my mama's table

still life saturday with painter adriaen coorte

Adriaen Coorte (c.1660-after 1707), lived in Middelburg in the Netherlands in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

artist in her home: no.5

photograph by Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

I was struck by an article about the home, art and life of Paula Hayes in The New York Times. Paula Hayes works with plants, creating sculptural landscapes, planters, terrariums and living necklaces. Gardening is her unexpected art form which she exhibits in galleries as well as in people's homes and gardens. What made an impression is that Ms. Hayes makes and lives what she loves, and is very successful at it. Her creations are unique, unusual, very personal, and they sell. Her work brings to mind my favorite passage from Rumi:
"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

living necklace

hand-blown glass terrarium

hand-blown glass mini terrariums

silicone and dumpling planters

pond planter

All photographs of Paula Hayes' work are from paulahayes.com. Even her website is organic, growing out of Ms. Hayes' work.

tiles by roseberry winn

Located in Fall River (studio) and Tiverton (retail store), Roseberry Winn is a Rhode Island treasure. Run by Michael Roseberry and Bruce Winn, the line of ceramics is vintage in feel with a modern approach. I am a big admirer of their surface patterns, which they carve into a clay original. Once the clay model is fired, a plaster mold is created and the piece is mass produced in pure white porcelain. I love the color and feel of their glazes, matte and soft to the touch. Their tile collection is especially stunning.

Visit Roseberry Winn in Four Corners, Tiverton, RI, and online, roseberrywinn.com.

lomonosov porcelain

I grew up around delicate, handpainted porcelain (Farfor-Фарфор), Russian style, learning just now that love of porcelain infected St. Petersburg during Peter I's time. His daughter, Tsarina Yelizaveta, decreed St. Petersburg's first porcelain factory, Lomonosov, in 1744 "to serve the cause of national industry and art." You might say clay has been in my DNA for generations.

Working with purely white and extremely thin porcelain, the Lomonosov factory offers hundreds of hand-crafted products, ranging from tea cups to porcelain statues of animals. Their website, not the most functional or attractive in design, offers products for sale world wide and is worth exploring. Here are a few of the tea pots. I love the variety of shapes and patterns, they bring memories of my grandmother's house.

All photographs are from the Lomonosov website

anthropodino by ernesto neto

Images credit: Ernesto Neto, Installation view anthropodino, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, 2009. Photos: James Ewing.

I had dinner with my friend Leslie in Manhattan on Sunday night. Leslie, being always in the know, pointed me toward an installation at the Park Avenue Armory. On exhibit there is a site specific installation by Ernesto Neto, a contemporary Brazilian artist. I just learned that he is inspired by the neo-concretism movement who "wanted to equate art with living organisms in a kind of organic architecture, and invite the viewer to be an active participant." Neto's installation at the Armory is exactly that.

This extraordinary work is on view through June 14th.

definition of neo-concretism:
Brazilian movement was formed in reaction to the mathematical certainty of Concrete Art. Artists like Ltgia Clark, Helio Oiticica, Amilcar de Castro were the groups chief members, and they introduced subjective, symbolic, and organic dimensions to their work. According to the poet-critic Ferreira Gullar’s 1959 “Neoconcrete Manifesto”, Neoconcretism was born of the need to express the complex reality of modern man within the structural language of the new plastic art. It denies the validity of scientific and positivist attitudes in art. It restates the problem of expression, incorporating the new ‘verbal’ dimensions characteristic of neofigurative constructivist art.

life at farm

farm sign was designed by Susie Nielsen

In a cozy Cape Cod town of Wellfleet, my friend Susie Nielsen has opened an exhibit space called farm. I am in awe of what Susie has done, and of Susie herself. Let me start with farm, which features artists embodying the following philosophy (from farm):
farm is being attentive to what we see. It is transcribing and transforming what is here. We act as a lens or filter. We are the inbetween. Between you and what they hear on the other side of your voice. We find possibility and create opportunity.

Kerry O'Grady's drawings on panels

Karry O'Grady installing her work, close up of one of the drawings.
Photographs courtesy of farm

The day Claudia and I came to visit farm, Kerry O'Grady was the featured artist. Kerry's subtle drawings, evocative of landscapes and the human form, envelope you as you walk through the intimate space. Susie has inscribed Kerry's name in the floor, practical as well as unexpected.

Susie Nielsen at farm

Now a little about Susie who I met at RISD while laboring through graduate school. Susie inspires me with her boundless energy to create. Whether it is a space, or a painting, or a postcard, her work is multi-layered, poignant, and resonates in the depths of my memory. Here are two of her creations:

farm (and Susie) is located at 15 Commercial Street, Wellfleet, MA

still life saturday with melons

painting by Ovanes Berberian

painting by Luis Melendez

painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir

painting by Natalia Goncharova

painting by Eduard Manet

painting by Mary Fedden

painting by Juan Sánchez Cotán

painted loveliness

I met Re Jin, the artist behind the line Bailey Doesn't Bark, at one of the holiday sales last year, but have been admiring her hand-painted ceramics for quite some time. I love the quality of Re Jin's illustrations, graphic, delicate and considered, each drawing fitting perfectly with the chosen ceramic form.

Her new gold leaf series is beautiful, I love that Re Jin chose cockroaches as one of her subjects. Such a twist of perception, taking something repellent and elevating it to a completely different level.

And then there is her elegant "ants on my tableware" collection, reminding me of my days in French Guiana, where everywhere you looked, there were ants. After my jungle trip, I have been wanting to do an ants series myself, swarms and swarms of ants on dishes. For Re Jin's full line of tableware visit Bailey Doesn't Bark on Etsy.

All photographs are courtesy of Bailey Doesn't Bark.

slow design & porcelain gift tags

photography courtesy of Caroline Swift
found via visuals blog

Caroline Swift has a gentle eye for beauty, and she applies it to a unique collection of ceramics, glass and clothing. Caroline takes care with each piece, appreciating the material and the time it takes to make it. In her own words, she is a proponent of "slow design, taking pleasure and pride in making things and passing that on." Read more about Caroline's philosophy here.

The packaging is also carefully considered, each box is tied with a black or white porcelain gift tag and rose.

photography courtesy of Caroline Swift

typographical moments

I just received the June catalog from Anthropologie. I look forward to these mini-magazines each season, and save them for inspiration. The photography is always gorgeous, and the styling sublime.

Their June issue features typography by Hatch Show Print, America's oldest working poster print shop, also a fantastic museum in Nashville. Visit Hatch Show Print's website here. You will not be disappointed.

Here are some Hatch Show Print's typographical gems from Anthropologie's catalog. Click here to view the full catalog online.

table linens

I am thinking of expanding gleena to include table linens and started my napkin and tablecloth research on etsy. I found the following lovelies, click on the images to go to the shop.