Vertical Landscape

Someone planted varying grasses in wool insulation. Sunset Junction.



Mmmm...I like it. Reminds me of Zelda.

Touch Me!

I was ogling pretty electronic gear online when I stumbled upon a gallery of retro audio ads on The Vintage Knob (an online audio museum by French photographer, Axel Dahl). They are wonderfully absurd and...just so fetishistically TRUE (see La Dolce Vita for more on this topic).

Russian Confectionery Design

After helping design a Russian themed party hosted by Taschen for MOCA in celebration of their 30th Anniversary, we excitedly scored mountainous volumes of leftover Russian candies. The confectionery graphic designs (wrappers and websites) were coooool. The company producing these particular designs, United Confectionary Manufacturers, was originally a small candy workshop founded in 1851. It was nationalized after the October Revolution and then privatized in 1992.


Alenka brand.

The Big Payback

I remember when my college boyfriend introduced me to Juxtapoz Magazine. It was against the Inglewood backdrop of his apartment, poorly made mac n' cheese, coronas, and cinderblock decor.

Last night Juxtapoz celebrated their 15th Anniversary with a charity art auction benefiting Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope's Detroit Power House concept – a project dedicated to building low income, architecturally significant homes. They have been generating much attention over the past year for sowing artful housing throughout neglected urban Detroit areas. 140 pieces of art were donated towards building five more homes.


Snakes by Richard Colman. Pen, ink and gouache on wood panel. 9"x12", 2009.


Bambi Was A Dude by Kenyon Bajus, 1 of 8. Gouache on wood panel, 12” x 12”, 2008.


Roar by Josh Keyes. Acrylic on Wood, 24” x 18”, 2009.

The event was great. In addition to the usual booze and DJing, the displayed lowriders, projected boxing footage, and venue itself (Factory Arts Place Complex) reflected - like the Power House ideal - the art of the economically disenfranchised.

Lirit

Johnny Mustache

I begged my friend Andy to let me make the birthday cake for her friend, Johnny Mustache. He was having a bow tie party.

Karmann Ghia

I was driving on Venice just east of La Cienega when I pulled alongside a powder blue Karmann Ghia, a 60-something tan man at the wheel. They just seemed so timeless. Italy in the 60s? California in the 70s? I imagined cold chicken and frosty beer picnic ready on the passenger seat (see To Catch A Thief for more on this topic).



I fell in love a little. Italian design manufactured by VW, the Ghia has a humble sleekness and classic charm. Something romantic about it.

Butt...

I love thrift stores. Can happily spend hours in them, seeking out value in the discarded like a truffle pig (see The Gleaner and I for more on this topic). While sifting (for hours) through Santa Barbara's Alpha Thrift, I find this derriere painting in a pile of ratty motel-esque prints. It is 7'x'6 and of impeccable quality. I love it. I have always been a sucker for photorealism. And classic women. So I buy it for $100:



Back at home on a whim, we google the signature penciled on the back of the canvas: John Kacere, 1970...

Who is John Kacere again? Turns out he is a significant artist of the 1970s photorealism movement (a reaction to post-WWII abstract expressionism) along with Chuck Close, Robert Bechtle, Howard Kanovitz. All of these guys tend to focus on the ubiquitous mundane and fixate on one subject matter throughout their work. Chuck has faces. Robert has suburbia. And John has ladies' lingeried backsides (and sometimes frontsides).





His work is the inspiration for the opening shot in Lost in Translation; one of his pieces ("Jutta") hangs in Charlotte's hotel room. We got the painting authenticated. It hangs happily in our living room.

The Chemosphere

The Chemosphere (built by John Lautner in 1960 for $140,000) became home to book publisher Benedikt Taschen in 2000. At the time of Taschen's purchase, the property was in a state of serious disrepair. The Taschen family restored the home completely (even helicoptering in frameless window panes for installation).



Although Lautner wanted to name the building the Chapiteau, it was christened "The Chemosphere" for promotional purposes since Chem-seal Corp. of America donated the materials (experimental epoxies, coatings, and resins) for construction. After inheriting the unbuildable land from his father-in-law, engineer Leonard Malin commissioned Lautner (a student of Frank Lloyd Wright) to tackle the landscape. The Chemosphere has been called the most modern home in the world. Some shots I snaked while working:


Tram we take to the house.


Living Room painting.


The Taschen 80s party, we made neon splatter painted anthuriums.


The Taschen 80s party again! Can you get any more 80s than birds of paradise in a purple swan?


The Taschen sponsored Animal dinner for Food and Wine Magazine.


The Taschen sponsored Animal dinner for Food and Wine Magazine.

Miles Fisher

Love it or hate it.

Horse

I was working at this artist's home in Coldwater Canyon when I saw this drippy horse. I love him so. He was thrown up on the stucco with some butcher tape.

Cake

I was spying.

LA Weekly

Gendy from LA Weekly stopped by our studio and wrote an article for the September 8th, 2009 publication. Some of our stuff she mentions:



MARIGOLD ELECTRIC CHANDELIER. Rebecca Uchtman and CW Mihlberger constructed the armature out of wood panels. 60ft. of marigolds were then strung and draped around the structure.



SUCCULENT ARROW. Josh Beckman carved the sculpture out of foam. Rebecca Uchtman & Holly Vesecky glued succulent leaves for texture and coloring.



Photos by Sarah Martin and Holly Vesecky.

Standard Diner

My car broke down. I had a bloody mary and stalked people with my iPhone camera.

Eliav's Bike

My royal-tenenbaum-type genius 18 year-old brother-in-law builds random structures out of LEDs and flesh eating lasers whenever possible. This is from his very first Burning Man bicycle.

Woolly Pocket Landscaping

Our Woolly Pocket landscaping job at Kobata.



Miguel Nelson of Smog Shoppe and Marvimon developed hanging wool pockets for vertical landscape design. We have been installing, designing, and planting them in homes and places like Royal T while schools have been building edible gardens and living structures for their kids. There are many vertical landscaping methods out there, but we cannot all be Patrick Blanc. The greatest thing about these pockets is their neophyte accessability - anyone can buy, install, plant, and maintain them.

Bang!

Grandma & Jonathan Adler

My favorite Jonathan Adler vase newly planted. Succulent dude and scabiosa pods.





My grandma strongly appreciated decadence. Candy chocolate-dipped sticks, classic jewelry, and heels. Always heels. She was a couture seamstress. After she passed, my grandpa gave me their china.

LA Parks

My friend, Andy, celebrated her birthday at the Greek Theater park. Public space does indeed exist in this sunny, palm-treed city! And the northeast parks are bountiful, filled with fresh watermelon, vodka, pinatas, and naked babies.

Shatto Lanes

The dreamiest bowling alley.

Self Portrait Duo!

Femi Kuti & Santigold

Santigold and Femi Kuti concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

Sarah's Cousins

Norma

Relic of old Hollywood Boulevard past.

Natural History Museum

After helping install a mini Galapagos Island for a First Friday at the Natural History Museum, my Galapagos friend wants to show me her husband's office upstairs. He designs and installs the museum's exhibits. Getting to his office alone is crazy exciting - it's a path of twisty hallways littered with stuffed whales and birds. When we get to his office, I look up and see a maaaaassive ceiling lined with a gagillion taxadermied ungulates. There were guys/gals fixing an animatronic pelican, reshelling a giant tortoise, rescuing a leaf frog, and staging glam fossil photo shoots. So. Cool.