Cape Cod Archives - Page 2 of 3

Design Diary: House on South Pamet

We recently went to a neighbor’s house warming party in Truro. They had just completed a renovation by Mark Hammer of Cambridge- and Truro-based Hammer Architects, who expertly blended the very old, existing cottage with an airy, new addition that took cues from the original design. The house was owned by a journalist who was a staff writer for the New Yorker for over 50 years. My husband had visited a few times when he was a kid, and we recently reconnected with his son and his son’s very lovely wife, who now own the home and commissioned the renovation. It looks beautiful. I love the blue door, the bar on the old staircase, the black granite kitchen, and the artwork.

Design Diary: Victor’s in Provincetown

Recently we met friends for dinner at Victor’s in Provincetown. It was our first time there, and we were pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere was light and airy; very enjoyable. Unlike a lot of Outer Cape restaurants, which are oddly dark or horrendously touristy, this one let’s you feel like your’e in a beach town, without blatant reminders. The food was good too. We’ll definitely go back. (PS – There’s a drag brunch every Sunday.)

Design Diary: Local 186 in Provincetown

Despite the 90+ degree heat, we ambled (ok, drove with the A/C blasting) into Provincetown yesterday, having promised the boys a trip to the Penny Patch and Puzzle Me This. The allure for us was the chance to try out the new upscale burger spot at 186 Commercial Street, Local 186. It’s a new venture owned by Eric Jansen and Guillermo Yingling. Eric co-owns the superb restaurant Blackfish in Truro, where many a summer night you can find us at the bar. Anyway, the burgers, fries, and onion strings were tasty, but the real surprise was the decor. It is crisp but homey and very pulled together. I haven’t had a chance to connect with anyone to find out who’s responsible, but I did take a bunch of photos for you.

ADDITION: This morning I heard back from GM Jennifer White (thank you!), who provided me with many, many details, which I used to caption the images. She says, “It was a collective local effort. Every piece is all made by local artists with reclaimed woods and other vintage materials, all collected from old Provincetown properties.” They goal was for it to look new and different, eclectic, layered, and collected, but not over the top. It’s right on.

Susie Neilsen, graphic designer and owner of Farm Gallery in Wellfleet helped with the overall design concept and layout. She also designed the logo, menu, and website.

The murals are by artist Kris Smith, owner of Coastline Tattoo, in town.

Mat Millett, owner of Helltown Gallery, with the help of Tom Magar (the bartender and an off-season carpenter), made the custom tables in the back dining room and the vintage tin-covered bar back.

The onion strings, served in a shiny metal tin, were extra salty and delicious.

Another shot of the back dining room banquette table.

All the dining chairs are covered with vintage feed and flour sacks that Jennifer White found on eBay and other sites.

All the designs are different.

A local craftsman named Michael made the barn wood coffee tables in the lounge (above) and hostess podium, as well as the copper artwork and reclaimed ductwork.

One of the coffee tables in the lounge has a built-in Ouija board.

Bartender Edwige. Industrial lighting over the bar came from a warehouse in Yarmouth.

A niche in the entry that looks through to the bar is filled with cocktail paraphernalia.

Waiting area.

My lunch: The Old-Fashioned—8 oz. Painted Hills burger, Nueske’s bacon, Grafton Reserve cheddar, $14.

Co-owner Gui Yingling arranged a collection of vintage knives over the fireplace in the back dining room.

There are a couple of different vintage animal sculptures,from yard sales ,flea markets, and auctions are mounted on the walls.

Bar-style seating on the front patio.

Architect Steven McGovern designed the new covered porch, in keeping with the design of the original Victorian building. Local craftsman and master carpenter John Badam and his team built it. You can’t see them in this photograph, but there are flying saucer style lamps that co-owner John Yingling had stored in his garage for over 20 years, knowing they’d come in handy someday.

The view—Cape Cod Bay—from the covered porch. It’s visible from some of the tables inside too.

ARTmonday: Farm Project Space + Gallery July 2012

Today is part 2 of my stint as guest blogger at New England Home, and the subject is Farm Project Space + Gallery, in Wellfleet, MA. Owner/gallery director Susie Nielsen has flawless taste and intuition about what will work in a town that is better known for pretty landscapes that appeal to tourists than crisp abstracts that speak to the more permanent community, which is actually known for its artists. While Nielsen agrees the work she shows are more about ideas than creating a representation of the physical world, her choices are accessible. I love what I see. I hope you’ll click over to my blog post on NEH, and scroll down for lots more images.

Brooklyn-based artist M.P. Landis puts postage stamps directly on the back of each piece (mixed media on wood), and sticks them in the mail addressed to Farm.

Jill Vasileff “Pink Hum,” acrylic on tree branches from “Around the Day in Eighty Worlds” at Farm this past June. It’s actually a bunch of individual pieces (Nielsen is selling them for $100 each or $3500 for all). It’s on the cover of this month’s Artscope Magazine.

Detail, Tony Orrico, Penwald: 3: circle on knees (studio impression 1), 2010, graphite on paper.
Tony Orrico uses the geometry of his own body to create intricate forms through repeated actions. The marks left behind reveal minute shifts in his position. This detail was the centerpiece of last week’s exhibit “In Our Wake,” which featured concrete representations of dance performances. Nielsen mounted the show in conjunction with The Movement Party.

Katie Schetlich, co-director of The Movement Party and Emma Hoette, dancer.

The exhibit was part of the larger “Fleet Moves” dance festival that took place in Wellfleet July 5^th to 8^th.

Jill Vasileff, No 05, from the series “A Mies is a Mies is a Mies”
This is my favorite piece. The series was inspired by Vasileff’s the play of sunlight in a Mies van der Rohe house—she grew up in one. It’s acrylic on board, but looks like encaustic. I love the fluorescent pink drips of paint on all the edges.

M.P. Landis, WD Series, mixed media on folded paper

Betty Carroll Fuller, Unraveling, prisma color pencil on paper

Susan Lefevre, Warrier, oil and pencil on paper.

Left: Judith Trepp, untitled, ink on Indian paper
Right: Julia Salinger, untitled, mixed media on paper

Julia Salinger wearing a starfish fascinator of her own creation. Fresh off a fellowship in Italy, she opened her new studio space, Mermaid’s Garage in Wellfleet this week.

Nielsen was working on a postcard for the upcoming Pablo Manga show (7/7 – 8/8) when I stopped by early last week.

Tim Donovan at the opening of SundayMondayTuesdayWednesday on Saturday evening. I blogged about one of his photos I bought a few summers ago. He’s now represented by Gallery Kayafas in Boston, where he had a show last fall. The piece in the background is by Sam Trioli.

Tim Donovan, Untitled: Archive UE562.
Notice the bubbled plexiglass.

Marie Lorenz, Mill Basin (purse), 2010, collograph on Rives deLin Edition Varie 1 of 5.
These prints illuminate objects Lorenz encountered while navigating waterways in New York Harbor. These items serve both as landmarks in her own journey as well as a trace of movements by unknown visitors who leave these items behind. These were part of the “In Our Wake” show.

Local artist (and Dorchester, MA native) Peter Scarbo Frawley. Earlier this summer, someone from MoMA came in and purchased 15 of his pieces. These types of works are called “concrete poetry.”