"designer meets artisan"

Spotted on Style-Files, Claire Anne O'Brien knitted stools are all the rage. I love the scale difference from the bulky knitted seat to the delicate legs. Now for us middle aged types do stools really work in interiors? They are great vehicles for ideas but are they used?

Story building

This little lady has her dress on to go to Oxford in the morning for a
"One Night Stand at the Ole Miss Motel"-don't judge. I wanted to make a piece to talk about Sargent's Madame X. and Amelie Gaureau's life. The map on the seat shows her ancestral home of False River, Louisiana, the map then moves to her birth place of Toulouse Street in New Orleans and then the walk from John Singer Sargent's studio to The Academie De
Beaux Arts to hang the famous Madame X portrait and then a map showing the route from Amelie's home to Sargent's studio where she begged him to take down the infamous painting.

blank building..........

C&B will be a bit dormant for this week as we get ready for One Night Stand in Oxford....follow the buzz on Erin Abbott Kirkpatrick's blog Afterschool Oxford.

exhibition building

here is a tour of the Julia and Varina show if you did not get to Starkville..........

Building for big

Just back from a morning at Kentuck in Northport Alabama. The bravest stuff is from the seasoned artists like Butch Anthony; one seeing his work was the first time I have uttered" I wish I had a space large enough" to acquire one of these giant entities and I really want to check out his annual Doo-Nanny next March.

Building Pink

These takes on the Hans Wegner Wishbone Chair range from using lots of imagination to using almost none the most successful is this Sara Rotman creation. The Sea anemone is always an appropriate muse......The project is in an effort to raise money for breast cancer-the wishbone chair is a beautiful starting point.

Building Infinity

The Ai Weiwei project at the Tate looks breathtaking. One Million porcelain sunflower seeds covering the great hall floor. The material has multiple meanings in the cultural narrative of Weiwei's work. I find myself alittle disappointed that they are not real sunflower seeds-I can work through the functional concern, three months of stepped on sunflower seeds-yuck. I can also follow the porcelain industry as key to China's economy and the gesture toward 100 million as a potent number in China. I can even work through the real/fake thing. But wouldn't have smelled great in there????