Thanks to my friend interior designer Dee Elms of Terrat Elms, who suggested me for the project, Mr. Webster and I have been collaborating on bringing new artwork to his Boston Design Center showroom, Webster & Company.
I pick the artists (most have ties to New England) and present available pieces to Mr. Webster. He and Visual Design Director Jonathan Giacoletto choose which ones to feature and where to hang them. We began in fall 2015 and it’s an ongoing success.
For a full listing of available works (as well as those that have sold), see the Webster Art Project tab here on my blog. If you are interested in pricing, please email me at stylecarrot [at] gmail [dot] com.
This fall I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wonderful new project: curating artwork for the Webster & Company showroom at the Boston Design Center.
I love art. I buy art like other women buy shoes. I have master’s in art history that I did for fun and I started collecting art around the same time. Friends have asked me for help choosing artwork, and over the years I’ve often thought of art consulting for interior designers.
This summer I was at the bar at Blackfish in Truro with my friend Dee Elms,who encouraged me. (If you don’t know her, she is a very talented, supremely generous Boston-based interior designer). A week later I got an email from Mr. Webster at Webster & Company, asking me if I’d be interested in helping find local Boston artists whose work he could hang in his showroom. (A little birdie suggested me.) He was looking to do a complete swap of everything he had hanging. Within a month.
In a frenzy, I scoured my files and sources for Boston artists (and some further afield in Maine and on the Cape) whose work I loved that aligned with Mr. Webster’s tastes. We met in early September, narrowed down my finds, and over the last few weeks the very gracious Mr. Webster and his meticulous visual design director Jonathan Giacoletto have hung the work. There are about 75 pieces from almost 20 artists, all either local or with ties to the area.
It’s been a thrilling experience, both working with Mr. Webster and his team and all the artists. I haven’t seen everything hung yet, but I plan to go this week. If you happen to be over there, stop by. (Obviously they’re all for sale. If you you’re interested, you can let me know.) Here is one piece from each artist represented. If you read ARTmonday regularly you will recognize some names. More photos to come of the installations in the coming weeks.
John Ross
John Ross, who has a degree from UCLA and is co-founder of design label PATCH NYC, composes photos inspired by Dutch still life paintings in his South End studio using only natural light.
Tess Atkinson
Tess Atkinson, who graduated from Skidmore College and studied photography at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, likens her images to being lost in a trance.
Linda Pagani
Linda Pagani, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photographs vast spaces to compose abstract new environments.
Anna Kasabian
In her studio in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Anna Kasabian crafts wafer thin porcelain pieces that recall the forms and motions of flowers, sea plants, and ocean waves.
Jenny Brillhart
Abstracting beauty from the ordinary, Jenny Brillhart, who holds an M.F.A. from New York Academy of Art and a B.A. from Smith College, lives and works in Miami and Stonington, Maine.
Judyth Katz
Having begun her career as a fiber artist, today Judyth Katz works in paints and pastels to create abstracted landscapes en plain air and from her studio on the Outer Cape.
MP Landis
MP Landis, who traveled the world with his Mennonite missionary parents, opened a bookstore, and painted in Provincetown, recently relocated from Brooklyn to Portland, Maine.
Jenny Prinn
Rain, laughter, footsteps, and foghorns are examples of the fleeting inspirational moments that inform Maine-based artist Jenny Prinn’s colorful abstract paintings.
Grace Hopkins
Grace Hopkins, who holds a B.F.A. from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, creates photographs with he look and feel of abstract paintings.
Hilary Tait Norod
Neuroscience and psychology are strong influences on Boston-based painter Hilary Tait Norod, who holds a B.A. in studio art from Skidmore College.
Steve Barylick
Former creative director and muralist Steve Barylick, who holds a B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art, paints abstracts at Joy Street Artist Studios in Somerville.
Linda Cordner
Linda Cordner layers pigmented translucent wax to depict subtle, atmospheric landscapes, all created in her SoWa studio.
Alicia Savage
Boston-based photographer Alicia Savage, who holds a B.A. from Northeastern University, documents her life and mind in self-portraits that hide her face but uncover her journey.
Budd Hopkins
Abstract Expressionist Budd Hopkins (1931—2011), who worked in New York and Wellfleet, combined geometrics with a gestural style. The Whitney Museum and The Guggenheim, among others, own his work.
Sarah Lutz
Sarah Lutz, whose abstract work refers to the natural world, holds a B.S. from Skidmore College, an M.F.A. from The American University, and lives and works in New York City and Truro, Mass.
Stephen Sheffield
Using film and nontraditional techniques, South Shore-based photographer Stephen Sheffield, an alumnus of Cornell University and California College of the Arts, creates narrative images with a cinematic feel.
Ellen Levine Dodd
Ellen Levine Dodd, who grew up and studied art in New England, creates expressive compositions with colorful gestural brushwork in her Northern California studio.
Joe Diggs
Working from his home studio overlooking a pond on Cape Cod, Joe Diggs sometimes strategically plans his compositions while other times is guided by pure emotion.
I love when I have the opportunity in my work to showcase local Boston artists and makers. For the last couple of months I’ve been working on a interior decor scheme for a model apartment at Troy Boston, a brand new, upscale, “green” rental building in SoWa. It’s a little outside my usual scope of projects and it’s been fun. You may have seen the initial post I did about it, when I was determining the color scheme for the apartment—Impressions: Creating a Color Palette of Charcoal + Dusty Rose. The final palette is indeed based on this post, with plenty of textural elements, including velvet, sheepskin, cork, plywood, and copper.
The best part has been curating the artwork. The art collection is the distinctive feature of the overall design and I hope people will view it as an exhibition rather than mere decoration. The pieces, which include paintings, photographs, sculpture, and mixed media pieces, are all done by New England-based female artists. Some of these Boston artists are talented friends (Lee Essex Doyle, Tess Atkinson, Grace Hopkins), others are young artists whose pieces I’ve purchased over the years at the SMFA Art Sale (Laura Beth Reese, Eugenie Lewalski Berg), others are artists I’ve become familiar with through blogging (Cig Harvey, Alicia Savage, Anastasia Cazabon, Anna Kasabian, Rachel Cossar, Winky Lewis, Jenny Prinn), and others are Boston artists who are new to me (Heather McGrath, Linda Cordner).
I knew from the start that I wanted to include a statement artwork of a partially obscured woman; a moody fashion-y photograph of an elusive woman. I was able to get a few, though no oversize pieces due to the prohibitive cost of printing. Nevertheless I think the collection will hold together well. At the end of this post, you can see my current hanging scheme for the main wall, and for over the bed. I also plan to print a few of my own Instagram photos to pin or (washi) tape up.
Here I present to you the Troy Boston Model Apt #1409 art collection featuring over a dozen Boston area artists. I hope you love it and will learn more about these talented women, all of whom have generously lent me their artwork.
Winky Lewis, Portland, ME Black and white photo of the artist’s daughter
Eugenie Lewalski Berg • Six Couples Cast concrete relief with graphite and oil pastel
Boston, MA
Linda Cordner • Bayside Sky • encaustic
Linda Cordner created this large encaustic for the apartment after seeing my color palette inspiration post.
SoWa, Boston, MA
Tess Atkinson • Vista Series
Color photograph face-mounted on plexiglass
Boston, MA
Heather McGrath • Sunset in Iceland Color photograph printed on sheet metal
SoWa, Boston, MA
Anna Kasabian, North Shore, MA Tide Pool III • stoneware
This many not be the exact piece that will hang. Anna Kasabian is lending me three pieces, which I will see when she drops them off next week.
Jenny Prinn, Maine
Little Footsteps I • Oil on canvas This is not the exact canvas I’ll be hanging. Jenny Prinn has graciously offered to paint an original work for the project.
I am totally smitten with the work of Boston-based artist Alicia Savage, who specializes in self-portraits. A graduate of Northeastern University, Savage returned to school at Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts for training in photography. Savage describes her self-portraits, which are atmospheric, imaginative, and at times surreal, as “an organic exploration and evolving documentation of her present and past.”
Gabrielle Schaffner, who organizes Fort Point Open Studios (the next one is May 15-17) here in Boston, first pointed out Alicia Savage’s work to me, correctly guessing I’d love it. I love it so much that I’ve reached out to her and I am excited to say that I will be hanging one of Alicia Savage’s self-portraits in the model apartment I am decorating at the new Troy Boston building in the South End.
I am deciding between the first and the second one below for the space. I’d also love to purchase one. For all the images of women in fields and levitating women in post here, I only own one similar photograph. That must change. If you happen to be in Bogota next month, Alicia Savage’s self-portraits will be exhibited in the International Bienniel Photo Bogota 2015. From the looks of it, I am about to discover a whole bunch of new artists to showcase here. You can find other, similar images on my Female Figures in Art board on Pinterest too.
At the end of January I posted color inspiration—a blush & charcoal color palette—for a model apartment that I’ll be decorating. The apartment is in a new building that’s still under construction called Troy Boston in Boston’s SoWa neighborhood, right by the other new building with Boston apartments, Ink Block, and the giant new Whole Foods. (My husband got lost in there recently; says it’s fantastic.)
Troy Boston is one of a number of new buildings with Boston apartments (there are also a couple in the Fenway) slated to have a LEED Gold rating; that mean’s it will be officially “green.” I’ve been to the construction site twice now (complete with hard hat). These Boston apartments are small but beautiful, with a loft-like feel. There are floor-to-ceiling windows, pale oak flooring, and cerused oak and lacquer cabinetry.
The model apartment I’m decorating is a 469-square-foot studio on the 14th floor. It’s got lots of sun, a sleek grey bathroom, and grey kitchen, which runs along one side of the room. I’ve been putting together collage-y room layout mockups (as a non-designer I have no idea how to use interior design software), and measured last week. Fingers crossed I did so accurately.
No surprise, my favorite aspect of decorating is curating the artwork for the walls. I have a definite idea of what I want, and am excited to include works by artist friends Lee Essex Doyle, Tess Atkinson, and Grace Hopkins. Linda Cordner is another local Boston artist whose work I hope to hang, as she generously offered up a large encaustic in my blush and grey color palette.
Above the sofa in the main living space I will hang a collection of photography and paintings. I want to include a statement artwork of a partially obscured woman; a moody portrait/fashion-y lifestyle photograph, preferably with a hint of copper or mustard, which will be the accent for the pink and grey scheme color scheme.
Given my limited budget, I need to find artists who would like to loan their artwork in exchange for exposure and publicity (of which there should be plenty). Given the other work I will be using hails from New England, I have decided that all the artwork I use will be created by local women artists.
I think I’ve identified the replacement for that initial inspiration piece. In the meantime, here are the photographs I’ve found that I’d most like to use in the model apartment. I lam hoping to secure at least one or two for the Troy Boston project, which I also hope will be a well-curated showcase featuring New England artists who all happen to be women.
