Valerie Galloway

quite simply, i find myself very drawn to the work of artist Valerie Galloway. im not sure i can put my finger on exactly why. It love its straight forward nature, and the pallet of course. It contains all of the things I love about folk art, and in a way reminds me of the work of Frida Kohal's.

There is a fragility, heightened by that yellowed parchment colored background so indicative of paper ephemera, that makes me look at it again and again. And the scintillating red lips and cheeks on many of her women hint at something beneath it all.

Valerie write that she is "influenced by cinema and old family photos. I love to take a memory or impression and reshape it into a lovely vision" and lovely visions are just what these are. I think they would be just perfect framed in vintage oval portrait frames. find them in her etsy shop here.

not in frame

ive been to enough auctions in my life to know its not always whats in the frame that matters. sometimes its simply the frame itself.

In amsterdam this summer while strolling through the rijksmuseum, i found myself captivated but in some instances it was by the sheer beauty and intricacies of the frames around the old paintings. Delicate, detailed, elegant and telling a story all on their own.

Ive been seeing a few photos around the blog world of just frames - hanging on the wall. no need to fill them just simply allowing them to be seen, to be admired and appreciated - and i think thats simply lovely.

imagine the combinations you could create -

i found these two very old and very beautiful frames and they are in the shop now waiting to grace someone's walls ~

images: greigedesign, anthropologie, unknown, lobster&swan, flickr, cottagefarm

little lovelies : forrest clearing

lovely, arent they?
cast in porcelain from vintage doilies. Not only do i love the aesthetic appeal of these pieces, but thinking about the metaphorical layers behind the work has me captivated.

once handmade, they are like little monuments to the first maker reinvented using clay the second time around and then remade. Given a place of importance through their new material, but in the same breath a greater fragility.

An interesting balance is struck for me between the place of the traditional craft/its maker and its current form. somehow, its new form is both more concrete and speaks to the precarious state of this once widely known skill and its decline into something of obscurity, and all the while these pieces retain the most quite and delicate presence.

Cape Light - Joel Meyerowitz

its finally summer here in San Francisco - most of us were thinking it wouldnt happen, but here it is!


yesterday on sfgirlbybay, victoria took us on a tour of martha's vineyard. it made me long for my childhood summers on the cape and islands. i swear there is something magical that exists only there and no where else.

photographer Joel Meyerowitz captures my feelings for this place so well. his photos from the series Cape Light serve to satiate my longing...at least for now.

hope you enjoy

shead some light on it - interior inspiration

lately there has been a bit of a to-do about the old edison filament lightbulb - its been popping up everywhere in the design world- and i would agree that there is a certain appeal

but instead of finding them overhead ive been intrigued with collections of them, tucked away in bookshelves or out on desk tops and counters. screwed into the very old porcelain style sockets they become more like works of art than an electrical crisis ....

illuminating no?

photos by artist catherine wagner from the series utopia, m.bibelot via flickr, modern50