Artist + Designer Spotlight: Tahir Mahmood

Alex here. Time for another installation of Artist + Designer Spotlight-- but with a geographical twist. 

The original idea behind this feature was to highlight local artists and designers. I figured I'd start with my home base of Brooklyn-- a borough with a seemingly inexhaustible source of fresh talent-- and make the occasional virtual foray into Long Island, the Hudson River Valley or even (gasp!) Manhattan. I knew from the start, though, that I wouldn't be able to contain my enthusiasm for artists and designers beyond these shores.

So in honor of my mom's trip to Toronto this weekend, I'm highlighting Tahir Mahmood, one of my favorite Canadian lighting designers. I am very much in love with his Chand Lamp. I want to see it in my home so badly in physically hurts. But for now, I've put it at the very tip top of my  "things-to-buy-if-one-day-no-longer-broke-list." In addition to his mesmerizing lamps, Mahmood also designs a line of whimsical household goods. 

While images of Mahmood's work are beautiful, his is the sort of work that photographs cannot do justice. Particularly his glass work. There's a translucence to the material and a richly saturated depth to the color that's lost in translation. Ditto for his richly grained and deeply conditioned wood. 

If you find yourself in the Toronto area, please please do yourself a favor. Stop into Pimlico Design Gallery to see his creations in person-- and wind up walking out with all sorts of other goodies (Soaps that looks and smells like lemons? Tea lights that look like succulents? All sorts of charming things that look like other things! And even some charming things that look just as they're meant to look!)

Happy weekend.

Sources (Clockwise from top left)

1. Girgit Four, Table Lamp
2. Girgit Mini Two, Table Lamp
3. Baylun One, Rolling Pin
4. Chanda, Floor Lamp
5. Chand, Table Lamp
6. Roshan Blue, Candle Stands
7. Assu, Mortar + Pestle
8. Poh, Mortar + Pestle

Artist + Designer Spotlight: Elizabeth T. Jones

Elizabeth T. Jones is a Brooklyn-based food photographer who specializes primarily in food photography, but has a real knack for capturing the soul of her subject-- whether than subject is a person, a chicken or a deviled egg.

Elizabeth also authors the blog Good Good Eat. Charmingly written and dripping with mouth-watering recipes (all beautifully photographed, of course), you can hardly believe it's a 100% gluten-free and mostly dairy-free. Happily for me, a die-hard cheese lover, her recipes occasionally include small amounts of sheep and goat cheese.

My favorite Good Good Eat post to-date is her sweet holiday video, in which her videography skills are on full display. Definitely worth a watch. Can you imagine how many cookies she must have baked and photos she must have taken to produce the piece?

In light of her many talents, I'm so excited to collaborate with Elizabeth on a series of home tours for the blog. Stay tuned for our home tour debut in March!

To whet your appetite for our home tours (not to mention a grilled cheese sandwich), here's a round up of some of my favorite shots from Elizabeth's portfolio:

Food

Image Source: elizabethtjones.com

Chickens

Image Source: elizabethtjones.com

Artist + Designer Spotlight: Charlotte Evans

Hi all. I'm back to blogging after a full week of thanksgiving vacation. I hope everyone had a happy holiday!

A quick note on the 30-day One Kings Lane Challenge before I dive into today's post. I've been keeping up on my Pinterest board, but since their focus now is mostly gift ideas, the items on sale tend to fall into one of two categories: 1) outside my decor bailiwick (I'm certifiably fashion-challenged); or 2) items making a return appearance from prior sales. I don't re-pin an item if it comes up for sale a second time to avoid a board chock full of repeats. Hope that explains the quiet front on OKL-related posts. Now back to regular programming!

Charlotte Evans

This is a particularly meaningful installment of "Artist + Designer Spotlight" spotlight for me. This spring, I bought my very first piece of original art-- an oil on canvas by the talented Brooklyn-based Charlotte Evans. Ryan and I went to opening night of the Affordable Art Fair with every intention of just looking. But when I saw this Coney Island beach scene in the Will's Art Warehouse booth, I knew I couldn't leave without it. So I gritted my teeth and pulled out my checkbook.

Coney Island by Charlotte Evans, Oil on Canvas

My friend Rachel recently teased me that I'm the only person she knows with chronic buyer's remorse. I have a terrible tendency to second guess every major expenditure, no matter how much I love or even need it. But I can honestly say I've never once regretted the purchase of my first piece of art. Not after handing over to the check to the gallerist with the lovely British accent and not when I saw it come out of my bank account a few weeks later. (I did balk a little bit at the cost of framing it, but that's a different story.) Even though it has no clear utility besides making me smile, I just love it. No second guessing!

I have a suspicion that the absence of buyer's remorse has to do with the purchase's symbolic value. For some reason, buying my first piece of art made me feel like a real, live adult. I've bought posters and prints, but never an oil on canvas. From a gallery no less! Pretty grown up, huh?

You'd think the symbolic step into adulthood might be something more obvious like picking up your first paycheck or paying your first month's rent. But in discussing it with my friends, it's often an object-- a momento-- that ends up being a vessel for that step into independence. In the case of my baking enthusiast friend Meghan, it's a top-of-the-line Kitchen Aid standing mixer (you know the kind that comes with a million attachments and can practically bake a cake on its own?) For me, it's an oil on canvas. To each her own!

I'm normally more of an abstract art person, but I also love a scene that's deeply evocative of a place or time. Charlotte Evans' work hits both those sweet spots for me. Her landscapes are transporting, but her technique is vaguely reminiscent of abstract works. There are broad brush strokes with patches of canvas peeking through the scene. But the outlines and muscle details in her human figures is incredibly sharp and precise. All her paintings seem to tell a deeply personal story. I could look at my Coney Island beach scene for hours dreaming up stories for each of the characters in the water.

Here are a view of my favorite works from her portfolio:

Sources (clockwise from top left):

1. The Big Leap 2, Print, 14" x 14" - via Saatchi
2. Dive 2, Print, 14" x 14" - via Saatchi
3. Brighton Pier (2007), Oil on canvas, 36'' x 48'', 91.4 x 121.9 cm - via charlotteevans.net
4. Reflected (Red Canoe) (2012) Oil on canvas, 60'' x 60'', 152.4 x 152.4 cm   - via charlotteevans.net (Original and prints available for purchase via Saatchi)
5. Orange Top (2011), Oil on canvas 12'' x 12'', 30.5 x 30.5 cm - via charlotteevans.net

Artist + Designer Spotlight: Sarah Nicole Phillips

Next up in the Artist + Desinger Spotlight, Toronto-born and Brooklyn-based Sarah Nicole Phillips. I discovered Sarah through a family friend and was immediately smitten with her security envelope collages. I love that Sarah's work is both beautiful and socially relevant, without being too heavy-handed. (For explicit socio-political themes, see her series of silver halide photographic and screen prints, entitled "ATMs".)

Sarah on her collages, made from discarded security envelopes:

These works conflate imagery of plant life with the hard edges, linear repetition and angles suggestive of man-made infrastructure and human-imposed order. Security envelopes obscure their own contents. It is impossible to read what is inside, even when they are held up to light. Offset and imprecise patterns inside these envelopes create a scrim which serves as a decorative backdrop to our everyday bureaucratic tangles.

Shapes of flora in these collages echo the security envelope’s intended use as camouflage to hide private documents. Vines, fungus and grasses twist and push out from cellophane windows suggesting indifference to the veneer of professionalism that official-looking paperwork can convey. Encroaching plant life calls attention to the living, wild source of paper fiber, the ecology of bureaucracy, and an ever-present, yet obscured wilderness despite the imposed order of a decontextualized civic life.

These are dystopian landscapes offered at a time of increasing mistrust toward corporations and financial institutions, alongside mounting pressures of unpaid bills, overdue contracts and increasing fees. Security Landscapes tears opens process and order to reveal the underlying wilderness.
Here are a few of my favorite pieces from Sarah's portfolio:

Sources

1. Phases of a Peanut Butter Cup Wrapper, 4.5" x 19" print (2010) - $390 (framed w/ plexi)
2. Enclosed, 15' x 22" security envelope collage (2009) - Sold, Private Collection
3. Sunbeam, 11" x 15" aquatint with crushed photovaltaic cells (2007) - $490 (unframed)
4. Untitled (Trees Beaming Away), 20" x 29" security envelope collage (2012) - $3,500 (unframed)
5. Security Horizon #7, 10" x 23" security envelope collage (2012) -$600 (unframed)
6. Past Dew, 15" x 22" security envelope collage (2009)

Artist + Designer Spotlight: James Devlin

One of my goals when I started this blog was to use it as a platform to highlight local artists and designers. For whatever reason, I haven't done much of that since May-- for which I'm profoundly embarrassed. As a Manhattan-native-turned-Brooklyn-transplant, I'm a huge fan of the Brooklyn art and design scene. And what better venue to celebrate these super talented people than my blog (instead of my brain, which probably doesn't much help their public exposure...)

So here's the first installation in my new series, Artist + Designer Spotlight, where I intend to focus on emerging stars in the greater Brooklyn area with perhaps a few forays into other lands.

James Devlin

I discovered James Devlin over a year ago at the Brooklyn Flea, where he got his start selling the zig zag stools he was inspired to create after taking a welding class at Third Ward. It's been so exciting watching his business expand via his super sleek website. From his "About" section:

James Devlin Studio was founded in 2011 as a full service design atelier. The collection features singular furniture, lighting, and accessories that combine clear, modernist inspired lines with the richness of natural organic materials. In addition to the collection, we offer personalized design and fabrication services to a select group of individuals and firms.

James's work is available for purchase in his Etsy shop.

My favorite pieces from his collection:

Sources

1. Zig Zag Stools - Brindle - $500
2. Cassia Table - $800
3. Zig Zag Table - $625
4. Tuffet - $350
5. Alabaster Table Lamp - $450