Art – M O D F R U G A L

The Walken

I KNOW. It’s been so long I almost forgot how to access the dashboard here. So lame.

That said, let’s discuss celebrity, shall we? Specifically, celebrity art.

If anyone had ever asked me if I would have the image of a celebrity in my house, I would have answered “No.” without hesitation. My taste in art has always been a mix of vintage, abstract and family pics, but has never involved celebrity. I think subsconciously my theory was: I don’t know said celebrity, so why would I want them in my house? I hadn’t really thought about it much.

Well, ALL that changed last week when I saw Gina Julian’s fantastic Christopher Walken giclÃ©e portrait. He was meant to be mine.

She tells a little of the back story on why/how she made it here. I mentioned to her how much I loved her work, and asked if she would be willing to print another one I could buy, and it turns out she was planning to sell him…so I gleefully snapped him up-after I made her sign her it, of course!

He is perfect. It’s really unsurprising that he can hang in a room with a 70’s orgy sofa.

CW is in a temporary frame since I have house guests coming in a few days and there was no way I could get him properly framed that fast. The CC put together some window sill molding (it comes already routed with a groove inside for stability-he is mounted on foamcore) so we could get it up right away. A down and dirty $20 solution until we can get it together for realz.

She also just made a David Bowie portrait, with more to come!

Because she’s clever, she is making them available in sizes that fit Ikea square frames, as well as larger, smaller and custom sizes. I knew you guys would want to know how much, so here is her
pricing*:

30″x30″ = $145
22″x22″ = $80 (fits Ikea)
20″x20″ = $65 (fits Ikea)
12″x12″ = $30
*Prices do not include shipping

If you want a statement piece like this – you can find her here and here. She does custom work/sizes too.

A friend of a friend just posted this last week, and I had to share. I think we need a day dedicated to speaking with the Walken comma…don’t you?!

LIGHT

Last week we went to the preview of the new outdoor exhibit at Cheekwood, LIGHT, by Bruce Munro. It was fantastic, and we look forward to going back many times over the summer. More information about the installation can be found HERE.

Pack a picnic at sunset and enjoy the gardens and light show….a perfect summer evening. Next time I’m bringing the tripod and I’ll update the photos here..which really don’t do the the exhibit justice.

Horse Hoarding

Only upon reviewing the year, did I realize that 2012 was a bumper year for acquiring vintage art! Mostly large in scale. The horse over my bed, the wall hanging in the dining room, Chinese Girl in the bathroom and the Red Horse in the living room….except that I never told you about him, only here on instagram.

When I brought him home, I also learned that I might need a horse intervention. I don’t really understand how it happened, but it became apparent that I had been subconsciously horse-hoarding. I enjoyed riding at summer camp as a kid, but I was never one of those “horsey people”. What happened?! Look around my house and you’ll see, I’m not just the crazy bird lady, fawner of fawns, but now I’m prone to horse-hoarding. Let’s call it chronic equestrian assemblage, shall we? Sounds less creepy….or maybe not.

Exhibit A is the aforementioned red horse in all its textural yumminess.

The girl at Pre to Post Modern told me that the peeps who do the sets for Nashville were really interested in it, and had taken several pictures. Maybe for the Juliette Barnes house I posted about when it first went on the market?! Sorry….you snooze, you lose.

Then, there’s the others……

Um, yeah.

Treehouses

Seeing as we’re a bit partial to treehouses, we were really excited to go and see the Treehouse exhibit at Cheekwood Botanic Gardens Thursday night. There was a competition held among local designers and architects, and the best seven submissions were chosen to be built. Each treehouse is designed to represent one great work of literature.

All of them are extremely well done, and they are a joy to visit. I had three that I gravitated to more than the others.Â I’m betting you can guess which ones.

There is a full explanation of each work represented by each treehouse here.

First up is The Giver

Walden Treehouse

Conch House

The Rainbow Fish

The Jolly Roger

Up and Down Again, A Hobbit’s Tale

Ocean of Notions

If you are a local, or coming to the area…check it out. They will remain on the property until September 3rd 2012.

Flea Market Friday

I know, I’m posting it on a Saturday, but I have my reasons. I’ve been running a bit behind schedule ever since my car started giving me attitude. Right as I hop in the car to go hook up with Kathy and Bri at the Flea, I discover that the battery is dead, so no flea for me! Luckily, After failed jumpings, towings and battery replacing, I was back in business by early afternoon so I made it in the end.Â You’re welcome.

I saw Rae there and introduced myself, which is always weird because you feel like a stalker when you meet someone whose blog you read, but there it is!

OK, I’ll shut up now and let you preview the flea. It’s April, which is one of the biggest markets all year…both the Swine Barn and the Mule Shed were packed with vendors.

OK, we might have to discuss this one. It was rubbery and bizarre. It was in the same booth as this guy, so…. ’nuff said.

Kathy, I’m sure you saw these…but in case you didn’t…

I loved that dress.Â I tried it on over my clothes and it was hard to tell if it would work or not without a mirror or anything. Kinda wishing I had gotten it anyway.

There was a vendor there who only comes once a year, and she had some of the most beautiful textiles.Â Turkish woven rugs and suzanis….I wish she would come more often.

There was also a Japanese Maple vendor I hadn’t seen before…beautiful selection.

There were 11 of those chairs earlier in the day.

Did I get anything? Well, I did some shopping for others, which was my main goal, so I can’t reveal those yet just in case the recipients are reading.

However, I did decide I would join the millions who have owned and admired the most famous Chinese lady in the world. I KNOW, but I’ve always loved her, always wanted an old one…. and yesterday was my chance. This Vladimir Tretchikoff is The Chinese Girl aka The Green Lady. I loved reading about how the model and VT met up again 40 years later.

Her frame needs cleaning up, but I’ll get her back in shape and placed somewhere soon.Â Have a great weekend!

Treehouse Update (Planning)

Not exactly an update, as much as an update on plans.Â We had a family “meeting” in the treehouse this weekend to discuss next steps with the interior painting etc.. and some fun and interesting requests emerged.

1) Zip line access – We have a zip line in the front yard that we can move…this will be tricky to keep it safe, but we think it’s possible…

2) A chalkboard inside -Â Easy Peasy! We can paint a few of the panels in the chalkboard paint.

3) A refrigerator – Um, no…this is a treehouse, not your college dorm room….next?

4) A TV – See #3….DUH.

5) The bottom bunker built – This is actually top of their wish list. We really wanted our big outdoor project to involve a deer proof vegetable garden this year, but we’re feeling some pressure here. Our answer was: “We’ll think about it.” Still thinking.

6) A poster/collage depicting Godzilla destroying a Minecraft city – COOL!!!! We are a family who geeks out over old 50’s-60’s Godzilla movies…we love them. The boys are also completely obsessed with Minecraft, so this marries their passions on what should be a super fun art project for us…

We’ll be looking to create a combination of these two.

via koyaanisqatsi degauss

PLUS

image via godzilla2012

= CHAOS!

While looking for images, I can across these great vintage Polish and Czech Godzilla movie posters from the 70’s, I love these and I can’t wait to show the boys and see what they think of them.

images via Monsterbrains

We concluded our planning session up there with snacks and a round of Life, and I’m so happy that it is only in this game that I would have 3 weddings and both a set of twins AND a set of triplets…phew!

Oh, I almost forgot! I made a mini-tour of the treehouse so far so that new readers don’t have to slog through all those treehouse posts to see the progress of the building.