Art Archives - Be Kind, Thrift and Rewind

This is Part 2 of “Razzle Dazzle NYC Dressed Up in Christmas Lights.” For Part 1, click here.

The various smaller stores along the way of this walk up 5^th Avenue were Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Tiffany’s, and a couple stores whose windows I took photos of but whose names I can’t remember.

Barney’s as usual stuck to simple elegance and their windows were beautiful and bright with frozen ice themes, playful colors or scenes. They had a city that was filled in with super bold color. The “Chilling Winter Brilliance” of frozen huge icicles, a completely frozen purple and blue ice scene, and a work space for an ice sculptor.

I have more photos of shops in the Village and from downtown. I will create more posts in the next week of those. In general it is fun to get out and walk in Manhattan right now and view all there is to see. Many of the lovely, colorful lights I have seen are from small shop windows on the darker side streets. Some homes have lovely decorations, plus I walked by the Christmas tree lot downtown on the edge of Soho and 6^th Avenue and took pictures of their lot and some of their merchandise. I hope you are enjoying these photos and posts and are getting prepared for or celebrating the holidays with friends and family.

Gucci

Tiffany’s

Bergdorf’s

Barney’s

Macy’s

Razzle Dazzle NYC Dressed Up in Christmas Lights

December 15, 2015

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Last night I went up to Rockefeller Center to take pictures of the shop windows like I did last year. The area around the Christmas tree was so inundated with people that it wasn’t appealing to me to stick myself in there like a sardine. I can go back there perhaps this next week at a better time of day or early evening. On the weekends it is particularly crowded right now. Plus last night was Santa-Con in Manhattan so all the people going out to celebrate that were flooding into town. New York is especially lovely with Christmas lights. We normally have lots of lights here but all the extra of the holidays definitely adds to the razzle dazzle look and feel of the holiday season. The glitz and glamour of it all shine super brightly.

The windows at Saks Fifth Avenue had a Winter Palace theme this year. The models looked frozen in time, somewhat tense in certain windows and a few of them were quite spooky looking. In one a frozen model is holding the tablecloth edge from a table that is filled with a holiday spread. She’s poised to pull off that tablecloth at any moment. A few of the windows had a theme like the Frozen Great Wall of China or Paris at the Eiffel Tower. Some of the windows were brighter than others and in general they were very pretty, either brilliant and shiny silver or an electrical, psychedelic deep blue. Last year they had a story-book theme and such bright, lovely colorful windows filled with story-book characters. You can view those here. They also had several Art Deco window themes. As usual the crowds were flocking to see their windows. Some of them had to be viewed close up once you got into the line, at least if you wanted a decent picture of them.

Walking up Fifth Avenue with my friend we saw lots of pretty windows and buildings. The Harry Winston building was particularly beautiful with all the lights they had displayed on its surface. At Bulgari on the corner of 57^th Street and 5^th, there was a beautiful ribbon of lights attached to the corner of the building.

Next we came upon Bergdorf’s, which also usually has some really beautiful windows. Theirs were really glitzy and glamorous. Very bright, deep, electrifying colors. This year they had over-the-top sparkle going on. Last year they had many windows with a book theme. The ladies in some of the windows were covered in sparkles, and one window had a Gypsy fortune teller. Actually last night there was a Gypsy fortune teller seated outside there with her little table right next to the window. She said she “may as well make a go at making some money” since they set up such a window. One of my favorite windows was the more subdued, chic, simple one of a model in the side window dressed in an elegant blue and silver glittery dress, looking oh-so-elegant with her blue fur stole wrapped around her shoulders. To top off her lovely outfit she wore blue drop earrings, a blue feather hat and blue-grey long gloves. They had her surrounded by a gold background. Gorgeous!! The side window opposite that one held two models wearing extremely bright, glittery dresses.

There are so many pictures and I don’t want to overload the post to where the pictures don’t load well. So this is going to be a continued post that invites you to go to the following blog post – like a chapter in a book that gets continued. So if you are enjoying this post please follow me to the next, which I will release immediately.

All of these pictures are of Saks Fifth Avenue

Pier Antique Show in NYC

November 20, 2015

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Last weekend I went to the Pier Antique Show in New York at Pier 94. A friend went with me and we walked all around and visited the booths. My friend David Owens, whom I met when I did a blog post about his shop, David Owens Vintage Clothing, gave me tickets. In terms of recycling and reusing the place was absolutely filled with antiques and vintage. There were Louis Icaret prints at many booths, other art prints, loads of estate jewelry and furnishings. If someone wanted to furnish their home with antiques this would be the place to bring a truck and stock up. Of course the items were pricey; plus most of the items were in really good condition. This is not so much a place for bargain hunting.

I saw some great kitchenware from the 1940’s and 1950’s. Toasters, spice racks and canisters. Unique, retro-looking and fun! My favorite kitchen I ever had had an antique turquoise stove in it. Vintage kitchenware is fun, colorful and I like that it stands out as something charmingly different in the modern world.

In the Fashion Alley section, where David’s booth was, there were numerous vintage fashion merchandisers. Several vendors had dead stock vintage fabrics. David does sell numerous fur coats, which I am not a big fan of. I can totally understand that as a small business in Manhattan it could be a big item that can help to cover the rent and expenses. Someone has to sell them so it is nice that all of his are vintage, which is further down the chain of production and it is also recycling its use. On occasion he has the nice fake-fur coats as well. Lots of vendors had fake-fur coats, many had some really beautiful dresses and several had Victorian blouses. I was awestruck several times at the lovely long dresses and I saw a gorgeous flaxen coat. David had a few really nice dresses that would be nice for the holidays. My favorite was black with a V neckline, knee length, with a full skirt and black bow at the waistline. It was a knock-out classy dress!

I didn’t take very many pictures. We were mostly just walking around observing everything. It was a very busy event with a lot of people visiting. It was fun to see how many people are interested in vintage and all the varieties of goods. When I was younger I went to a lot of shows like this but this time it had been a while.

I am still looking for work here and it is frustrating. It is not an easy time to be unemployed or under-employed in America. I have a couple more physical therapy sessions for my foot. In general I am walking around better. I hope you all are enjoying fall and getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Thrifted and Trashed Art – Another Man’s Treasure

November 11, 2015

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These framed pictures and household pieces are a few of the thrifted art items I have in my apartment. I am sure many folks have found wonderful art through scrounging around thrift shops or garage sales. I enjoy finding pieces that stir up some sort of memory I treasure. For me one of these pieces conjures up memories of going to the farmers market in Germany as a child. I always enjoyed going there, and waiting for my mother to buy vegetables and whatever else she needed for our household. At that time we lived in the center of town, not far from the opera house, the ice-skating rink and the cemetery where we took long walks. I also used to run off by myself sometimes (it was safe in Germany then for me to be alone) and go quietly spy on the sculpture artist who had a small cabin workshop at the cemetery. Don’t ask why I always hid from him. Perhaps I should have gone and talked to him, told him I liked watching him work. I was only about eight at the time. Anyway that whole area is a space I like to remember and this picture reminds me of it.

The smaller picture reminds me of the area up near the Met museum where there are street vendors selling art and books. This picture’s surroundings aren’t as full and hectic as NY but all the same that is what it reminds me of. I also think it looks very European, which I always like. There is something about the coloring in the picture that I find comforting. It isn’t raining, but the balance hangs between a possibly rainy day and the possibility of the sun coming out brighter. It evokes emotion, I like that. My mother was just talking to me about how grey Germany could be at times when we lived there. Perhaps that is what I am remembering when I see it.

I thrifted the small black hand-painted tray, as well as the small hand-painted plate that I have hanging on the wall. The plate has writing on it that says it is Royal Adams Titian Ware made in England. It also says The Wynbrook, established in 1857. Its cheerful colors have lightened up my room for years and I really enjoy seeing them. Both of these pieces have a lovely, European look and they are delicate little antiques that I treasure.

The Gauguin type painting I found in the street and immediately picked up and carted home years ago. It must have been some college student’s class project and they didn’t want it anymore. I think it is great and I really enjoy it hanging in my living room.

The sculpture I made from fallen wood and little tree cones and moss. These pieces of nature’s fallen parts all came from where my cats that I had years ago are buried. I wanted to take something from nature to remember them by. They are buried deep in the forest up in the mountains in Colorado. I will miss them forever, so this is my memory piece to have near me.

My daughter Emily has been creating a lot of photos of “Trashed Art.” She is making use of the natural environment and opening her vision to the possibilities. These three photos are from her latest collection of photos called “Trashed.”

http://www.hellogoodbyelofi.com/mnamombj0e8ktlpypwrhciii7qww5h

It all comes down to “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” The trash in the street is only trash as long as you intend to see it only that way. There is something wonderful to the concept of waba-sabi. In the book Waba-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, the waba-sabi state of mind is described as “acceptance of the inevitable. Waba-sabi is an aesthetic appreciation of the evanescence of life. The luxuriant tree of summer is now only branches under a winter sky. All that remains of a splendid mansion is a crumbled foundation overgrown with weeds and moss. Waba-sabi images force us to contemplate our own mortality, and they evoke an existential loneliness and tender sadness. They also stir a mingled bittersweet comfort, since we know all existence shares the same fate.” (1) Emily has embraced waba-sabi in her photographs. That is a great thing since not everything is as it seems originally. Looking deeper is often a gift.