Good-bye

Say Good-bye to summer and all of that. It just sailed out to sea on a container ship. Yes? No! I don't know why you say good-bye. I say hello.

Hello blog readers. Here and now I present one of my strangest commissions: a mural of the Charleston harbor with Fort Sumter on the horizon and a cargo vessel sailing away as a Gauguin nude rings the wet out of her hair. What the.....? I don't know but maybe this looks really kind of wonderful installed. Since I don't have pictures of that I decided to inundate you with multiple studio shots.

This piece was painted for the home of an architect who's well known for his beautifully detailed classical architecture. So given that I have to assume this rather eccentric wild mural looks great in its setting. Because if you have one sort of thing, a square for instance, you'd do well to counter it with a circle. Or you know how Marc Chagall's mural looks so great on the ceiling at the Palais Garnier.

This project was painted in 2003. What were you doing in 2003?  I had forgotten I painted this piece. But I dug it out to share with you because you're special. Maybe I'll be able to update you with some installation shots. In the meantime I give you image details, odd angles, and full views with ladders and such to give some idea of scale. The figure is close to life size. Actually maybe it is life size. What do think of all of this?

The Answer

The Answer My Friends is Blow'n in the Wind

The View of Palm Springs from 8,516 ft.

120˚ F and gusty winds. How does that sound for a weather report? I just spent a few days in Palm Springs and summer in Los Angeles seems so cool after that. But honestly it was a wonderful little trip to the desert in the off season. One night around sunset I got on the Palm Springs Tramway and in ten minutes ascended to 8516 ft. Up there in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument the air is cool, clear, and deliciously scented with pine. I love pines but this post is more about palms and a little project from my archives circa 2002.

Studio view of my painted palms.

Close up of one palm.

My original digital sketch for the Palm motif.

Come with me for  a walk down an allée of king palms. They're gently bent from balmy breezes and they're rendered in sepia tones. Remember I'm a painter so the subject is always about something painted. These painted palms lead to the men's locker room at the Old Collier Club. And fortunately the locker room and the club are not the so often tacky glitz one finds in South Florida.  No, this place looks like old money, reserved, slightly frumpy, and comfy. That's pretty much the style of the architects, Shope Reno Wharton and the interior designer, Amelia Handegan.

Exterior of the Old Collier Club, Naples, Florida.

Interior shots of the Old Collier Club.

More interior shots with my palms painting installed on the left.

No big story here. Just painted trees. But I can't emphasize enough what a difference it makes to have decorative architectural painting. Framed pictures on the walls? Ho hum. A nice color? Of course. Is that all? A wallpaper in this space? Please. Yes, please. Sometime, before you it's all over live in a space with some sort of mural. Your place could be a cave, a le Corbusier apartment, or anything in between and there would be a mural just perfect for your space. If you don't know what that might be just ask because I do. I do.

BAMO

Bamo: powers out tough stains!

That's probably what you'd expect from BAMO right? But no, it's an acronym for Babey Moulton Jue and Booth and they're an architecture/design firm in San Francisco. I've worked with them on various project since their inception in the early 90s and I've mentioned them on Corbu's Cave a number of times. So this post is a bit of a retread because I am bringing up our Hong Kong job again. Fortunately I've got new pictures, so good right? I was prompted to revisit the H.K. job because I just noticed an image on the BAMO website I hadn't seen before. I'm including it here along with a few others from my collection never seen before. So there you have it.

The page from the BAMO site that  prompted this post.

I really like the casual styling of the photo.
Looks like Queen Anne's Lace on the table in lieu of some rare orchid.
How chic! Or is that reverse chic?

The key for me in designing the painting scheme was getting the ceiling figured out.

These are the initial designs for the ceiling medallion.

Here's a close and wide view showing the ceiling just after installation of my work.

The house looked like this when I left.

Another shot of the finished house from BAMO's site. Nice don't you think?

 Use the handy Google search box over there on the right. Enter BAMO or Hong Kong and you'll get more of this wonderful project, a home on the Peak in Hong Kong that I'm so happy to have been a part of. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all meet there for a little soirée?

Behind the Scenes

Hello Faithful Readers!

Robert Irwin's garden.

Baldessari after Dürer and Dürer

You've been to the Getty Center. You seen Robert Irwin's lush and sculptural garden installation, gazed upon gorgeous paintings by Dürer, and perhaps even found Baldessari's Specimen (After Dürer) but have you been behind the scenes? Okay, listen, stick with me. I'll take you there.

Detail of bed in the Paris exhibit.

Some bed, huh?

Photo-collage layouts for the exhibit design. 

Associated graphics for the Paris exhibit.

Yesterday my friend David called with a last minute invitation. There was a cancellation which made room for me as an interloper in an IDSA exclusive tour of the Getty Center's exhibit:Paris: Life & Luxury. The highly informative tour was followed by a behind the scenes look at the exhibit design studio. Fascinating!

Exhibit designer talking about the process.
(The photo collages are in the upper left corner of the board.)

The design department at the Getty Center

One inch to one foot scale model of the temporary galleries where "Paris" is.

What did I discover? I am the Getty. I mean my working method is so like the exhibit design department except not only do I create the design, maquettes, and graphics but I also create the finished art. How was I to know? I work in isolation. I must get out more often!

Candid shot of the design offices.

Another candid shot with detail on the right of upcoming "PST" show.

More graphics from the Pacific Standard Time exhibit.

The Paris exhibit was nice, very nice but we also got a sneak peek at an upcoming exhibit that's more up my alley: Pacific Standard Time: Art In L.A. 1945-1980. In fact Getty design is all ready for it and on to the next thing. Here in Southern California we'll be treated to more than 60 venues where the story of art in Los Angeles will unfold. I can't wait but of course I'll have to.

This sign is on the door as you leave the design department.

Until next time this is Corbu's Cave.


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Play Room

Play time is not over.

This is Oskar Schlemmer in a costume of his own design. 

No one ever says that do they? Oh, but I'm saying it in my tribute to Oskar Schlemmer, one of my favorites from the Bauhaus. Play time goes on and on.

Costume designs by Schlemmer.

Drawing for the playroom mural.

Drawing for the playroom mural.

Drawing for the playroom mural.

Drawing for the playroom mural.

I did a very small painting project for a couple in Hancock Park, something rather simple really but they were quite happy with it. When I finished one of them asked, "Do you do anything else?" When he found out I painted murals I was shown the children's play room and asked to consider it. Fun! I'd never done such a thing so this was a chance to do something really different from my typical work. I don't know that I have a typical. Still, what I did is quite distinctive from my other projects.

The canvas are up and gessoed in the studio.

The beginning of painted form.

The slate gray is applied and more shapes appear.

More color.

Finished in the studio.

The long view.

Wide view in the opposite direction.

These parts are destined for the north wall of the playroom.

More of the finished work in the studio.

Costume designs for the Triadic Ballet.

Man Machine.

Actually I came up with three different ideas for the playroom and presented them in the form of photo-collages. The Oskar Schlemmer idea was the choice and truth be told it's just what I wanted. Schlemmer was familiar to me not only from studying the Bauhaus in art school but I had seen a wonderful show of his work in Baltimore in 1986. So he's been tucked away in my mental clipping file for some time.

West wall installed.

Jerryl Gorman and crew, Nico and Abraham, installing the south wall.

Southwest corner of the playroom mural.

Looking at the north wall with the west on the right.

Niko working on the east wall.

Wikipedia says Schlemmer was hard at work and self supporting at age 15. I don't know if that's completely true but he was a workshop apprentice at that age and his parents both died when he was still young. This is might not be the sort of background you'd expect to lead to such a witty, playful, and inventive artist. Working young instilled a love and appreciation for craftsmanship that Schlemmer carried his whole life. He taught this at the Bauhaus but he was also in charge of the "Fun Department" -all the parties and festivals. He's perhaps most remember for his Triadic Ballet (Triadishches Ballett) and that's a sort of party as performance.

This figure became known as the TV empress because she carries the television screen.

Jerryl's iPad with my elevations helped guide the installation.

Part of what I love about Schlemmer's work are the marvelous contrasts. Simple and complex. There's bright clear color and a range of neutrals. There are hard edge flat planes of color, visible brush work, and modeled form. There are references to machines but ones that seem to produce no serious work. The human form is even combined with the machine. This relates directly to his staged pieces. Oskar was very much of his time expressing the latest ideas in art and design which even today can look startling and new. The house where my Oskar Schlemmer mural lives was built about the same time Oskar was at the height of his artistic output so although it may seem in contrast with the architecture it also feels  very much at home. More importantly the kids really like it -and so do their parents!

The Woman's Building where my mural was painted.
The cartouche above the door shows the letters SOCO
(Standard Oil Company) from 1913.

Addendum

About the time I was ready to start the playroom mural my friend David Chun asked if I was interested in an apprentice. I would need help for the project anyway and I think this project particularly suited David's skill set as a furniture designer. He makes beautiful drawings so he did the first round of sketches to which I made only minor changes. He also helped me with all other aspects of creating the  mural.


My neighbor and fellow artist Marina Moevs rescued me at the last minute with a studio space. Actually what she did was check with her landlord and discovered there was one space available immediately which was exactly when I needed it. The building is of note so I'm including a picture of the exterior. The structure was completed in 1913 for the Standard Oil Company but it was made famous in the 1970s as a hotbed of feminist and artistic expression known as The Woman's Building.


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