Gardener's Delight

It seems like all I've done lately is look at gardens and pools for inspiration for a few of our new projects. It's actually quite fun considering the closest thing I have to a garden is a fire escape. I guess I could consider Central Park my garden but since I have to share it with 8 million other people, it's not really that quiet or peaceful.

So instead, I live vicariously through the gardens of others like my favorite from Canada (or America's Hat as Decorno likes to refer to it) seen in the new Liagre book. The book won't be released until September in the US but we have a special copy from France. I can already tell that the book is going to be a bestseller since it's packed full of beautiful interiors and gardens. Enjoy!

I Heart Kansas City!

One of the reasons I have been so exhausted lately is that I am literally doing four jobs right now! But I wouldn't have it any other way because they are all fun and exciting and have brought me into contact with some really amazing people, especially those at Kansas City Home Design magazine! I was approached a few months ago about signing on to become a judge for their KCHD Design Excellence Awards and in the process was also asked to write for the magazine! My first story about shopping in Soho was just published in the new May/June 2008 issue and the best part is that you can read it online! Woo hoo!

I would like to thank great team behind KCHD, Chadwick Brooks, the editor-in-chief; Erin Benda, the Director of Content and Creative; and Eryn Swanson, the Managing Editor for allowing me to be a part of their wonderful magazine. I will be Kansas City in June for the KCHD Design Excellence Awards ceremony and I can't wait to finally meet them all in person!

I also can't wait to meet fellow blogger and Kansas City resident, Mrs. Blandings, and my favorite Kansas City design friend, David Jimenez! Should be a very fun weekend! But now I have to get back to work!

Sagaponack Surprise

You know it's almost summer in New York when the first copy of Hamptons Cottages and Gardens arrives! The May 2008 issue marks their 7th anniversary and one of my favorite features is the Sagaponack, New York home designed by interior designer Marshall Watson. It's full of light summery colors and beautiful fabrics. And don't you just want to jump into that pool?! Happy almost summer!

Robert Rauschenberg 1925 - 2008

I was so saddened to learn that artist Robert Rauschenberg died today at the age of 82. His "Combines" show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005/2006 was one of my all time favorites. The art I've featured here is from that show and althought most of it dates from the 1950's, it is still modern and moving and most certainly beautiful.

Jasper Johns said "Rauschenberg was the man who in this century invented the most since Picasso." Quite a compliment. Jerry Saltz wrote in "Our Picasso", Everything Abstract Expressionism was, Rauschenberg and Co. weren't. Ab-Ex was big, lofty, abstract and made by older straight men. This neo-Dada, proto-Pop and Pop art was smaller, cooler, figurative, vernacular and often made by younger gay men. As Rauschenberg professed, "I could never make the language of Abstract Expressionism work for me -- words like 'tortured,' 'struggle' and 'pain,' I could never see those qualities in paint. How can red be 'passion?' Red is red. Jasper and I used to start each day by having to move out from Abstract Expressionism."

His piece entitled "Bed" from 1955 was slightly controversial and turned art on it's ear and Leo Steinberg said it"expresses the most radical shift in the subject matter of art, the shift from nature to culture."

"Rauschenberg created a turning point in visual syntax and optical structure.
Roy Lichtenstein said Robert Rauschenberg's combines "marked the end of Abstract Expressionism and the return of the subject." The combines are radical for the way they fuse painting, sculpture and everyday objects."

"As Lorenzo Ghiberti fused illusionist space and materials in his miraculous bas-relief baptistry doors (1403–1424), Rauschenberg created a turning point in visual syntax and optical structure. If all representational images promise depth, the synaptic rhythms and rhymes of the combines create a new kind of visual poetry. As Rauschenberg put it, the combines offered him "a new kind of wisdom."

Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, in his book "American Visions," called Rauschenberg "a protean genius who showed America that all of life could be open to art. ... Rauschenberg didn't give a fig for consistency, or curating his reputation; his taste was always facile, omnivorous, and hit-or-miss, yet he had a bigness of soul and a richness of temperament that recalled Walt Whitman."

One of Rauschenberg's first and most famous combines was titled "Monogram," a 1959 work consisting of a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint, above. I had the pleasure of seeing this piece first at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm while I was visiting and then again at the show at the Met. I was a member of the Apollo Circle at the time so we had a private tour of the exhibit and were told a funny story about how the goat came to the museum with a handler from the Moderna Museet who after it had been placed, pulled a comb out of his pocket and brushed it's hair. I bet Rauschenberg would have gotten a kick out of that!

"I don't ever want to go," Rauschenberg told Harper's Bazaar in 1997 when asked of his own death. "I don't have a sense of great reality about the next world; my feet are too ugly to wear those golden slippers. But I'm working on my fear of it. And my fear is that something interesting will happen, and I'll miss it." And the world will be a little less interesting without Robert Rauschenberg in it. May he rest in peace.

Night Off

Burning the candle at both ends for the last month has finally caught up with me so I'm taking the night off to curl up on sofa and watch Gossip Girl and relax. Hopefully I'll be refreshed and ready to go tomorrow. XOXO!

Grammercy Park Perfection

I posted a few photos from this Gramercy Park apartment designed by Robert Passal last week but it's such a great space that I thought it was worth posting the rest. I also admire the designer's style and philosophy. “Design is in my blood,” says Passel. “I habitually find myself contemplating ideas for current and future projects. I continually challenge myself and my staff to examine definitive segments of art and design, both modern and traditional, to bring an air of distinction to my work.”

My Favorite Artist

My favorite artist, Elizabeth Peyton, is also having an exhibition in New York through May 17th at Gavin Brown's enterprise. I dream of owning one of her hauntingly beautiful portraits someday which will require me to work really hard to be able to afford it since her work has continued to skyrocket in price. But until then, I'm going to have to make do by visiting the gallery and looking at her book again. Sigh.