Rebecca Carter’s ‘The Wrong Perspective,’ graphite and wood; ‘Dirty Rainbow,’ silk thread and electrical plugs
The Reading Room. Again I waited until the last day to see a show, Rebecca Carter’s Reading the Love Letter, but the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. While most folks were probably killing themselves with frantic Christmas shopping, I found a wonderful respite in Karen Weiner’s little space located far away from the holiday madness. It was a fun lazy afternoon reconnecting with old friends, chitchatting, listening to the haunting background music, and poking around in all the little spaces and hidden corners searching out Rebecca’s little surprises.
Can be far more preferable. This post is for those who are like me and don’t wish to engage in the full on madness of the holidays. It seems like every autumn there’s a slow buildup of activity that begins to peak on Thanksgiving and continues into a screaming pitch that eventually explodes just before the new year. It’s as if there’s a contest going on to see who can out decorate, out party, out shop, out wrap, and out glamour. Instead of signing up for that tussle, my holidays will be about the simple things. So starting tomorrow, on Thanksgiving, I wish for everyone simple daily moments of beauty.
This vintage 1950’s heavy iron patio furniture just arrived today. This five-piece Woodard set, which includes two barrel arm chairs and two coil spring barrel chairs, was found on one of my favorite antique websites, Ruby Lane. All five pieces are in great condition with their original finish, and the table’s solid construction is far superior to the flimsy variety that’s being produced today.
Woodard developed their first collection of hand-crafted wrought iron furniture in the 1930s, and this innovation marked the birth of casual outdoor furniture. This particular design, Briarwood, is still being produced today. Well, the chair styles are the same, but not the table. In the near future, I will be replacing the glass top with a stone version. Between the acorns and golfball-sized hail, there’s not a chance this glass will survive any length of time unscathed. Future outdoor dinners will have to wait until after the current annual acorn bombardment.
Dallas’ deb season officially begins this weekend. When I say the “season”, I mean the traditional season that’s been around since 1884 before there was La Fiesta de las Seis Bandera and the Dallas Symphony’s presentation ball. I don’t know how long the season was in my mother’s time, but during mine, 1975, it lasted for three months with up to two parties a day with the exception of Sundays and Mondays. It’s a very different story now with an abbreviated season and fewer parties during the week.
I find the photos of my mother’s era far more glamorous than what has been produced in the last thirty years — especially in the last ten years with the advent of the digital photo. Perhaps it’s because of the black and white format? Maybe it’s because we no longer have the same kind of poise and polish. Continue to see what I’m talking about.
Etsy Dallas’ handmade shopping event. This event just gets bigger and better. So for all of you who missed last year’s event, come on down and join the fun while supporting our local artists and crafters. This year they have a new thing called the Bash Pass, which will allow you to come in and shop before the doors open to the general public. For your Bash Pass and more information go here.
Brigadier General Frank F. Bell II, USAR, 1948 (my paternal grandfather, Pop)
It’s Veterans Day, so instead of a shallow topic like upholstery, I’m honoring the men in my family who have enabled me to freely be who I am. Men who have left me an honorable legacy. Fortunately my grandfather Pop, who’s in the above picture, left us a wealth of information about our family history. And then my father in his final years hired a genealogist to bring the family history up to date. It’s now up to me, to continue the research and to then create and print the family history in a hardbound book. After spending the first four months of this year clearing out the old family home and bringing all the important papers and photos here to my house, I reached a saturation point. Eventually I will be editing, scanning, and filing all of the millions of photos, but only after I have had time to recover from the burnout.
FYI: If the copy reads stiff and tedious, it’s because I copied from various word files that the genealogist had created. The time involved pulling this post together was way more than I expected. Trunks and boxes were searched for missing photographs, then there was the scanning, then there was the composing, so if I were to have this up before Veterans Day came to an end, I had to forego perfection. Besides none of this generates any revenue.
Click on the photo for a larger version, and then you will be able to see the tiny stripe detail of the chair’s upholstery.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. The chair once belonged to a great aunt. Ever since I have been out on my own, this chair has moved with me from apartment to apartment then to my house. It’s one of the few hand-me-down relics that I have retained. In fact all three pieces of family furniture I chose to keep once belonged to this great aunt. And when I can find and purchase a wonderful reading lamp, this chair next to the fireplace will become my reading nook during the cold winter months. I love the smell and crackle of a wood burning fireplace. I usually purchase aged oak to burn, but I will occasionally splurge and purchase Irish Turf and/or peat briquettes. I spent three incredible weeks in Ireland back in 2000, fell in love with the smell of the burning Irish peat, and am always wanting to relive those memories with its scent.
For some reason this photo looks too red in this jpeg format which WASN’T the case in Photoshop. But if you click on it for the larger version the red diminishes. Go figure.
Today my custom fireplace screen was delivered, and I can’t wait to build a fire. But first the average temperature needs to drop.
For the last two years, I had been doing copious online searches for semi-custom screens. I had originally just wanted a mesh insert within a dark bronze frame and somewhere have an attached circular brass monogram, but when I started talking to my architect, Charley McKenney, he suggested designing it from scratch. And it grew from there. It grew from a simple rectangle to an art deco style, from no details to scroll details, and from a circular disk monogram to a single ornate script initial. Many drawings later, Jim Cinquemani, a local metal artist that Charley had worked with on previous jobs, created this work of art that you now see in the above photo. Gorgeous craftsmanship!
Forgot to mention: The two contemporary pieces above the mantel are by Monica Vidal, created in 2001 on printed rice paper. I purchased these two from Dunn and Brown Contemporary (now called Talley Dunn Gallery).
Reading the Love Letter, new work by Rebecca Carter at The Reading Room, opens this Saturday, November 5 from 7 to 9 pm, 3715 Parry Avenue. And if you happen to be an early bird type, drop in around 5:30. The show will continue through November 26.
