ugallery guest curator

Blue Crab by Laura Bomar

I'm fairly new to UGallery, but you can count me among the site's biggest fans. It's a varied but beautifully edited collection of original art and prints, at a range of accessible prices. I was honored to guest curate a selection for the site. You'll see a lot of my favorite themes (cool colors, animals, clean shapes). Definitely check out UGallery—there's tons of inspiration. Here's a little peek of a few of my picks; you can see more on UGallery and on Pinterest.

You Got Nothin by Justin Disney

Turquoise Over Rust by Thomas Bigatel

Five Pine Trees by Kimia Kline

schoolhouse electric

Vintage School Letters

Schoolhouse Electric sells all sorts of home goods, from lighting to furniture to desktop accessories. Its art selection stands out as well: rustic-but-clean, organic-modern, sleek-but-warm, with an all-around cozy, muted back-to-school feeling. (It's based in Portland, which seems exactly right—but it could be Brooklyn or another such enclave. And I mean that in a good way.)

Botanical print by Karolin Schoor

Circles print

I like how this topographic USA map is layered behind the console.

I always like Jennifer Ament's work (put a bird on it!).

lisa dejohn

Lisa DeJohn designs kid stuff for Land of Nod. I'm even more into the paintings on her own website, which have a simple, floral/natural slant and a mix of neutrals and brights: sort of Marimekko-in-a-1970s-kitchen. They'd look amazing against crisp white walls.

swift & roe on etsy

These bowls—handmade by a Dutch artisan—are blue, subtle, and swirly: a Blue Locket trifecta. They're soothing, mysterious (yet functional), and just plain beautiful.

project outtakes

John Robshaw block print from Room & Board

I've been filling up my Pinterest feed with neutral, gray, mostly monochromatic artwork for a beautiful, neutral gray house. And let me tell you I've found tons of beautiful, subtle, soothing, calming pieces of art. But in the course of my research (aka online shopping), I've found a few things that didn't fit my client's taste but sure appealed to mine:

Hugo Guinness's Paintbox 39B from John Derian

This punchy navy print from Weego Home

This sweet little gold-leaf bird from Zinc Door

rocket ink

Frame these cards separately and hang them in a row or grid

 This Brooklyn shop makes prints that are too good not to mention. They're sweet, pretty, simple, inexpensive—exactly what I'm always talking about. (Thanks, Jessica!)

Smokey Quartz
(if you want your gems all on one page)

Animal Planet

New York (other states, too)

Geode notecards

monday thoughts: pet peeves

Forgive me: I'm veering off course from the general tone of positivity I try to set around here. I'm also veering away from the general subject of art, but that's nothing new. The other day I made a list—I love making lists—of my pet peeves. Most are completely subjective and, I admit, ridiculous; some have to do with inconsideration and arrogance. Some are just my own quirks, like #1 (see, I'm easing you gently into my grouchiness):

1. Not being dressed for weather. Or for the occasion. Boots on a muggy day? Jeans at the gym? Short sleeves when it's suddenly freezing? I'm instantly cranky.
2. Sock feet. Is there anything less sexy? Or am I alone in this one?
3. Ugly art in an otherwise well-decorated house. (Hence this whole Blue Locket endeavor.)
4. People who pretend not to have met you when they have in fact met you several times.
5. Egregious conspicuous consumption. Also: Egregious name dropping. Oh, and its subset, place dropping. My brother used to have a friend who never failed to brag about his latest trip, often pronounced as if he was a native, except he'd mess it up. "Mi-Laaaaan," he'd say, sounding nothing like an Italian.

That's all for today (but I could go on). Any additions? Now that that's done, let's begin a nice happy week. (Coming soon: a fun little collaboration.)




 

ugallery

The Bull, Drew McSherry

Is there no end to the selection of shoppable online art galleries? UGallery is new to me and definitely worth a look. And the "try before you buy" policy (not to mention the current 20% sitewide sale) makes it all the more tempting.

Primary Buffalo, Michael Wedge

Taxi!, Gregor Hochmuth

The Wait V, Lydia Kim

Voodoo Owl, Jessica JH Roller

clare grill

Glove

Clare Grill's paintings have a wispy beauty to them. She doesn't have any sort of artist statement on her website, and I love that she lets her work speak for itself. Too many beautiful, meaningful, interesting pieces of art, I think, are ruined by meaningless, pretentious, longwinded explanations—by artists or curators. Or is that just me?

Peals

Carve

Pearl

Infanta

nature's my friend on etsy

Moose

These prints have a nice outdoorsy Portlandia-ish vibe. They'd be great in a kid's room or any room that needs to feel rustic and cozy. I found Nature's My Friend via Etsy's featured shop archive—a great resource, by the way, and a nice entry into Etsy's sometimes overwhelming assortment.

Silver Feather

Red Fox

monday thoughts: here's to perspective

A friend just gave me a card with a sweet inscription: "We raise our girls to reach for the sky...but sometimes it's still just about the dress." Now, this friend is an incredibly sweet, funny, wise person who gives honest and thoughtful advice about matters both large (family, friendship) and small ("the dress"). And her card, which commemorated no particular occasion, couldn't have come at a better time. I needed someone to think of me unexpectedly; I needed a little reminder, ego boost, virtual hug—whatever you want to call it. I also needed to get over myself and have a little laugh and gain some perspective. Sometimes it's about the dress, indeed. You see, I've been obsessing about an imagined slight from a family member; I've been worrying about my kids' emotions at the beginning of the school year; I've been stressing (months in advance!) about holiday plans. But it all fades, at least momentarily, when I rest my eyes on a lovely print, or yellow mums for the planters on the front steps, or something new and fabulous to wear. In other words, sometimes all you need to feel better is a great dress.

It's been a long month, to tell you the truth; I've been feeling sort of bored and creatively depleted and in need of momentum or surprise or...something. And there it was. Perspective is always a good thing.

west elm art

 Theoretical Space

Yes, yes, we all know that West Elm makes fantastic, accessible home decor—and, for our specific Blue Locket purposes, appealing and affordable art. The company has sponsored some great artist collaborations before (Clinton Friedman, Luli Sanchez, SCAD, to name a few). But the newest roundup of wall art really, really impresses me. I mean: dogs? flowers? geometry? And some of it comes (tastefully, minimally) framed? Come on.

Ranunculus

Boxer

Color Study, Blues

These papier-mache heads have been around for a while.
And I still feel a little uneasy about, you know, putting animal heads on my wall.
But I really kind of want one.

saatchi online

Woman Lit in Lime, Maya Hiort Peterson

File under "things I did not know until today": You can buy affordable prints—and even originals—from Saatchi Online. Saatchi as in Charles Saatchi, British collector and tastemaker (not to mention artists' career maker). The site is way too extensive to plumb here, but it's well curated and categorized and really fun to browse. Check it out yourself; here are a few of my favorites.

Nest II, Sue Bryan

Study for Garden of Gethsemane, Gregorio Racadio

Dinosaur, Oleg Borodin

Small Bowls I, Federico Cortese

On the Lake, Rosemarie Troppmair