Personism

Pressing Matters

Holly Lynton, Brad Moore and Diane Meyer photos in my apartment.

Easing the Pain of Collecting, which appeared on the front page (holy smokes!) of last Thursday's New York Times Home section, answers all your burning Jen Bekman questions. Does she have a trust fund? Did she graduate from college? Can she make a bed? No, no and, um, clearly no. (Pictures don't lie.)*

Seriously, it's actually a thoughtfully written piece that I'm very pleased with and flattered by. Staff reporter Julie Scelfo frames out my history using my apartment to shape the tale. We talk about my art, my various collections of things (pottery, stuff from eBay), how I got started in the art business and how everything in my life is totally and completely perfect now. Woo!

Don't miss the audio clip (all "likes" and "ums" miraculously edited out!) In the clip I give some tips on getting your art on. There's also sidebar that includes many of my recommendations on places to get awesome art affordably, online and off.

In other media news: 20x200 is the best! The best of New York that is. Their big fat Best of double issue is on newsstands now, and 20x200 is proclaimed to be the best Starter Art Collection.

Ok, that is all. I will now return to my glamorous New York life of takeout, heavy-footed upstairs neighbors and pet hair.

*I also don't do dishes.

Hint

Design George Nelson, 1958.
Walnut, laminate top, plastic drawers, chromed steel tubing. Made by Herman Miller.

I'm still lying on my couch typing. We just leased some studio space around the corner from the gallery, and that studio needs a desk. Nearly a year after I first proclaimed my love for it, I remain convinced that this desk would be just perfect for me.

Go ahead, buy my love.

Mid-Century Ship Interiors

More of these in a Mid-Century Ship Interiors photo set on Flickr.

This is the sort of thing I love discovering, or being pointed to, on Flickr.

(via Coudal.)

Designer Hans Wegner Dies at 92

Shell Chair by Hans Wegner (1963)

I am a huge fan of midcentury furnishings and Danish design and have always loved the work of Hans Wegner.

Wegner died in Copenhagen on January 26, at the ripe old age of 92, leaving a legacy of many iconic designs. The LA Times ran an obituary which included this quote:

"All designers should be carpenters," Wegner told the New York Times in 1998. "When you sit in a chair, you should feel that the person who has made it has enjoyed it, that every detail has been worked out."

(Thanks to AVC for sending along the link to the obit.)

Glass House

Metropolis has an extensive slideshow of Philip Johnson's Glass House and its surrounding buildings. Many of the photos were shot specifically for the feature, but there are lots of amazing vintage shots too. The house is opening to the public in April.

The photos are the meat of it, for me at least, but there is accompanying article: Extending the Legacy is available on the site as well.

(Via Youngna's delicious)

In Tribute to the Stylists of America

It's like a fetish film for design freaks. So many of the designs featured in this film clip remain iconic today. The pace is quite a shock when you consider our 20-second attention spans of today. It's got it all: consumerism, American propaganda, hott design, hypnotically delicious 50s dude narrative voice. I'm swooning! Check it out:
The American Look (1958)

(via Cool Hunting)

The List, It ' s Hot

Who moved my list? It's now over here, so as better to live on in Google infamy:
List of Women Speakers for Your Conference

Over on Apartment Therapy...

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I'm guest blogging over on Apartment Therapy. I'm just getting started, but here's what's going on so far:

My introductory post from yesterday, Shelter Magazines and Living with Art.

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Today's post on Living With Art.

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Dufner Heighes Michigan House

The line drawings are lovely and all, but I thought I'd share some actual photographs of the Michigan house I posted about last week. These aren't photos from the Metropolitan Home feature - they were taken by Eric Laignel for Dufner Heighes.

Detail (birdy!) of the fabulous custom wallpaper from Gracie Studios that's hung in the dining room.

Another detail of the wallpaper, for you monkey bird lovers. Why did I think that was a monkey? This is what I get for posting before the coffee takes effect.

Looking from the dining room, through the foyer into the living room.

Dining room, the long view. Dufner Heighes designed the table, the chairs are from George Nakashima.

Looks like a lovely place to dine al fresco, no?

By the fire.

The perfect spot to write a note. (Photograph above the desk by Ms. Tema Stauffer.

There's seating for a small army in the window lined kitchen.

Alphabet Soup

Inspirational vinyl lettering that you too can have in your home office. (Companion screensaver not included.)

Vinyl lettering is the bane of my existence. Well, it's one of them. Getting lettering done for exhibitions at the gallery is always a frenzied last minute affair, in spite of my best intentions. Try as I might, it's usually being installed about 5 minutes before an opening reception, after being completed via a circuitous and anxiety producing series of events. I send the copy off to a kind friend (or a willing victim) and already at the point I'm sending it, it's late so they are maybe just a little annoyed at me. There are a few volleys back and forth while we proof the thing, and then I send it off to Calvin.

Calvin was recommended to me by Ryan McGinness who makes far better use of vinyl signage than I can ever hope to. Calvin is a Chinese guy who runs a sign shop over on Allen St. Calvin tells me to email him my files, but he rarely checks his emal. So I call him and say "Calvin, I just sent you a job and, um, ah, well I need it by 4pm today. Theres's a show opening tonight." Then Calvin yells at me because I do this every. single. time. even though I always promise that I'll get it to him early the next time around. But he always gets it done in time, so he can yell all he wants and I'll put up with it.*

When all is said and done, the vinyl is usually here at the gallery by say, 5.30PM in anticipation of a 6PM opening. I cannot install the vinyl. It makes me nervous. It involves a little math, a steady hand and patience. None of these requirements are my forte. Thank God, then, for Jeffrey Teuton who gets the job done everytime, and by now, after doing this for almost two years, is in on the joke.

My point being this: the idea of vinyl lettering in my home is appalling. Just such a product, far simpler to install than the signage Calvin makes for me, has been widely discussed this week, first on MoCo Loco and then on Apartment Therapy. It's not just the vinyl, it's also the fact that my head is constantly swimming with words to begin with. I lie in bed at night dreaming up language for press releases and (I hope) interesting blog posts. If I'm not writing, or thinking about writing, I'm reading (sometimes I'm watching TV while I'm reading too, because that's the kind of ADD girl I am.) So: no words on my walls for me, thanks. I'll stick with all the artwork I have on loan from the fabulous artists who've shown work with me in the past. Also, the product has an utterly insipid name: "Wonderful Graffiti". Um, come ON. That is absurd. The use of the word "wonderful" makes my skin crawl for some reason, and then aside from that, vinyl lettering on your wall, invited by a very smiley lady who also happens to be a former ad copywriter is not graffiti. It's decor.

*There was that time when one of the sign shop machines wasn't working and Calvin transcribed my file himself to produce the vinyl, promising me that he'd repeat the spelling exactly as it appeared in the file I'd sent. Uh, yea. That didn't turn out so well. Poor Jeffrey was here for quite a while installing the letters one at a time, borrowing from Peter to spell Paul (oh, I crack myself up) and then had the final indignity of his name being spelled wrong beyond repair. Based on that experience, did I get the file to Calvin on time for the next show? No, no I did not.