S- it is the night before East Austin Studio Tour and east siders are in a tidying tizzy. We finally got our window farms hydroponic system up and running last week. You know it’s a project that was facilitated by eye beam in NYC by artists Rebecca Bray and Britta Riley in 2009. Part of the project is to create a community of these farmers who can learn and improve the basic model via the website. http://www.windowfarms.org/ We did rely on the community and also Texas Hydroponics and Organics were fantastic. We will be posting JT’s participation next week on the site. But for now- take a peek- you can see why it falls under the category of art.
In other news- Chucho finished the veggie display wall and I planted it up. And the squirrels immediately dug it up. I came back to the office one day to have Aaron ask if he could get a whisper 3000. What’s that sugar? It’s to shoot the squirrels from inside the office. ah. yes. well. um. It is the east side but i’m going say let’s wait and see if Major and Dinah can help. So they are on terrier patrol daily. And it seems to be working- but there is still talk of sling shots…. i’ve resorted to hiding glass in the chard. is this bad? i guess our theme is homesteading and guerrilla gardening. devolve. discuss.
We also got Nathan Nordstrom a.k.a. Sloke One to bedazzle some planters for the front of the nursery in honor of E.A.S.T. He asked if i had a theme in mind- and after seeing his old school style work in places all over the country via his Flickr site , I had complete confidence that he was all over it. We talked a bit about one of the artists I collect- Gajin Fujita. You know I am obsessed with his work. He’s first generation Japanese American who grew up in LA. He’s a member of 2 crews in LA and they work on his paintings with him. I talked with Nate about Gajin’s first layer on panel which is either gold or platinum leaf. I’m not sure you’ve seen these 2 newer pieces in our collection. But I do think you remember seeing the first super nasty one I purchased way back when. I swear I think his first gallery Kravetz/Wehby in NY (He’s now with the big guns at LA Louver- whom i also adore) but i think that Mark Wehby wanted clients to prove they could take the porn before they would sell you a non porn one- let’s be uptown and call it shunga. So i have that tiny little River Imp with the river imp screwing a geisha. And I love it but it’s weird. But oddly the Blanton was thrilled when I picked the one below to bequeth upon my demise. go figure.
But then I’ve got non shunga ones too. Got this one below in honor of my divorce.
Anyhoo- Nate and I had a good discussion and off he went. When he dropped off the finished containers to us last week- he told Tessa that he hoped they were ok. He said he was thinking on it and thinking on it and then just went “urban on it”. but i noticed a distinct silver underlay to the work. very nice.
We are still fussing w trying to divide the design office between our design office and the retail. So we are trying a Lace Fence to help divide the back of the house. OK well honestly- we have just been dying to see this stuff in person and made up a reason to get it here. We are told we are the only showroom in the US to have it. I’m not sure what that says. But whatever it says- it’s certainly consistent. xojb
