Music for my Walls

Unfortunately I think when you mention concert posters a lot of people picture a velvet black light Pink Floyd poster or something equally offensive but one of my current obsessions is band and/or concert posters either vintage or orginial by some of the great print makers our there right now.

One of the best websites for them is Poster Cabaret where I actually picked up this Band of Horses poster as an engagement present for my sister and her husband because they went to see them for their first date.

It looks so good framed and I think it made a pretty good gift if I do say so myself.

The other one from Poster Cabaret I'm loving both because I love the band Stars and because I love the artwork is this one, which is by the artist The Small Stakes - definitely one of my favorites on the website.

One great find that I cannot take credit for is a Bob Dylan poster that came folded in his 1967 Greatest Hits LP that my sister bought for her husband Peter for Christmas one year. She got in eBay and then had it restored because it was worn from being folded up in a record sleeve for so long but it looks perfect now.

One of the great thing about concert posters is they tend to come in really standard sizes so its easy to find frames at Ikea or other big stores to fit them so you can save some money on custom matting and framing.

In Fond Memory

Charles Kleibacker -1965

One of the more interesting people I have been fortunate enough to meet is Charles Kleibacker. My mom sadly informed me yesterday when Charles passed away so I thought I'd put up something in his honor as he was such a wonderful and talented person.

Kleibacker designs - mid 1950's
Images via Threads Magazine

Born in a tiny town in Alabama Charles knew he wanted to be a designer from a very young age and went on to do just that. I'll never forget sitting with him in the atrium of the Columbus Museum of Art and him telling me about sitting in his own boutique within Bergdorf Goodman selling his couture dresses. Can you even imagine??

He was one of the few American designers to find success in doing only couture and no mass produced ready-to-wear lines. When I read articles or biographies about him I actually find them hard to believe because he was truly one of the most down-to-Earth people you could ever meet. He started his fashion career as an assistant designer in the house of Lanvin in Paris and opened his own studio in New York in 1960. He is famous for his bias-cut which requires painstaking attention to detail, high quality fabrics, and extraordinary talent which is why it truly can only work on couture designs.

Image from The Fashion School at Kent University

In 1984 he accepted a position at The Ohio State University and the art world in Columbus would never be the same! He did so much good for OSU, Kent University, The Columbus Museum of Art, and so much more. While is presence will undoubtedly be missed his legacy will absolutely live on.

The images below do not do the dress justice but Charles was kind enough to give this dress to my mom and it is absolutely stunning. What I find most interesting about it is on the inside you can see all the construction and architecture that goes into making a couture gown. I didn't fully understand or appreciate what his famous bias cut did for the shape of a garment and of its wearer until I saw this dress.


*Information from Kent University

Matisse, please!

I've been obsessing over this print for years now and its one of those things that is always there so you never buy it, do you ever have that? For example it took me 5 years to finally buy a plain Longchamp bag, because I knew it would always be available. I have no problem impulsively buying things on sale, or one-of-a-kinds, or even just a rash purchase of an outfit for a night but the things that I actually really want for long periods of time just never seem to make it into my possession! (this dilemma was part of the motivation behind actually making a Fall shopping list this year) So anyway, without further adieu....
I know its not much but that's why I love it, its simple and classic and would go with everything. I had kind of forgotten about it until last night I found a past issue of Elle Decor (the one with the beautiful pictures of Aerin Lauder's home) and the artwork on the cover reminded me of it. Look how great the black and white silhouette artwork looks in this room! I love how crisp and clean it looks.


So that's what I'm thinking of today, now I'll have to decide on an accent color because I'd love for it to be the center of a mostly black-and-white room but then add a turquoise, or green...

"Success & Happiness"

I guess I'm a little behind the curve on this one because the exhibit left over a month ago but I just had to share this artist I found and have fallen for. Her name is Kelly Sherman and her show Success and Happiness was at the Barbara Krakow Gallery on Newbury Street here in Boston. Sherman is a conceptual artist and her works certainly make a statement. One of her shows was a collection of various wish lists taken from the Internet which was featured at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and won their 2006 James and Audrey Foster Prize. My favorite work of hers is a collection of portrayals of brides. She used real ads from bridal magazines but painted over the silhouette of the actual bride with white enamel creating a very crisp, modern, and somewhat eerie scene. Her work takes aim at how we express our wants and desires especially in relation to consumerism but I must say I don't think I've seen such a serious question posed so beautifully!

Images courtesy of Barbara Krakow Gallery
From top to bottom: Bride #26 2009, Bride #3 2009, Bride #25 2009