Fantastic woodywood!
I'm a huge fan of outside art and used to have quite the collection.
I grew up in a house filled with folk and outsider art. My father was a collector since before I was born and is an outsider art dealer.
I got my master's degree in Art at the University of Georgia in Athens and used to make regular visits to Howard Finster's, R.A. Miller's as well as other self-taught artists and environments. At the time I managed an art supply store and used to take paint to R.A. when I would visit. I still have a couple of paintings that I did collaboratively with him while we sat in the swing on his front porch.
There are R.A. Miller pieces hanging right now in my son's room and our guest room. I still have several whirligigs, but am afraid to put them up in our yard as the climate here is not very friendly.
Outsider art is the perfect counterpoint to modernist design.
Have you seen the Jim Herbert film that was done as a video for R.E.M at R.A.'s place with all his whirligigs? It spans several songs on "Reckoning".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSMnNxedQSY
Pegboard
Thanks so much for your comments and personal account! What a great story. I'm not familiar with the REM video but will check it out. I agree with you about outsider and folk art as a counterpoint to modern design. I also appreciate its affordability, and I hope that doesn't change anytime soon.
P.S. I would love to see your R.A. Miller pieces and how you have them displayed.
Interesting waffle,
I was not aware Russell Wright ever designed lamps...your lamp reminded me of this one I just brought home from GW for $12.
A brushed chrome adjustable Laurel lamp. Not a scratch on it, tremendous quality and wonderfully heavy at over 10 lbs.
My husband likes it in his study so home it stays...
(borrowed image)
James Davis Sculpture
Seven foot acrylic sculpture by abstract filmmaker, artist James E. Davis (1901-1974).
Another of Davis' other "light sculptures" was in the Cincinnati Terrace Hotel built by SOM in 1948, which had a giant Miro mural and Calder mobile to boot.
(This is a link to Davis's bio on IMDB which goes into a lot of info on his films with Frank Lloyd Wright: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4691462/)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4691462/
Not my acquisition, but my
23-year-old son's. He was in the market for a sofa and was considering the usual sources that recent graduates consider (ikea, C&B, etc) but after seeing this George Nelson sofa at our friends' shop, he went in a very different direction. I am ridiculously pleased and proud.
The sofa was reupholstered very nicely maybe 20 years ago in a cream wool hopsack, but the latex foam in the back cushions was not replaced at that time, probably because it was still OK. But since then it has dried out completely. I'm going to try to remove the fabric and foam, then replace the foam and re-staple the fabric into place. Fortunately it's the modular version so I can do one section and see how it goes. I think it'll work.
Wheee!! Oh, and it's going to look GREAT with the coffee table he got a few months ago (after eying it for a year)--the Johannes Aasbjerg solid teak one with metal legs (long rectangular version).
It's so gratifying to see one's kids develop impeccable taste. Heh.
awesome sofa
I love the low long and lean look.
And why don't ALL sofas have low arms? Makes everything flow so much better. (Functionally, AND visually)
I can see why you are proud of him, spanky. Did you have to plant the seed of the idea to get him to consider this direction? Or was this out of the blue?
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