went back and taught school there for a year under the person who had taught me acting.”

It was after he’d resolved that debt that he decided to take the tumble into show biz. “I thought, 'If I don’t do it now I’m never going to do it.' For me, I think, the idea of not doing this was way more terrifying than doing it. I couldn’t imagine the soul-rushing regret of not giving it a shot. And even had I never gotten a job and never gotten a career or any of it, I would’ve said, 'You know what? At least I was the man in the arena, at least I threw it out there and gave it a shot. I had my opportunities and I tried.'”

You go, Jon.

:amc

neue galerie: klimt retrospective

2007-12-15T15:57:00.001-05:00

"Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections,” with eight paintings and more than 120 drawings by the controversial artist, is on view at the Neue Galerie through June 2008. The exhibition also features a reconstruction, with original furnishings, of the receiving parlor from the second Klimt studio.

The show is the first museum retrospective of the work of Gustav Klimt ever held in the United States (I find this hard to believe). Klimt was little known in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. In the decades immediately following his death, there was virtually no American interest in the artist. His reputation gradually began to grow in the 1960s, with Klimt eventually reaching cult status.

You'll enjoy Michael Kimmelman's fascinating article, published in The Times last year:

Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer...is now aptly installed like a trophy head above the mantelpiece in Mr. Lauder’s Neue Galerie for German and Austrian art. Jon Stewart was joking on “The Daily Show” the other night about what that little green patch in the corner of the picture must be worth. You can’t buy publicity like that.

Well, maybe Mr. Lauder could. The portrait cost him the equivalent of the combined gross domestic products of Kiribati and São Tomé and Principe.

It’s a large, hallucinatory square of spectacular gold filigree. Adele looks almost as if she has inserted her head into one of those carnival cutouts, her thin face partly cast in shadow, obscured by the glare. Her lips are parted, eyelids heavy, cheeks pink. The eyes are two big, brown almonds. The overstuffed headrest of her chair makes a halo of beetle-wing delicacy. Monogrammed, her gown undulates with gently raised letters.

And that green patch Mr. Stewart likes so much is a glimpse of emerald floor, thrusting the picture into depth. The coup de grâce is a spider web of hands, a classic Klimt touch of decadence, clasped so that one wrist bends at a rakish right angle.

She’s half queen, half Vegas showgirl. The perfect New Yorker.

It would be churlish of art lovers in the city not to thank Mr. Lauder for the portrait that for decades was a Viennese civic symbol. Its passage, there to here, is quite a saga. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish industrialist, commissioned Klimt to paint his wife, twice. Klimt obliged, so the story goes, by making her his mistress. Public-spirited, she willed her art to Austria. Then she died of meningitis, at 43, in 1925.

Ferdinand had to flee the Nazis 13 years later. They seized the family’s paintings; the family castle in Bohemia went to Reinhard Heydrich, the murderer of Wannsee; the family home in Vienna went to the Austrian national railway, which shipped Jews to the camps; and the diamond choker that Adele is wearing in the portrait went to Hermann Goering for his wife. Hitler apparently balked at acquiring the family porcelain. Too expensive, he said.

And then, for more than 60 years, the Austrian government refused to return the paintings to the family, although Ferdinand had redone Adele’s will. Led by his niece, Maria Altmann, now 90 and living in Los Angeles, the Bloch-Bauer heirs finally won a court battle in January.

In a nod to the city where she settled (her lawyer, by the way, is the grandson of another exile in Hollywood, Arnold Schoenberg), Mrs. Altmann lent the pictures to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in April. Meanwhile, Mr. Lauder was negotiating the purchase of Adele, and arranging for this show to stop here.

It includes the second Adele, painted in 1912. No longer gold and Byzantine with Egyptian flourishes, instead flowery, sketchier and brightly colored, like a Japanese print, she wears a halo made out of the brim of a huge black hat. Her dress is high-collared, not off the shoulder, her body face-forward and erect, a slender, sinuous Coke bottle shape, more chaste than carnal. This older Adele gazes at some spot just over our heads — she’s still regal but less Vegas. More Aubrey Beardsley via Edith Wharton.

The other Bloch-Bauer pictures are landscapes; the earliest one, from 1903, of a birch forest, is exquisite: an archetypal Klimt mix of uncanny naturalism and geometric abstraction. Its forest floor makes a mosaic of Pointillist dots, broken up by irregular vertical stripes of perfectly real trees receding into idyllic space. For Klimt, bodies were erotic, nervous subjects, ripe for pornography; landscapes were Edenic.

The Bloch-Bauers also acquired a picture he painted of an apple tree and an unfinished jigsaw-puzzle view of houses on the shore of the Attersee, where he spent summer vacations. Neither is great. But like the two Adele portraits, they raise the question whether, had he not died at 55, in 1918, Klimt would have ended up a pure abstractionist like Mondrian.

The four pictures are on the market, Mrs. Altmann has said. She and her relatives are cashing in, which is their right. They offered the Austrian government a chance to buy the whole collection for about the money that Mr. Lauder reportedly spent on Adele.

The Austrians balked. Too expensive, they said.

When the Metropolitan spent $5.5 million on Velazquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja in 1970, it was a scandal; now it seems cheap for one of the great paintings in the country. The sums that places like the Museum of Modern Art squander on mediocre buildings, which become obsolete the moment they open, are scandalous.

The art market operates according to its own logic, which may have nothing to do with the quality of the art. Value is not price — whether the issue is a Klimt, or a ballplayer, or a chief executive paid millions of dollars, who runs his company into the ground.

But Oscar Wilde had it right about cynics, price and value. It’s only natural to play the skeptic when the art world is a circus of profligacy, drunk with cash, and when dimwitted speculators make headlines, wasting fortunes on bad art. Who knows what the most money paid in private for a painting really is: maybe $135 million. For that amount, assuming it is what Mr. Lauder paid, his portrait of Adele, a hedonistic masterpiece, will be talked about in terms of how many lives might have been saved or how many lifted from poverty for this sum.

As for the border separating public interest from private enterprise, it has never been fixed. The Neue Galerie is Christie’s annex now, exhibiting paintings for sale ($15 general admission, no children under 12 allowed), whose display is also a public service.

Someday Adele will be seen for just what she is: beautiful, a gift to the city. And $135 million may even come to look like a bargain.

Besides paintings and drawings, the exhibition contains rare vintage documentary material, ranging from letters, photographs, and personal effects, such as the artist’s cufflinks and seal (both designed by the architect Josef Hoffmann), to the only known surviving example of the painting smock that Klimt wore.

As a special addition to the exhibition, the Neue Galerie is presenting the re-created interior—based on original floor plans and a 1912 photograph—of the receiving room from Klimt’s studio at Josefstädter Strasse 21, Vienna, which was occupied by the artist from 1892 until the summer of 1912. The display includes the original furnishings designed by Josef Hoffmann, executed by the Wiener Werkstätte.

On the lower level of the museum is a display of children’s drawings created by students in Vienna, ages 10 to 14. The drawings are based on the departure from Austria of the Klimt painting Adele Bloch-Bauer I. They are presented at the Neue Galerie under the title “Adele Comes to America.”

:neue galerie, 1048 fifth avenue, at 86th street; (212) 628-6200 or the neuegalerie website.

feature: julie neill illuminations

2007-11-20T12:58:00.001-05:00

Each Julie Neill creation is at once elegant, dazzling and completely unique – much like the designer herself. Many of Julie’s fixtures and furnishings are even named after the person for whom they were designed. I caught up with Julie at her shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans to discuss her work and inspirations.

How did you become a designer?
I think I became a designer when I was six years old! One day I was looking at the bookshelf in my room and realized that it was screaming at me to become a doll’s four-story townhouse. I consider that my first decorating project. I’ve had a lifelong love of beauty and beautiful things.

How did your career develop?
I received a Fine Arts degree from Agnes Scott College outside of Atlanta. After that, I pursued a career as a painter. But I found painting on canvas very confining and I began painting on other things such as walls, fabrics and furniture. I started selling my painted pieces as well as doing freelance decorative painting.

After my two children were born, my pediatrician asked me to do some decorative painting at his home; he liked my work so much that he asked me to help him decorate the entire house, and this led to other decorating projects.

As a decorator, the most frustrating thing was finding good lighting, especially chandeliers. New Orleans is full of wonderful craftsmen, so I asked around and found some talented, artistic craftsmen who helped me create special pieces for the special people for whom I was decorating.

Tell us about the names of your products.
Every piece that you see on my website was custom designed for a particular client and then added to my line. That's why most pieces have the names they do - they're usually named after the person they were first made for. If someone gets more than one piece, we name them after one of their friends or a member of their family. I’m pleased that my business has that personal touch, and that I get to continue the tradition of making a well-designed, handcrafted product. (Find photos and names of Julie's products right here.)

I’ve just begun making my pieces available “off the rack”, so I can offer my line to a much wider market. But I’ll continue to make custom sizes and finishes available.

What do you like most about your studio/workspace?
I opened my shop on Magazine Street in 2000. It’s a great place - a 120-year-old house with our showroom in the front and workroom in the back. I like working in such a gorgeous historic New Orleans building. It has 14-foot ceilings with old cracking plaster medallions - we hang our chandeliers from them. The other thing I love about my studio is that it is usually occupied by very creative and talented people who work with me to turn my design inspirations into a reality. Each person is a true character so that it feels like I’m at a party all day long. It’s a great environment for creative give-and-take, and the process always produces something unique and beautiful.

And I love being near so many antique shops! When I need inspiration in creating our signature handpainted finishes, I just take a walk and soak up all the colors and patinas of the very old places and pieces that inspire me.

Who/what/where are your greatest design influences?
Far and away, the city of New Orleans: my home, my heart, my native city. This wonderful place has the greatest influence on my work. New Orleans is a city of artists; it’s an antique city that’s beautiful and decaying and intense and European and peopled by an amazing array of characters. The beauty of the architecture and the elegance of the old homes inspires me in every way. It’s a city of decoration and grandeur that’s tempered by a patina of decadence, a city that thrives on celebration, a city that stimulates all your senses. In this place, there is no way to escape being inspired.

What four (or five or six) people (artists, historical figures, people you know) would you like to have as dinner guests?
Mario Fortuny for his multi-disciplinary art and design genius, but mainly because I am completely wowed by his fabric designs. Caio Fonseca for his many layered and simple/complex dynamic paintings. Richard Serra for the monumental simplicity of his sculpture. Gerrie Bremmerman because she is the goddess of interior design in New Orleans. Patty Griffin because when she sings, I am moved to tears. Miranda Lake because her wonderful encaustic collage pieces poke me in the soul. My son Henry and my daughter Isabelle because they love to party with interesting people.

What is your most valued possession?
Right now I’d have to say my most valued possession is my beloved 1880 house in the historic Garden District where I live with my two children and my three cats. We all agree that this house is a treasure and we absolutely enjoy living here.

Tell us about your connection to New Orleans.
I am a third generation New Orleanian. It is my home and my heart. When you are from New Orleans, you are not like other people. New Orleans people love their homes and they love to decorate, and they decorate to please themselves. New Orleans people are easy going and love to party and to just visit. They are passionate and often favor thinking with their hearts and not their heads. This is part of what makes New Orleans special.

This wonderful city was truly knocked over by Hurricane Katrina. We will never be the same. But we are rebuilding and remaking and reinventing and renewing ourselves. This is a city that doesn’t give up.

Which products from your line do you have in your home? Do you have a favorite?
I have several pieces which I have designed for my home. Most of them are custom pieces that I’ve had made for myself. My favorite piece is my Isabelle chandelier because it was one of my first designs, and because it embodies everything that’s important to me - it’s classical in form, its details are simplified and modern, it has a certain lighthearted elegance and it’s hand made - it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it gives a sense of celebration to the room and the people in it. It is also named after my daughter.

:julie neill website and contact

orange underground: clue number two

2007-11-10T10:16:00.001-05:00

So far, I have two responses to the "location identification" query I posed yesterday. Answers (from readers who chose to e me rather than post a comment - believe me, I understand) are:

Budapest.

Paris.

Neither is correct. A worthy effort, nonetheless.

So have another go at it. Here's a second orange image from the same underground system. Anyone? Anyone?

(Oh. Two more. São Paolo (cool). And Berlin. Again, not correct - but I'm getting a hankering for travel. Keep trying. We'll give this a couple more days.)

:dianamuse

. . .

orange underground

2007-11-08T19:05:00.001-05:00

I spent about 30 seconds skulking around a favorite haunt looking for a nice bit of "orange artwork". Then it dawned on me to plumb the depths of my iPhoto archives. Man, there's a lot of great stuff down there. I gotta do me some excavatin'.

This one's a fave. (BTW, if anyone can guess the location, there's a prize for you. And, besides that, you'll really freak me out.)

:dianamuse

. . .

build-a-tree

2007-11-08T09:21:00.001-05:00

There's a pack of ten architecturally-endowed holiday greeting cards waiting for you at Jill Dryer's etsy digs right here. The face of the card features these delightful "trees of the architects" - the back is light blue and inside...b l a n k .

In her product description, Jill graciously offers a Who's Who refresher which includes the following backgrounders:

Zaha is a cool female architect from Iraq who won the Pritzker Prize (basically, the Oscar for architecture) a couple years ago.

Margaret McCurry is a lovely Chicago architect who works with her husband Stanley Tigerman.

Santiago designed the most recent Olympic Stadium, the Milwaukee Art Museum (which opens up like it has wings) as well as the Spire, a big high rise headed for Chicago.

My personal favorite? The FG, of course. How about you?

:jdryerart

. . .

offcuts

2007-11-02T08:13:00.000-04:00

Clever gift. Desktop accoutrement. Impromptu calling card.

Dauphine Press offers the wee Capriccio, the smallest of their Offcuts boxes. Each dainty box is filled with a beautifully cut stack of heavyweight cardstock, perfect for your mini musings or for a quick note-to-self. Hand covered in pages from vintage books cast off by local libraries, these boxes are part of a limited edition. Did I mention the price? A diminutive ten dollars.

But wait, there's more...

The Bagatelle is replete with two beautifully cut stacks of heavyweight cardstock, perfect for dispatching notes of distinction. Hand covered in sheets from vintage books, these boxes are part of a limited edition. A secret letterpress quote (I love that!) on the top card will inspire and enlighten you, as will Beth Nelson's original bird artwork which sits atop the opposite stack.

Offcuts, a bespoke line of paper goods was born of a collaboration between award-winning designer and artist Beth Nelson and Dauphine Press founder Trish Kinsella. Smart, spare and sustainable, this line of paper goods is dedicated to using materials already on hand in the Dauphine Press studio (yay!). The "offcuts" are derived from larger sheets of premium paper. Each Offcuts design repurposes this beautiful heavyweight card stock.

. . .

ink + wit = paper bliss

2007-10-05T17:19:00.000-04:00

I'm a complete nutball when it comes to gorgeous papers with great design and color. As for these adorables at ink + wit, I'll say this: Resistance. Is. Futile. I mean, the designs themselves convey a clear message of goodwill. Why wouldn't you order a batch of postcards to have at the ready and share the love?

Need an excuse for raiding this great online store? The start of fall is the perfect time to stock up on notecards and stationery, and to prep for all the gift cards and thank you notes ahead. And ink + wit's holiday postcards aren't just for Christmas & New Year - check out these stylish (yet spooky) black crows and spiders...

The next three are pure charm and delight. (And did I mention they're POSTCARDS! No envelopes! Loving that!)

:inkandwit

. . .

dianamuse feature: van gogh in new york

2007-09-28T13:47:00.001-04:00

"Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Émile Bernard" opens today at The Morgan Library and runs through January 6, 2008. From the Library's site: Painted with Words is a compelling look at Vincent van Gogh's correspondence to his young colleague Émile Bernard between 1887 and 1889. Van Gogh's words and sketches reveal his thoughts about art and life and communicate his groundbreaking work in Arles to his fellow painter. Unseen for nearly seventy years, and never before exhibited, the twenty letters document the close, vital friendship of the two artists.

Van Gogh's letters to Bernard reveal the tenor of their relationship. Van Gogh assumed the role of an older, wiser brother, offering praise or criticism of Bernard's paintings, drawings, and poems. At the same time the letters chronicle van Gogh's own struggles, as he reached his artistic maturity in isolation in Arles and St. Rémy. Throughout the letters are no less than twelve sketches by van Gogh meant to provide Bernard with an idea of his work in progress, including studies related to the paintings The Langlois Bridge, Houses at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries, The Sower, and View of Arles at Sunset.

To complement the letters, more than twenty paintings, drawings, and watercolors by van Gogh and Bernard are on view. These works document their dynamic exchange of ideas—among them are paintings and drawings discussed and sketched by van Gogh in his letters to Bernard. The works of art are drawn mostly from collections outside of New York, and feature numerous works not recently shown in the U.S.

I imagine that some of the art is from the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (haven't been there for - sheesh! - 15 years or so.) Beyond his art, van Gogh's relationships offer such insight into his complex character and motivations. I'll be sure to report back once I've seen the show!

. . .

wowzah

2007-09-26T09:05:00.001-04:00

Form. Color. Pattern. Done well, they can inspire throughout the day - and beyond.

:flask via sfgirlbybay
:buttons via howaboutorange

. . .

letterpress: whimsy & charm at klugapress

2007-09-20T08:44:00.000-04:00

A cow. Crying over spilt milk. A cat. On a cat swing. How adorable are these?

Look for these papers (and others, including Duck Soup!) at klugapress. The Kluga Press philosophy: In an era of "the digital world," letterpress cards convey an intimate and personal style that cannot be achieved with commercially produced cards or the casual "e-card". Beautifully letterpressed onto high-quality papers using our antique press, these cards will impress and delight with their whimsical images and luxurious tactile quality.

. . .

from mayfair to mais oui

2007-09-19T10:19:00.001-04:00

If only for the fab green cover, this delightful book is worth your time. But the filling...yum.

After working in the fashion industry for ten years, Rose Carrarini founded London's renowned delicatessen Villandry in 1988. This 'epicerie fine' in Marylebone inspired many other food places in London. In 2002, along with her husband Jean-Charles, she opened Rose Bakery, a small bakery, shop and restaurant in Paris, where she continues to practice the art of simple food made with care and attention to flavor. In recent years, she opened the sister restaurant, Rose Bakery, on the top floor of the fashion center Dover Street Market in Mayfair, London.

The exquisite photographs capture the beauty of the mundane goings on of the Rose Bakery. The author's story is a tale of a woman who loves food and people. Rose Carranini's sense of purpose and commitment to quality and sustainability is impressive and her affection for her patrons is palpable. And the recipes themselves are superb! Ms. (Mme.?) Carranini generously reveals her professional (and life) secrets: always buy fresh, seasonal and local; use organic and sustainable when possible and, remember, the most important ingredient is love.

. . .

singular sensation

2007-09-15T13:01:00.001-04:00

These 'tulips' look as if they're in a two-line dance revue. The image is delightful and I thought it a great way to say, "happy weekend!"

. . .

please be seated

2007-09-13T18:15:00.000-04:00

Now that we've broken on through to the other side of Labor Day, returned from oh-the-places-you'll-go travels and taken on some new, exciting ventures, it's time to burrow deep into work and resume the pace of everyday life. And my bloggies need some attention, too. They've been abandoned for a solid two weeks or more.

The lovely chair (above) is probably familiar to those who visit this blog. It graces the cover of Florence de Dampierre's richly photographed and well-written homage to the chair, Chairs: A History. Many of you probably have this book in your library.

And now...pop quiz! Without peeking, do you know which chair appears on the BACK cover?

(Jeopardy music.)

I'll tell you. It's the perfect juxtaposition: the Diamond Chair (Harry Bertoia, of course) designed for Knoll.

So, what to put with the parcel-gilt armchair?? Hmm. How about this...a Louis XIV medal cabinet. Oak veneered with tortoiseshell, brass, and ebony; gilt-bronze mounts; sarrancolin des Pyrenées marble top. Circa 1700, attributed to André-Charles Boulle (photo courtesy of The Getty Center Los Angeles).

When I was growing up, we had Boulle furniture in our living room. I was very fond of two pieces, a tall single-door marble-top cabinet and an exquisite commode. (The design of the table was quite delicate, very unlike the grand, almost overwhelming piece I've shown here.) I loved to study the intricate brass & tortoiseshell marquetry and run my hands over the varied textures of wood, shell and metal; I spent hours at this - the patterns are all but imprinted on my brain. And the gorgeous, elaborate ormolu mounts? To die. My father purchased these beautiful pieces at the Butterfield & Butterfield auction house in San Francisco, probably in the late 50s or early 60s.

Here's another example:

For those new to Boulle as well as aficionados, here's a bit of background:

André Charles Boulle, a French cabinetmaker, the master of a distinctive style of furniture, much imitated, for which his name has become a synonym for the practice of veneering furniture with marquetry of tortoiseshell, pewter, and inlaid with arabesques of gilded brass - and often utilized ormolu mounts. (Ormolu is an imitation of gold used to ornament furniture and moldings.)

Although he did not invent the technique, Boulle was its greatest practitioner and lent his name to its common name: boulle work.

André was awarded the title of master cabinetmaker before 1666. In 1672 he was admitted to a group of skilled artists maintained by Louis XIV in the Louvre palace, and thereafter he devoted himself to creating costly furniture and objects of art for the king and court. That same year he also received a warrant signed by the Queen, giving him the added title of 'bronzier' as well as 'ebeniste'. (Interesting, no?)

Boulle's pieces, having in general the character of Louis XIV, specialized in the inlaying of ebony with precious woods and mother-of-pearl. Large areas were covered with tortoiseshell, inlaid with arabesques of gilded brass. He was born in 1642 and died in 1732.

Today, Boulle is manufactured from PVC and copper instead of tortoiseshell as follows: Two plates of Copper and PVC which is colored in drawings of red and black are hand cut simultaneously in the specific Boulle shapes, and are then intermingled and inlaid complementary to each other (like a puzzle) in two items i.e. PVC inside copper in item one and copper inside PVC in item two. The surrounding frames are either black or mahogany.

And here we have some simple illustrations that represent this particular 'Louis' period - the XVth, to be clear. I found these sketches at an online tutorial. If you want the link, just let me know - I've yet to figure out how to embed links in text (my tech weaknesses are an embarrassment to me.)

Chair and cabinet could co-exist in a room of their own - though they'd be right at home here in this Met period room. (Quiz query #2: What is the period represented in this period room?)

Ah. It's good to be back.

. . .

break on through (to the other side)

2007-08-29T07:45:00.000-04:00

This fantazmagorical image is and was (note past & present tense) a fundamental influence on my pink&orange obsession. And it will be (note future tense) the centerpiece of an ode to the age of aquarius--once we get past some big end-of-summer projects and trips (the sort that involve luggage and travel) of our own.
:photo courtesy of moma

I just can't help myself. These little beauties belong here (photos from a recent walk to Central Park)...

...as well as this handmade wallpaper from Dunford Wood.

. . .

under the influence

2007-08-26T08:37:00.000-04:00

:whitney museum of art

The two images just above are card-carrying treasures that I picked up at The Whitney this weekend. The Summer of Love exhibit is a total groove-fest. Inspired me to get off the dime and start writing and posting about San Francisco in the 60s (or stories of my youth) and other tales of the many, varied early influences on my aesthetics.

Hope you've all had a great weekend.

. . .

featured letterpress: roni gross

2007-08-21T11:39:00.000-04:00

:ronigrossdesign.com

Roni Gross Designs utilizes the loveliest ornamental motifs in their letterpress offerings. Their goal is "to get a sense of [the client's] taste and the vision you have about your event." If you are in the [NYC] metropolitan area, they can set up an appointment to begin evolving a design. If you are outside of the area, Roni Gross will work with you via e- or snail-mail. They also offer a free three-design sample package. Check out this stylish hometown studio!

. . .

ornate simplicity

2007-08-20T15:33:00.000-04:00

:domestic.fr

Add some flair (if only temporarily) to a wall devoid of personality. Trot out this beautifully-designed (vinyl, removeable) wall art for a special fete. When you need to get back to staring at blank walls - presto! It disappears! (I should just order this already and give it a try. I think I will!) Available at domestic.fr
. . .

pisanka: mixed-media series

2007-08-17T13:15:00.001-04:00

:dianamuse

I recently pulled out an image from a collage-series I developed this spring. These colors never fail to delight and amuse me. And the egg, although an ancient symbol of spring, reminds me of rebirth and renewal year-round. So, I ask, why not today?

And here's some info (more than you need, surely) on the origins of eggart. The art of the decorated egg in Ukraine (pysanka)--pisanka in Russia--dates back to ancient times. As in many ancient cultures, Ukrainians worshipped a sun god (Dazhboh). The sun was important - it warmed the earth and thus was a source of all life. Eggs decorated with nature symbols became an integral part of spring rituals, serving as benevolent talismans.
In pre-Christian times, Dazhboh was one of the main deities in the Slavic pantheon; birds were the sun god's chosen creations, for they were the only ones who could get near him. Humans could not catch the birds, but they did manage to obtain the eggs the birds laid. Thus, the eggs were magical objects, a source of life. The egg was also honored during rite-of-spring festivals––it represented the rebirth of the earth. The long, hard winter was over; the earth burst forth and was reborn just as the egg miraculously burst forth with life. The egg, therefore, was believed to have special powers.

. . .

word wednesday

2007-08-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

I never travel without my notebook.
One should always have something
sensational to read in the train.
~ Oscar Wilde

. . .

calligraphy tuesday

2007-08-14T15:30:00.000-04:00

:andreas dorfey at kalligraphie-alpin

. . .

vintage spencerian nib boxes

2007-08-13T11:09:00.000-04:00

:hans.presto.tripod

. . .

ahhhh...the weekend

2007-08-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

:moderndose

. . .

letterpress gratitude

2007-08-10T10:52:00.000-04:00

: greenwich letterpress

letterpress style

2007-08-08T10:47:00.001-04:00

:sugarbeanpress

letterpress bliss

2007-08-07T07:59:00.000-04:00

:bdesignshop

line & color: perfect

2007-08-02T08:27:00.001-04:00

:reprodepot

the livin' is easy

2007-08-01T14:40:00.001-04:00

:dianamuse

:dianamuse
From our journey to Central Park this morning. The photos (there are many) warrant a mini-slideshow of their own, but this flowers-on-flower shot deserves to be HERE, where orange is IT!

what is it about pink and orange that just sends me?

2007-08-01T09:42:00.000-04:00

:reprodepot
:cecilyink

I know the genesis of this particular obsession; that's the topic of other posts.

enjoy a little nightcap

2007-07-28T21:31:00.001-04:00

I might take up drinking if I could carry my hooch around in this adorable, stylish little flask.

:howaboutorange.com

once upon a dream

2007-07-27T21:46:00.000-04:00

:tricia guild

For you, my dear

2007-07-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

Beautiful Sunday

2007-07-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

:dianamuse
I removed the photo of Severus Snape from this blog. Will post it elsewhere. Chose this as replacement.

Attachment d'objets

2007-05-17T07:17:00.000-04:00

Beautiful objects, objects endowed with personal meaning, can be the source of great comfort and inspiration--reminders of things past that continue with us.

Isn't she lovely?

2007-05-13T16:26:00.000-04:00

form over function or other way round?

Where mind and beauty

2007-05-11T06:27:00.001-04:00

come together