A nod to a trilogy of lesser know site specific arts and crafts people of  the Mid-Century. For Ruth Asawa, it took half a century and her death to be recognized for the great work it is.

Lenore Tawney honed her craft of off loom weaving, assemblage and collage from the 50’s thru the 80’s (until she lost her sight). She worked out of one cavernous loft after another. A building she owned on Coenties Slip in Lower Manhattan was inhabited by the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Agnes Martin, and Sol LeWitt.

She told me a story of looking for a loft space in Tribeca ‘back then’ in the 50’s - the realtors were peaked by

her interest in this out of the way, abandonded part of downtown and began to pick her brain, trying to understand what she would use the space for. They thought they might possibly uncover an untapped market to sell their wares to…former ware-houses. Manufacturing in Tribeca, such as my father’s offices and storage facility were moving away from the city, leaving these forgotten industrial buildings vacant.

The artist would begin a rebirth of Soho and Tribeca. There’s more about this transformation in our blog about Soho. 

affordable art at our fingertips

priced – and in some cases free? Might even be at our fingertips? It’s a win-win because what little person wouldn’t want to have their artwork displayed on a refrigerator or graduate to a frame on a grownup’s wall?

~How about we mine and frame a few of the endless photos we take on our mobile phones?

~Why not wallpaper instead of the aforementioned poster? Here is how the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in NYC features wallpaper as part of their exhibition – in frames. If they can….

framing and grouping artwork

Transforming old frames started when I picked up a bunch of funky old flee market finds a designer friend was selling for $10. They soon became repositories for my gold leaf mania. 

beg, borrow or BARTER = recycle

The artwork of my aunt was passed from my mother to me, along with her framed Japanese screens. They hang over my couch as they had hung over hers. 

B+W a robust combination

All great art honors the tools it uses as a means of expression while displaying a heartfelt, engaging connection to the world – even when the matter is bleak, irreverent and at times sexually charged. Art can profoundly touch and enrich us exactly because it is a metaphor for our life.

Other than this “criteria”, the sky’s the limit when it comes to my picks. Culture, creed and gender – the more diverse the merrier. Indigenous art from Africa or Native American cultures, cuts through Western norms and speak directly to us. Whether it’s photography, sculpture, or painting, the work has to create an atmosphere that lures me to a place it’s created, holds me there and coaxes me back again and again.