123 Bench

These pieces are a complete "happy accident" from the Walker Evans work. All three chairs were too small for the cafe chair project.

The Chairs are Finished!

Alright, about a month after I thought I would get done here are the next ten chairs for the cafe. Each one was rescued from a yard sale or a antique shop where it sat by itself. We re-worked them where they needed help and painted them with the Mythic Paint from Hattiesburg. Nels Long assisted me in the fabrication. Now to get the building done.

Back in Brooklyn

We got a wonderful call this week from Sarah Giannelli at Celebrate Brooklyn, the awesome summer music venue in Prospect Park. The members tent that we designed is going to be used for year number three! The Tyvek panels that we laser cut were developed and made by Rod Guajardo and the leave and stick patterning were developed by Dave Mans, both Pratt students in 2006 during the original installation. It was a great collaboration and I am excited that a space we conceived of is still in the public realm. Go see it this summer, the concert series is the best; www.briconline.org/celebrate

Getting To the Fun Part

Today we are getting our electrical inspection. Which is very glamorous benchmark for us. So I have spent some time just running through some images in my head about how the interior will get put together. The floor is the that beautiful slate blue penny round, the base of the chairs are that color as to almost disappear into the floor. The right wall is brick which we will paint a fresh white (sorry guys-child of the 70"s can not do exposed brick.) The counter will be clad in old doors and composed as if a Mondrian painting-painted blue as will the back wall. The ceiling will continue the brick wall with white paint and the GIANT skylight will be finished out with white paint. I think the little alcove to the storage and rest room will be a color to match one of the tile on the tables. This will be a reality soon!

Drapery work for 305 GS

These are sketches from last year that I got out to look at for ideas for 305 GS. We are desperate need of drapery and I am trying to see where we could put very quite linen panels and where we could put some of these "drapery pieces". Always good to go back to your old notebooks.

The first stage of Little Building and the middle.....

Little Building Cafe had been zooming along for the last week. We are waiting for electrical inspections, skylights to finish the roof and many other things that keep us from the 75% finished mark. So I thought I would gather together the first images that I had when we started the project. These are basically from my sketch book; they are the colors that I think the interior will be, the ideas for T-shirts, attempts at what the name might be-ultimately it became Little Building Cafe and the beginning of a materials palette. This was a fun stage of the project...unfortunately I am in the hard stage now.

Getting to Buildings

The first project that we are developing here in Starkville is the renovation of this building into a cafe and apartment. This is one block from the main street and we wanted a project that reflected our commitment to urban living and the sustainable potential of living in a small town. In a month we will open Little Building Cafe which will have coffee, muffins,"cat head' biscuits and lunch items all featuring local produce and products. We have designed the building with Solar hot water and have tried to the best of our ability to use local products in the construction of the project. We have used an "within arms length attitude" about how the building gets made-well you have seen the re-worked chairs. I will walk through many of the finishing decisions that effected the graphics package and the furniture program. More tomorrow.....

Building Women

Last week one of the high points of being in New York was going to the opening of my friend Catherine Morris's show at The Sculpture Center in Long Island City. www.sculpture-center.org The best piece was this Alice Aycock stair. This is a series of Land Art work that was done by women in the 70"s. It was especially important to me because when I was first studying architecture these woman were the only examples of woman building/making things that we had. It's a wonderful show,check it out.



http://artforum.com/picks/section=nyc#picks20172

Reclaimer le Jardin - two

One of the things that is constant in my work is that I always research the history of the object or the narrative of the piece (sometimes I create the history or the narrative)
The sofas are really fascinating they are all made by a 19th century New York cabinet maker named John Jelliff
www.johnjelliff.com. I am draw to these pieces mostly because of the stories that seem to be embeded in the object. The arms always have a face of a goddess modeled off of the famous singer Jenni Lind and the other high points of the sofas seem to have classical motifs that travel through the object. They seem to be conceive of much like a classical piece of architecture.

Before the After: Reclaimer le jardin

Back from Brooklyn in the next week I will give a report on the opening, some great art and architecture and upcoming projects from us! For now I will show you my latest obsession. On a trip to Aberdeen Ms. this last fall I developed a deep crush on these sofas in Ms Linda Dodd's antique shop. I had thought that a client would buy one and then I thought; "I love the sofas, I want a sofa." I also am getting very excited about embroidering the upholstery on re-worked furniture. So I am embarking on a new project were I am embroidering Marie Antoinette's gardens (or my interpretation) on one of the sofas and Thomas Jefferson's gardens on another. Here are the sofas and a test run on the garden "drawings" and two books that have been big inspirations.