Let Your Freak Flag Fly

Most of the time I am perfectly happy with my quiet, perfectly neutral decor. It's harmonious! It's blendy! It's versatile! At least that's what I tell myself. It's also kind of beige. And kind of boring. I kind of have the urge to do it up righteous in a riot of color. Like Karly, I might just want to color it rad. I'm still into the crazy acid wasp idea -- psychedelic neotrad will definitely amuse me for a while -- but occasionally I yearn for some straight up crazy, old school Design Crisis style.

Kind of like this.

This feathered friend made its way around the interwebs a while ago, and recently I stumbled upon the rest of the house designed by Ghislaine Vinas (who is definitely cuckoo for cocoa puffs). Raise you hand if you want to take a tour... Yay! Let's dewit.

Subtle, no?

The kids' rooms are sock knockers, even if the vaguely sinister murals by Mark Mulroney may be nightmare inducing.

I think this is as restful as this place gets.

Sheep + green carpet = a trifle heavy handed?

Winning!

I declare the kids' bathroom to be 100% adorable.

And I'm kind of a sucker for any room featuring a giant Vik Muniz photo.

But WTF is this thing??????????? I may never sleep again.

Well friends, what do we think? Good drugs/bad drugs? Maybe a little of both? Do you wish this type of design would go out like the abominable snowman, or will you always have  a place in your heart for the graphic homes that boldly go where no (wo)man has gone before?

[Interior Design]

Pictures of Pictures

Art is an undervalued endeavor -- it does not create algorithms to invest money, invent pharmaceuticals, or generally further business interests in any way. And so, when the young and ambitious set their sights on the humanities, parents get nervous and friends shake their heads, and the young and ambitious learn to eat ramen and wear black. Street cred is a necessity, but so are clothes that hold up to paint, chemicals, and infrequent laundering. It's pretty glamorous, the life of an artist is.

Photograph by Tracey Moffatt, via Emmas Designblogg

I have spent 15+ years slaving over a hot darkroom sink, many more poring over art books, and several years teaching, but I still can't get enough of the photographs that set me on the path to poverty in the first place. Once afflicted, there is no cure for what ails you, save to embrace the disease.

Photograph by Andres Serrano, via NYT

And as much as I enjoy just browsing images on the net, it warms my cold, dirty black heart even more to see some of my favorite artists in the homes of the rich and famous. Thank jeebus somebody can make a living off their work, because who else could inspire the young and ambitious to sacrifice wealth, hygiene, and nutrition, in the name of art?

Vik Muniz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Christopher Bucklow, via David Netto

Photos by Mark Shaw via Nate Berkus

Images by Rineke Dijkstra via Fox Mahem

Work by Adam Fuss via David Duncan Livingston

Image by Candida Hofer via Richard Powers

Image by William Eggleston in the home of Krysten Ritter

Photos by Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky via Michael Richman

Photo by Thomas Struth (on the right) via Met Home

Photo by Gilbert and George via OWI

Works by John Coplans (left bottom) and Loretta Lux in the home of Vicente Wolf

Photos by Steven Klein in the home of Nacho Figueras

I got a little obsessed while doing, ahem, "research" for this post, so I hope you won't be terribly disappointed if I hit you with a two-fer. Back on Monday with another roundup of not quite so epic proportions. In the meantime, I'm entertaining out of town guests, but Karly will be here to regale you with her always acerbic wit.

Have a great week!

Tastes Great, Less Filling

I have probably seen more exhibitions of Vik Muniz' work than any other artist's. Dude is super prolific, draws a crowd, and shows everywhere. So when I happened upon photos of his live/work space, I expected all kinds of schizophrenic mania going on in there, but it's really just... a home. I'm curious as to what you all will think of it after taking a look at his art.

Spaghetti Medusa

Ultimately Muniz is a photographer, but he was trained as a sculptor and it shows in his choices of unique materials. Who ever would have thought that spaghetti could be a high art medium?

Prisons, after Piranesi

For this series, Muniz used thread strung between pins to recreate the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Hours of painstaking work resulted in a series of photographic recordings of the thread drawings.

Chocolate Syrup Drawings

Muniz is probably most famous for his chocolate syrup drawings that recreate a number of famous paintings such as The Last Supper -- which is huge and amazing. Like any good artist, though, he'll also do a portrait of your kids.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Mona Lisa

This one just makes me hungry!

Muniz was a visiting artist when I was in school, so I had the opportunity to meet him, and I have to say he was just as quirky as you can imagine. His vast enthusiasm for art itself and not any one particular medium was pretty inspiring. Plus, he makes a lot of work out of sugary goodness, and that is always worthy of respect, right?

So, moving on to the home he shares with his artist wife Janaina Tschape and their daughter Mina:

So, you know -- it's cute. Kind of rustic but colorful, and very homey. I think maybe I was expecting to see giant murals made of spaghetti sauce all over the walls, but perhaps that would have been a bit much. Perhaps. One thing I can say, though, is that he has amazing taste in art:

The images above the kitchen area are by one of my all time favorite photographers, Seydou Keita:

I wish I could have seen inside his house. I bet it was full of magical awesomeness.