Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

It’s spring! and you know what that means!? Time to crawl out of the dark hole you been in and find beauty in the world again. Such a lovely long holiday weekend I took myself to Williamsburg for some shopping and mimosas with the cool kids.

“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”

(shopping blog post to follow, stay tuned. I found some pretty little things in lovely little places.)

This post however, is about all the beautiful, ugly, ironic, and just plain inspiring things I saw along the way. It’s Brooklyn, a giant collage of strange and cool. So walk with me if you would…

The Future Perfect…

Don’t Panic!

“Life is Hard, but Not Today”

“The World ain’t always Disney”

“You’re Face to Face with the Man Who Sold the World”

“Not Swallowed in the Sea”

“Helping Hands Will Show You the Way”

“Which Way Would You Like To GO?”

“There is a Crack in Everything,That’s How the Light Gets In”

“No More Pipe Dreams”

“The World Turned on it’s End”

But Everything’s Coming Up Roses”

“You’ve Got Tulips: Speak”

“You’ll Find Home…”

“…When You’ve Found Yourself”

There is nothing I hate more than being bored. Holiday traveling always means an excruciating amount of waiting in line, in terminals, in planes, utterly uninspired, to say the least. I’d way rather be painting in my studio, listening to Florence and the Machine. But you know, there is a way not to have to stare at the blank faces of dazed travelers and white walls of sanitarium terminals.

It’s true! it just takes a smidge amount of forethought and some key supply purchases. Check my set up on the tiny plane I took over the hills and through the woods to Grandma’s house…

I got my Florence and Snow Patrol fix with my beloved ipod, (for instant MOOD  just add Cherry Anger play list). The compact watercolor set by Windsor and Newton. My small lil cup o water disguised as a Noxzema 3.0 travel jar, and the best and largest brushes I can afford. Personally, I mostly paint with my Squirrel mop brush and a 12, 10, and 8 round as well as a 1″ flat. A rigger is good detail fun and tons of  paper towels by Viva fo sho.

See, since terminals rarely offer inspirational brain food I tend to keep boxes of swipes and tear sheets under my bed and stuffed in my sketchbook. A fist full of random images accompany me on most trips. I pull a lot from fashion magazines and photos I take around the city. It’s up to you to build your reference library. “Build it and they will come”… ideas I mean. What’s important is to keep the flow.

A very wise professor at SCAD once said “If you’re bored, you’re boring”. So true Cap’n, so true.

It’s a dirty job but someones gotta do it! Shopping: staying on trend, finding new ideas, colors, silhouettes etc… Fashion is fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.

Not for the faint of heart, we go all over Manhattan stopping only for mimosas and chocolate covered espresso beans.

This time, we started out at South Street for a power brunch but soon made our way to Soho, Nolita, and East Village. Some of the coolest boutiques are here, peppered with a few vintage and home goods stores it’s a moving mood board of inspiration.

Some of the coolest places we went are:

Eva This very cool boutique has tons of what we call “convertibles”, clothes that you can twist, drape and change to get about 5 different outfits from. Awesome, awesome stuff. They also have very cool runway worthy jewelry.

Tokyo 7 Designer consignment you’ll find Japanese designers like Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto as well as Zac Posen and Dolce & Gabbana.

Bio Emerging designers and a fab little floral designs service called Castle Pierpont the decorator showed us tons of great interior ideas and different ways to use vases when flowers aren’t so fun. Way cool girl, the place alone could be a color story for a mood board.

Love, Adorned is an eclectic place for jewelry, art, home goods and freaky weird things. If anyone want to get me the dinner set of my dreams, this is what I want (mom)

Ina NYC another designer consignment shop that carry one off’s in random sizes.

Rogan A cool men’s and women’s boutique with indie jewelry and leather designer goods. The guys in the boutique are really cool and we even got a few new bands to listen to after our visit.

But the place that killed me was this fragrance shop. Now, I’m not an expensive perfume kinda girl but THIS place just may change me forever ! Le Labo when  the perfumer spritzed a little of this jasmine on me, I about died. I was almost willing to pay ANYTHING for that bottle, almost. I will NEVER wash the scarf I was wearing again.

Sketching is key, most of the time I find a bench round the corner and scribble down the details I can remember. I’m not here to knock things off , but design details and interesting cuts get my brain thinking in different ways.

Road sketches are never pretty and I’m probably the only one who knows what I mean by them. They are really meant to remind me what I saw the next time I am draping. Sometimes I’ll even write down construction details if it’s put together differently than one would expect.

Believe it or not shopping requires strategy and planning, we don’t just go out all willy-nilly like mall rats. Generally, we have a decided plan for what we want to see, then we choose and area to explore. New York is great for this because every neighborhood offers something different. But when we’re visiting other cities or countries we research the lay of the land before heading out.

Some excellent resources for this are:

Lucky Magazine has a map guide for just about every shoppable city check it out here

New York magazine lists the top 25 boutiques and also posts updates for sample sales in the area. (oooo samples sales)

Daily Candy will send you email updates of things to do in your city including current sample sale posts (oooo sample sales).

New York Post lists sales and samples sale events through out the city (have I mention how much I LOVE sample sale season?)

Shopping day is always inspiring and sort of re-lights the flame that forces us to draw and drape all day. With new ideas, and tricked out on espresso beans we settle in for some dinner, drinks and conversation. It’s time well spent and recharges us for the days ahead in the studio.

If you’ve got some favorite shops, or shopping resources in your area we’d love to hear about them, leave a comment.

Since taking an art tour of Spain last June (read about it here). I have been obsessed with Sorolla and his language in paint. The Hispanic Society of America has Sorolla’s “Vision of Spain” murals. When a few members of the Spain group came to visit NYC, a pilgrimage was in order.

Way up on 156th and Broadway it’s a bit of a trip to get there. We got in 45min before closing, but we had the whole place to ourselves. I didn’t quite know what to expect but I figured the best was back in Madrid. I was blown away when we walked into the Bancaja Gallery.

The murals are huge and the application of paint is so vivid, as if every stroke were a crescendo. How freaking awesome!

These were among the last paintings Sorolla completed before his death in 1923. Each painting celebrated the landscape and culture of its region. By 1917 he was, by his own admission, exhausted. He completed the final panel by the middle of 1919.

This one is not Sorolla but I love the colors and lighting.

The violet shadow across the nose and cheeks really pop the orange/red . Such an intense color choice.

Sorolla is the man!

Taking a long weekend to visit my Alma mater, the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah Georgia, to spectate the Comic Arts Forum was a much needed creative recharge. SCAD is nestled in the heart of the one of the creepiest city’s in America and entirely the reason I chose to study fashion and art there.

My appetite for the beautiful and creepy things of the world is ever entertained as I stroll the parks and streets. Here are just a few of my favorite haunts in the dreamy place of study.

Colonial Park Cemetery is heavily trafficed with people and their pets, it’s really just another park. No shame in having a picnic, it’s a beautiful place even on a rainy day.

If you read some of the plaques scattered about the park you’ll find a rich southern history and idealists such as “The Sons of the Revolution”.

One of my all time favorite things is this creepy little door that goes no where on Bull St. The other side of this wall has no door. Who knows what it opens out to, possibly Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last concert?

I love to visit the Ladies at The Savannah Tea Room where I worked “tea mistress” as a student. Chef Andre has the best menu in town, Paula Dean could learn a few things from him for sure.

Dragon Pearl Jasmine tea is the gateway to a spirited painting or illustration. One pot of this rich green tea and the world is a beautiful place.

This beautiful mansion turned 3 level antique store is wonderfully kept on the outside but inside, if you go up stairs, it’s rotting from the roof in. I love crawling around old, falling apart buildings, so this quiet little find is a creepy adventure I get to have all by myself.

Finding something like this all tucked away on the back porch is so surreal. You aren’t quite sure you can go out there because it might fall out from under you. Makes you feel like you discovered something that was kept secret in this sleepy town.

Every port town has a seedy under-belly and Savannah is no exception. This catacomb-like back ally behind River Street is a great place to shoot reference. At night it’s fun to freak yourself out as you listen to “The Edmond Fitzgerald” echoing in from the taverns on the river.

Savannah is known for it’s many squares Chippewa Square has these cool Lion sculptures that I have sketched several times.

(By the way, I am wearing the “Without My Muse” Garrott dress available for purchase here.)

Walking Forsyth Park, I start laughing, remembering my old apartment with a park view on Drayton St. At the time I thought $500 in rent was terribly high.

My old neighborhood, Drayton and Park St. in front of the “Amazing Technicolor Dreamhouse” . That is a ginger peach iced tea in my hand and they just don’t brew it like that in New York, let me tell ya.

But The very best part of being back in town is catching up with a few favorite professors, old friends and making new ones. Savannah is like a safe house for artists and over dinner and drinks a few pieces of paper get passed around each person adds a panel to the story and hilarity ensues.

But we all must leave the land of discovery and invention to light the torch of the world (weather it’s ready to receive us or not) so as one of my professors always says “Forever Forward” . Back to New York I go, to build dresses and paint things quietly in my little studio with an airport view.

This year has been a pretty cool year. I managed to accomplish just about everything on my list. But the best thing by far was taking an art tour of Spain!

Led by Joe Weatherly the trip was an intense tour of Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Sevilla, Cordoba, and Barcelona. It was hard consideration in taking this trip but I needed something new in my work wanted to see European fashion,  and I am pretty sure Emerson wanted me to go.

The Prado! Should be followed by a moment of silence. I’d just assume call it “church”.  The group left after a few hours, leaving me to wander the 19th Century wing for hours with Depeche Mode on my Ipod. I soon forgot about the Velazquez, El Greco, and Rubens we came to see.  Here, there was something else in the paint! A spirited application, not impressionism but expression! Paint can feel and it should if done well, in my opinion. Emilio Sala, Marciano Fortuny, Jose Carbonero, Sorolla and Eduardo Rosallas. I was content to stand in front of them as long as I wanted and to sketch.

I was so taken with this painting I sketched Carbonero’s dog so it would be forever set in my subconscious.

This painting, as I explained in the previous blog post had a huge impact on me.

Violence in the application of paint can express both joy and pain.

As “The Mercy In You” and “In Your Room” played on my Ipod I sketched and stood in front of these and many more paintings. I had found what I was looking for…

Sorolla’s Estate: I was feeling slightly ill from night caps, jet lag and no food but by the time I made it to the garden I felt fine. Paintings everywhere, of all subjects. An entire wall  of  studies. He painted everything, any subject, large or small. I was content to sit in the sun and  learn through osmosis.

Segovia, so surreal, perhaps because the wine and beer were so refreshing but at night the colors were spectacular. The sky was a vivid cobalt and the building spires on fire with sienna and ochre. Hardly any time to draw and paint but I managed a few sketches. The streets were labyrinthine and it was a full moon, perfect for gecko hunting till 3 am.

Legend has it that the comic book industry in Europe is a respected and coveted art form. That artists are allowed a significant amount of time to develop work. I am no expert and I can’t read Spanish but I was deeply impressed with the variety and quality of art. I got some great books for the flight home and the people were cool enough to let me play with the wookie.

Barcelona! I’ve wanted to see Gaudi’s Casa Mila and Casa Batllo since art school so I was pretty excited. We got in late at night and went out for food and refreshments, schlepping our way back all buzzy and tired I looked up to find myself under the Casa Batllo only 2 blocks from the hotel. There they were, those “cat skull” balconys with the up lights, so wicked awesome! I could not wait to come back tomorrow and see the inside of this legendary building.

But wait! The next day all of Barcelona was 50% -80% off, what’s a fashionista to do but shop, shop, shop! And the  Brandery , Barcelona’s trade show for the fashion industry was also going on. One of the group’s charismatic members was able to snag a badge and “The Book”  to the show so I was pretty happy to get my hands on “what’s next” in European fashion a whole year or so before it gets to the US.

And shopping was bliss, the Gothic Barri is Barcelona’s equivalent to NYC’s East Village, tons of indie shops and cool new ideas. Most of the designers were running the shops and were happy to talk to a designer from New York.

A lot of cool ideas and details. Everyone in Spain dresses nice, it’s easy to pick out the Americans. Too bad; the American market could use some creativity.

I’m a big fan of art nouveau and Barcelona has some amazing architecture, just about every where you look you’ll find a beautiful embellishment. But Gaudi takes the cake and the icing on it.

The feel of the Casa Batllo is air and water. A constant feeling of being under water still haunts my subconscious. Incredible the engineering genius Gaudi employed to make certain effects both aesthetic and functional.

It was a beautiful trip, I came back with a suit case full of art books and clothes. My journal full of ideas and thoughts, here are some quotes I wrote down while on the train going from city to city:

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.” RWE

“To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society” RWE

“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within.” RWE

“No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature, I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.” RWE

“To be great is to be misunderstood…but do your work and I shall know you.” RWE

“All that you touch and all that you see is all your life will ever be” Pink Floyd