Orange Fudge

Rudbeckias are surprisingly varied in their color sizes and shapes. This variety is called "Orange Fudge" and compliments the rosy/rusty Coleus and Andromeda nicely. Some dried wheat was thrown in for a little added texture and echoes the gold tones of the large brass goblet. Could use a some beautiful Corn Husks but alas, none in the kitchen.
Brace your inner country bumpkin 'cause you'll be served bushels of Rudbeckias this week!

A Match Made in........

I am the proud mother of two sunflowers which I raised from seeds! Shown here in the first photo the delicate Vanilla Ice Sunflower that looks more like a lemon yellow cosmo and the third macro shot of the Mammoth Sunflower which really doesn't measure up to it's name but lovely just the same. Sunflowers are really dramatic on thier tall stalks and hog up all the sun from the neighboring plantings. Not sure I'll plant them from seeds again but there is something a little more delicate about the homegrown varieties and it was nice to use them in this summer mix of Black Eyed Susans (from River Garden at Union Square), Eucalyptus and Dusty Miller.
This vase had been sitting in my studio now unused for a good 5 years. NEVER used! I was so bored with my other vessels and from the back of the shelf it's long crackled teal ceramic with delicate yellow floral patterns begged,
"Me, me! pleeeeeeze.... I'm the right color, and I'm special TOO!"
So I gave it a whirl and low and behold, I find myself in love!

It's true, it happens when you're least expecting it and with the most unusual suspect.

Pick Me Upper

A blogger can't afford to be dull or bored or any of the darker things that one naturally experiences in the ebb and flow of life. Truth be told I find myself completely unmotivated this week. It must be related to my absence at the gym. I find that my desire to make anything is dramatically increased by a good sweat. It's amazing how that works, but I miss a few days and nothing stirs me.

These poor neglected beauties were scavenged from the fridge at the studio today for a little pick me up-visual candy.

When asked this week by an ex who just became a father, "Are you happy?"
I swallowed my complaints and said, "I'm happy to be alive."
JEEZE, I could have spared him the passive drama and just said, "Oh Sure."
There's really nothing serious for me to complain about except my presently self-indulgent ennui and about 800 calories in the Pistachio Gelato which I now need to work off at my hateful spin class!
I spin cause I'm not thin, don't hold it against me.

Heaven Scent

Found this photo while sifting through old files. A close up shot of an arrangement made in 2008 for a client who wanted fragrance to be the dominant quality of the arrangement. The gardenias were water tubed and added to groups of hyacinths, garden roses and tulips, (the only flowers without fragrance of the lot). Silk leaves soaked in geranium oil were sunken into the interior which made for a heavenly secret scent.

Worth the Wait

I finally made it to the McQueen show today at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It took me 4.5 hours beginning to end. I guess I deserved it for waiting till the last week of such a masterful exhibit. The actual show was not as large as I imagined. It was the detail in the work that was staggering and the unharnessed imagination that produced these pieces sprung from the realm of the unconscious, and simultaneously casting you into a melange of present, past and future. These costumes come sculptures come fantasies weave unbelievable tales evoking emotions from the most sublime, delicate and magical to the most grotesque, loathsome and frightening. McQueen flourished through extremes, marginality, the surreal and in delving into the darker aspects of his psyche. He fearlessly provoked his audience to experience both discomfort and transcendental epiphanies.

No one can know the real reason behind his choice to end his life or even if the choice was clearly made. In order to have produced the shows in the high art manner that he did he had to have "Given" more than is humanly possible for the average person. The year he died, the two people he aimed to impress most in his life and his central support system were taken away. My theory is that he hit a wall, which is only natural given the volume of g enius work that he produced. He didn't care to express himself further since their realiza tions would not be shared with neither his mentor nor his mother. The dialogue ceased to be in his mind and therefore he had no desire to continue.

On a brighter note, I saw so many children in the line and thought what an amazing inspiration he will be to these kids! Alexander McQueen left a legacy whose fecundity and influence is yet to be truly measured but I do believe that we are experiencing a creative renaissance with the advent of technology and information and that the artists coming up now will take the license he provided them with to carve out their own individual artistic language for expressing themselves in their work.

BRAVO LEE!!!!

God Save Mcqueen

Tomorrow without fail I will get my sorry ass to the Met to see this show that I'm told hemorrhages inspiration! I can use some about now. Not sure if it's the heat or the down time of July/August but I need a hardcore injection of visionary genius apparently sitting on the bruised mannequins at The Metropolitan Museum. Mcqueen turned the art form of fashion on it's head, my only question is why is Sarah Jessica Parker the show's narrator? Only in America guys! I say they missed the boat with Tilda Swinton. Hope to be back swiftly with a report.

Summer Scents

Summer, although limited in range, has it's own charm with it's wildflowers and grasses and drought loving herbs. Now is the best time of the year for the fragrant greens with their tiny blossoms conjuring all types of uses making you both hungry and thirsty at once. You'll be seeing a lot more on this blog in the next few weeks so get down with it cause I'm breaking into it them all and the mini pears, apples, figs and beautiful vegetables that come right alongside them in the crates at Union Square.
Lest we forget, it's also Zinnia, Dahlia and Cosmo time! I love the lovely flirts how can one not?

Tree of Heaven

There's an invasive tree growing everywhere and having lovely giant apple green pods that turn fleshy pink. It's called the Tree of Heaven or Ghetto Palm or Stink Tree. It was the tree that Betty Smith wrote about in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. And yes, it certainly does! All over Brooklyn!
Apparently it was brought over from China when Chinoiserie was all the rage. It's overly zealous ambitions to spread quickly made it unpopular as well as it's noxious odor which I thankfully have yet to experience- perhaps the trees I have encountered are all female( the male species emits a foul smell to attract insects for pollination). Needless to say the tree gets a formidably bad rap and deserves it but here the pods have been mixed with apple branches, dusty miller and garden roses in the company of other citrus lime/yellow parings. It's a nice cool summer mix calling to mind lemonade and lemon ices but it was the rain that ultimately made me happier today.

Artist's License

Beau Chamberlain

Breathing Was the Easy Part

Beau Chamberlain
Apartment Living 2008


Beau Chamberlain is an wonderful artist that shares a studio space on the same floor my studio is on. He was throwing out this large cardboard that he has used to paint his whimsical paintings on for years. I grabbed it from him and asked if I could have it as a backdrop. I think he was a little tickled and shared in the appreciation of it's random paint marks, a direct product of his perfectly executed compositions of fantasy organisms in universes all their own. I thought I would dedicate this post to him and sought to make a still life reflecting his worlds because each of his paintings inhabits their own individual cosmos.
Then as I searched the fridge for specimen and went foraging in the 100 degree heat for unusual flora that might live in his paintings. A whole new palette emerged for me. Flowers I would never think of mixing somehow worked together in a lyrical circus of color and shapes.
And then as I photographed them the light in the room and the colors reminded me of another artist whom I was lucky enough to have known and called a friend.
Loren MacIver was the first woman to be asked to show at the Venice Biennial in 1962. When I met her she was 86 years old. The last of a breed, Loren lived in a truly original bohemian studio on Perry Street. She told me stories of Billy Holiday visiting her there with EE Cummings and playing the piano for her and her husband, the poet Lloyd Frankerberg.
They were tight with Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore and Dylan Thomas to name a few. Loren would tell me stories of her time in Paris. About the "white" dinner of potatoes and cauliflower that Dubuffet would send up to her studio in a bucket hoisted by a pully.
We would watch old black and white films and she would share her favorites like Jean Cocteau, Marcel Marceau, and Jean Harlow.
How do Beau and Loren coexist in the same blog post? I suppose they both used a similar palette of colors since his painting board and my flowers brought me to recall Loren's paintings.
And that palette enabled me to break out of my usual and bring together photography and flowers in ways I would never have thought had it not been for Beau or Loren.

Thank you for helping me see better!

The Self-Serving Passiflora

Antique medicine bottles with Agapanthus, White Brodiaea, Passion flower vine and Cypress Vine

The passion flower is as evasive as the emotional state it's named after. How many times have I taken on the risk of buying them for an event only to spend days hoping and wondering if the expensive bulbous buds will open? The day comes and more often than not, I use it's expressive foliage but no flower. I swear it has a mind of its own! The next day I'll come into the studio and sure enough there it is composing an epiphany all it's own.
Selfish little bastards!
Still I must admit the thrill I get when they open and grateful for the privileged of witnessing it's lusty show.
I've noticed it seems to open best when cut and placed in hot water then left alone in a moderately cool environment. It's all a game of timing and patience like most of the best things in life.