cake & pie

Beautiful things

I had an amazing weekend in Providence. The weather was a little chillier than I'd packed for, but the RISD alumni sale was awesome. The semi- freezing temperatures prevented me from taking any really decent photos at the sale, but cold aside, I finally got to meet Laura Su of Prismera Design, and fellow '02 alum Heather Guidero. I've been a fan of both of their jewelry designs for quite sometime, and their work is just as beautiful in person. I couldn't resist these earrings...

(Left) Dogwood earrings by Prismera Design can be found in Laura's online shop. (Right) Doily hoop earrings by Heather Guidero come in two sizes—I went for the smaller pair, but both are lovely—can be seen on Heather's website. She also has an etsy shop. (Photos: left from prismeradesign.com, and right from heatherguidero.com)

I spent most of the day at the sale, when not running into buildings to stay warm, hanging out at my friend Yvonne Boogaerts' table. A multi-talented sculptor, painter, and designer, Yvonne showed a series beautifully layered, graphic paintings and mirrors. Yvonne also just opened a show of her paintings at the Kate Spade store in Greenwich, CT. as part of Art to the Avenue—definitely worth checking out if you are in the metro area.

I will post more in a bit about my little tour of the old and new RISD...lots of exciting things are happening.

Fly away

Hello friends. Awhile back the lovely Abbey of Aesthetic Outburst invited me to join her awesome nesting doll swap. About a week ago I nearly wrote her and begged out because I thought there were just not enough hours in the day...but I made time and really enjoyed working on them. Sometimes I forget how much I love making things when it's not for a client. So here is my set...off to Abbey they go!

On other fronts I am working almost non-stop these days, so blog posts will still be few and far between for awhile to come...but once the dust settles I hope to be back to regular posting. Thank you all for your patience!

I am escaping to Providence for the weekend to see friends and attend the RISD alumni sale. I haven't been back to Providence since I graduated six years ago, and I am SO excited to go back. Perhaps I'll post a bit about my trip when I return. Until then, I hope everyone is having a lovely spring!

Société Anonyme

I got a very early start to my day today, which left me time to finally make it over to the Frist Center, in downtown Nashville, to check out the Société Anonyme: Modernism for America show. The show has been up for quite awhile, and actually closes for good on Sunday...so I was very happy to have just made it in time!

Société Anonyme was organized in 1920 by Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, as a vehicle to promote modern art in America. They held exhibitions, concerts, and lectures that included some incredible artists—Jean Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, and Kurt Schwitters, to name a few.

I saw so many beautiful and inspiring things today. I, of course, couldn't take photos in the actual exhibition, but below are some images from the exhibition catalog, (on sale for $22 in the Frist Center shop!)

Lithographs by Jean Arp.

There were several dimensional collages by Kurt Schwitters—a few were small scale made with layers of cut paper (left,) and others were much larger assemblages of wood and paint (right.)

Some of my favorite pieces in the show were actually flyers, posters, books, and magazines produced for Société Anonyme—I can't resist all that gorgeous typography.

Cover of Broom, by El Lissitzky, 1923. Check out that February in the 3.

If you are in the Nashville area this weekend I highly recommend seeing this show. Otherwise you can find out more about the Société Anonyme at the Yale University Art Gallery website, (the exhibition was organized by Yale and is heading back there to be shown again in the fall of 2010.) Have a lovely weekend friends!

Ask and you shall receive

A lot has happened since I last posted...and it has only been a handful of days. Let's see...artwork was held captive by an unfortunate and clueless shipping company; artwork was miraculously recovered from an unfortunate and clueless shipping company; much delicious food was consumed; and we hosted our last opening at SQFT Gallery: Couplets, featuring work by Lisa Solomon and Aurora Robson.

Lisa and Aurora's pieces were completely breathtaking in their couplets. They chose color schemes and sizes together and then each completed a body of ten pieces. They didn't collaborate on what each individual piece would be, and the content of their work is different—but each pairing intuitively goes together.

The weekend ended with my feeling very lucky. It is not every person who gets to experience what I have been able to do this year—I have worked with amazing artists that I truly admire, and to end with Lisa and Aurora was such a fitting way to close this chapter. 2008 is off to a very good start.

For those of you who can't make it to Nashville, all the work from Couplets is now available for view and purchase online in the SQFT Gallery shop. You can see a few photos of opening night right here. The gallery and the show also got a very nice write up in our local paper, The Tennessean. If you are interested, you can find that article here.

There is much to do this week. I start teaching again tomorrow morning bright and early, so I am off to prepare. Have a lovely Monday friends.

Full circle

Lisa Solomon Toxin Doily Drawing : Selenium Bromide

Thursday afternoon I'll be heading out to the gallery to meet Lisa Solomon and Aurora Robson. They are both flying in to install their two-person show, Couplets, at SQFT Gallery. This will be SQFT's last show. We'll be closing our doors at the end of January, and I can't think of a better way to go out that with these two amazing artists whose work I admire so much.

Aurora Robson, Inga

The gallery has been a true learning experience, but I am looking forward to leaving all of the administrative tasks behind, and taking the insight and inspiration I have gained from all of the artists we've worked with, to focus on my own work.

I will absolutely share more images from Lisa and Aurora's show in the days to come. For those of you who can't make it to Nashville for the opening this Saturday night, all of the work will be on view and for sale right here come Monday, January 7th.

Be well friends, and stay warm! Brrr...it sure is cold out!

Beautiful things

I am about finished shopping for the holidays...cookie baking is next on the agenda...but there are still so many gorgeous things I'm finding that tempt me to keep shopping.

(L) metal pinecone ornament, and (R) grow by Lorena Siminovich...I love Lorena's collaged typography...both at doe.

(L) salt & pepper cellars by Diana Fayt, (R) doily necklace by Heather Guidero...so elegant.

It is one cold, rainy day today in Nashville, so I think I'll be staying in with the pets and working on a few sewing projects. Good luck to all of you shopping this weekend!

Together

At holiday time I am a serious online shopper. It has gotten so my younger self, who lived for a day out at the stores, has retreated to our cozy living room, by the light of my laptop and our newly decorated Christmas tree, to pick out all the holiday goodies to go underneath. Needless to say I've been perusing about every shop I've ever bookmarked in the past few weeks, and this evening I happened upon some work by Lorena Siminovich at Doe that I think is so simple and sweet and beautiful...

On the left, we are in this together is such a nice sentiment, and kind of hits home on a number of fronts this year...(not to mention the type.) On the right is lonely red leaf.

Speaking of a Christmas tree, ours finally went up last night. Everyone helped...Cooper looked on in his typical "concerned that something different is happening" Cooper-way, and Oscar, well...

After hiding under the tree, trying to eat the tree, and my yelling "no" so many times I think he might think that is his name now, Oscar retreated to the sofa for a post-tree decorating snooze while I shopped online—all together a perfect evening.

Have a lovely Friday everyone.

Deck the walls

I did not put our Christmas tree up as planned last weekend...but I had a good reason. Saturday night at SQFT we held an opening for our December show: Deck the Walls. It is an affordable art holiday show where all of the work is priced under $250, (most under $100.) We have a great line-up of artists who have shown at SQFT throughout 2007: Agnes Barton Sabo, Eleanor Grosch, Caitlin Keegan, James Keegan, Jess Rosenkranz, Shea Steele, and Liz Zanis. It was a fun night with lots of Dolly Parton holiday tunes (my doing.)

Quirk by Shea Steele

All of the work from the show is now available in the SQFT shop...there is something there for everyone...and I think art makes a terrific gift.

(L) Caitlin's bonus print by Liz Zanis; (R) Chain gang of love by James Keegan

The SQFT Shop is only open now until December 15th, when we'll close for the holidays, so order now!

(L) Slice of pie, hun? by Agnes Barton Sabo; (R) cat toys by Jess Rosenkranz

Next on the agenda: oiling my sewing machine and getting to work on ornaments for the swap. Stay tuned for nesting doll ornaments and holiday cards later in the week. Have a lovely Tuesday everyone!

Handmade favorites

There are just so many gorgeous things popping up on Etsy these days. Here are a few of my current favorites...

Left: Beautiful tea bowls by Diana Fayt, $42 each. I love their shape! Right: Gorgeous knitware vase by Alyssa Ettinger, $120 each.

Left: Great black and white weave print notebook by Susy Jack, $8.50 each. Right: Otto Cornejo by Essimar, $20.

Left: Elegant twisted ring set by Abigail Percy, $55. Right:  The Market Bag by Moop in gray corduroy, $78.

Lart Cognac Berliner

Lart Cognac Berliner designed this awesome The Lakes and Territories of the Greater 2008 poster/calendar for Little Otsu:

Not your traditional calendar...this one folds out to be 18" x 24". The LO site describes it better than I could as "part theoretical map, part calendar, part poster, and all amazing watercolor & ink artwork." If that weren't enough, it is only $11 and PERFECT for the big blank wall in my kitchen I never know what to do with.

Check out the back:

What a fabulous way to kick of a new year.

Images from littleotsu.com.