Inspiredb By: Malcolm Liepke

Oh, man.  David and I had such a comfortable weekend with our friends in the Cotswolds.  Comfortable- that's the best way to describe their home.  Comfortable like walking into your mother's arms, comfortable like the laugh lines on a lover's face, comfortable like a cup of coffee and your favorite book.  Together, we ate, drank, and made much merriment and I've come away from the weekend feeling well rested and inspired.

Not only was our weekend comfortable, it was also full of fantastic art.  Sculpture, block prints, and textiles were displayed alongside tribal masks, graphic screen prints and children's art.  It was wonderful!  All the visual stimuli got me thinking about one of my favorite artists, Malcolm Liepke, and how I wanted to share some of his work with you.  I like the energy of these pieces, their sensuality, and the weight of his brush.  Also, he's originally from Minneapolis and you all know how I feel about that. 

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I've had this saved on my desktop for months now.  I want that collar.  So bad.  So so so bad.  I really love the colors in this piece and the luminous quality of the subject's skin and the depth of her eyes.

White Feather Boa

Again, this boa.  Mine.  Make it mine.  Please.  

I love his use of texture here as well as the shine of her lips.  

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Like my all-time favorite painter, Sargent, I find Liepke's portraits to be illuminating and haunting, as if the subject is emanating light. I'm drawn into these portraits.  I want to write stories about them.
In fact, I think I will.

Liepke is represented by Albemarle Gallery in London.

Looking Down, Briefly

Just a piece of sidewalk in Soho that caught my eye and made my wheels start turning.  Inspiration comes in all kinds of unexpected places.  The blue glass just kills me...

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This has been a really good week.  David and I both got news that put smiles on our faces and allowed us to feel a little more hopeful about the next couple months.  I mean, things were getting a little dark there for a while and I was beginning to think all my optimism was for naught.  It turns out life really is just as great as I always believed it to be and David and I didn't ruin our lives by moving to this country.  So yay for all that! 

To everyone who's been supportive throughout this entire moving process, thank you!  Things aren't perfect by any means, but they're looking a damn sight better now and I'm crossing my fingers that the Redcoat and I will be able to disappear somewhere for an actual honeymoon before the year is over... I know it sounds whiny, but we could really use a vacation.  xx

Top Secret Inspiration

I'm working on a new project that has me thumbing through the illustrations and photos I loved as a child and some of the imagery that has really impacted me over the years.  I don't do Pinterest boards (I see the point, but loath the photo "sharing" policy and attitudes of most pinners) but I do make my own inspiration boards for big projects.  I often gravitate toward things I can physically interact with, especially in the early stages, and I'll often touch, feel, and smell things before photographing them and adding them to my personal inspiration board/thing.  Here are just of the few things that are currently lighting my fire, in order of appearance:

1. My typewriter, which holds such a special place in my heart! It's an Olympia from the 1960s with a script font and color scheme that makes me weak in the knees.
2. Stamped letters (hand stamped with watercolor paint by moi).
3. Chris Ware's witty cover illustrations for the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Voltaire's Candide.
4. A random photo I cut out of a magazine (or something?) while in college. I have a major soft spot for rose prints.  THEY'RE JUST SO PRETTY!
5. A couple notecards from Henry Horenstein's stunning Animalia collection that I bought at the Harvard Museum of Natural History once upon a time.  I've been obsessed with that jellyfish print for years!
6. Quentin Blake's images for Roald Dahl.  His style is simple yet masterfully expressive. 
7. As a girl, Mary Poppins was everything I wanted to be when I grew up and still to this day I try my best to be practically perfect in every way. These simple line drawings by Mary Shepard take me right back to the ginormous plaid armchair I spent so many days nestled in reading as a child.  I love Mary Poppin's gangly figure and always-rosy cheeks.  Perfection, indeed!

As this project moves forward, I'll be sure to share more inspiration and snippets with you. Until that day comes, I will be laboring away like a madwoman!