monday thoughts: words in art, revisited

A while back, I wrote that I didn't much care for word-based prints. Lately, though, I've seen some really good ones—beautiful images that make me nod my head or smile or even sigh in agreement. I'm so impressed by what artists are doing with different styles and colors and sentiments. And I love words: I spent years calling myself a writer, after all. So here's to changing my mind.

(All images from Pinterest.)

mallory page

Mallory Page, Lousiana born and bred, paints expressionistic waves of water-inspired color. Her work falls somewhere between pretty/decorative and scrawly/Cy Twombly. Trained as an interior designer, she painted a few canvases for at a client's request—but soon found that her she loved painting for itself, not just because it matched a room's color scheme. One creative thing led to another: I like that.

vampire weekend

Ezra (lower left) looks weirdly like my husband in this shot.
("Ezra"? I sound like such a groupie.)

My friends must be so tired of hearing me talk about Vampire Weekend. But I can't help it. Their sound is upbeat, clever, joyful—and they sound like they're having a great time making it. It's great music for a party, for a workout, for cooking. They went to my college (way after me), and though it shouldn't matter so much, I feel like they're the retroactive soundtrack to my own college years. I just *get* them. And I was so happy to read that their new album is coming in May. So here's a song for your Thursday. And another. Didn't that put you in a better mood?

curate the day

I just discovered the beautiful blog Curate the Day, where a San Diego-based painter named Karina Bania writes about her work and family—and documents it all in dreamy, perfectly composed photographs. I love seeing how she places art in her house—how it's an artful, light-filled place for children. She plans to document a piece of her daughters' artwork every week this year. I like that goal, and I just might take it on myself.

You all know I love children's artwork

Studio desktop

More kids' artwork

Found piece of wood; stack of glossy magazines

anna tovar on etsy

Turquoise and navy feather

Working on a new project yesterday, I went through my Etsy bookmarks and came across the work of Anna Tovar. I love the small format (they're like tiny precious things) and her cool, muted colors. What's really special about Tovar's pieces is that they're actually original watercolors, not prints of paintings (not that there's anything wrong with that). At well under $50 for almost all of her pieces, that's extremely reasonable for a unique piece of art.

Alphabet (color can be customized)

Snail

Sweet little fox

Welcome

me elsewhere: thanks, design mom

Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom is a sort of fairy godmother to all kinds of creative women with small businesses. I'm just starting out as one of them. Thanks, Gabrielle, for the mention yesterday.

alex katz

An Alex Katz aquatint print of a swimmer hangs in our dining room. My husband's grandmother had it for years; she gave it to us toward the end of her life. I think of her when I look at it—she loved art (and loved to talk about art). I feel lucky to have inherited it; it fits the style of our house perfectly. It anchors its space. I like to imagine that my kids could focus on its bold black-and-white image when they were tiny and couldn't see color yet. 

Katz's prints are indeed bold and striking—and prints are normally what I'm drawn to, and what I write about here—but I like his paintings even more. His clean, stylized portraits absolutely capture their subjects (pretty ladies, often with hats or scarves; serious-looking men; pretty rooms) with pure lines and bright but subtle color. And he's still going at 85.