we’ve long been in awe of contemporary artist Cindy Sherman’s work. oh, sure, we are beyond proud to know she is one of us (a Jersey Girl), but beyond a Garden State connection we find ourselves pulled right into her conceptual portraits, especially when shown together as they are at the current retrospective at MOMA, and at Metro Pictures Gallery in Chelsea. turns out Madonna’s one of her biggest fans and collectors, and we can appreciate that connection. take a peek here at the Metro Pictures Gallery offerings where Sherman has costumed herself in all vintage Chanel. these portraits are for sale — going for about 400,000 each — tho perhaps a souvenir postcard will have to do for most of us.
pop culture…
what a treat it was to swing by our artsy lakeview school and see artist and school parent jeremiah ketner sweeping the sidewalk with one of his pop surrealist sprites amid the summer blooms! his work has graced the walls of nordstrom department stores and galleries nationwide. he also has a delicious little line of custom wooden and vinyl toys. his work is inspired by his many trips to japan and magical imagination. visit him @smallandround to see what he and his lovelies are up to!
we are over-the-moon tickled to announce our M&B Vintage Jersey Girl collection launch at the fabulous Spring Lake, NJ shop, WHIMSICALITY. shop owner, Elke Ridge, hosted a Jersey Girls Night Out party for our book launch last summer and we quickly knew we were three kindred spirits. we love her perfectly edited collections, fresh flowers and team of super friendly staff, and feel honored to be included in this amazing “down-the-shore” shop. do pop by to check out our collection of one-of-a-find vintage charms, custom hand-engraved pieces & other trinkets and treasures. 1219 Third Avenue, Spring Lake, NJ 732.449.9337
OH BOY ROY…we never really knew you! while longtime pop art fans for the powerful and colorful largess of it all…the world premier installation of Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective includes nearly 170 works he created between 1950-1997 including iconic and rarely seen paintings, sculpture and drawing. it is the first major exhibition to broadly examine his art since his death-and sheds new light on his message, methods and importance in the conversation of art and culture. now on view at The Art Institute of Chicago, this is the first stop of a tour that moves on to Washington., London and Paris…and is well worth a fly in from wherever you are! it is monumental in scope. to see the work up close and personal is to understand the completely unexpected depth and meaning—self-deprecating humor and all. from the familiar hand-painted Ben-Day “dots” and pithy quote bubbles to the rarely seen preparatory studies, brushstroke works, and sculpture is a rare and breathtaking experience and lifetime lesson in art history.
adore all kinds of art, but responded to american sculpture john chamberlain’s scrap metal sculptures currently on exhibit at the guggenheim in a very different way then i have before. as crazy as it may sound, i find taking in the mostly scrap car parts sculptures crazily calming, like feeling an almost instant sense of calm, an instant inner peace. perhaps a type A personality responds to the precision in pulling it all together so neatly, the way the unrelated pieces sit snuggly, uniformly, succinctly. perhaps it is a inner admiration for someone who can take something chaotic, something discarded and useless, and see a peaceful potential, a beautiful rescue. it is the first exhibit i have seen that makes me want to just sit beside a sculpture and twirl my hair and daydream.
a mother of a good time! hope to see you all there…bring your mom for a chance to win a basketful of crazy goodies loaded with treats and eats from all of the fab may DOSERS. x. M&B
genius genius. can’t help but think how much fun mr. haring would have had with social media. brooklyn museum exhibit rocks. go see. like now.
It is always a great treat to attend the Chicago Botanic Garden on any day. It is other worldly and inspired to roam the gardens, bridges, paths and greens and feel like you’ve been on a lovely far-away vacation as you read about each planting and take in the floral parfume in the air. Sometimes the chance to dip a toe or two in the fountain can bring you straight back to your childhood! As we pull into the lot, it’s hard to believe it’s already the 12th Annual Antiques & Garden Fair! We’ve been attending yearly, wandering through the great tents of treasures from world class dealers that dot the special weekend with their on site displays at the Botantic Garden. Today, world renown interior designer and startchitect David Easton is treating the crowd to a lecture, highlighting his new book Timeless Elegance. The talk is a behind the scenes peek at his own history (summers in Oak Park!), musings (clients that just didn’t get along!), wanderlust for life and travel, and the pure practicality for living as it relates to design. One grand room for living, eating, reading by the fire (usually two fireplaces flank his great room designs) are signature! ”Who needs rooms and rooms you don’t live in? “, he shares. His muse is both past design (from ancient gardens to his grandmother’s porch) and the future of a rapidly growing population. He is currently building a pre-fab modular home in Canada which features a great room flanked by two bedrooms and some living space below. A small footprint, and all he feels one really needs to live. Well, that and a passion for travel. ”Living well is the best revenge” he shared numerous times along his chat, and the need for many glasses of red wine. Cheers! Mr. Easton shares his passion for bringing the outdoors in (porches, entries and gardens as integral as interiors!), as well as homes filled with art and collectibles that reflect the homeowners. He lifts his Antiques & Garden fair find, a wonderful wooden sculpture that looks like an abstract globe in signature David Easton Red (a paint color named for him) and bids us all happy shopping! Each booth is filled with treasure, but also some of the loveliest and most inspired display ideas to bring home from your visit around the fair. If you can’t make it this year, hope to see you next time!
“just put in a ponytail and some red lipstick and you’ll be good to go”. that’s barri’s advice to me whenever i’m less than enthusiastic about getting dressed and heading out the door. sparkly advice for sure, but while she looks all movie star in red lipstick, it never really worked for me until now. just discovered bobbi brown’s “cosmic pink” lip gloss, and sonia kashuk’s “rosey nude velvety matte lip crayon”, two perfect ways to go red without really going so red. kinda swell, gotta try.
the return of swimsuit weather & shopping for a new suit will forever remind us of our days producing satellite media tours that went out live to local t.v. stations, most often fashion pieces celebrating a new season, sharing trends, doing Q&A with the hosts. at that time, we were not the on-air “spokesperson”, which meant we prepped and styled all the outfits, booked models, wrote all the copy and prepped the on-air talent as best we could so they could answer a host’s questions in a succinct, educated way. sometimes our spokesperson was a model, an actor — someone who wasn’t really up on fashion trends, nor so interested in them in the first place as they were often there to promote a project of their own. this would require that we sit underneath the camera with headsets, sharpies and cue cards, fast and furiously writing split second answers for the spokesperson to share aloud. one particular model insisted on ignoring our cues on a swimwear segment, answering three questions with “WE LOVE SWIMSUITS AND EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM”. by the third time, we had not only surrendered, but were barely holding in our laughs as she seemed wholeheartedly sure this response was going to help viewers find the right swimsuit. this superficial declaration has become our code for whenever we are on the receiving end of information-less information. feel free to use it yourselves : )
