Auction Connection

A stunning pair of mercury glass obelisks that caught my fancy.

‘A symphony of plates, and vases, and silverware and candlesticks,’ he inevitably shouts my way, but I cannot focus. My peripheral vision has caught sight of a cobalt and salmon lustreware pitcher on the bottom shelf of a glass display case.  I fumble inside to inspect the piece firsthand, an activity that involves drawing it to the eye or under my handy magnifying loop, all while twirling and turning it around and upside down for signs of irreparable damage. ‘dances in your head!‘ he continues, ‘Is this (pointing at the lustreware in my death grip with a knowing smirk) going to be part of our symphony?’

‘Mayybe?‘ I  husband-probe, ‘How do you feel about it?’

And so goes the way of conversation after conversation hinged on our collecting dreams. Saturday afternoon’s grand tour of  Doyle At Home ~ Fine Furniture, Decorations, and Paintings unfolded in much the same way as previous auction previews. Whether collecting for pleasure or the pragmatic, the discussion invariably leads to chat of aesthetics and economics.  Do we both love it?  Can we afford it?

As young collectors, it is prudent to peruse the wares at as many fleas, estate sales, galleries, art and craft fairs, antique shows, and auction previews long before purchasing.

Below is a short, yet suitable list to familiarize you with the larger auction houses as well as smaller regional auctions. Wherever you are, there is an auction for you.

Interior Designers snap up settees like this for a bargain, refurbishing and reupholstering for a spectacular return.

Dizzy from the symphony of china and crystal dancing through my head, this velvet jewel-toned chaise lounge had just the right Hollywood vibe for a good faint.

Camel back sofa with great bones. The Euro-oriental kitsch and the pearlescent sheen of the fabric was a tad over the top.

Antiques and the Arts Online, offers a comprehensive overview of  auctions taking place across the United States

Bonhams and Butterfields

Christie’s

Doyle New York

Freeman’s, American Furniture, Decorative & Folk Art, English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts, Asian Arts, Fine American & European Paintings, Modern and Contemporary Art, Rare Books, Fine Prints, Oriental Rugs, Fine Jewelry & Silver, and 20th /21st Century Design

iGavel online auctions,  fine arts, antiques, and collectibles

Phillips De Pury & Company, specializing in contemporary art

Sotheby’s

Swann Galleries Auctioneers, specializing in rare books and works on paper

Tepper Galleries

Waddington’s

Wes Cowan’s Historic Americana Auctions, specializing in Native American art and antiques

Do you know of any well-regarded large or regional auction houses near you? What treasures can be found there?

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Posted in Ambivalent, Aspirational, Creative | 7 Comments »

At the Guggenheim ~ Museums and Art Alienation

Guggenheim Rotunda. Photo by Robert C, c-monster.net

I have often found myself in front of a museum canvas – a Titian, an Ingres, a Pollock, what have you – deadly thumbing the vibrant band of beads around my neck, which only moments before had given pure delight.  All senses vanquished. Just numb.

Or dumb?

Why can’t I be moved?  Why doesn’t this priceless work captivate me? Where has the damn luster in my necklace escaped?

This art is better than I am.  It knows more than I.  Other people feel it, get it. I know it’s worth more than I could ever amount.  The auction records say so! It’s in a museum.

And here I say this, hailing from an educational and professional background that would assume otherwise.

Today, at the Guggenheim Museum, I learned just why I don’t get it.  Why sometimes others may not get it, though don’t propose to confess.

On participation (not view) is a conceptual work by Tino Sehgal.  The entire Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda has been stripped bare of all material works.  In its place, Sehgal has hired and trained area youth and adults to interact with museum visitors on a purely verbal plain.  There is nothing concrete to have, nothing one can buy.

You become the work.  You create.  You matter.  You become the matter.

This is how art moved – moved me ~

Mise en scene: I enter museum rotunda and begin the slow, spiral journey upward.  Enter Eric, an 8-year old boy. He is abrupt and stuns me.

Eric: What is progress?

Me: What? Ummmm. Hmmm. Well, okay, to me our view of progress is troubled.  Is progress always moving away from something, assuming that the next thing is better? What’s the proof?  What if it were progress to go back in history and live like farmers?  But that’s not how I’ve been trained to think of progress.

Eric: (He’s been listening intently).  Let me see if I understand?  (He repeats what I said, seeming to process its meaning).

(Eric is approached by a young girl named Fatima.  She’s in middle school.  Eric tells Fatima what I said.  Eric leaves and Fatima continues to walk with me around the rotunda.)

Fatima:  I’ve not heard that view of progress before.  I get it! I really do! Is progress what Government is doing today by bringing back Roosevelt’s New Deal tactics?  Is it good to reissue methods used during the Great Depression today?

(Fatima is met by Mark.  Mark is tall and skinny, probably in his early-30s).

Mark:  Is it bad when preferences become rules?

Me: Oh my God, that’s a great question.  I guess preferences quickly become defense mechanisms, shutting you down?

The dialogue continued onward to the rotunda dome.  I was exhilarated, moved, scared, alive!  As I made my way slowly down the rotunda ramp, I shouted to Mark, “This is progress!”

I didn’t feel art-alienated anymore.  I mattered.  I made “matter.”  I feel the same way when I craft.

I’m ready to go back to the museum canvas.

Similar art ailment? I could be alone.

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Posted in Candid, Disillusioned, Intellectual, Spiritual | 24 Comments »

Nighttime Knitting Leads to Pillow Talk

Krafti Kit

Photo credit Krafti-Kit.

Of late you may have drawn the conclusion that I’ve canned crafting in favor of art acquisition.  Au contraire, my friends, I was merely pulling wool over your eyes.  The only thing that was drawn was the bed curtain, the very spot where each night I’ve shacked up with a pair of needles and giant balls of yarn.  I feel sheepish for withholding, but a woman needs her privacy to practice.

The last week was abundantly full of craftercises. The earlier part was saddled by knit wittery as I struggled ardently and sweat profusely to harness the cast on and knit stitch.  I kept a hardy laugh on, though, which kept spirits soaring.  By mid-week I was rolling rhythmically with my needles, yarn balls flying everywhere.  Mercifully, last evening all labors came to a head: I witnessed the birth of a scarflette (small neckwarmer), a gorgeous heathered pacific blue!  I cannot wait to take it for a walk, to show all the neighbors a most prized creation.

Lena Corwin stencil pillow courtesy of thehaystackneedleonline.com

Somewhere in the middle, I stole time to attend Etsy Lab’s stencil workshop. All participants were asked to bring an item to stencil. Ever the good crafter, I brought a fully stuffed pillow, and to my chagrin was unduly challenged.  It ain’t easy, dear readers, to stencil on a rounded surface.  Ed Roth, the patient instructor and owner of Brooklyn-based Stencil 1, was equally perplexed by my odd choice of project.  But alas, after engaging in a protracted session of pillow talk, we resorted to spray adhesive to get the job done.

Despite the remedy, the adhesive could not withhold the force of my eager brushstrokes nor the bulging pillow.  I wound up with a sadly contorted design and the resolve to avoid pillow talk at all costs.  I’ll leave it up to the pros.

What nighttime exercises, craft or otherwise, have you been working on?

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Posted in Playful | 19 Comments »

Tin Treasures to Love

Artist unidentified, ca. 1880; Michigan

Artist unidentified, ca. 1880; New York

Today I happened upon a precious find at the American Folk Art Museum, a fantastic if under-appreciated museum that shares an exterior wall with the behemoth Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Midtown Manhattan.

I am quite unfamiliar with the traditions and materials attached to wedding anniversaries.  I’ve been married for 1 yr, 4 mths, and 13 days, but I would hate to pare it down to the quantitative.  Nope, I’d rather talk qualitative.

In my home, I thought anniversaries were celebrated thusly:  husband inscribes book to forward-thinking wife on the merits of equal adulthood (feminism); wife diligently selects longevity products to ensure husband doesn’t keel over at young age. The whole paper, cotton, leather and so forth celebrations are new to me.

These images are from the American Folk Art Museum’s permanent collection. Instantly, I was enamored with these tin treasures of love, once shared by a couple honoring a 10th wedding anniversary.  Tin is a medium with great possibility, a material that can be wrought into ornate motifs or left bare to age freely with the elements.  Doesn’t that represent the the ideal harmony of a marriage well made?

A dive into the history of these light-hearted pieces will help encourage further delight.  Below is an excerpt on the tin anniversary tradition from the museum’s website.

The custom of giving anniversary gifts of increasing value through the years of marriage originated in medieval Germany but was interpreted in a whimsical manner in Victorian America. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the tenth—or tin—anniversary became an occasion of riotous celebration, and whimsical gifts made of tin were presented to the married couple. Often they were oversized replicas of everyday items or humorous pieces with personal meaning. In 1881, John H. Young wrote that the custom of “celebrating wedding anniversaries has of late been largely practiced.” Ten years later, Richard A. Wells, in Culture and Dress of the Best Society, suggested that “a general frolic is in order at the tin wedding. It is an occasion for getting together old friends after ten years of married life. . . . The invitations for this anniversary may be made upon cards covered with tin foil or upon the ordinary wedding note paper with a tin card enclosed. Those guests who desire to accompany their congratulations with appropriate presents have the whole list of articles manufactured by the tinner from which to select.”

Professional tinsmiths cut the pieces from sheet tin using templates, and the sections were soldered together. The seams were hooked over each other and hammered to create a tight seal. Surviving anniversary tin demonstrates not only the skill with which the items were fashioned but also the variety of forms available. The top hat, eyeglasses, slippers, bonnet, and bow tie are part of a group of more than twenty pieces discovered together in Gobles, Michigan, and were probably gifts from a single tenth-anniversary celebration.

What traditions of love do you craft or collect?  Does material carry meaning?

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Posted in Spiritual, Whimsical | 22 Comments »

Auctions and My Art Story ~ An Approach to Collecting

By this juncture, I just may have established that I’m clueless when it comes to crafting.  What I have not said is that in other areas, well, I’m just not that clueless.

There, I’ve come clean.

While I don’t intend to debunk the validity of my clueless crafting – afterall, I relish in the freedom it has given me to fail with a smile – I don’t want to withhold what by nature captures my fancy.

Back Art Story

I’m trained academically in art history and professionally in the inside world of the art market at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (Click here for more on this amazing program).

I’ve plodded along in the fascinating fields of art appraisal and the recovery of stolen and looted art & objects.  Before this,  in a large bank organizing an art lecture series for prominent collectors.  And, delightfully true, when one lives in a center for art trade, how could she not have spent countless hours in galleries, museums and auction houses?

Future Art Story

Now I’m slowly transitioning to the other side:  the would-be collector.  If even I have auction apprehension, I can only presume that others do as well. But what makes me hopelessly attached to the auction format is the adrenaline rush of competition.  In my world, that plastic paddle is a menacing weapon, asserting autonomy and art audacity.  I’m declaring the right to make life beautiful and meaningful.  This right, however, only comes with work – your work.

Your Art Story

* Get acquainted with art and antiques that will financially never be within reach.  In the museum, works have been vetted by specialists.  They know (most of the time) what is authentic.  Put yourself in their eyes.  You may have seen a similar painting or sideboard in your grandmother’s attic, but how does the one in the museum differ?

* Go to auction previews.  They are free, open to the public, and welcome questions.  Specialists will be milling about, at the ready to answer your thoughtful questions.  So you want to look at the back of the painting for signs of restoration or damage?  Perfect! Ask to have them take it down so you can have a good look.  You can’t do this in a museum, so get in there and go for it.

* Go to galleries whose works most represent your taste. If you don’t know your taste, all the better.  Explore!  Begin to forge a relationship with the dealer, which will in turn allow you to profit from her expertise. Consider her a teacher willing to impart knowledge to a future client.  Afterall, if you do purchase, her commission is the result of your education.

* Do your own research.  Google. Read books.  Check online art databases for recent auction results for your artist, genre, Regency chair. Visit other galleries, museums, auction houses, non-vetted group shows, artists’ studios, non-profits, corporate art collections, the hospital waiting room.  Be autonomous. Be audacious.

I’ve been tromping around New York for years and I’m still not comfortable with the art and antiques world scene.  It’s a growing process.  Whether you live here or in a small town seemingly off the map, people are and have been creating exquisite works of expression.  The above tips are not relegated to my geographic location.  As art is everywhere, in subsequent installments I will share with you resources such as websites; books; online auctions; art & antique sale indexes; building relationships within the art world; and steps to ensure your purchase is indeed authentic.

Now, I’m curious.  Share a story or anything you know or want to know about acquiring art, antiques, collectibles, and furniture at auction.

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Posted in Aspirational | 24 Comments »

Visual Relish or Le Porte-Couteau

What if I didn’t hold my silverware – okay, flatware – like a shovel at the ready to plow through a meal toute de suite?

There’s something deeply wrong with the way I carry out my dining aesthetic, I must confess. This grand admission had its unveiling through a gift of small proportions:  Le Porte-Couteau. Courtesy of my darling younger sister who now lives French-side, these knife rests remind me that I have not been savoring the day’s journey with delight.  A meal is a time to slow down, share stories, talk about roads less traveled or overly trafficked.  Elsa Maxwell would have groaned, and I’m sure audibly, at my ostentatious displays of insignificance.

I am now in possession of a loyal set of Basset Hound knife rests that will, I assure you, be used on more than the rare special occasion.  They will be used on the special occasion of the everyday.

Cheers to the art and craft of lively, daily entertaining!

Below is a selection of rests for those that enjoy the simplicity of the minimal to the prismatic light of the maximal (Cristal Baccarat).  Amusez-vous. . .

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Posted in Social | 12 Comments »

Knotting in New York

I used to think New York was a place of grand gestures, and that this city would make me better simply by association. All I had to do was walk with purpose through any one of the revolving doors belonging to Sixth Avenue’s looming skyscrapers and. . . poof, I was made.  That was the easy way.

The hard way is walking through a much more humble door, belonging to a small shop where anonymity isn’t allowed (if only because the space is limited), and beseeching one’s help face-to-face is a prerequisite.  I was all knotted up.  This was for real! And so, here is how this afternoon’s reality transpired:

Enter Purl Soho, a yarn yard of outrageously vibrant hues.

Enter Amy, my dream weaver.*

Enter I, knotted up.

Amy and I milled about the yarns, talking the yarn talk.  I got my first pair of chopsticks and fabric.  Yes, that’s what I called them.  I was ready to quit after the exhausting task of getting familiar with yarn, but Amy is a for real knitter and wanted to get on with it.

Over a cup of tepid coffee with extra sugar to get rid of the coffee taste (Amy had for real coffee with extra coffee aroma), she taught me how not to be a knotter, but a true knitter.   With each knit and purl, which I was not supposed to do, I got a bit closer to confidence.  Knots melted from my body and wove themselves through my chopsticks and into my fabric.

It’s too early to tie up all the loose ends of this story.  What I can conclude is that the small gesture of two chopsticks humbly and happily clickity clacking is something I can get used to as I make my way through the streets and avenues of New York.

* Outside of teaching  me how not to be a knit wit, Amy can be found living her own dreams on her blog.

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Posted in Appreciative, Playful, Social | 15 Comments »

A Studio, the Aperture of Aspiration

Desk left, a tapestried wall reminiscent of art mounted in the salon style (I should note that this was sewed together all by my lonesome!). One day, a carefully curated collection will hang in its place. Desk front, a salvaged punched tin magnetic board. Desk right, the early stages of fabric bombing.

Had I known that carving out a creative nook in my New York apartment would be a feat of physical and emotional proportions, I may have outsourced the event.

I waffled. I pouted. I wailed.  I hit my head and teared to my husband.

I endured design distress.

What was this Blank Canvas?  It was doubt. For days I sat in paralysis, angered and frustrated by its sterile presence.  How would I summon the self understanding to make a space that reflected me – not only in this moment but through time?

The beauty and the beast of design is that it forces one to make decisions that most likely will not represent the future self.  It’s an exercise in value.  What object is worthy of wall space now?  How does one know?

You see, in the magazines the process and the product of designing a space happen at once.  At the end of the spread, there’s always a tidy, soul-fulfilling environment that speaks volumes about the person inside.  Within a single afternoon, meaning is ascribed to material.

But I can’t take the pressure, which is why I call my humble zone an “aperture of aspiration,” a place that I cannot yet attribute meaning (though, I’m sensing an inkling) but has all aspiration of evolving into one – over time.

The Materials~

* A punched tin tile salvaged from a demo in the Lower East Side.  Perfectly so, these tiles are a fun magnetic surface for savory images, this or even that.

* Ghost Salon Tapestry, a nod to our collecting dreams. Comprised of black swatches that hang in lieu of the artworks that will one day hang, salon style, in our home.  I picked the succulent oriental motif fabrics, traced shapes using our favorite gratin dishes and bread plates, and finally sewed them onto the backdrop.

Tapestry detail

* Fabric bombing has begun.  Discarded seam binding, gift ribbons, scraps and swatches that I have used will be the only materials to wrap the unsightly poles.

* A miscellany of my own darkroom exposures, brads, pushpins, cards, ephemera, inspirations are welcome on all walls, tapestry and magnetic surfaces –  through time.

How have you shaped your studio?  How has your studio shaped you?

Oh, and a strapping hug goes out to each of you for helping me through this.  I brought all of you with me into the streets of New York and this inward journey!

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Posted in Aspirational, Creative, Puzzled | 23 Comments »

De Sign

I have often worried that design, a word I use as casually as the requisite articles a/an/the, had to be greater than the thoughtless contexts I accord with its name.  It is true, I have been guilty of emptying meaning in service of a simple way to express what I really see when I look about. So, I resort to exclamation points and ohh ahhhs.

A recent, soul-warming coffee clutch with a special blogpreneuse* at Wall Street’s Le Financier put words to my intellectual and, so it feels, spiritual conundrum.  Design talk is my cursory attempt to confer and convey significance without working on the substance beneath. In my world, you can believe I am always wearing a designer dress.

My way threatens to de sign design, to eradicate the historical, political, and social roots by looking into its shiny surface for the perfect reflection of myself.

From 2010 forward, I challenge myself to look beyond the surface, to research the antecedents of my visual desire and to know the history and emotions that thrust the object into my orbit.

I leave to you an excerpt on the etymology of design~

from its Greek definition, design is about incompleteness, indefiniteness, or imperfection, yet it also is about likelihood, expectation, or anticipation.  In its largest sense, design signifies not only the vague, intangible, or ambiguous, but also the strive to capture the elusive./Translating the etymological context into English, it can be said that design is about something we once had, but have no longer.

Dear Designers, Artists and Crafters,

How do you lend meaning to the objects before you?

*The special someone I speak of is @abcddesigns.  Find her.

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Posted in Aspirational, Intellectual | 14 Comments »

Knit Wit

Me, my gift tag, and a whole lot of pride. Speaking of pride, am I suffering from hubris? I think there's a trend forming here. How many pictures of me can this blog take? Photo courtesy of @Etsy.

I woke up this morning to the annoying shrill of a high-pitched note.  To my dismay, then delight, it was my voice. It is back and I can hear it!  For an insane moment there, I really thought I had lost it for good.  And to think that the only way I would be able to relate to you would be through the written word?

Stultifying!

Amidst a slew of other life demands (Hey, somebody’s got to get the Charmin), I’ve been reading your ideas for how I should dress my nook of New York in addition to steeping my spirit in the textures you most adore.  Hello autumn leaves, a worn awl, a baby’s cheek, and a buttery sheepskin rug under foot on a cold winter morning!

To inspire next year’s holiday wrapping, I hope you enjoy this needlepoint gift tag I made at Etsy Labs.  Isn’t it a gem and this palette of red, blue and yellow? No words to describe its beauty.

It is true that I was under the impression I was knitting at the time of this creation, which sparked a gamut of coos and high-fives from my internal peanut gallery.  I laugh now as I flash back to its genesis, shocked that I insisted the instructor compliment my knitting skills!  Oh la la, I’m arrogant.

In conclusion, needlepoint is a form of canvas work embroidery;  knitting is needlework created by interlacing yarn in a series of connected loops.  And, a knit wit is what I was.

Check.

I sincerely hope you’ve had a chance to laugh off a personal, professional or artistic indiscretion in this new year? If not, get going!

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Posted in Playful | 18 Comments »

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