caron callahan

Aaron Wexler, works on panel

2011-11-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

personal faves from Spring '12 photoshoot

2011-11-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

While some photoshoots can be fun and hopefully rewarding, it can also be exhausting and immensely stressful to bring together 5 months of work into 1 day of shooting. Thankfully Colleen Miner from Elite, photographer Jonathan Baskins and dear friend Anna SK helped me tremendously and we got some beautiful shots! Thank you!

insane jellyfish

2011-11-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

Steamboat Ticonderoga, Shelburne Museum, Vermont

2011-11-02T17:10:00.000-07:00

Built in 1906, the Ticonderoga was a day boat on Lake Champlain until 1953 when it was preserved on land at the Shelburne Museum. It's current interiors nearly replicate the boat's in 1923.

Gee's Bend Quilts

2011-11-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

These inspiring quilts are handmade from leftover fabric and clothes and pieced together by an intimate community of Alabama women. A rich Southern tradition laced with history and heartbreak, this particular style of quilt-making has been passed down for generations and now has original works in the Whitney Museum's permanent collection.

one of the original Gee's Bend quilters

Gee's Bend is an small rural community isolated by the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama.

Bill and Marie Osslen Nylander's Swedish home

2011-11-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

Vintage Book Covers

2011-11-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Vintage Books - but not necessarily rare books with amazing covers. The artwork alone, is amazing. Old F.Scott Fitzgerald novels, Faulkner covers. They are such iconic classics.

Model One Tivoli Radio

2011-11-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

Another amazing designer.

Henry Kloss (pronounced “close”) was one of the original innovators of audio engineering, developing Hi-Fidelity speakers and radio receivers in the 1950s, and later the cassette deck. In 1957, he founded his company KLH which produced the first small FM radio with high selectivity. After a vigorous career in audio and television development, he co-created Tivoli Audio and produced the Model One Radio with functional design and great sound in mind. It’s perfect and completely worth it. WNYC public radio never sounded so good!

(although I’m not sure I love the new colors).

(the last images is of KLH’s multi page 1965 advertisement. The opposite page said “at KLH we ask it softly but persistently")

http://www.tivoliaudio.com/

Cross Stitch

2011-11-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

So thanks to perhaps my Southern roots, or just my lovely mom, I learned to cross stitch when I was roughly 8 years old. I was amazed at it's intricacies but how simply it was to do. The earliest record of Cross Stitch in the US dates back to 1653 and is housed at Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth Massachusetts. The below sampler is by Ann Grimshaw, a Quaker living in Yorkshire NY in 1818. She was a mere 13 yrs old when she created this sampler (which now hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art):

grimshaworigin.org

Traditional Palestinian wedding shawls

check out http://saltyoat.blogspot.com/ for great samples of handicraft and cross stitch.

Cross stitch always made me think of the stuffy propriety of old parlor rooms with women sitting around gossiping while embroidering intricate, delicate pillows and baby clothes. I was surprise to see in person the colorful work of "ethnic minority" of Vietnam and Thailand. It is so much more free spirited and an expression of these extraordinary tribal people. It is a famous tradition in Sapa, Vietnam (which is a stunning place), where the local weekly market attracts the best samples of the various villages. The women bring their embroidered blankets and clothes to the market where they will hopefully sell to passing tourists. They mostly use indigo dyed cotton as there base fabric and also add block printing intermittently within the cross stitch design. I spent a small fortune while I was there, but have no regrets and still find them inspiring years later.

Joni

2011-08-24T10:18:00.001-07:00

I didn't start listening to Joni Mitchell until I was about 23, when I found Blue on vinyl at a friends apartment. I was expecting yellow taxicabs and childlike melodies, but her honesty and vulnerability made a memorable impression. I think the documentaries about Joni Mitchell shed light on her journey from a small town in Canada and her life long struggle with the decision to give up her child for adoption as a young woman. She always remains so elegant and impressively talented.
Joni Mitchell is one of those iconic faces, lovable and sincere. That said, I believe her style and beauty are interesting to us because of her talent.

Norma Rae

2011-08-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

I just re-watched Norma Rae from 1979. I remember renting it as a kid because my mom looks like Sally Field and my grandmother once worked as a seamstress. It’s such a stellar portrayal of the gusto, humor and heart of Southern women. Sally Field won the Best Actress Oscar but more importantly, she perfectly depicts a small town factory worker without labor laws in 1978. It’s a true story based on Crystal Lee Sutton from North Carolina and apparently the last scene of Sally Field in the factory (shown below) is verbatim to what actually happened. It’s an all time favorite of mine; it’s perhaps one of the best portrayals of the diversity and independent spirit of this country.

I have mixed feelings about labor unions now, and wonder where the manufacturing industry in the US would be if they had not been around to fight for high pay and fewer hours? Would we have lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs in the last decade to overseas workers? It's an impossible dilemma.

Crystal Lee Sutton

Paul Huxley

2011-08-23T19:03:00.001-07:00

In the same spirit of graphic design, I came across Paul Huxley in my research for prints. After graduating in 1960 from the Royal Academy in London, Huxley progressed through the London art scene with his first exhibit in 1965. After to moving to NYC, Huxley met and in some cases befriending many of his contemporaries, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, and Barnett Newman. While not reach the same level of fame as others in his generation, his paintings are hard to forget.

all images from www.paulhuxley.com

Scott Hanson: ISO50

2011-08-23T18:35:00.001-07:00

Scott Hanson, presumable well know in the graphic design community, but is an exciting find for me. I was searching for a vintage poster and came across his stellar blog and spot-on graphic posters at blog.ISO50.com. He makes and sells these posters as well as others in San Francisco.

Dian Fossey

2011-08-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

Other amazing females of past, Dian Fossey is extraordinary. Sigourney Weaver played her in the 1988 film, Gorilllas in the Mist. I recently watched the National Geography original film of Dian Fossey studying the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Both movies are great, covering her struggle to defend gorillas against poachers from 1967-1983 while studying their behavior daily.

Images from gorillas.org and gorillafund.org

nationalgeographic.com

Louise Dahl-Wolfe

2011-08-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

Famed female photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe shot over 86 Harpers Bazaar covers between 1936-1958, as well as portraits of Carson McCullers, Orson Wells, and Christian Dior. She favored portraitures over fashion photography and pioneered the use of natural light. She practically invented "on location" fashion photography traveling to South America and Africa (back then called "environmental" photography), and influenced Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. She exhibits a quietness in her photos, an intimacy as the viewer witnesses an chance moment of solitude with the subject.

Images from Mocp.org and staleywise.com

Vintage Handloom Linens

2011-08-23T17:56:00.001-07:00

Cross stitch inevitable leads me to my minor obsession with vintage linens from Europe and Hungary. The handloom textiles are always hearty and durable, but usually have delicate embroidery or cross stitch. Notice some of the amazing fonts of the initials.

from www.beyondfrance.co.uk

Ellsworth Kelly

2011-08-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

I’ve recently revisited Ellsworth Kelly. When he was a child living in NJ in the 1930s, he and his grandmother spent much time bird-watching. It is said that this greatly informed his sense of color and form. He was a loner as a kid with a slight stutter and gradually made his way to Brooklyn to study at Pratt Institute before enlisting in WWII. After returning to the NY, his work was considered drastically different than his peers; however, he had his first show at Betty Parsons Gallery (“the den mother of modern Abstract Expressionism”) in 1957. That exhibit was followed with painting selected for the Whitney’s “Young America 1957” in which he showed a painting consisting of 3 panels, something had never been done before. Today he lives in Spensertown NY and is 88 years old.

7 Years Late

2011-08-23T16:57:00.001-07:00

So what does one say for the very first post on her blog? Frankly, I'm about 7 years late because I'd usually rather keep my thoughts to myself. Truthfully, there are some very good and some very mediocre blogs in the creative/fashion world. Do I have anything to contribute? Probably nothing terribly meaningful. However, when I visit some of my favorite blogs, I always end up googling further the tidbits that interest me. The name of an artist, or look for images of a place, etc. The sole fact that I’m educating myself by looking at blogs and therefore finding things to include in my own blog is worthwhile for me. I know there are beautiful images all over the internet, but not enough stories about the people behind the lens, or an explanation as to what makes something special. I hope that I can bring some contexts to my favorite places, the people who inspire me, and the beauty that can be found in the smallest of places.