Garden Arbors

Let me know which you prefer - the painted arbors or the natural look?

Comments welcome below!  You can guess my favorite!

Images 1 and 2 Country Living, Images 3, 4 Unknown

Image 6 Pottery Barn, Image 7 John Carloftis

My Blue Heaven

Country Living

Carolyne Roehm

Mario Buatta via Architectural Digest

Diamond and Barratta

Coastal Living

Traditional Home

Carolyne Roehm

Carolyne Roehm

Carolyne Roehm

Mario Buatta via Architectural Digest

Mario Buatta via Architectural Digest

Unknown

Unknown

Loving the artful designs of Kit Kemp!

Remember the Crosby Street Hotel and dog art I mentioned a few days ago?  I thought I would share that lobby with you, along with some of Kit Kemp's other hotel rooms and her private residence in London, while it is still fresh on our minds.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Crosby Street Hotel Lobby

Crosby Street Hotel Drawing Room

   

Crosby Street Hotel Lobby

London hotel suite

London hotel suite

The Kemp's townhouse living room

The Kemp's library

The Kemp's dining room

The Kemp's master bedroom

The Kemp's kitchen

Hotel photos via Firmdale Hotels

Kemp's townhouse photos via Elle Decor

The Roses

Arrived in New York just in time to see Will Ryman's art installation of sculptured roses!  They ranged in size from 4' tall to 25' tall and were placed in the Park Avenue boulevards between 57th and 67th Streets for all to enjoy........the exhibition lasted from January to May 31.

Take note of the giant lady bugs, beetles, etc.  These pics were taken just as they were beginning to be removed.....until then they were surrounded by grass.  Delightful!

Photos via Kay Furlong

Serendipity II

My second serendipitous moment in New York came when we happened upon this spectacular "Circle of Zodiac Heads" exhibition by controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.  We were approaching The Plaza Hotel when I saw this collection of bronze sculptures, each standing on a post approximately 20' tall.  The heads are about 4 feet tall each and weigh about 800 pounds.

After doing a little research on this temporary New York exhibition, I discovered that Weiwei is the same artist who displayed over a 100,000,000 porcelain sunflower seeds at the Tate Modern in London earlier this year.  I remember reading about it at the time and now know that Weiwei captures attention to help expose the true living conditions and repressions in China.
 
This is a very impressive work of art and I felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to see them first hand.

For more on this artist and his creations, check out this address http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/8507394/Ai-Weiwei-Zodiac-Heads-Somerset-House-review.html

Photos via Kay Furlong



Serendipity I

Ser-en-dip-i-ty - an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; luck; good fortune.

I'm home again from a whirlwind trip to New York city last week that was fun, exciting, informative, fast paced, entertaining and, among other things, serendipitous!

As I told you in a previous post, one of my first stopping points would be Anthropologie......and it was!  Couldn't wait to get there and see what was new!  And it was great, as always. 

I was still thinking about the display of dog art I saw there last March (2010) when I visited....all done in paper collage.  It was unforgettable and I had thought of it many times over the past year.

So, it was with great interest, and very serendipitous, when I happened upon this book, Paperwork, by Peter Clark, as it immediately took me back to last year's exhibition at Anthropologie and I wondered if it was his dog art I had seen, or if it had been done by various artists (and perhaps inspired by his work)?  I've tried researching last year's Anthropologie's display since arriving home, and I still don't know the answer to that question, but in the process, have discovered a lot of information about Peter Clark who, until last week, was a complete unknown to me.

If I may digress a moment, I need to mention that I had also hoped to visit the Crosby Street Hotel while in the city, as well.  I have been following the interior design of Tim and Kit Kemp's British hotels for several years, so when I heard they were opening their first North American hotel in NYC a couple of years ago, I had to check it out online and when I discovered their Crosby Street Hotel had a fabulous dog art theme going on in the hotel lobby, I knew I had to visit there and get some photos. 

My plan was made!  While my daughter took her two children to visit the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, I would dash over to the Crosby Hotel.....only 11 blocks each way!....I could manage that in an hour or two....after all, when we booked the Tenement Museum the week before we left for our trip, there were only 3 tickets left.....just enough for them and I would find something else to occupy my time while they visited the tenement building.  However, while we were standing in the museum shop and at the very last minute, another ticket became available and I chose to do the tour with my family.  There was no time left to get to Crosby Street, as we had other plans and the heat in the city was unbearable.....we had to get back uptown!

Getting back to Peter Clark, in doing my research on his work last night, I discovered that the Crosby Street Hotel is decorated with his dog art!!!  And furthermore, a new art gallery opened in NYC in April and it's current (and temporary!) exhibition is Peter Clark's collaged dog art!!    It's there until the middle of June! And the gallery, http://www.r-h-g.co.uk is situated on Mott Street, directly between the Crosby Street Hotel and the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street.  Rebecca Hossack has owned an art gallery in London for over 20 years and has exhibited Peter's work there in the past - hence, Kit Kemp's (London) familiarity with his work.

So, even though I missed seeing the Crosby Street Hotel (I will yet), and missed seeing his current exhibition at this new gallery, I am elated that I found this book and learned more about Peter Clark's fabulously creative work - designed completely with recycled paper - old books, letters, maps, junk mail, stamps, and any other paper ephemera he can get his hands on.  He's an artistic genius!

I hope you enjoy his art as much as I do!  And, oh yes, I enjoyed the Tenement Tour and the extra time with my family!

Paperwork by Peter Clark



Bostonian

Brown Eyed and Handsome

Darling

Sweet Great George

Sailor Boy

King Charlie

Pug in Pink

Pride of Stride



Dog photos via Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery

Book photo via Kay Furlong