C&B's comrade Ghislaine Vinas has hit a home run with the apartment that is the cover girl for
Interior Design Magazine
this month- Vinas has an uncanny ability to mess the "store bought" with artisan craft and custom work-providing clients with a sense of place and livability.
Bravo Miss G! And I will be stealing the dipped upholstery idea.......
Image by Eric Laignel
Well its hopping here in Mississippi. I am getting ready for not one but two shows this fall. I just found out that I get to participate in the very fun Motel Art Show in Oxford. This is one of the many art/craft/design constructs that the super talented Erin Austin Abbott master minds. Her day to day adventures include overseeing the very cute and can't wait to get there Amelia-the shop-rows of candy colored sodas, cupcakes, small delightful ceramics. Mad and I are going to have a blast!
Still unloading the mental bank from traveling this summer. The Cooper Hewitt is always a provocative stop for me. I wrote down in my notebook about these amazing "Lego like" pottery pieces by Dutch Phenom-Ineke Hans
.
Designed as components to suit the function they are a formal dream.....
It was my first visit to the National Portrait Gallery in DC and its a delight.
Not only can you visit the elegant portrait of Ben Franklin in his gray linen but you can see these highlights of modernism upstairs. First up is this Harry Bertoia Atomic Sculpture wall. This beautiful composition of brass and light reminds me of the Helfand studio walls and Thomas Jefferson's didatic front entry-who needs paintings on the wall when light, form and shadow can jump at you......
Caleb and I sent a good long time at the Cooper Hewitt yesterday. The Triennial always leaves me with the "I got to get out of here and work" feeling...but I stayed and got some good thoughts running through my head. I liked the Margret and Christine Werthein's Coral Reef Project
; mostly because of its none function-developed to create awareness and community. This crochet project is also plain beautiful.
Lighting is a tough design prospect. Function, 
price, beauty all play a part in what a designer would chose in a project. I actually always error on the side of 'it's simply great" and rely on other light sources for the function part. I think this piece is great. From South African design studio Mud Studio this "leaf pod" is made of many ceramic leaves. It would be a friend for life.
I saw an article in Elle Decor last night about Bauhaus artist Anni Albers and neatly tucked at the end was this 'washer" necklace. It reminded me of Charlotte Perriand's chrome ball necklace and other such-"make your own world" endeavors. Hum isn't that the difference from DIY and an designer/artist? An designer/artist touches everything rather than just on the weekends......
This work goes into the "man, I wish I had thought of that" folder. Not showing at ICFF is Chris Rucker, NYC furniture designer
. He does have a show at the Industry Gallery in D.C. that I would love to see. Elaine Louie wrote a short piece about his work in the Times and quiet frankly I think got it wrong. The base of his work is making minimal furniture works out of Strand board-a cheap sheathing material that you get a Home Depot. This material has NO structural integrity therefore he has to be VERY clever in its construction to get the piece to function. Louie just proclaimed it "like Donald Judd", a short answer to more complicated work. And as for me the packing blanket work is great.
ICFF this year is turning out to be like the High School reniuon you did not go to because you did not lose those 20 pounds. So many people that I have meet through Chairs and Buildings will be there. I got an announcement from Elodie Blanchard saying that she will have "large things,small things,to hang, to carry, to remember.." I love that you can see the way she thinks in her work. She is sitting in her studio, she thinks-"there are millions of rubber bands in the world-let's make something more special than just rubbers bands".......
and so a bowl is born-
There is a class in architecture school 
called "Fear of Wallpaper-recovery and control". I am graduate and I am happy to say I am seriously looking at the work of Madison and Grow as part of my 12 step program. Who can not love a body of work that identifies wallpaper as a material-see pattern titles like"Sunrise on Duck- cloth" and a company who uses Heidegger as a photo prop....Here is some super smart work.
There was a lot of great information available about the Make It Right work down in New Orleans last week. One project that got talked about was the Keiran Timberlake addition to the Make It Right sustainable community. Timberlake is a very bright fellow and said some very provocative things at the conference-"the Beaux Arts education is dead", we no longer need a single author for projects but a collective author....
This building will be one to watch as the 9th Ward grows into the single completely sustainble community in the U.S.
I am at a Architecture conference this weekend. And amidst some super seriousness I hope to see this building. Designed by Architect's architect Coleman Coker is raises the question why can not simple" stick" construction be molded into different forms. His Alligator house creates whole new possibilities......
I was feeling a little blue about design what I was interested in and how to put it forward in this lecture. Until I found some great work by the amazing Ilse Crawford. She curated an exhibition about water and this is an aquatic library that she devised. What a beautiful idea!
Caleb has been doing research on the work in the Netherlands that embraces the tenants of Architecture 2012. This is designer Jan Korbes who has some great work. This is a wall made out disused refrigerators and used as signage for a recycling plant. Smart because it has a real purpose......
One person I learned about while reading the Art Basil coverage is Julia Lohmann. I had of course seen her cow benches at MOMA and were not that interested but looking at her web site you see her process and her interest in materials. her work owes a lot to Eva Hesse and is akin visually to hot designer Neri Oxman. I find her authenticity, well authentic. Look up what this multiple study is from...but very beautiful.
I have been trying to sort out how disappointed I have been with the images coming out of Dutch Design Week as well as Art Basil/Miami. I know I should not try to critique virtually but as a teacher I am trying to figure it out. So I was very pleased to see this project by Maarten Baas in the New York Times this weekend. He torched the paneling for the wine cellar/dining room- this is an exciting extension of the torch work...didn't know it could move forward. Great.
My other inspiration treat was a new monograph about Patricia Urquiola, Spanish born-Milanese designer. Her book is very different from Hella Jongerius whose book is all process and Urquiola's is all glorious form! I really was taken with this rug project for Paola Lenti in 2005. I am really excited about both books and how I much I can learn from just looking at their work...happy holidays ME!
Back to ideas....I am not a shopper. I got myself this Hella Jongerius book recently to get me going for the next project. I am really impressed. The interview that accompanies the photos of working in her studio as well as exhibition examples is a wonderful jump start for thinking about teaching next term. On the subject of "non-design"; a trend I see in current student work,Jongerius contends,"Modesty in design, that's what its all about: not adding anything irrelevant."
.
-so a wonderful meal complete with funny kid stories becomes a studio visit. My best childhood friend is the very talented Karen Deans of WoodenTile. Her studio reveals some very sweet biographical notes-paint cans from chicory coffee=mama is from New Orleans.
Not only can you visit the elegant portrait of Ben Franklin in his gray linen but you can see these highlights of modernism upstairs. First up is this Harry Bertoia Atomic Sculpture wall. This beautiful composition of brass and light reminds me of the Helfand studio walls and Thomas Jefferson's didatic front entry-who needs paintings on the wall when light, form and shadow can jump at you......
price, beauty all play a part in what a designer would chose in a project. I actually always error on the side of 'it's simply great" and rely on other light sources for the function part. I think this piece is great. From South African design studio Mud Studio this "leaf pod" is made of many ceramic leaves. It would be a friend for life.
. He does have a show at the Industry Gallery in D.C. that I would love to see. Elaine Louie wrote a short piece about his work in the Times and quiet frankly I think got it wrong. The base of his work is making minimal furniture works out of Strand board-a cheap sheathing material that you get a Home Depot. This material has NO structural integrity therefore he has to be VERY clever in its construction to get the piece to function. Louie just proclaimed it "like Donald Judd", a short answer to more complicated work. And as for me the packing blanket work is great.
and so a bowl is born-
called "Fear of Wallpaper-recovery and control". I am graduate and I am happy to say I am seriously looking at the work of Madison and Grow as part of my 12 step program. Who can not love a body of work that identifies wallpaper as a material-see pattern titles like"Sunrise on Duck- cloth" and a company who uses Heidegger as a photo prop....Here is some super smart work.
This building will be one to watch as the 9th Ward grows into the single completely sustainble community in the U.S.
We visited our dear friend Serban Ionescu in Greenpoint at the first of the week. He gave us a tour of his most recent project- A Major and A Miner. An architectural puzzle for five people which resides in a loft space. Serban's partners in crime are Justin Smith, Jim Dietlein aka "The Objectionists" and building support from Narek Gevorgian and Brian Nemeth. Serban served some Polish pink tea-which I will always now associate with formal precision....
