Rugged up and left hanging out to dry...

Dear K, 

After weeks of thoughts of wallpaper, I'm continuing down the textile train to rugs - artist designed rugs. I've always been interested in textiles, but since moving to south Florida, have been able to embrace design a little bit more. Particularly in Miami, design in extremely important and exhibited all over the city. The last time I went down to Miami, I was saddened to see one of my favorite "living rooms" (image below) has been drowned in graffiti. . . The Design District is always a visual overload of beautifully designed objects de arte. Most are too expensive for my tight pockets, but a girl can dream. 

 

While researching the judge of the wallpaper exhibit that I am in through the Florida Craftsmen organization that starts in 2 weeks, I came upon Home Miami Magazine. The article on designers Doug and Gene Meyer in the July 2008 online issue re-sparked my love of the nubby, well-designed, large scaled rugs seen above. A tad more design/space/slick than we normally post about - I'm interested in how these woven threads can so drastically change not only the architecture of the room, but the objects within it.  

All of this talk of Miami and rugs made me think of an artist I have run into a few times, Michelle Weinberg. An impressive, multi-disciplinary artist, I love how she translates the same visual aesthetic with her paintings to her surface designs. 

Can we start our own wallpaper and rug line (You know, in our spare time - ha!)  Thoughts towards the future of the repeated pattern.... 

Love, 

K.

Tangled Alphabets

Dear K, 

You absolutely have to visit this website: 

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/tangledalphabets/

for a beautiful, delicate and witty interpretation of fonts, language and pencil drawings. This made me think of your recent playful assignment with handmade fonts.

Love, 

K. 

Paper that wall!

Dear K, 

Urban decayed romance is exactly what I have been thinking about lately - and these dramatic scenes where something has gone awry have been trickling into my daily writings, installation ideas, slide manipulations and filmic thoughts. It's always a quiet scene, where colored thoughts lie scratched and eaten - their layered qualities seeping and swimming into each other. You're right about these "anti-slides" (as Step cleverly dubbed them..) they are much darker than I usually work. I think this "complex subtraction" stems somewhat by the life phase that I am in - newly married - starting a new life, trying to figure out what to bring into it from the past, and what to scratch out entirely. 

Speaking of mechanics and motion, I can hardly wait to see your automatas. There is something simultaneous masculine about trying to figure out the mechanics of how things work, and the delicate, feminine quality of your "steam puffs" - which hint at craft, sewing and airy, soft clouds. Its an equation of Duchamp/Dada + Folk Art + Contemporary dioramic photographic studies. Keep pushing those buttons!

On another note: While you are venturing into artist + engineer; I'm knee deep in artist + architect/interior designer. 

Wallpaper is never far from my thoughts. There is something about the delicacy of a simple and beautifully repeated pattern. I've always been in love with that Charlotte Perkins Gillman story, "The Yellow Wallpaper". Recently accepted into an exhibit called: "Paper: On and Off the Wall" .  . . I've been experimenting with delicate lines. Here are some great reference websites that I have found in the last week: www.designyourwall.com, www.studioprintworks.com, www.handmadewallpaper.net and www.walnutwallpaper.com

Repeat and paste on YOUR walls. Can you guess which above image is mine? (The rest are from www.studioprintworks.com)

Hoping for a repeat of my super productive week and weekend. 

Love, 

K.