Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse

There has been quite a bit going on lately that I feel I need to post all the happenings here in NYC.  I guess it's a way to remind myself about these design events.  This years original Kips Bay Show house sold which obviously presented a major problem for the organization.  Scrambling to find a new space, the show house finally opens 6 months late!  A handful of talented designers have volunteered to decorate the 18 room house on the Upper East Side such as Joan and Jayne Michaels, Darren Henault and Noel Jeffrey.  If your in the area, it's worth a visit.  You may get some great ideas for your own abode, or if your in the market to buy a home...the house is going for a whopping $28.8 M.

Design Directs Everything

Architecture and Design Film Festival. Oct 14-17 at Tribeca Cinemas.

Book Launch Party

Vicente Wolfs new book is being celebrated over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres tonight.  Book is released on Oct. 19

Sticks and Stones Make a Home

I've been following Patrick Dougherty's work for a couple years now, and in the past year I've heard so much more about him.  Several articles have been written about his work, he was asked to do an exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (the last picture) , and he even has a book that was recently published.  Now, this week in the NY times his log cabin home in Chapel Hill is featured. Of course it's been built by Patrick's own hands, and he continues to add new rooms to the cabin!  Stick by stick, stone by stone...  

Suzanne Kasler

The elegant interiors of Suzanne Kasler

Visual Acoustics

Yesterday I watched Visual Acoustics, a documentary by Eric Bricker on the modernism photography of Julius Shulman.  What an excellent movie that really captured Julius's sense of humor and his brilliant talent in architecture photography.  He is known for the photograph of the "Case Study house #22" shot in 1945, which is the second image above.  I've always thought the photograph was spectacular, to achieve that quality for an evening shot, then being able to capture the interior lighting and street lights of the Los Angeles background the way he did was remarkable.  Shulman's photographs are seen everywhere while I think most people pass them by, and don't really appreciate the skill and artistic eye behind the work.  I feel it's because his images were so perfect that they look simple to achieve, but quite the opposite.  As Julius say's in the film. "I have control over the visual acoustics."  This control made him the leading photographer of architecture of his time, and possibly still.

Axel Salto...Volcanic, Pottery Inspiration #2

I started my pottery classes yesterday on a brisk fall afternoon here in NYC!  I threw my first coffee mug, well, it was suppose to be I guess, but it turned into a bowl.  Once I glaze it I'll photograph it and post it on the blog.  As I continue my course some of my posts will be geared toward potters that I'm pulling inspiration from, and pieces I find to be beautiful.  The above works are by Axel Salto, the Danish Midcentury potter.  I love that David Revere McFadden, chief curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC, describes his work as "wonderfully rich, gutsy shapes that look like they came off the side of a volcano."  He is so right.  This is why I like his pieces so much.  Very earthly and organic.

Cabinet of Curiosities

While at the Antique Show yesterday the first booth I visited was Marion Harris.  I've said before that I love objects and furniture that looks like they are going to get up and walk away, and that is exactly how Marion's collection looked.  She has the most fantastic articulating models and nostalgic forms of wood and objects all in sepia tones that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  At the end of the show I went back and had to treat myself to a little something!  Marion is the most charming lady with this British accent that is just all yummy and stuff. I enjoyed sitting in her booth and chatting with her about antiques and what not.
I'm smitten over Marion Harris's trove of antique treasures, which I now own a part of.  My little Crystallography forms I purchased from her are perched up on my console in the living room.  I'm not letting these walk away for anything!