Rugs and Space, Keeping it Light and Modern.

Thinking about space Frank sent me a note to remind me to keep it light and modern. He went to see Rudolph Stingel at the MCA. He had an entire room of orange carpet. A lot of beautiful sculpture, paintings and other things. He strongly suggested I look into him, and understand his work.

The picture of him is actually an oil painting he did of himself. The picture of the hand is one of his works. A fully carpeted white wall, where I could indent my own images with my finger he did the same thing with insulation boards.






Reading about the penthouse Mies did on top of the two towers on Lakeshore drive in Chicago the owners used large oriental rugs on top of marble floors,  during summer months they removed exposing only the beautiful white marble floors.
In my current home all my rugs are oriental and rather large, with all my floors being black in the Lafayette unit, this may  get heavy.

My dearest friend Donn W just gave me this fantastic zebra rug, which will definitely be used somewhere, perhaps in the upstairs hall or the master bedroom.  I have several skins, mostly cow hides, still considering if I'll use or just take to the studio.

 

 detail of zebra rug...love it!!

One of the many skins I have...My thought was to use skins at one point, but not so sure here in the Lafayette unit. I visit Marfa Texas each year and the whole town is very minimal thanks to Donald Judd, skins are used everywhere, lot's of concrete floors and skins.

As far as my other rugs go I really want to use my large oriental in the living room, and the smaller one in the dinning room. After I get my library table laminated in pop yellow for the dinning room table, it will then be decided if I will use the rug downstairs or upstairs. I may need to consider a solid color. Shown here is the rug I will use for my living room, I curently have it in my dinning room in my other house.

 This is the rug in my kitchen in my other house, I love it on a black floor (this floor is rubber) It's a smaller rug so it doesn't seem too heavy. This will go in the guest room.

This rug will probably be used in my study,

It's The Little Things That Make Me Go Gaga! A Utility Sink?

One of my goals in this unit was to modernize what ever I could, yet to maintain a utilitarian look and sensibility.  The basement was completely raw never having been painted and only the bare essentials.  I had tossed around the idea of keeping the original utility sink which was fiberglass green, but it was in poor shape and took up a lot of space.
This is the old green fiberglass utility that was original and installed in all units. Most units I've looked at still use this one.

My friend from work and my plumber Steve turned me onto an auction at Detroitmetroauctions.com for a stainless utility sink. I wanted a stainless sink from the beginning, but didn't want to invest too much for one. I ended up picking this one up at a reasonable price and restored it to new again.

 From Auction, in need of a bit of cleaning.

 After much cleaning!

Steve Lee the best plumber in the city! also a master carpenter, electrician. Just about any thing you need engineered, designed and built, he the man!

installed and looking good!

Ideas About Art and Space

When my brother Frank was in town helping me paint we spent a lot of time talking about how to handle space and where to place art. The space is so unique in these units and I have so much art (mostly my own) there's a lot to consider. One idea Frank had was to display my bust ( I have many) on the floor. He thought that I could replicate the Mies table that was in the kitchen and make a duplicate, same size, cover it in a pop color formica and place it on the floor in the dinning area. I really like the idea and it's a modern way of displaying art, see below: 

the green or yellow formica on the floor. It's easy enough to make and a unique way to show the work.

 I have some rather large doll paintings (this one is sold) but Frank's idea was to use some beautiful wall paper on the floating wall in the dinning room and hang a doll painting over that, interesting....

Frank suggested that I screw the two paintings together and  to display dolls all in a row. On a thin buffed rod iron plank/shelf under the doll paintings. Even coming out from the sides or bottom of the two paintings. It would give the old dolls more importance, you would see them for there beauty alone.and with the two doll "back drop" that would suggest that ...even though were are all made the same ... some of us are special.

 

We were both talking one evening about the upstairs hall and Frank had said, you know what would look good here? I replied the "butcher block", we were both in sync at we had in mind. Our minds were thinking alike. He made a little drawing of what he had in mind. The upstairs hall is a great spot for an installation of some kind. I have had a hard time thinking about what to do with my butcher block. I love the heaviness of it, and didn't just want to put it in my studio, as I won't be using it in my kitchen in this house. So the idea of using it in the hall for a sculpture piece was perfect. There are four doors, floor to ceiling. He thought that I could paint the outside (as shown in his drawing) one color and then use a decal in a elliptical shape in another color. Very "Alice in Wonderland" I love the idea. 

Frank's quick drawing.

quick mock up of what it might look like