Los Angeles in Pieces & Parts

Images from Culver City gallery walk on Washington Blvd between Helms Walk and Fairfax Ave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deer at Getty Villa the Italy in LA

The calm and serenity of this recreated Pompeii Villa is easy understand, when in  Disneyland-style a deer frolics so near!

LACMA is always an iconic art stop

and bright experience especially when you start our day in the neighborhood with pastries and beyond from Republique.

HAMMER!!!

This museum is so potent and dynamic that my experience fell into two distinct categories. The Armand Hammer Collection revitalized my love of some long life favorites, mainly Gustave Moreau. There is always so much to learn from the skill of these traditional masters. The beauty of these compositions and my, clearly bias, love of bouquets translated elegantly into "The Stories Of Almost Everyone" exhibit. Every object has a story. What does it mean when you place that object and that story in an institutional setting and burden it with a canon of higher meaning? Some of these works were pure cheek, while others were heartbreaking records of human history. 

Indulgences:

The pop up shop at Hammer (Rat Bastards), GUCCI (another theme park moment waiting in the long Rodeo Drive line to get into the storefront) Laduree Salon de Tea (the height of French decadence, eventually I’ll patron every Laudree in the world)

The End

at the Castle in the Rain - Greystone Mansion and Park

An icon in the film industry. It was worth winding up into the Beverly Hills as this epic house made for a great last look at the L.A. cityscape, even through a rainstorm.

Beyond Brick and Ivy in Boston

This is such a beautiful buttoned-up town.  Surrounding the red brick covered in ivy and way too many college logo sweaters, there is an under current of exploration and exuberance!

I mainly explored the southern neighborhoods, as that is where my art trail lead me. 

I should mention that one of the absolute best art museums in the city is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, it is a fabulous cultivated mansion. Everywhere you turn is more ascetic vignettes and visual stimuli. This woman curated a vast range of art, so effortlessly, you are transported to a timeless world of treasures.  Her collection of Japaneses screens stands out in my mind as dose the nicknamed "Leather and Lace" room with embossed leather wall paper and her collection of antique lace on display, but the courtyard alone will take your breath way! Alas you can not take any pictures there so you simple must go in person!!

These are my finds:

first stop                           Harvard Museum of Natural History

The flowers, the Jelly-fish, and sea slugs are hand blown glass by father and son Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, I know it is hard to believe, the skill and the scientific accuracy are beyond amazing!

Second                    Museum of Fine Art, Boston (trust me call it MFA)

The stand out Artists where:

Shinque Smith a female artist using feminine street art gestures in mixed media painting that are laden with fabric and connected to fashion, glamor and fantasy.

&

Jamie Wyeth a master painter that pushes water color to a its limits, with effortless gestures, using classic landscape motifs of the "Brandy wine" tradition in a pop culture context. The stunning portraits of Andy Warhol left me scratching me head at the juxtaposition (in a good way)!

around Boston:                       The Library and more

I really got to now the artist John Singer Sargent as so much more than a masterful portrait artist his mural at the library are vast and wonderful. (I also loved his array of works at the Gardener Museum raging from sketchy studies to jaw dropping Flamenco dancers!)

Bonus:                               ICA at the Institute for Contemporary Art

Refelection of Art Shows for Caffe Mingo

From the first to the last,

all of this work was a made for the very inspiring space and community of Caffe Mingo in North West Portland.

This is a community I have been proud to apart of for the last seven years, that time is drawing to a close and in time of transition it is important to reflect on successes!

(each of these show as not only wonderful to make, but allowed me to connect with a specific and important art audience)

special thank you to Micheal Cornan for supporting my artistic side, and to all the patrons that bought these pieces off the wall.

The Design History of the Artichoke

Il Motivo Sortico del Carciofo

Once you fall in love with the layers and complexity of the Artichoke you begin to notice them intertwined everywhere.

Having always been intrigued by print and pattern, I notice how often these esteemed vegetables where portrayed in artistic design over the years, particularly in the Art and Craft movement.

To pay homage to all things Artichoke I took reference from design greats such as Charles Voysey in the 1880’s to Timorous Beasties in the 1990’s.

 

With the help of my Italian family I converted Nonna Genia's Piedmontese cookbook into illustrated snip-its of mock design history.

Aging the loose leaf pages beyond its years with stain, then using delicate white-ink patterns to expand upon the natural repetition I hoped to give you the scene of reverie, as if looking at a historical museum document, that this majestic plant deserves.

 

These drawings were made to be enjoyed specifically for Caffe Mingo in the height of Artichoke season, a time when summer is at its brightest, overflowing with lush bounty.

 

A Spring Dripping in Honey

"As Egyptian mythology has it, swarms of bees migrated across the desert first tumbled to Earth as tears from Ra, the ancient sun god. In keeping with Alexander McQueen's romantic, macabre sensibility, Sarah Burton's latter-day insects rendered in brass-each glimmering with a topaz-crystal abdomen-are meticulously handcrafted by Italian artisans ans affixed to tortoiseshell-patterned Plexiglas cuffs. It's all enough to make us buzz like... well bees on a honeycomb."
 -Vogue March 2013







GUCCI's  idea of Bees.  
 
Original Painting by Arielle Adkin
A Spring Dripping in Honey
I can not deny how struck I am by the artistry
of the Alexander McQueen Spring 2013 collection.  
It is a sartorial take on the natural beauty of honeybee, it's hive and those that keep them. However literally gorgeous the hive dresses and veiled hats, this collection goes beyond into a darker fantasy. The allure of sweet honey and the sting of the bees. I recognize political aspects in collection with the bridging of urban fashion world with the natural world that Sarah Burton has addressed in her collections before. The life of the honey bee is threatened, celebrate this subtle and spectacular bring of awareness to the adornment of our necks, wrists, and bodies. This beauty is worth the risk of the sting, and the that is the true sensuality of spring. 

“The collection is a study of femininity. We looked at erotica. Vargas girls, cages, corsets and crinolines and the idealized female form. Nothing is set in a particular period. It’s about sensuality and skin but not nudity. We also wanted to express lightness, for the clothes almost to hover over the women who wear them.” 
Sarah Burton

Silhouette Rouge a la Portland






                           My worlds of fashion and art collide with a window instillation I created for Radish Underground. It is bold, bright, memorable and unique, making a crafty statement, as it accents their merchandise. Everything a boutique window should be! I learned a lot and have a lot to learn. If all goes well this will not be my last retail window.


“Style is a very simple way of saying complicated things.”

                                                                                                                   - Jean Cocteau

via Emma Watson “Fabulous and very classy at every age” Harper’s Bazaar Oct. 2011

This is my branding image for this blog. I would use this same branding if were to own my own clothing store or label. One can dream, it is a shame to have a great name and no where for it to go!