If you’re in Paris tomorrow night please come to the opening of Rosemarie Auberson’s show at 0fr! She will be showing new work and we will be celebrating the release of her beautiful book published by 0fr, along with the birthday of 0fr co-owner Alex Thumerelle. There will also be a textile installation by me, ceramics by Makoto Orui, and a performance by Marc Desse. The catalog is only available at 0fr and there are only 100 copies so get there soon!

Fritz Haeg is an artist I came across at the LA Art Book Fair this year. He does the most incredible experience installations. I was particularly inspired by his recent Domestic Integrities installation at MOMA where participants could bring in old clothing or textiles and weave them into a giant communal rug.
His installations which seem to often feature some food, and a communal activity are slightly reminiscent of Mark Borthwick performances I’ve seen, in that they both provide an experience, and a particular atmosphere, along with calming nourishment. I love what the premise of the installation is all about:
MoMA Studio: Common Senses is a multisensory environment at the intersection of education, design, and art that aims to foster our evolving relationships with nature, technology, and our everyday surroundings through community interactions and creative play. A series of drop-in activities, workshops, and ongoing projects for audiences of all ages integrates components such as light, nature, food, textiles, games, and technology.
The rug continues to grow and evolve with new experiences as it travels to become part of new installations in places around the globe.
See more on Domestic Integrities here.

When I was in LA I visited the studio of Ben Medansky (Thanks to Lauren!). Ben is a ceramic artist whose work I had first seen at the LA Art Book Fair. There were some amazing bookends there I kept eyeing, and of course they were by him. It was hard not to want to buy so many things right off the shelves of his studio! I have one little vase of his that I love, and have my eye on much more.
His work is starting to pop up everywhere.Check out his site to see more, or see it in person at Bookstand at the Standard Hollywood, or at Iko Iko in LA.

This Thursday night is the opening for a very exciting exhibition PLANTS: Our Silent Guardians, by Lili Cuzor of Tigers to Lilies in collaboration with Lauren Spencer King of the Sphinx and the Milky Way, and Claire Cottrell of Art Bookstand who will have a pop-up bookstand shop set up, all taking place at the Standard hotel in Hollywood.

The installation and shop will be up from 3/21 – 4/21, go check it out! I know it’s going to be amazing! I so wish I could be there to see it! There are some sneak peeks on Lauren’s blog here and here.

Opening Ceremony this Thursday, March 21st, the Spring Solstice from 7:00pm – 9:00pm Claire will be debuting a film she made and there will be herbal teas, plant installations, artwork and more!

This Valentine’s Day I’ll be selling some marbled paper I made for Tigers to Lilies flower pop-up at Cookbook in Echo Park and at Shelter Half in LA.
Lili will be there making her magical creations in person at Cookbook, and Lauren from Sphinx and the Milky Way will have some awesome cards for sale, perfect for any day, not just Valentine’s day. AND!! ceramics by artist Ben Medansky! Whose work I’ll do a little post on soon, it’s incredible! Come by and say hello and treat yourself or or a loved one!

only the best for valentine’s:

TIGERS to LILIES wildflower bouquets
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SPENCER STUDIO handmade cards
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CHERI MESSERLI handmade marbleized papers
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BEN MEDANSKY ceramics
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in store @ COOKBOOK (Echo Park) & pre-arranged @ Shelter Half (La Brea)
february fourteenth from 10 – 6

This weekend come check out the first ever LA Art Book Fair at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. Bookstand will have a very special stand set up along with many others who I’m excited to see like Iko Iko, Ooga Booga, Family Books, Nieves and many more! The first image is from the BOOK STAND booklet: the southwest, by L.A.-based photographer Ye Rin Mok.

I’ll also be selling some of my CM textiles at Bookstand, in amazing company alongside prints by Lauren Spencer King (pictured above), and ikebana arrangements by Tigers to Lilies come check it out. Starting tonight thru Sunday.

Overpainted Photographs by Gerhard Richter, super inspired to get out my paints!
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I love the work of artist Fumiko Imano. I just found a link to her blog, and was reminded of how much I love the playful spirit of her work. It looks like she has a cool exhibit up in Singapore right now. I was so sad I just missed her show with Kotori Kawashima in Tokyo by a couple days when I was there.

While in Tokyo I picked up the latest special issue of Casa Brutus which focuses on California creators and a lot of the amazing people and things happening there right now. Also while I was there, a California Mart pop up shop had just opened, featuring a lot of the same people who are in the magazine, Beatrice Valenzuela, Altadena Works, Heath Ceramics..
Very excited that this magazine features friends and is connected to an exhibition which has sent several friends out to Tokyo recently. The exihibition DREAMERS is curated by Serena Mitnik-Miller and is at Ron Herman Sendagaya. If you’re in Tokyo go check it out, and if not go out and find a copy of this magazine! So much more good stuff inside, South Willard, General Store, OK, Dosa, Altadena Works, Aya Muto, Heath Ceramics, the Ace Hotel and much more. It makes me so happy to see where I’m from being celebrated and having a creative community come together. I miss California!

So the artists who’s work I loved at Kosmos Lane gallery, and one of whom was doing the “Potato is Future” fortune telling performance, are the Kojiki Girls. These guys so crazy I love it! Here’s a peek at some of their work they have online. I won’t share all the amazing postcard images I picked up out of respect for their work but I really hope these guys get a show in Paris and a book out soon! You can see one of many videos showing them in action here. Also check out the craziness on their respective blogs, Machiko and Pia.

In Tokyo I had the pleasure of being taken to the closing party of a gallery show at Kosmos Lane Studio & Gallery by our friend Chihaya. It was one of the nicest days we spent in Japan. The show was about travel souvenirs and the stories that went with them. There were some really funny objects and images in the show. There was also a concert by a cute band that normally performs for kids, homemade soups and the most delicious breads ever (more about that later) David had his fortune told by an artist who’s work I’ll also share later, but who does performances that are so funny. We met some new people and spent the whole day there, there was even a drawing workshop that everyone participated in, organized by Boojil, who is super nice and currated the show.

Works by Bianca Brunner
via the sphinx & the milky way

The other night I had the pleasure of visiting the atelier of Cécile Daladier. The space alone is impressive, adding to that we were told it used to be the studio of Alexander Calder at some point while he was in Paris, but what makes it so beautiful and inspiring is the spirit and aesthetic that Cécile has created within it. Her ceramic pots are created to hold very small flowers and plants that she procures from the sidewalks and streets of Paris. Finding those tiny specimens that grow between the cracks of the cities pavements and bringing them back to her amazing award winning garden to give them a place to really grow wild. She is not solely a ceramic artist and botanist, her work spans intuitive piano lessons, she makes incredible tree branch creations (no other words to explain them), her and her husband, Nicolas Soulier who is an architect, have a company called Asaii together, they also have a talented group of kids who I hear all do amazing things, and a very beautiful home which I did not realize was featured in the same book David and I are in.
The opening was a beautiful event, the bread was all homemade, the tiny oyster shaped ceramic dishes were handmade containing the most incredible rice pudding and ice cream, and then there was the biggest table of oysters I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to see more images to come of her work. There is a very unique beauty to what she does and I am so happy to have been able to visit her studio.
Thank you to Clarisse for inviting us!
last 6 images are via her site.

Work by Kjell Varvin
“I never knew these installations would keep me busy for such a long time. I consider the work to be simple and unproblematic. There are no controversial elements. There is no hierarchy among the elements, which combine again and again into new constellations. The way I compose is like chamber music—nothing spectacular or grandiose. The forms, lines and colors may linger in the memory like sounds, rhythms and intervals, but my visions are not for concert halls. I am concerned with ambiance, a space where you can breathe freely and relax. The objects that I present move around, endlessly testing out new relationships. The elements don’t stay in the same position for long, just long enough for a few digital snapshots. The structures I build are influenced by the patterns of radio waves, x-rays, particle collision, birds, wind, heat, light, and the movements of ants, bees, dust particles, and sand. The work is left open for new and further interpretation. I consider these installations to be intermediary stages in a never-ending process.” -KV

My friend Alison introduced this artist Karla Black’s work to me and I love it so much I wish it were mine and almost didn’t want to share it. I love her palette of pastels in interesting compositions combining textures, space and odd materials. Really wish I could see this in person. You can listen to the artist herself talk about this installation for the Turner Prize for 2011 here.