What Have I Done?!

After months of resisting the urge to buy another single solitary stick of furniture for this overstuffed house, I finally gave in to temptation. Craigslist has been wining and dining me with brass this and lucite that, but I stayed strong. Until something suddenly came up.

tobia scarpa

And now I have a seven foot long black leather grub worm in my kitchen/dining area.

I hope you will forgive the janky photos as I didn't have a lot of time to play Richard Avedon this morning, but I think you can still make out the fact that I have a GIANT BLACK LEATHER THING IN MY DINING ROOM.

tobia scarpa

Actually, this "thing" is a Tobia Scarpa for Cassina chaise and matching ottoman (with labels!) that I scored for $75 including delivery. BLAMMO! It's a pretty sweet deal considering that it should go for a minimum of 10x that price. If you could find one.

tobia scarpa

It do be having some issues, though. Like a missing button, and some scuffs and a few deep gouges. I think I'm going to order some leather dye and polish this bad boy up, but I don't know what to do about the button. I'm totally open to advice on leather care.

tobia scarpa

But some day I'd really like to reupholster this behemoth because black leather is not the bizness -- sorry, black leather lovers. Karly says it will be a nightmare, but how awesome would this be in a super slubby oatmeal linen?

kelly wearstler

Oh, you know... kinda like the ones Kelly Wearstler has in her fancy beach mansion. The mansion that she's selling for 21.9 MILLION. Maybe she wants to buy my chair, too?

But I digress. It can't be that hard to drape some fabric over the frame, wave your hands over the surface, and hey presto! this baby into life, right? Can I get an Amen?

But my biggest problem is that I bought a giant thing and I AINT GOT NOWHERES TO PUT IT, which is why it's occupying its own zip code in my dining area. Shhhhhh, do not tell the Hunny about this little epiphany I just had, since he was totally against this really stupid purchase in the first place, and I do not feel like putting up with his I told you so shenanigans. But in my defense, this picture was dancing like a sugarplum in my head when I decided I just had to had to had to have it:

karl anderson scarpa

Thank you, Karl Anderson, for taking such a gorgeous stunning beautiful picture and making me buy this dumb thing I don't need. You bastard.

Ok, I bet you thought this post was going to end right here, but you were so very wrong. It gets worse.

pace coffee table

You see, along with the chaise I also bought this Pace Collection coffee table for another whopping $75. BLAMMO! Score! Plus the dude delivered it to my house along with the chaise, which is a big fat freaking deal, since it weighs 200 lbs. At least. Seriously, I do not want this thing to live in my cramped, overstuffed office, but now that it's in there, it's going to take an act of congress to move it.

(Sidenote: check out the teak desk (which used to be our dining table) raised up on blocks in the reflection of the chrome. This was the Hunny's brilliant solution to a too low table that would not allow him to roll his chair underneath it. We are keeping it klassy at our house.)

pace coffee table

So now I have a giant black thing in a place where no seat should be, plus a coffee table that I can't move because it weighs more than me, Ben and Ike, stacked up like a pyramid of clowns on a bicycle. I took a picture of my finger next to the glass and chrome so you can see how thick it is. It's probably going to drop through our floor any second.

pace coffee table

So I'm thinking I could put the Scarpa chaise and ottoman against the wall where that futon (covered with a tapestry) is right now, and the futon will go live with someone else -- which is no great loss since futons are hideous, worthless pieces of furniture, anyway. But before I can put the chaise there, I have to move the coffee table. UGH. I suppose the table can live at the end of my giant bed, which I promise to photograph someday after I clean my room, but that probably won't happen anytime soon, so don't hold your collective breath. You can't have everything, you know.

I personally am taking a very deep breath right now, and I'm going to put on my magic brain cap and figure out how to solve this dilemma. I'm afraid the solution involves buying a bigger house, and that makes me all anxious in my innards, and now I feel an overwhelming sense of analysis paralysis.

I think I might just take a quick look at Craigslist instead.

!Contest! And some other stuff about pretty landscapes

First let me say that I really wish I could do an upside down ! in this blog.  I don't know how, if I did, that first ! in today's title would have been flipped and it would have been much more awesome.  lowercase i doesn't work, btw. ANYWAY.  As part of my continuing effort to learn everything there is to know about planting stuff in the ground before Austin's 3-second spring season ends I've decided that I absolutely under no circumstances can miss the 2010 Outdoor Living Tour taking place right here in our fair city of Austin this very weekend.

Live in town?  Keep reading for contest details.  No where near?  Keep reading because you love us.

This Saturday, April 17, 9 lushly landscaped modern homes in Austin will open their doors for the wrist-banded among us to enjoy (psst, more on this in the contest part below).

Industry experts will be on hand at each property to talk about the design and execution.  Is it gauche to bring my land survey and ask specific questions about drought-resistant plants?

Just kidding, I would never ever do that.  Just thought I'd clarify.

Click HERE for a complete listing of all properties on tour.

Want to go?  Ok, here's the scoop, you can either:

1.  Buy tickets right now for $12 here

2.  Get tickets for $20 on the day of the show (THIS SATURDAY, people!)

or 3.  Leave a stinkin comment.  Oh, and you best have plans to be in Austin this Saturday.  Leave a comment now-zers and I'll draw a winner tomorrow, Wednesday, at 5:00pm central time.  The winner will be announced thursday morning.  Winner gets 2 (two!) wrist bands.

Pop Goes the Weasel

What are the chances that I'll discover the next big art movement, purchase an entire show's worth of loot, and make a fortune before the rest of the art world even knows what hit them? Probably about as good as inventing time travel. But as unlikely as it sounds, way back in the early 60s, Robert and Ethel Scull had the prescience (and cash) to make pop art The Next Big Thing.

robert ethel scull

Robert and Ethel Scull, flanked by James Rosenquist, sculptor George Segal, and a little someone you may have heard of named Andy Warhol (played here by Andy Warhol). Not too shabby a lineup of art buddies, and in fact the Sculls had the foresight to be first in line to commission a Warhol portrait:

warhol ethel scull

Ethel Scull 36 Times

As reported by The New York Times, the story of The Scull collection is almost laughable. They bought enormous quantities of what is now blue chip art at bargain basement prices. Somehow an entire Jasper Johns show (at Leo Castelli's now famous gallery, no less) was overlooked -- poor JJ didn't sell a thing until Mr. Scull scooped up the whole show. He also snagged a Rauschenburg combine painting for $900.

Oh, and a Warhol canvas for $3500.

When many of the works they collected in the 60s were auctioned off during the 70s and 80, the art world was "scandalized" at the profits these pieces yielded, seeing such brash and aggressive collecting as crass and vulgar.

warhol 200 dollar bills

But what's really funny is that, compared to today's ridiculously inflated art market -- which increasingly treats art as a commodity to be traded exclusively within the highest echelon of wealth and privilege -- they didn't even make that much money. To wit, their Warhol piece 200 Dollar Bills sold at a 1986 auction for the paltry sum of $385,000. At a Sotheby's auction last fall it sold for $46 million.

Which makes each dollar bill worth $230,000.

jasper johns map

Here's a fancy Jasper Johns painting in the home of Agnes Gund. A similar piece from the original Scull collection is on view at Acquavella Galleries.

Well, Robert and Ethel, this round up of pop hits is for you, because I like the way you think, and I'm glad you rescued pop art from the gaping maws of history. Ok, that may be a small largeish overstatement, but without your keen sensibility, who knows whether the Jasper Johns show would have sold, or whether Andy's work would be as widespread as it is today. Or whether Pruitt and Early would have made these post pop homages to Warhol's Campbell Soup prints:

pruitt early

OWI

Hilarious. The rest of my decidedly less humorous roundup is as follows:

warhol living etc

Living Etc

lichtenstein

Reto Guntli

warhol elvis

via Head Over Heels

warhol todd romano

Todd Romano

lichtenstein

Martha Angus via Eye Spy

pop art

Reto Guntli

owi

OWI

angie hranowsky

Angie Hranowsky

Even though their contemporaries felt the Sculls made out like bandits, you get the sense that their philosophy of collecting was much different than today's point of view. Scull's son Jonathan says that his father "bought all that art because he was crazy for it, and nothing was going to get in his way." Seems a far cry from today's collectors, who more often than not view paintings as investments.

On the other hand, if the Sculls hadn't discovered these guys, maybe Jonathan could afford to buy back the painting that Jasper Johns gave him as a Bar Mitzvah present.

I suppose being ahead of one's time does have its disadvantages.