Home and the American Dream

A funny thing happened to me after a few months of having gone from homeowner to renter. I slowly became less and less interested in anything that had to do with the aesthetics and improvement of my living space. Where in my previous two homes—which we owned—I was constantly thinking about potential improvements that would benefit my daily quality of life, all of a sudden I thought the piles of shelter magazines to which I subscribed were wasteful and superfluous. This emotion became so prevalent that I even began to disparage my profession, my writing, and participation in the world of design. Home, really is a funny thing.

For a long time my husband had been adamantly opposed to the idea of becoming renters. But this idea—that it makes a difference in your daily life whether or not you own your home, did not become tangible to me until nearly two years later once we began looking for our own home again.

Sure, the house we have been living in has been lovingly maintained and decorated beautifully, but that transitory feeling prevented us from ever gardening (something I now really miss) or re-thinking how furnishings should be arranged and the like. Then, came the time when our landlord notified us that we should be moving in 3 months due to the sale of the house we have been occupying. As soon as I began looking at houses to buy and began visualizing myself living in each of them, feelings of creating a home with a specific atmosphere, ambiance, function all quickly began to invade my mind. 24 hours a day I thought about rooms and color and landscaping. I literally dreamt about our new home.

So, what is it about owning a home that makes this switch turn on and off? Is the prized goal of achieving the “American Dream” so embedded in our psyche that we cannot control our feelings regarding the matter?

I remember at one moment while being a tenant that the issue of taxes came up. Someone mentioned that the federal government was considering eliminating the deduction of mortgage interest for homeowners. As I reflected on the subject, I thought, perhaps this is just. Why should I pay more taxes this year because I am in a transitory stage in which I do not own a home? Surely that doesn’t seem fair. In addition, this deduction or incentive must have fueled the fire of the crazy real estate boom in which people who could not afford to buy homes were buying them. So, I thought, yes, let’s get rid of this incentive in order to level the playing field for all hard-working Americans, whether or not they are currently in the position to own a home. Perhaps it would alleviate a bit of the shame all those Americans who have lost their homes feel, now that they have lost these coveted “privileges.” I realize this would never be a politically advantageous move for any lawmaker as all Americans dislike taxes more than they dislike just about anything I can think of. Taking their money is like outright refusing certain unalienable rights.

Now that I’m buying a house, I will be looking forward to next year’s interest deduction but could I live without it if I knew it were for the greater good of my country? Probably.

So I’m still trying to understand what it is about the human psyche that makes us want to own our little piece of earth. And isn’t that desire ultimately the source of countless wars and disastrous social experiments, such as communism? Or this is a Western construct?

Yes, now that I’m hoping to close on a house sometime soon, I think I’ll be blogging again too. How ironic and funny that thing called home really is.

Steve Williams' Show Opens This Thursday

I'm very excited about the new artists I have had the opportunity to exhibit and represent once we made the front portion of our store a gallery space. The first artist we showed in June and July was Asser Saint-Val. His work is surrealist with a whimsical nature that really captured me. He works with all sorts of media trying to achieve an array of textures. This collection was known as "The Melanin Project." I had to take home two pieces. Here are a few we showed:


I have also shown the work of a ceramist named Gerbi Tsesarskaia. She makes all her work out of soda fired grolleg porcelain which means it can be used functionally as it is safe to eat on, or aesthetically as art.

This Thursday is our opening reception for Steve Williams, who created a show entitled "Currency" for us. For those of you who may not know, I also maintain a blog on our website where you can read more about Steve and how he created this exhibition. If you're in the area I hope you will stop by to have a little wine and cheese with me, this Thursday, January 27th at 7 o'clock.

More random thoughts and commentary

A few days ago I attended a lecture given by a few very successful bloggers in the interior design field. One of the questions that came up was what parameters they applied to their blog subjects/writing. All three said that they only say positive things. If they see something they don't like, they simply won't bring it up on their blog. Sort of a "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" rule. While I completely understand the logic behind this attitude, I simply can't subscribe to it. Is that terrible? Sure, I'm not going to go out of my way to blast someone personally, but I feel that the whole purpose of my blog is to have a personal space where I can feel what I feel and say what I want to say. That includes being self-deprecating from time to time or commenting on something I find ridiculous. And, the posts in which I have been most honest have been the ones that elicit the most responses from my readers. That said, I don't have "over 5000 subscribers" as one of the panelists said she does. But for me, that's ok, I want to be me, and if that means less people like me, so be it.
That said I am going to be outright critical of something I saw recently. This is the cover of the current issue of Town & Country:

This is a case in which I feel that the Editor should have applied the "only positives" rule. "What he really thinks about your plastic surgery?" "The divorce of the year" "I wish I'd married rich". WHAT!!??? Thank you T&C for underlining everything wrong with our society and putting it in bold letters on your cover. You have successfully alienated every non-gold-digging-plastic surgery boycotting-married woman in the United States. And yes, the editor in chief did lose his job this week so thankfully I wasn't the only one who felt something is very wrong with this picture.
I hate to make promises I won't keep, but one of my new year's resolutions is to write more often--and not to have any parameters. Hope you enjoy the ride....dancing through my figurative Paris.

Art and The Artist (thoughts on the subject)

For a while now I’ve been trying to understand the definitions or categories of what is “art”. Or as a corollary what it means to be an “artist”. For some art forms, this description is very clear. Or I should say if one finds success, then it is very clear. A person who paints and can sell his or her works at a price on which he or she can make a living is easily defined as an artist. A musician who finds employment in a band or orchestra, likewise. But what if an artist cannot make a living with their art and so takes on other responsibilities, does that mean they are not an artist?

Or take the instance that is a bit closer to home for me. I recently had a discussion with a friend in the same situation. I trained for many years to be a dancer. As performers, dancers certainly fall in the category of performing “artists”. But then, I stopped. Or my friend, got injured. From one day to the next we weren’t dancing anymore. But does this mean that overnight, we were no longer “artists”? So then that would mean that to be an artist is not to “be” something but to “do” something. Both of us feel that we are still artists. Artists without an art form, but still artists.

My former classmate Sara Webb in Stanton Welch's "TuTu" (Houston Ballet)

Then there is the whole question of the limits of sanity. Or perhaps I should say, the praise for what has gone beyond sanity. I recently saw the film “Black Swan” and read many critiques on it both before and after. No writer fails to discuss the fact that artists are expected to push beyond what is humanly possible in the name of “art”. And that somehow that is perfection or “absolute art”. In the scene at the end of the movie when “Nina” has reached that supernatural point, her only words are “I was perfect.”

Yet, what exactly did her performance achieve?

Did the audience experience the same supernatural euphoria that she was feeling as she was spinning her way into a physical transformation?

What was the purpose of her “art”?

Why do we have such a fascination with the abnormal?

And if it’s not beyond the limits, then is it not art? Is a dancer who is not mad, less of an artist than one who is?

Is no one really crazy, just very creative? Or the reverse, are some of the things we categorize as art just something totally insane?

This was a question I pondered more than one while walking the halls of the many art shows during Art Basel week here in Miami.

Alhambra Antiques Opens New Exhibition to Much Acclaim

Paintings by Asser Saint-Val hang over a vintage composite stag

Olga Granda-Scott stands amidst the work of Eric Besson

After undergoing aesthetic renovations during the spring, the repurposed Alhambra Antiques space in downtown Coral Gables hosted a vernissage on June 16^th with a new look and fresh vibe. A cross between antiques store, art gallery, and cultural space, the “new old” Alhambra Antiques is an intellectually stimulating experience. The current exhibit has been curated to include unparalleled vintage, antique, and select contemporary offerings with innovative creative artists Asser Saint-Val, Eric Besson, and Fiorella Chelini showing selections of their work.

Art collectors, designers, and aficionados gathered at the event to benefit the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, a charity which has always been dear to the hearts of directors Olga Granda-Scott and Douglas Scott. Attendees included interior designers Jim Murphy, Diane Sepler, and Kevin Gray; Vizcayans president Don Kress, art dealer Marvin Ross Friedman, artist Asser Saint-Val, and celebrity columnist Daisy Olivera.

“The way the space is staged makes walking through the store a mysterious adventure. Humor, wit, and curiosity can all be used to describe the creative vignettes” said attendee Cristina Romney Espinosa. “I’ve come to expect the unexpected every time I visit—as well as a great party!”

As part of the new three artist group exhibition, the surrealist paintings of Asser Saint-Val brought much color and life and were particularly well received. The Haitian artist, who lives and works in Miami and has sold works to important collections including the Rubell family, hesitated before showing his works in a non-traditional gallery space. But once he saw the way they could be juxtaposed with some of the very elements used to create his fictional characters, he loved and appreciated the tension created.

“Asser’s work is a bit of reality spun into a whimsical character which spoke to me when I saw it. I love incorporating humor into my installations, and I felt that he had embodied that sense of blurring the lines between practicality and fiction” explained Olga Granda-Scott. “It is a very exciting process to be able to find interesting work and expose our clients to a new way of living and collecting.”

The exhibition will be on display through August 15^th, when a new roster of artists will be unveiled.