Mourning Room

Greetings from my hovel!

I'm spending my early mornings, before I go to work, painting the kitchen. It's my morning room. The light is good, and I'm refreshed, and it is a lovely way to start the day, working on a project I love to do.

Morning Room

I have the walls and ceiling finished - just have the dreaded stairway to do. I have also been painting disparate piece of furniture, and gathering accessories.

Visual Vamp kitchen - I picked up the mirror for over the fireplace

Sometimes I just sit (or stand ) and look at everything. Cholo usually gives me a bark, and I tell him to be quiet because Mommy is having a think.

Cupboard in the kitchen - the back panel got a coat of paint

The color is Oyster Shell given to me by Mitchell

I had alot to think about this week. Our last lively discussion HERE was wonderful and disturbing.

Detail of the cupboard filled with cookbooks and Majolica
I love the wire insets in the doors

In the midst of it we lost one of our decor bloggers HERE

The painted back panel of the cupboard in the kitchen

It's so haunting, and sad, and she and her family are much on my mind. One of you said we lost an angel, and surely we did. Did heaven really need a wonderful interior designer to make a perfect house for someone there?

Oyster Shell painted on the back panel of the cupboard

I wanted to write something. But what? I "know" the blogger like I know so many of you: Through your blogs and e-mail exchanges. I have only had the pleasure of meeting a handful of you in person.

Blogging makes instant friends out of all of us, and since we do spend so much time with one another blogging, we truly do feel connected to one another.

I painted the off-the-rack kitchen island,
and added the handles from the old cabinet doors

I couldn't really write a long detailed account of the woman we lost. I heard the details via a phone call, and talked about the accident via e-mail with some of you. And for days, this sad event has been much in my thoughts.

This is what the island looked like before I painted it
We bought it years ago when we were renting, and it's still a handy thing

The services for the young woman, a lovely wife, a wonderful mother, and an accomplished designer, take place this weekend. Every detail has lovingly been arranged and taken care of as if she were there helping those who feel quite helpless right now.

I painted this credenza that I use for storage in the kitchen
I was inspired by the "Wisteria" knock off I got HERE

Beyond leaving a comment on the last post of her blog, I really didn't know what else to do, except keep her and her family in my heart and prayers.

Sorry for the blurry picture - the "Wisteria" wannabee was just delivered
Scott at Discoveries changed the hardware I asked for, and it looks so good

I wondered if her husband thought her blogging was frivolous and her blog friendships odd. I hope all the comments and posts about his wife give him comfort in knowing how loved she is.

This paint job inspired me to do the same

I also hugged Alberto tight. He has been helping me so much with the kitchen revamp, and we enjoy working together very very much. We feel so blessed to have one another.

So hug someone you love. And be careful out there.

Bakers Rack awaiting the paint brush

Happy Weekend, and say a prayer for Marija and Corey and Olivija and Nigel, and Marija's parents, and for all of her family and friends who love her.

Jeanne Claude

There are certain people that have changed my way of thinking and therefore formed me as a person. Jeanne Claude and Christo changed my way of thinking about creating art.
They thought out of the box. Way out of the box.
In addition their life long dedication to one another, and their partnership in work and in life is also something I aspired to.
Though I have never become a great artist, their influence helped me in my pedestrian work as an event designer. To this day I am still wrapping things ala Jean Claude and Christo.
In my personal life I am involved in the kind of partnership they role modeled for me.
And lastly at age 60, I think of the next two decades to come as my final curtain, and so am sentimental when someone I so admire passes from this earth.
Jeanne Claude passed away last Wednesday at the young age of 74.
Besides being a great artist and partner to Christo, I admired her as one of The Great Red Heads. I have had a fascination and admiration for woman of a certain age and artistic nature who dye their hair wonderful shocking shades of red: Lucy, Collette, Shirley MacClaine, Jeanne Claude - well you get the idea.
So condolences to Christo, and their family and friends, and to us the world at large who have lost a great good heart, and a true original thinker.

The most common error is the misunderstanding that the artist is Christo
The artist is not Christo
The artists are Christo and Jeanne-Claude
from the Christo's web site in a fascinating section called Common Errors

Jeanne Claude and Christo - Their Life Together

1935 Christo: American Bulgarian-born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, June 13, Gabrovo, of a Bulgarian industrialist family.

Jeanne-Claude: American, French-born Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, June 13, 1935, Casablanca, of a French military family, educated in France and Switzerland.

1952

Jeanne-Claude. Baccalaureat in Latin and Philosophy, University of Tunis.

1953-56
Christo: Studies at Fine Arts Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria.

1957
He studies one semester at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy.

1958
Christo arrives in Paris where he meets Jeanne-Claude.
Packages and Wrapped Objects

Wrapped Oil Barrels 1958-59

1960

Birth of their son, Cyril, May 11. Cyril Christo is a poet. He studied at Cornell University and graduated from Columbia University in 1982. Five books of his poems have been published. In 1998 he married Marie B. Wilkinson. Their son Lysander Christo was born September 22, 2005.

1961
Project for the Wrapping of a Public Building
Stacked Oil Barrels, Dockside Packages at Cologne Harbor. Tarpaulin and rope. Duration: 2 weeks. Their first collaboration.

1962
Iron Curtain-Wall of Oil Barrels, Rue Visconti, Paris, 1961-62 240 barrels. Height: 4. 3 meters (14 feet). Width: 3. 8 meters (13 feet). Depth: 1. 7 meters (5 feet 6 inch). Duration: 8 hours.

Stacked Oil Barrels, Gentilly, near Paris.

Wrapped Woman 1962

Showcases.

1963
Store Fronts and Show Windows

1964
Establishment of permanent residence in New York City.

1966
Air Package 1966. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Rubberized canvas balloon and rope Diameter: 5.18 meters (17 feet.). Duration: One month.

and Wrapped Tree 1966.

42,390 Cubicfeet Package 1966 at the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis School of Art. Length:18 meters (60 feet) Polyethylene: 720 square meters (8,000 square feet). Manila rope: 914 meters (3,000 feet) Duration: Three days.

1968
Wrapped Fountain and Wrapped Medieval Tower, Spoleto, Italy Polyethylene and ropes. Duration: 3 weeks.

Wrapping of a Public Building "Wrapped Kunsthalle Berne 1967-1968" Fabric: 2,430 square meters (27,000 square feet.) Rope: 3,050 meters (10,000 feet.) Duration: 7 days.

5,600 Cubicmeter Package, Documenta 4, Kassel, Germany 1967-68 An Air Package 82 meters (280 feet) high, six concrete foundations arranged in a 275 meter (900 foot) diameter circle. Fabric: 1,980 square meters (22,000 square feet) Weight: 6,350 kilograms (14,000 pounds). Rope: 3,657 meters (12,000 feet) Duration: two and a half months.

Corridor Store Front, total area: 135 square meters (1,500 square feet).

1,240 Oil Barrels Mastaba, and Two Tons of Stacked Hay, Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art.

1969
Wrapped Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Tarpaulin: 900 square meters (10,000 square feet) and rope. Duration: 40 days.

Wrapped Floor and Stairway. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. House painter&Mac226;s cotton drop cloths, 252 square meters (2,800 square feet) and rope. Duration: 40 days.

Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, One Million Square Feet, Sydney, Australia, Erosion Control fabric: 90,000 square meters (1,000,000 square feet) and 58 kilometers. (36 miles) of ropes. Duration:
Two months.

1970
Wrapped Monuments, Milano: Monument to Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza del Duomo, Milano, Italy. Polyethylene and rope.
Duration: Two days.

Monument to Leonardo da Vinci, Piazza della Scala, Milano, Italy. Polyethylene and rope. Duration: Seven days.

1971
Wrapped Floors, Covered Windows and Wrapped Walk Ways, Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany. House painter's cotton drop cloths. Duration: 30 days.

1972
Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72, Width: 381 &Mac246; 417 meters (1,250-1,368 feet). Height: 56 &Mac246; 111 meters (185- 365 feet). Nylon polyamide fabric: 12,780 square meters (142,000 square feet). Steel cables: 49,895 kilograms (110,000 pounds); 800 tons of concrete. Duration: 28 hours.

1974
The Wall, Wrapped Roman Wall, Via V. Veneto and Villa, Borghese, Rome, Italy. Polypropylene fabric and Dacron rope. Height: 15 meters (49 feet). Length: 250 meters (820 feet). Width varying between: 4 and 5,5 meters (13 to 18 feet). Duration: 40 days.

Ocean Front, Newport, Rhode Island. Surface: 128 x 97 meters (450 x 320 feet). 13,500 square meters (150,000 square feet) polypropylene fabric floating over the ocean. Duration: 8 days.

1976
Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76. 5.5 meters. (18 feet ) high, 39.4 kilometers (24-1/2 miles) long, crossing 14 roads. 2,050 fabric panels: 192 square meters (240,000 square yards) of woven nylon fabric suspended from 144 kilometers (90 miles) of steel cables. 2,080 steel poles, each: 9 cm. (3-1/2 inch) diameter, 6.4 meters (21 feet long). Duration: 14 days.

1977
The Mastaba, Project for United Arab Emirates, in progress.

1978
Wrapped Walk Ways, Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri, 1977-78 12,000 square meters (15,000 square yards) of woven nylon fabric over 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles of walkways. Duration: 14 days.

1983
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83. Pink woven polypropylene fabric floating around eleven islands: 585,000 square meters (6.5 million square feet). Duration: 14 days.

1984
Wrapped Floors and Stairways and Covered Windows, Architecture Museum, Basel, Switzerland. House painter&Mac226;s cotton drop cloths. Duration: 30 days.

1985
The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85. 40,876 square meters (454,178 square feet) woven polyamide fabric. 13,076 meters (42,900 feet ) of rope. Duration: 14 days.

1991
The Umbrellas, Japan-U.S.A., 1984-91. 1,340 blue umbrellas in Ibaraki, Japan; 1,760 yellow umbrellas in California. Each umbrella: height: 6 meters (19 ft 8 in), diameter: 8.66 meters (28 ft 6 in). Valley size in Japan: Length: 19 kilometers (12 miles). Width: 4 kilometers (2. 5 miles). Valley size in USA: Length: 29 kilometers (18 miles). Width: 4 kilometers ( 2. 5 miles) Duration: 18 days.

1992
Over The River, Project for The Arkansas River, Colorado. in progress.

1995
Wrapped Floors and Stairways and Covered Windows 1995. Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany. House painter&Mac226;s cotton drop cloth on the floor and stairs and brown wrapping paper on the glass of the windows. Duration: 3 months.

Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-95. 100,000 square meters (1,076,000 square feet) of polypropylene fabric. 15,600 meters (51,181 feet) of rope and 200 metric tons of steel. Duration: 14 days.

1998
Wrapped Trees, Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen-Basel, Switzerland 1997-98. 178 trees. 53,283 square meters (592,034 square feet) of woven polyester fabric, 23 kilometers (14.3 miles) of rope. Duration: 21 days.

1999
The Wall,13,000 Oil Barrels, Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany,1998-99. An indoor installation. Height: 26 meters (85 feet). Width: 68 meters (223 feet). Depth: 7.23 meters (24 feet). Duration: 6 months.

2005

The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005 7,503 vinyl gates, with free-flowing nylon fabric panels, anchored to 15,006 steel bases on 37 kilometers (twenty-three miles) of walkways. Duration: 16 days.

2009 Jeanne Claude passes away at age 74

Here are some web sites to read more about Jean Claude and Christo.

http://www.wolfgangvolz.com/seite5.htm

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/index.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/19/GA2009111902946.html


Recently I wrapped some chandeliers at the shop I work in, perch. New Orleans, for an art exhibition. People loved them and asked how I came upon the idea, and I told them it was my very humble homage to Jeanne Claude and Christo. Sadly few knew who I was speaking of. So in the spirit of a vanishing breed, I continue to offer information for those who don't know some of the great artists that are dying out, to now have the joy of discovery.

Albert York, Jackie's Favorite Reclusive Aritst

What makes someone become a recluse. Are you born that way? Does it happen because of the way life treats you? Are you happy as a recluse, cocooned in your own world without bother? Do you get lonesome? Do you like people?

Jackie collected him. I posed once for him when I was 19 or 20 years old.


Everybody in the Hamptons knew of him. He was the Hamptons version of JD Salinger or Andrew Wyeth.

His long time gallery informed the world of his passing.

He was an artist's artist. He painted very slowly, often destroying his finished work before anyone could see it, only to start again.

His life's work amounts to around 200- 250 paintings. They are small gems painted mostly on Masonite or wood. If you own one you are very fortunate.

He was known around the neighborhood because he did odd jobs. It was the paradox of working to survive to paint, but the work took over and he stopped painting.

Finally, he found a steady job gilding frames, and the time to paint again.

Most of these images are from the web site of the gallery that has been representing him since the 1960's, Davis and Langdale Company HERE.

The small, boxy and wholly idiosyncratic paintings of Albert York, have garnered the artist a coterie of admirers so unobtrusive in their fervor as to constitute the most genteel of cults. If "cult" seems too strong a word, one might consider the peculiar figure the artist cuts.
Reclusive, enigmatic and, one imagines, more than a little stubborn, Mr. York was the furthest thing from a careerist one could imagine: He worked slowly and didn't let a picture out of the studio since 1992.
Mr. York's allure can, in part, be traced to the integrity of his contradictions. He was solitary if not as constrained as a folk artist, and as cultured if not as cosmopolitan as his collectors and admirers.
Haunting and eccentric, Mr. York's depictions of forests, flowers, damsels and Indian chiefs meld the mythic, the biblical and the densely personal. Putting brush to canvas with a torpid ease, Mr. York infuses every pat, slur and mottle of oil paint with consequence. (This accounts for his high standing among painters.) A somber sfumato envelops the work from the 1960's, imbuing it with a dire, perhaps even repentant nostalgia.
Pictures of a more recent vintage trade the richly atmospheric for the impenetrably symbolic-their sign-like mysteries don't entrance so much as rebuff.
Nonetheless, Mr. York was, in his own dourly indelible manner, a treasure. He never underwent a temperamental makeover to start cranking them out like Robert Rauschenberg. The Davis & Langdale gallery is about as good an opportunity as we're likely to have any time soon to puzzle over Mr. York's homely, humble and mesmerizing pictures.

Albert York 1929-2009
Read his entire New York Times story HERE

Sourced from the NY Observer and The Davis & Langdale Gallery

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

It was cold. We schlepped from the West Fourth Street subway station. The boys had guitar cases.
We got to the club. It had been around forever. It was smaller than I thought it would be. The brick wall was stained with nicotine. The tables and chairs rough and worn. It smelled like a bar, stale beer and booze and pine cleaning fluid. It was my first gig as a singer in a band. I ran my hand over the brick wall, trying to feel all the music that had been sung in front of it.
"Hey blondie it's time for your sound check!"
I stepped up to the mike.
"What's it going to be?"
"Let's try "Flowers..."




I remember being too young to get into this place for so many years. I would stand by the door and peek in until a bouncer shooed me away.
The place was mythic and magic. The very first record album I bought with my own money, maybe for $1.99, had a picture of this place, with the band standing in front the famous brick wall.


The band on the album cover was compelling.
Especially the woman. The girl singer. Beautiful in a European way, like Bridgette Bardot, or some Swedish model. High cheekbones, stick straight blond hair with the best bangs ever. My own hair was bedeviled by 1000 cow licks, so those bangs were amazing to me. And her voice. Clear and distinct. No one sounded like her. She soared over the other two guys in the group.
Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, Mary of the clear soaring voice, Mary of the amazing blonde hair, passed away. She was 72. Read more HERE

Farewell Richard Merkin

This photo of Richard Merkin is from my "family" photo album
I was great friends with the father of the little boy with the top hat
and he was great friends with Richard
I used to baby sit the little boy...and worship Richard when he visited

Richard Merkin, a painter and illustrator whose fascination with the 1920s and 1930s defined his art and shaped his identity as a professional dandy, died Sept. 5 at his home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 70.
I knew Richard through mutual friends. He would turn up for cocktails, or just to hang out. My friends collected art deco, and Richard lived the life of that era. He collected many things from the 1920's to the 1940's. He dressed like something out of an old black and white Hollywood movie. He was an artist, and he taught art at The Rhode Island School of Design, to which he commuted weekly from New York where he lived. He was on the cover of the Beatles Sargent Pepper album cover! He was super glamorous to me, and I worshiped him.

The little boy in the top hat all grown up
His name is Sundance DiGiovanni HERE

There is an excellent obituary in the New York Times HERE, and well worth the read.
Richard is another one of a breed of true originals that doesn't seem to be able to be nurtured and thrive in today's world of internet uber self promotion, and world of flimsy reality television celebrity. There was a true loss of quality and depth when Richard passed away.
Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

Richard was called a dandy. This past Sunday in the New York Times Men's Fashion Magazine there is a wonderful editorial called about the dandy HERE.
Long live the dandy! Long live the legacy of Richard Merkin!


Click on images for a larger view

Farewell Dominick Dunne

Dominick Dunne with Elizabeth Taylor in 1973

From the Dominick Dunne web site HERE:

We are sad to report the news that Dominick Dunne passed away on Wednesday, 26th August, at the age of 83 at his home in New York City, after a long and brave battle with cancer.

His funeral service will be held on Thursday, September 10th, at 2:30pm
at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church
865 Lexington Avenue, between 65th and 66th streets,
New York, New York.

In lieu of flowers, Dominick's family has requested that donations be made to:
The National Center for the Victims of Crime
2000 M Street NW
Suite 480
Washington DC 20036

Dominick Dunne had an extraordinary life as a man, and was a writer and reporter extraordinaire.


These photos from Architectural Digest are of his home in Connecticut. Go HERE to see more photos and read a very nice article.


It is homey and it looks very much like the homes of the people he chronicled.


Certain things like skirted tables, Chinoiserie, antiques, and English print fabric are classics often seen in homes of the upper class.


Everything has a patina of age and use. Elegance and good taste are implied and applied.

I love this photo of his office.



This house is only 25 years old, but looks much older.


The Dominick Dunne web site is very informative, and worth checking out if you would like to know more.