TILE ENVY

couldn’t resist interjecting this photo from a recent chanel show, backstage-

everyone here at tile envy loves, loves, loves fornasetti. erin has her mom’s plates and i’ve had these for oh so long…

tracy recently sent this great video from the cool doods at cranetv.com. it speaks for itself:

alright-ee. erin and I are getting closer to launching our very fun tile revelation – clé – any minute now (actually sometime in february).

you have all had a part in our diabolical plan! completely inspired by readers of tile envy, clé is a brainchild -(i was going to use the term supernova, but in fact it is a reflection) of all of you seeking tile and especially tiles made from the hands of artists. then add to all of that, the magical curation and mighty inspiration of Erin Adams and her entire career of artist collaboration, and you have an alliance that has been as organic as it has been exciting.

We are anxiously anticipating a “soft” launch of clé in the midst of this month- or sometime whenever uncle reyka unleashes his nearly two years of html noodling on all of us. but in the meantime, erin has taken to the airwaves by manning our twitter feed- check it out- and between daily tile (facebook), tile envy (blog), and pinterest (deborah and erin), you will be seeing odds and ends and tidbits of what’s cooking at clé via the realm that made it all catch fire- SoMe.

so speaking of SoMe, whilst writing yesterday’s post of Lucian Freud at home, I was reminded that Freud always liked to include animals and, especially, pets in his works.

which then made me reflect on a couple of recent SoMe subjects that have had my attention- 1) pets and 2) portraits:

1) when pinterest first began, i participated in a “favorite things” pinterest round-up. naturally i had to include top dog and tile envy studio mascot, mochi fernando. mochi has now become, i believe, the most repinned puppy on pinterest. i challenge any of you to a popular pinterest puppy throw-down right here and now-

mochi hard at work inspiring tile envy

2) tile envy reported last year on a contest being conducted by klm airlines that was a celebration of delft tiles and portraiture (here). recently i noted that they launched the results- a completely “tiled” aircraft all created by SoMe- super fun and super tile! actually wondering if KLM might provide the ability to transform the portrait tiles into ceramic???

Today, I’m imploring any of you with a copy of Martin Gayford’s (critic for Bloomberg News and Spectator), Man with a Blue Scarf, to lend it my way, per favore.

I’ve been longing to have a read of it, but my library is currently so full of partially read books (I tend to over-commit) that I can’t bring myself to further embarrassment. However, should one happen-to-come-my-way, I imagine the read could be more random than the requiring of a genuine pouring through. What I truly imagine- however- is that, once started, I won’t be able to put it down.

Lucian Freud is my favorite of all portrait artists. a riveting painter without the nightmarish rigor of Francis Bacon- of whom I am also in awe. Is it any wonder he is the offspring of that psychological trend-setter Sigmund? His works are a psychological study by way of a portrait. Gayford’s book is meant to be skillfully written, sharing morsels of Freud’s work habits, observations and conversations. Sounds perfect for this month’s Tile Envy- artists at home.

(freud with gayford)

After a whirl of color on Friday- today, flashes of Picasso in mostly black and white.

Picasso is easily the most recognized of modern artists (as Picasso, himself, would agree). His works are as much a stand-out sans color as with. I love that his latter years would explore every opportunity to create in any means using contrast vs color- playing with light, glass, and – oh right- tile. Tile?

I’d love to take a day to just fantasize about how Picasso would be exploring the outer realms of creativity in the inter-world wide web…

In the past year, my family had the difficult task of saying final farewells to a few of our loved ones.  As a result, I’ve been in what I’d refer to as sort of a zone- which I can try to describe as a period of time filled with day-to-day activities that run oddly parallel to a very deep and silent space.

Crossing between those two planes has been a journey of subtle surprises. Along with forgetting that a funny story won’t be shared, or saving a coupon that will now go unused, abstracted memories have been surfacing as curious and beautiful reminders of years now gone. For instance, it might be a flash of the intense greenish/teal of my mother’s 50′s era dress, worn in it’s newest grandeur in a now old photograph, or a view from my child-eyes as a startling red was poured into a cake batter turning it magically and vibrantly yellow.

During the past holidays, the world has also had to say goodbye to some favorite artists and designers. And between the internet, and Erin and Tracy – I have ended up with a handful of images from those artists lives that feel similar to that murky zone I’m currently staring down. I wanted to share some of those images and offer them much in the same way that my own abstracted memories have been bubbling up.

So for the month of February I thought I’d share some of the glimpses of these artists homes, studios and personal inspirations to remind us all that for many of us creative types- home is where the art is. We could start with looking back at a previous Tile Envy post about the Roman empire of Cy Twombly. (just click here). But I thought today I would get a jump on February with a glimpse into the home of the late and very great abstract expressionist, Helen Frankenthaler and husband Robert Motherwell.

Then i found this Kyle Bunting rug that I thought would have been a phenomenal addition to their living room-

which then reminded me of Erin Adam’s quilt series-

which made me think of this photo of surf boards,

and this bag,

and this cake,

and this girl

and so on…

and just to finish up with another touch of tile-

All last week, Erin Adams camped out here in Sausalito (Camp Cle) as she and I were swirling, swirling in our ideas, our creations, and the revolution that is our pending eboutique, Cle.

Sheesh! it was quite the motherlode of brain-storming, incubating, and reminiscing about our careers in art and design, and then the fashion and tile worlds. Along with ALL THAT was the inevitable discussion of years in art school, favorite designers, influences and past projects. I don’t think I’ve used the term avant-garde in a sentence in a zillion years, but this week I was dropping that quintessential of all 80′s adjectives with shameful monotony. While recalling Laurie Anderson, Malcolm McClaren and Commes des Garcon, one could allllllmost catch a whiff of clove cigarettes (why did we bother??) and hear the unnatural wail of David Byrne listing in the distance.

I couldn’t help but connect all those recollections with a post celebrating the works of Tokujin Yoshioka who got his start way back in the day assisting the great Issey Miyake. That superb training and experience has informed works that continue to turn heads in the design and art world. In much the same way that our formidable Erin re-visioned glass mosaics in the tile world -forcing us to see beyond the traditional materials and wake up to their modern possibilities- Tokujin’s new works leave us wondering how he has managed to coax otherwise recognizable materials such as porcelain, glass, crystal, and plastics into hauntingly beautiful and eerie design perfections-

It’s surely clear by now that Tile Envy is a big fan of tile mosaics.

However, the following mosaics are fashioned from other than tile and stone. Today from our friends at design boom- a look at some award-winning mosaics created by design group Senseteam. Each portrait is constructed from a myriad of currencies from around the world, giving a new spin to the descriptor- “being made from money”. Be sure to click on photos to read more-

Couldn’t say goodbye to Santa or his missus this year. Not sure what that was all about. You know that I blare the xmas tunes from turkey through champagne. And the idea of bundling in layers of wool with hot toddies and roaring fires is my idea of heaven. So this year, the day after New Year’s I couldn’t shake my post holiday blues. I just wanted the whole winter fest to go on and on, forever and ever. I don’t think I’ve felt like that since I was eleven and Santa blessed me with a new set of croquet mallets and a hot pair of tangerine tango fish nets (a few years prior to pantone, I might add!!).

So what to do about it all?? I decided it would be best to leave the polar region for the polar opposite and landed in Diane Keaton’s dream getaway – Amangiri. I was searching for Ms. Keaton’s interview on Remodelista sharing her design favorites and she singled out this architectural beauty tucked into one of the Four Corners on the Utah side.  Somehow, some day I hope to catch some vitamin D, at this 5 star resort steeped in the spirits of 4 Indian Nations. It’s a fantasy destination to thaw one’s bones and shed the winter warmth. When I caught a glimpse it took me far, far away- from the melancholy of January and my holiday blues-

Last night we enjoyed a full moon beautifully streaking across our San Francisco bay.

Then this note came in from Tracy with what appears to be a creative family having some full moon fun-