September
Last week, Pia Jane Bijerk had a gorgeous post on her blog, regarding Nature, and its importance in her life. I too go to Nature for inspiration and solace. The Natural World is a huge inspiration in my art and life. Observing Nature in all her changes, one comes to understand life itself, with its cycles of birth, death and renewal. Many Feng Shui practitioners advise against bring dried flowers, grasses, bones and random stones inside; considering them symbols of decay. I disagree. Unless of course they are added to piles of stuff collecting dust, these objects bring quiet beauty and soulful energy into our homes. And they are a beautiful way of honoring the Earth and the Natural World. As children, my brother and I would spend hours in the veld around our home in the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg. At that time the area (now Sandton) was largely undeveloped - very horsey, and a kid's paradise. We would dig up chunks of rock quartz; rose and amethyst, tigers eye and fools gold. We'd also find the skeletons of small animals, shedded snake skins and feathers. I thought these were more beautiful than the two Sevres vases on my mother's mantel! Summers spent at Umshlunga Rocks or Cape Town, where we moved when I was thirteen, introduced me to the jewels of the sea! Corals and shells of every description. I still have a few stones and sea shells I collected back then, and count them among my most precious things.
Two years ago, my best friend Amanda sold her Manhattan apartment and bought this historical Spanish style hacienda in Palm Springs. She has spent this time restoring the house and creating a sustainable garden with native plantings. Amanda spent thirty years in NYC, first as a singer in a rock 'n roll band, before going back to school for a degree in Core Energetics, which she has practiced and now teaches as well. Amanda and I have been friends since our early teens, when we met in Cape Town. Our lives have dove-tailed on a long and sometimes rocky road, but she remains the dearest friend I have. More like sisters, we grew up together and have grown together. I've attached a link to her website above (click on post title) and as she is a woman of many talents, I urge you to browse her site. She took the photographs of the exterior of her home. They say as we grow older, we recreate the childhood nest, and when I saw this outside space, my thoughts went straight back home, to sunny Southern Africa - but truly this could be any place, where the sun informs the lifestyle.
Photographs by Amanda Blue Leigh
I just got a happy Monday surprise from Bronwyn at
Smoke And Ochre, a blog I adore, not least because of the South African vibe and her generous spirit,but for her whimsical taste and her terrific artwork, which she is far too modest about! Thank you Bronwyn! In turn I'd like to pass this award along to Christelle at the simply stunning
Interiors - talk about a refined and exquisite eye for detail! Corey at
Tongue In Cheek for making so many of my days online with her heartfelt writing and beautiful photography,
Desire To Inspire for so many pretty pictures and winks!
The Satorialist for fab fashion (do women ever tire of clothes?) and
Pia Jane Bijerk for her creative soul and great enthusiasm - her joy is contagious! Thanks for the inspiration ladies (and gentleman) And it also goes right back to you, Bronwyn!
Look at all this snow! The drive through the Rocky Mountains is one of the most beautiful anywhere. The big sky and snow capped peaks sparkle like crystals catching rainbows. That's Genevieve on the left and Angelica on the right, at the wheel. I did not show you the two unhappy travelers in the back seat (who cheered up upon arrival) nor my sleeping son-in-law. Soon after I took her pic, Gen ordered my camera away - saying I reminded her of a Japanese tourist! Steamboat is on the Colorado/Wyoming border. The last undeveloped ski resort in Colorado, it retains its Old West vibe. The real estate boom is in effect however, and my guess is within ten years, it's another Aspen. It was fabulous to see my daughter after almost five months and her nieces were over the moon! My daughters (and I) are very close and happily, it looks like it's repeating itself with the next generation. I was astounded at the amount of snowfall throughout Colorado. Got back to Taos last night and our snow looked like fairy dust in comparison! Thankfully it's melting here quickly. Today it disolved before it hit the ground. I'm ready for prolonged sunshine at this point - Rocky Mountain Winter Vistas notwithstanding! A little head's up here though, for the snow lovers among you - head right over to Pia's blog for some amazing snowscapes and apres-ski luxury too!
I don't know if it's because I was trained as a visual artist, but I've always lived with a lot of white. Something about the negative space - the feeling of expansion it brings to a room. Of course white is not a colour but a shade. A useful shade for paleing down more vibrant hues on the pallette, it works the same way in interiors, allowing one to play with pattern and texture while still keeping the look clean and fresh. Although I love to see coloured and papered walls in other people's rooms, mine are always painted white. Mostly I love white because it brings a sense of peace and calm. Not to mention light.The trick to keeping white walls from seeming cold, is to add tints of warmer hues to the paint depending on the available light, and also to bring in plenty of texture in the soft furnishings. Because I am crazy about weavings and textiles, a blank, white slate allows me to mix them freely - toiles, checks and tribal patterns -without restraint. Red looks fantastic against a white ground and silver accents make it magical! Like a crisp, white shirt - always classic - white used in interiors never gets tiresome and always works with whatever new treasure is discovered and brought home.
My very special guests - Natalya is the artist, four years old and a bright, beautiful light! Tatyana is fifteen months and into everything! The pic shows her getting busted messing with my tapes and cd's! Being a grandmother is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. I truly believe this is the reason we have kids! Grandchildren are the reward for being a cop on the beat for eighteen years! Not only do they remind me of my own kids at this age, but the unconditional love I feel for them is not complicated by the need to discipline and stay on top of all their daily requirements. My time with them is all about having fun! A joy! Today I have both of them over - quite a handful - but Tatyana will sleep for a good two hours while Natalya and I draw and paint together. Natalya did the little paintings and drawing above when she was just two. She's very talented and a great dancer also! I snapped the pic of her doing a little dance - pity I couldn't capture the booty shaking at the end! Beyond cute! The little one also loves music and tries very hard to dance like her big sister. She does a little dip that is adorable, even when she loses her balance and falls. I'll try get a shot of her at it sometime soon! When they visit, they play together in my guest room, which is also their playroom and a den. I hate TV's in the living room and really only use this old one for movies. I've kept this room very simple and whimsical. The shelves are filled with family photos, books, puzzles and toys. Art projects are supervised at the kitchen table! The photo of the giraffe was taken by my brother at Kruger a couple of years ago. The Persian rug was a gift from my uncle when my kids were this age. It's silk, very soft and perfect for bare, little feet to dance on!
I've always loved glass. From the humble to the exquisitely blown, there is something fluid and transporting about the way it reflects light and appears liquid in form. And of course it does start out as an opaque liquid before being cast, blown, cut or pressed. Glass was first manufactured in Mesopotamia, Syria and Phoenecia over 3,500 years ago. Mexican cobalt glass is a favourite. The deep blue reminds me of water and here, where it is so high and dry, water is a precious commodity. A Venetian glass vase that belonged to my grandmother, holds peacock feathers in my bedroom and I have a small Bohemian glass bowl that curls in on itself gently, like a wave lapping at the shore. A sweet blown perfume decanter (also Bohemian) sits on a shelf beside a bowl of shells, its opaque swirls allow light to pass through only here and there. Those are quite special but no less do I love the common mason jars, holding salts and botanicals in my bathroom.
The Fine Art of simple living does not require a return to Earth Shoes and granola crunching. Rather it is a delibrate discernment between personal trappings and traps; money and possesions do not corrupt, but the love of money and the addiction to possesions and the false seduction of conformity, do. Can we distinguish between the necessary and the superfluous, the useful and wasteful, the beautiful and the vulgar? I have spent years asking myself these questions. Early on in this blog, I asked what luxury means to you. This is what it means to me. Time to enjoy a gorgeous sunset, flowers blooming in winter, a bunch of roses hung to dry, the soft glow of golden thread on an antique wedding sari, catching the afternoon light, the intricate patterns on a tribal weaving, a length of nubby, bleached -by -the sun-white Indian cotton hanging in a doorway...taking Time to enjoy the little things that make my heart sing and inspire my creativity! And always, keeping it simple!
"Gradually the dweller in the simple home will come to ponder upon the meaning of art, and will awaken to that illuminating insight that all art is a form of service inspired by love. It will then become apparent how truly the home is the real art center. "
from The Simple Home by Charles Keeler
The cards are antique, the flowers grown by me. A Valentine wish to all lovers everywhere. In a world as cold as stone, the hearts that beat with passion are a treasure more precious than gold!
At the very bottom of the page, I've used a quote by Charles Keeler from his long out of print book, entitled The Simple Home. I first discovered Keeler 30 years ago, while living in California and reading a small book he wrote about the naturalist, John Muir. I then read everything else I could find at the library. A passage at the very beginning of The Simple Home, impacted me then and continues to inform the way I choose to live now. Keeler was a poet and writer who early on befriended the architect Bernard Maybeck and in fact, lived in the first house Maybeck designed for a private client. The Arts and Crafts movement both in Britain and the US led us onto the road of modernism. In this newly awakened eco-climate, there are none greener than these men and women who pulled back the dusty drapery of the Victorian Era, to let the light shine in. The Chinese New Year of the Rat began last week; a perfect time to begin Spring cleaning! A good place to begin clearing away clutter and an excess of stuff, is the entryway. If the thresholds to our homes are blocked, not much in the way of creativity, let alone light, can enter!
"A movement toward a simpler, a truer, a more vital art expression, is now taking place in California. It is a movement which involves painters and poets, composers and sculptors, and only lacks coordination to give it a significant influence upon modern life. One of the first steps in this movement, it seems to me, should be to introduce more widely the thought of the simple home -to emphasize the gospel of the simple life, to scatter broadcast the faith in simple beauty, to make prevalent the conviction that we must live art before we can create it."
Charles Keeler
1903
The kitchen has long been considered the heart of the home. In Roman times, the goddess Vesta, was invoked, via the Vestal Virgins who tended her eternal flame -symbolising the universal hearth - by women anxious to bring her comforts to their lives. Vesta responded to a home kept clean and sparkling! As I lit my fire, in my kitchen this morning, I thought of these women and all the women artists throughout history, who have tended to the cares of their homes and created only in the margins of their lives. How exciting to be a woman today! The field is wide open and our potential to achieve, has never been greater. A creature of habit, my morning begins in the kitchen. I brew a pot of espresso and journal for an hour, before coming in here. All my writing projects begin at my kitchen table. When my kids were babies, I'd wake an hour earlier, to steal a few extra moments with the muse. Now I have the freedom to create whenever I wish, but I always go back to the kitchen, to prime the pump!
Glass to clean, shelves and picture frames to dust. Silver to polish, wood to oil with linseed and lemon. Floors to mop. Rugs to vacumn. Bathroom and kitchen to scrub. Top of shelves and fridge to wipe.Wood stove cleared of ashes. The list is endless. Often while I sit here ruminating on the simple life -I have moments of feeling overwhelmed by the stuff I have. And let me tell you, I am a notorious thrower-outer. It's gotten to the point, where my daughters have taken inventory and refuse to allow me to divest further. I grew up in white, privileged South Africa at the height of Apart-hate. My parents retained a small army to do what I am doing today. I left home at 16 to join the revolution sweeping the planet at the time. The black sheep of a wealthy and cultured family, I was blessed with an American father who could provide me with political exile. (I was arrested for demonstrating for the A.N.C. ) Now, I live the life I want to. A real life, not without struggle and hardship, but devoid of all the trappings I saw my family enslaved by, very early on. I invested in relating to my children, rather than find ways to 'deal' with them and I put my time into healing old wounds and working on being a decent human being; teaching my kids by example. And though I had a nanny, my kids did not. And I clean my own house. In Feng Shui practice, the state of one's home reflects one's inner life. It's all about keeping the light switched on!
I've been working on a video documentary...It's a family affair! A labour of love. A collaboration between a mother, a daughter, a son; beloved friends, and neighbors. The link is to a blog that will tell you way more than I can here. And it's baby day today, so right now, I'm all about another shot of espresso! Above is where I have been parked, night and day recently. This project has geared into urgent, full-time status, after a year and a half of slow but sure progress. It is fantastic to feel so compelled and committed. It was made on a very low budget; as much in kind energy as funding, has gone into it. Now however, we are going for major investment, determined to reach our goal. Keep watching the site for updates, if you are interested. Enjoy! I am taking the day off!
http://findingkinky.blogspot.com/Be The Change
I live in a little valley just below the town of Taos. It takes me ten minutes to walk to the Plaza, but once I return, I feel like I am in the country, quite remote from the bustle of town life. Across the way and over the asequia, is a Hindu Ashram. Some days, the singing and chanting floats across the meadow and mingles with the chimes tinkling outside my door. It's very peaceful here. There are three houses in this part of La Loma, beside the one I live in. My neighbor to my left, is a friend. A retired attorney, he lives in an extraordinary home built by the ashram for a guru who lived there briefly, before returning to India. The house is a hexagon. He bought it a few years ago and spends his time there, writing. I'll take pics soon. To my right is an artist who keeps to himself, and further down the cul de sac, is a family who I've known for years. That's it. In the summer, this valley is lush and green. The water courses through the ditch and the soil is loamy and fertile. In February, all is quiet. Asleep. Above is my house, taken while it was snowing, yesterday. The pic on the top left was taken this morning! We are going to have a glorious spring! I cannot wait to show you Taos with the lilacs in full bloom. Meanwhile, winter still spreads her frosty cloak across this valley, but the magpies and ravens leave their nests more frequently, to chatter from the top of the coyote fences, and stray cats emerge from their hiding places in search of food and prey. Signs of spring are everywhere, even though the earth is covered today, with a thick, white blanket!
How a rock chick attempts to age gracefully in the zietgeist and other tales of a former fashionista!
1) Moves to the Wild West at 37 after discarding mini skirts, motorcycle jacket,black eyeliner and all remnants of rebellious youth. Invests in brown leather items to assuage the pain of loss.
2) Vows never to go under the knife nor have alien substances injected into face or body parts.
3) Ruthlessly pares down wardrobe to a minimum. One third devoted to classic black, grey, reds and midnight blue separates that are timeless, chic and work anywhere, any decade, night or day.
4) Two thirds appropriate for her new life in the mountains, includes cashmere and inherited/re-worked) fur, fabulous fitted jackets and coats. Stacks of black,white,grey,stone T's.
5) Does not temper her shoe and boot fetish and continues to aquire well made, hip and fun (but not trendy) bags and accessories. Collects vintage evening bags. Loves leopard and colour as an accent.
6)Lives in jeans and spends far too much money on them!
7)Builds her look around a small collection of cowboy boots, enabling the aformentioned shoes to remain good as new and ready for trips to places where she can actually wear them!
8)Keeps her hair long but pays good money for a great cut. Ditto skincare.
9)Swims, walks and lifts 5 lb weights to stay in decent shape, enabling her to wear things(classics) she's had for decades.
10) Keeps a pic of 90 year old Georgia O'Keefe on her inspiration board and looks at it often!
The Simple Home
ALL the arts are modes of expressing the One Ideal;but the ideal must be rooted in the soil of the real,the practical, the utilitarian. Thus it happens that architecture, the most utilitarian of the arts,underlies all other expressions of the ideal; and of all architecture, the designing of the home brings the artist into closest touch with the life of man.
Charles Keeler
The Simple Home
