Wow

I LOVE this living room, the colors, the furniture, the ambiance -I could spend my entire week of vacation HERE! I might do away with the zebra print ottoman and use a brown and orange paisley print. I love the crystal lamp on the right - nothing is cozier or more elegant than a lamp with a dark shade, in my humble opinion. That secretary in the back is just amazing too! I could go on all day long :-)

Oh Dear

If you have a spare $250,000 laying around -you could buy this....ahem....'castle' in Kansas....on ebay HERE...... ya - i'm scared - i wish there were interior pictures!!! Be afraid....be very afraid, and yes, this is for REAL! Someone built this! I think they got the architect's plans mixed up with their kindergardener's drawings. It's not all pretty around here at architect design....

Turquoise and red

Some new turquoise and red accented rooms for your viewing pleasure today :-) Alexandra Rowley va desire to inspireA white hallway with turquoise window frames and a red chair at the end!maybe more pink accents than red -but notice the little red vases on the mantel, so chic!

How about this light turquoise painted kitchen from a vintage magazine with red painted interiors! Maybe the red adjoining flooring and toekick is a bit much.......

PS - to show how much I love the red - here I am as a little boy with my red shoes!

Carnegie International

The Carnegie International is held once every 4 years at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. The exhbition was started by Andrew Carnegie in 1896 to bring bright 'on the cusp' artists to public light, per his love of modern art. Each year there is a theme and this years was 'life on mars'. Artits were invited to submit a piece that speaks on these questions.

ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE?

DO ALIENS EXIST?

OR ARE WE, OURSELVES, THE STRANGERS IN OUR OWN WORLDS?

Many incredible artists have particpated in this event over the years -the 'greats' of the art world so to speak - including in recent times. Whistler, Miro, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Pissaro, de Koonig, Magritte and Pittsburgh's own Andy Warhol to name just a FEW.The museum then has the option to purchase the pieces for its own collection.

This was the 3rd carnegie international I have attended and I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed this year - surprisingly so. The past 2 exhibitions have really opened my eyes to the depth of modern art. However, there were a few pieces I did enjoy.Ryan Gander's piece was simple enough, a bunch of crystal balls with sheets of paper etched into the center spread out over a gallery floor. However, upon looking closer, you could examine the room through the balls, distorting your view of your surroundings; a 4th dimension as it were.
The most interactive and 'fun' work was by Thomas Hirschhorn, entitled 'signals'. A whole gallery was transformed into a cave through cardboard and packing tape-like you were on mars. you walked under, over and through it. Scattered among the rooms were artifacts of our society that made you wonder: if we moved to another planet, are they worthwhile? Pornography, tabloids, sociology, different types and styles of governments, trash in the form of empty soda cans, books and knowledge. While on the surface a fun house, this had depth and was really thought provoking. The 3rd piece that attracted my attention was by Friedrich Kunath and was untitled. It was the silhouette of a man with luggage, walking towards the line drawing of a very modern house in ruin; behind it was a beautiful, almost atomic sky. This painting tugged at your emotions, you could feel the yearning for home and for the past. It showed a dismal view of life, despite the colorful sky - a lost soul.The fourth and last installation I'll mention was by Richard Hughes. While he had a few pieces shown together, the one that caught my eye was 'the aura of a savage man - signals'. The walls of the gallery were shown with many layers of paint, stripped and chipped away to reviel the layers beneath - a beautiful rainbow of colors. This felt like modernity and mankind stripped away, left to rot. There was beauty in the decay.I must say that quite a few pieces felt like afterthoughts. I didn't see a connection to any of the questions posed, and they raised no thoughts or emotions. Parts of the exhibition felt like a garage sale; were the artists clearing out their storage units? While it wasn't the best I've seen, I must say it's still worth visiting.
the rear courtyard, an installation piece was played out here

All photos are my own or were taken from the offical website listed above.

dressing rooms

One feature that I really love in a house is a dressing room - a little private space thats all your own to make yourself pretty or just escape from it all! I think for my own I would like to have my desk in there surrounded by cupboards housing all my clothes -perhaps a small tv and a window looking out to a garden. I guess what I'm really after is a den / closet! They can be masculine or feminine as seen above

I especially love mirrored closet doors like these below. a dressing room from James Radin via 'cote de texas' last month.

Do you think it's silly to have a dressing room like this or important, obviously a luxury? I suppose there are many places one can escape to -where is your refuge?

BridesHead revisted - revisited

I saw Brideshead revisted last night, the movie I blogged about a week or so ago HERE. A few people have asked me what I thought about it, so I'll cover my bases here. I'm not sure what I thought of it. On the one hand, it was a visual feast - the filmography was reminicent of Atonement I think - beautifully shot. The 'sets' were of course magnificent -how could they not be as they were shot on location.
However.............You know how I wondered how they could fit 8 hours into 2 hours and 15 minutes? They cut out about 3/4 of the story - it whizzed by me like a motorcyclist on a suicide mission. You never got a clear understanding of many of the characters as they were confined to one-liner transparent characterizations. The beauty of the book and of the miniseries from 1981 is that they explore these characters, flush them out (the miniseries perhaps more in depth than the novel in some ways).
However, I realize if you have no prior experience with Brideshead Revisited -you might not notice. If you see it and think something is missing however -IT IS! But definitely go to see it if only for the sets and costumes alone - and also the brilliant Emma Thompson who is marvelous - gurlfriend can ACT!

Carnegie Museum of Art stair

closeup of the carnegie museum of art -new and old wings with the Cathedral of Learning in the background.

This past weekend I was in Pittsburgh and visited one of my favorite places: the Carnegie Museum of Art. I used to work there so it holds a special place in my heart - plus the building is BEAUTIFUL. You might recognize it as the 'ballet school' in flashdance.Probably my favorite space is the Main Stair. It's a truly awe inspiring space as you can see here.At the base of the stairs. This used to be the front entrance to the museum, now it is lost in the shuffle of the building. Imagine the first impression this made when first walking into the building!Then up to the 2nd floor, truly the main floor with the art exhbitions -the Piano Nobile.Looking up the third floor where the anthropology collection is (not my cup of tea, did not visit this time). This space has the most amazing natural light thanks to the light colored marble that encloses it as well as a ceiling full of skylights. Most of the space in the museum started out as being lit by natural light (nothing beats it!) Now, only the main halls retain this feature.

The museum has some even more astonishingly beautiful spaces, but this will have to suffice for now; you've probably already seen them in flashdance! I will blog later this week about the Carnegie International exhibition, the reason I visited the museum.