ARTmonday: Lissy Elle

I discovered photographer Lissy Larrichia, or Lissy Elle, as she seems to go by, on one of my new favorite blogs, The Jealous Curator yesterday. Her work is incredibly atmospheric and angsty. She’s a Canadian teen (or maybe she’s just beyond teendom now; her Flickr stream started in late 2009). I really love her work—the settings, the dresses, the props, the narratives. You should have a look at her Facebook page too, where she’s posted some of her most recent images.

Golden Hours

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The Play Pretend Princess

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Untitled

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Princess Alyssabeth’s Belated Birthday

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The Big Bad Wolf

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The End of Alice
“The Alice in all of us dies sometime. From personal experience, the Alice in all my friends were stabbed to death the moment they got breasts. Breasts suck.”

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The Snow White Dilemma
“I hung up all those apples today during a thunder storm.”

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Butterfly Effect

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Alice Saw Some Shiny Things
“So down, down she fell.”

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Alice in Wonderland
Inspired by the shirt she’s wearing, purchased at Downtown Disney.

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Impossible Things

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photo

Untitled
“Green grass grows all around all around and the green grass grows all around.”

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Spirited Away

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Get Back In Your Book, Belle
Beauty and the Beast edition.

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I act like a child.
In her fort.

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Seven Fragile Things

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Natural Disasters
“The snow melted, and there was fog, so Thy Cornrows looked so mystical today…”

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Get the Look: 47 Modern Fireplaces and Fireplace Accessories

Following up on yesterday’s Montage: 31 Freestanding Fireplaces, here is a sampling of fireplaces and accessories, both contemporary and antique. There’s really no excuse not to have a flame of fire—small tabletop models fueled with ethanol can be had at Home Depot. You can even get one that hangs on your wall. Interesting. I’ve had my eye on the minimalist tempered glass screens for our fireplace on the Cape, though I think I need a custom one since it’s raised a foot or two from the floor. I think I’ll concentrate on retrofitting a gas model in our defunct fireplaces in Boston instead.

S H O P P I N G

Beech Gallery Firewood Rack, through Architonic.
Stelton Fuego Bioethanol Firelight, $199 at Horne.
Blomus Bebop Stainless Steel Log Holder,  $394 at Lekker.
Modfire Urban Gasfire/Fireplace in Avocado, $1,500 at Horne.
Blomus Bebop Steel & Glass Fire Screen, $380.50 at Lekker.
EcoSmart Fusion Fireplace at EcoSmart.
Flex Logholder by AK47 Space.
Minuteman Arts & Craft Log Holder in Bronze, $61.60 at Homeclick.
Conmoto Wall-mounted fireside tools by Peter Maly, $1,530 at Hive.
French 19th Century Brass Fire Screen, $100, Homme, 1st Dibs.
Beech Wood Log Holder, $ 1189.95 at Fireplace Mall.
Sieger Design Plaza Ventless Fireplace, $3,900 at Unica Home.
Röshults Urban Fire Basket, through Architonic.
Metropolitan Table Top Ethanol Fireplace, $139 at Home Depot.
Enclume Right Angle Hammered Stell Porch Log Rack, $69 at Wayfair.
Brass Andirons by Karl Springer, $3,500 at Antiques du Monde, 1st Dibs.
Malm Fireplace, starts at $1,500 at DWR.
Cyan Designs Circle Fire Screen in Silver Leaf, $250.99 at Wayfair.
1950s Log Holder in Wood, Iron & Brass at Galerie Andre Hayat, 1st Dibs.
Iron Andirons w/Brass Spheres, $2,400 at Century Design, 1st Dibs.
Wall Flame Fireplace, $1,450 at DWR.
Blomus Bebop Stainless Steel Fireplace Tool Set, $602 at Lekker.
Conmoto Stainless Steel Log Stand by Peter Maly, $1,650 at Hive.
Red Kanto Firewood Rack, 14o € at Finnish Design Shop.
Alton Pewter Log Holder, $99.95 at Crate & Barrel.
Avani Fireplace, $488 at DWR.
Alton Pewter Fireplace Candelabra, $69.95  at Crate & Barrel.
Cocoon Aeris Hanging Fireplace by Federico Otero, $3,990 at Unica Home.
Iron Design Company Firewood Holder at Iron Design Company.
Zack Ghio Fire Screen, $403 at AllModern.
Birch Log Bundle, $58 at Pieces.
Flex Logholder Seat & Ottoman by AK47 Space.
Circa 1950s Andirons by Felmore, $3,500, The Warehouse, 1st Dibs.
Gramercy Indoor/Outdoor Ethanol Fireplace, $199 at Home Depot.
Modfire Urban Gasfire/Fireplace in Agave Blue, $1,500 at Horne.
Blomus Chimo Flueless Fireplace by Floz Design, $1,850 at Unica Home.
Conmoto Wood Bridge Log Holder by Fried Ulberm $490 at Unica.
Stainless Steel Indoor/Outdoor Fireplace Grate $ 143.95 at Fireplace Mall.
EcoSmart Q Bioethanol Fireplace at EcoSmart.
Stainless Steel Round Hoop Log Rack, $154.52 at Fireplace Station.
Vision Modern Firewood Holders, $959.95 at Fireplace Mall.
Brass Andirons Attributed to Donald Deskey $1,200, BG Galleries, 1st Dibs.
Inverted “Y” Andirons from France c.1970 at Robert Altman, 1st Dibs.
Avalon Cypress Gas Stove at Avalon Fire.
Stanford Basket WI16, starting at $675 at Jefferson West, Dering Hall.
Alton II Pewter Fireplace Screen, $179 at Crate & Barrel.

Designer Spotlight: Bone Sculptures by Celia Nkala of Perception Park

I first learned about Parisian-based sculptor/designer Celia Nkala’s line from Perception Park from a post I wrote for Design Milk. Instantly smitten (with her work and her… she’s so pretty), I struck up an email correspondence. She told me a bit about what prompted her to sculpt and work with bones and even sent me a two necklaces (made out of dog teeth!) to see how they’d play in the American market. Last week, she emailed me with photos of new creations, this time around, done in black.

Vertebrae Vase

The Ossements collection was inspired by a real human hip bone that Celia found in a flea market in Brussels about a year-and-a-half ago. She says, “I was fascinated while the others were disgusted.”

To make it more “acceptable,” she sculpted the shape in porcelain. The Iliac bone was the first sculpture she had ever created. She borrowed a human skeleton from the anatomy department of a medical university to use as a model for the other pieces, which include vertebrae and sacrum.

She recently introduced shiny black versions of several of the works. Here is a sampling:


Vertebrae Votives

Iliac Bones in Enameled Porcelain

Sacrum in Enameled Porcelain

Rib Cage Sculpture in Enameled Porcelain

Celia is holding a real human hip she found in Belgium; the catalyst for the collection.
The horizontal bits on the vertebra vase are actual bones. Nkala found a stock of cow’s sphenoid bones (the cow’s last vertebra) by chance in a Chinese shop in Paris, and bought the entire stock. She says, “I discovered that earthenware biscuit is visually similar of the bone material, so I have associated them directly with ceramics.”
The annotated diagram above shows that the vertical section is a piece of enameled porcelain, and the horizontal vertebrae are real animal sphenoid bones.
 Celia sent me two dog tooth pendants. I wear them all the time, and show them off at every opportunity. Definitely a conversation starter.  A dentist mom at a potluck said she wasn’t sure they were definitely dog teeth, so I wore them to the vet when it was time for Oakley’s check up. (Oakley is my very sweet cat.) She confirmed, they’re definitely dog teeth. (Not that I doubted you Celia!)  Do you guys like them? They’re not available commercially yet, and I know Celia would appreciate any input.

Animal Sphenoid Bone Keychain   |   Coccyx Pendant   |   Bony Pelvis Tote
Vertebrae votives all stacked up.

ARTmonday: Martina Nehrling

Lyrical new works of deeply saturated slashes of color by Martina Nehrling is currently on view at the Zg Gallery in Chicago through the end of this month. Nehrling describes the pieces, which are acrylic on canvas and paper, as “visual rhythms inspired by the cacophony of daily life.” I’m not sure where I discovered her work, perhaps Pinterest. They’re a wonderfully invigorating burst for mid-February.

Leeway

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The Absence of Field

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Solid Sonorous Non-Reality

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Hive

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Surfacing

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Ruse

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Pleat

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Truth and Jest

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Verge

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Of an Evening

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Of the Next Day

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