This picture posted on Flickr inspired me for the outdoor dining space. Of course, I don't have enough room for all of those beautiful umbrellas, and Raju might kill me if I paint the side of the house (ala one of those HGTV shows we watched once upon a time, of course, she also cut away part of the deck; damn did her hubby need that margarita maker they won when he came home). So I'm paring down a bit and going with what seems to be leaning more toward a French feel with the red and blue and the Tolix chairs. Either way, it will be better than what it is today.
what it is today: clean slate or barren waste land? cup half full or half empty?
Of course, we'll need more plants, and brighter colored planters than are in the mock above. Shortcuts - I just wanted some greenery in the picture.
The current plan is to put in the tall, skinny evergreens, similar to the ones in this photo from Florence (center of the pic) in a row down the fence. That should give us some privacy and kill some of the ambient road noise. So I guess we're bringing a little Italy back in. Maybe I can call this "Euroblend"?
Labels: Domestic Life, Florence, Influences, Italy
Family and Dining Room
"I wouldn't call myself much of a planner. I'm more a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants gal, moment to moment, yeah, that's me."- Vivian Ward,
Pretty WomanEven though that line is from a prostitute, it pretty much sums up my views on planning. I hate planning and like to live in the moment, but only when I want to live in the moment. Sometimes I just want to couch potato in the moment...
So this, this is odd, but a good exercise for me. Living with someone else, sharing a house, means I can't just be me. Sure, I have all these ideas floating around in my head, and I know they'll turn out. If they don't, I can always change everything, right?
the Gray room - guest bedroom #1
Getting it all on paper before executing, with the occasional surprise thrown in, does seem to be working. The rooms, while coming along slowly, are coming along, and look just like my vision. Well, the little parts that are complete, anyways. I would say in the past things have only come out like my vision 50/50. So on the plus side, a greater rate of success, on the minus side, not so many happy accidents. I live for happy accidents. They're what make me, well, happy.
Living Room
Labels: Domestic Life, Influences
A while back, during the wedding planning mania, I stumbled across the work of a couple of artists that really piqued my interest. I never got around to posting it, so I will now. Both were posted on
yumsugar, one of my favorite daily reads.
The first of the two is a book, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. The premise of the book is something fairly simple but pretty astounding when all binded together. The artists photographed families around the world with the food they consume in one week. The amount of money they spent on the bounty is also noted in the captions.
While I do find the pictures fascinating, I can't help but wonder how they picked the families. Did they decide to pick the family in Chad to prove a point of the lack of food in Chad? Is there not a rich family in Chad that would have photographed much differently? And what about the U.S. families? They seem to be middle-income. Was there not a lower-income family that they could have photographed?
Of course, this is why I need to go buy the book. Maybe they chose the most representative of the country as a whole to feature (i.e. most of Chad has a $1.23 to spend on food, and most Californians spend $159.18 per week). Or, maybe they took artistic liberties and showed families that would prove whatever point they wanted to make. I will only know once I search out this book and read it.
The other artist I discovered is like a mix of Cindy Sherman and Sandy Skoglund. Her name is Daniela Edburg, and she has some fantastical photos, mostly featuring food. In her series
Drop Dead Gorgeous the subjects are consumed by the food, dying by an OD on MnMs, or being chased by a tornado of cotton candy.
It was refreshing to see this work. It's been a while since I've looked at any art that has impressed me much -- not sure if this is my fault or if there's just been a lack of impressive art lately, but I'm glad this is changing for the better for me.
Labels: Influences, Observances, Others Art
"When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing."- Tom Robbins
Labels: Influences, Observances
Five years ago, I'm sure I knew why Laurie Simmons house was so friggin' mind-blowing to me. Today, I really have no clue. I've searched her, I've googled her, I've yahoo'd her, I have not even a glimpse into what she once meant to me. I can find lots of pictures -- of her, her work, etc. None of it rings a bell. All I remember was this playhouse she had built was the most wonderful thing I had ever seen my junior year of college, and I thought she was brilliant.
Cheers! Have another drink in honor of my dead brain cells.
Labels: Influences, just a picture, Life Changing Moments
One of the many present reading materials is
the Yellow House
, a book about the nine weeks Van Gogh and Gaugin spent living in the south of France, painting together, collaborating, drinking, philosophizing (I'm sure that's not a word, but you get the idea). And, oh yes, let's not forget frequenting the cat houses of Arles.
It's an amusing book, and very insightful if you are interested at all in Van Gogh. He seems to be more the primary focus of the book. Though I do like the system Gaugin introduced for budgeting their money. It was like something I had read as a child on how to budget your money. You have a little box for each fund: one for paint and canvas (the most important), one for food, one for drink, one for tobacco, and one for the whore house. It was funny to see the priorities - I believe food was actually further toward the bottom. Those weren't actually the categories I read about as a child, but you get the idea.
One thing that really struck me was Van Gogh's work style. It gives me hope for my own. His more successful pieces were done in very short time periods. Whereas Gaugin would take days or even weeks to complete a painting, Van Gogh would turn one out in an hour or so. He would attack the canvas, painting with a fury, then be done, very rarely going back to correct or edit. It's not to say all of his paintings were done in this manner. Just many -- the good ones :-)
Why does this give me hope? Because occasionally people think I'm not doing anything, or,
gasp, I am procrastinating - when really, I am (doing, not procrastinating). I'm thinking, and planning, and plotting, and then, in the moment, when it feels right, I execute. Lightning fast. Whether it's a trigger finger on the camera, or my fingers typing furiously at the keyboard which sounds and feels like 1000 wpm. And then it's done. Just like that. Bam! There might be a correction or two, but for the most part, I've captured
it, whatever it is (and there's your eBay plug for the day). And if there was a deadline there, I met it (I've never understood the idea of an
extension).
So the book gives me hope. It makes me realize everyone has their own style, and my style just happens to be similar to one of the most famous painters of all time who was crazier than a redneck saying,
"Hay guys! Watch'is!" (hmm, maybe that's just stupidity over crazy -- you can insert your own "crazier than..." statement). Just because I don't obsess and toil over the minutia doesn't mean I'm not giving something my all. Truth be told that planning and plotting has the minutia already embedded in my brain.
Labels: Books, Influences, My Art
Man Ray was and is by far one of my favorite influences. While enjoying a glass of wine and a good book on the porch the other day, I stumbled upon something I'd been looking for... a more abstract way to show
spirits.
What I was doing previously is quite boring to me. I guess that's why I haven't done a whole lot with it and just drank my wine instead of playing with it.
When I viewed the picture above, one of the first things that came to mind was "reverse rayograph". I've loved creating
photograms since I was a child and was always amused that Man Ray took this technique, tweaked it, and put his own name on it.
For shits-n-giggles I inverted the piece so it would look like a regular photogram. Not nearly as spectacular. I love the brilliant shine of the red pinot in the first photograph. Luckily, summer is lurking and there'll be plenty more sunny days to experiment with this new idea.
Labels: Influences, My Art
