Studio April 2012

Studio April 2012, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

I'm thinking of another post. Please stay tuned.

Mirror Mirror

Recently uploaded my mirror paintings available at Voila!  See here.

Voilà plus

Here's more...

I went back to voilà! today, added one more picture, and took a few more photos for you. Now listen: this is virtually the first time you, my faithful readers, can go just where I've been because voilà! has an excellent online presence. Yes, now you can buy a tiny piece of me for your very own. Just click on the links, that is all the words: voilà!

 Now here for you are more images from that cabinet of curiosities on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, California, USA. voila:

Be seeing you.

Voila, Je suis voilà!

Here, I am HERE!

Yes, yes the disclaimer in my profile telling you I'm not a blogger leaves me out of the running for daily/weekly/monthly updates but I'm here to say I am at voila! ART FOR THE MODERN EYE. They're still fine turning the arrangement, adjusting the lighting, and breaking for espressos occasionally but I wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of my work there. They've got my collage series and my mirrors too. Both dating from the time of the Villa Feltrinelli project.  What was that the year? 1999?  Can't recall exactly.

I should be following this post soon with more shots of the voila! installation but there's more too. I've just hung five large works and six smaller pieces at the Thomas Lavin showroom in the PDC. Do you want to see those too? 

Soon.

50 cc

DSC03147, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

Hi!

If I'm not on Blogger it's quite possible I'm on Flickr instead.

Recently I've been trying to get Duchamp out of my system. It's tough.

And there's more.

A Day in Court

Marie Antoinette. Did she ever get her day in court?
A print I found in Linda's office.

Last week I drove up to Santa Barbara and ended up in court. But I'm innocent I tell you! I had an appointment to meet Linda Chase, an interior designer who's in Summerland just a bit south of Santa Barbara. Arriving early for our date I had a little lunch, explored the Santa Barbara Museum: very nice, then walked around the corner where I discovered the extraordinary courthouse building. OK I confess. I knew it was there. I'd been to it many years ago. It's one of those beautifully designed buildings that beckons you: come closer, come inside. So I did.

Santa Barbara Courthouse

Come closer to the Santa Barbara Courthouse.

What a court room!

Not your typical ceiling unless you are in the Santa Barbara Courthouse.

Looking  down the spiral staircase.

Looking up the spiral staircase.

Same spiral staircase. The stencil colors appear different to my camera due to the lantern.

Obviously the style is inspired by the Spanish Missions that predate the history of California as a state. Mission buildings usually have somewhat plain exteriors, smooth and white, stark against the often brilliant blue California skies. And like most missions the interior of the courthouse is dim but ornately decorated. Beautiful painted decorations. The motifs owe something to the Renaissance but this is the new world so the influence of native Americans is strongly in evidence. I really think it's the new world people who give the work it's exuberant punch.

The Ponce, Atlanta circa 1950

The exterior of The Ponce in Atlanta.
You enter under a low slung canopy and make your way to the back of the lobby which opens into tall grand space.

Tiffany ceiling of The Ponce lobby.

Panning down from the stained glass ceiling.

Stenciling in the cove. Lot's of gilding and glazing here too.

Stenciling, gilding, polychroming and glazing in the mezzanine.

I still have some of the stencils used at The Ponce!

Marbleizing painted to match some existing scagliola.

Kristen Marooney and Shane Robuck of Robuck and Company in The Ponce!

I would say the closest I've ever come to a project like the Santa Barbara Courthouse where architecture and decorative painting seem so dependant on one another is The Ponce in Atlanta,GA. That was 1981. A restoration? Perhaps it's more accurate to call it a recreation project because most every surface was primed white when I began. It was months of stenciling, gilding, glazing, and marbleizing. Coincidentally I recently met (online) an Antique dealer, Kristen Marooney, whose partner lives in the Ponce. Their company portrait uses my work as a backdrop. I love seeing that because it gives life to the place. When I was working in it there were no residents.  Kristen's choice of brilliant raspberry couldn't be more wonderful, just what the Ponce needs, a little jolt to it's Edwardian pedigree. 

Period.

"The Period Room is Dead!"

Attention modernists: note the mural.

Look at those painted walls! For that matter the rug is undoubtedly painted as well.

Even though it's mostly hidden the mural in this room is integral and simply beautiful.

I wish I could attribute this quote.  "The Period Room is dead!" It's was some shelter magazine, some designer, years ago. Obviously it struck a cord with me since I remember it. The idea is that you don't really want your room, your house to be all one thing. If you're sort of shabby chic then you better have some cool contemporary lighting. That sort of idea. Most people know this or do this instinctively in their own way. Usually period rooms are only found in the homes of the ultra-wealthy who have the money to assemble such a thing or in museums where they really should be. But fittingly here in Los Angeles where iconoclasm is the order of the day we have a period room installed in a museum that breaks the mold.

This is a shot of the Eames house (living room) taken on site.

The installation process at LACMA.

View into the installed  living room at LACMA.

Naturally I would have wished for the Eames' to have a mural in their living room because to me that follows the same dictate. You have all this architecture in the usual materials and finishes and then, what, there's a mural to throw things off a bit. Having said that the Eames living room installed in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is a thrilling sight. And in their day the materials and finishes that make up their house were completely unusual. The period pieces (Charles and Ray's own designs), are really only period pieces because that's how we view them today. What's so brilliant is the mix. Their furniture which owes everything to the industrial design and manufacturing process is draped and strewn with the quirky, crafty, and handmade. There's so much creativity and life in this living room it's really hard to believe someone's not actually living in it.

The Eames Living installed at LACMA

A closer view of a portion of the room (see above).

So for contrast I'm including in this post some of the Thorne Miniature Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago. You'll excuse my slightly compromised shots. It's just me, my handheld camera, and viewed through glass. (Follow my link for more and better views.) The arrangements seem stilted and as lifeless as an animal preserved in formaldehyde. But just as we are transfixed by the sight of Damien Hirst's vitrines these little rooms engaged us. The craftsmanship is awesome so that brings us back to the Eames whom I've no doubt would have appreciated the rooms for that reason alone. Then there are the period murals to go with the period rooms and so I am hooked. Brilliant. Even delicately hand painted wall patterns. Just amazing. Let's get busy people.