New Painting

Italy (detail)

Our print shop will be up and operational next week.

C'etait un Rendezvous

Rendez-vous (Claude Lelouch 1976)

Early one August morning in 1976 the French director Claude Lelouch mounted a camera to the front of his Ferrari and filmed his breakneck drive through the streets of Paris, from Porte Dauphine to Sacre Coeur. After "C'etait un Rendezvous" was shown publicly Lelouch was arrested and the car confiscated.

Not long after it was released our local library had a copy, and my brother and I used to get our dad to rent it constantly, every chance we got. Back then renting movies was a little more complicated, as the movie was an actual big can of film, and my dad would have to lug out the movie projector and thread the film, while we'd set up the giant silver screen on its rickety aluminum tripod. But when the lights went out and the movie started rolling, nothing beat sitting on the carpet staring up at the screen with a permanent smile for 9 minutes, the smell of dusty electricity, the smooth clacking of the projector, and the loud Ferrari engine blaring through the steel speakers.
Happy Bastille Day!

wind, sand, stars, and clubs

Antoine De Saint-Exupery and Ludwig Bemelmans, two wonderful author/illustrators, from L'Ecole Francaise du Maine's yard sale in Freeport. (Actually it was at the church across the street; but for context's sake...)

Wary Meyers Print Shop

Is now open!

Click the pic to go there.

The Rain in Maine

Another lame forecast again this weekend, to add to the already drenched summer.

Above: A great, huge, older (80's) L.L. Bean umbrella, bought from a nice older (80's) couple who both worked at Bean for years.

Next to that is a really nice Swaine, Adeney, Brigg, and Sons, Ltd. fortuitously found at a yard sale last summer when we were looking specifically for umbrellas to stick in Tossed & Found's umbrella holder project. Interestingly at the time we were also working on a project called the Eiffel Mantel, which involved hammering hundreds of nails into 1x2 boards, a la Enzo Mari, who wrote, "...two nails should never be planted along the same grain of wood." Advice Swaine & co. should've heeded when they nailed their name plate onto the handle. (click to enlarge).

$1.50 and $3, respectively.

Enzo Mari

Soul Power

The Salty Sea

From a quick trip out to Long Island (Maine) on the 4th-

1. speedboat

2. The Corto Maltese, Hugo Pratt's sailor. When I lived in Italy I had a girlfriend who wrote his name, in gum, on the bottom of a bookshelf. The shelf was only about 2 feet over her face when she was in bed, and before she fell asleep each night she'd stick her gum on it. I remember she proudly showed me the multicolored cursive Corto Maltese, among other dots and asterisks and swirls. 

3. A broken stool at the boatyard. I actually took this photo last year, and the stool was going to turn into a bike rack for Tossed & Found, but I left it on the island and never found it again. 

4. The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, illustrated by Alexander Calder. We found this at the bottom of a box, at a yard sale with kids, kids, everywhere. 

5. The ferry back, Casco Bay looking a little like the Mekong, with a crowded whale watch boat.

Bachelor keeps house

A view of my old apartment. I know this looks more low-life than high life, but it did have a cool, 70's-Laurel Canyon quality to it, and got me a few early jobs where people wanted, believe it or not, the same look. Not easy to acheive, as you need a certain patience, or laziness, not to water a spider plant that's hanging next to a sink. 

This came to mind because we're reorganizing, and that David Hamilton photo was in our guest room, above the bed (see below). I don't know what ever happened to the Miller can-in-a-bottle, times were tough- it may have been returned as a two-fer.

ex libris

Time for a new chapter in the guest room/library.

Tomorrow we're dismantling it and bringing the bed and furniture downstairs for the new guest apartment, which should be a pretty fun project. This upstairs room will turn into something completely different.

It'll be nice to free up the space- the bed is looking a little Erwin Wurm-ly, and there are four pieces of nice George Nelson furniture, books galore, and an old Pfaff leather sewing machine that all need some newfound appreciation. On the other hand it'll be somewhat sad to uproot them, as their Sanford & Sonned arrangements are part of what gave the room its Gypsy/Bohemian charm.

book patina

Nicely aging whites in our living room bookshelf, due in part to 

virtually none of them having been printed more recently than 1980.

Off to the Island.

Tennis

Hippie Beautility

1970's Sweet-Orr jeans from an estate sale in Connecticut a few years ago. Lovingly and Bohemianly embroidered with flowers, a rainbow, "Catherine" (Cat) and the Yes and Chicago logos. A near perfect object, with personalization, signs of use, and the golden hat trick of  hippie handicraft, typography, and utility. 

Tanner Krolle

$2, from the moving sale of a young British doctor and his wife. 

Tanner Krolle has a long history of making luxury leather suitcases and gladstone bags for the well-heeled English, especially those who drove Aston Martins (always optional was a custom-fit set of Tanner Krolle luggage). This particular suitcase was made in London for Harrods, and has that nice country-look of leather and canvas with big brass fittings, a plaid interior and long leather belting if you choose to strap it to your car boot. 

The young doctor said it was a wedding present, and he used it on their around-the-world honeymoon, and it was a good one, but now it just takes up too much space. 

Ocean Parked

left, Richard Diebenkorn,  from his Ocean Park series;

right, Old Orchard Beach on Saturday.

the good rule

A design classic, unfortunately and inexplicably not made anymore.

From Greenwich to Maine via the Ft. Lauderdale flea market (below).

Coral Grill

Speaking of nice carpets and monogrammed floors, here's the great custom designed, monogrammed wall-to-wall of the Coral Grill in Islamorada Florida. Linda and I bought some flippers and napkin rings at their yard sale this past March. Unfortunately the carpet wasn't for sale, but I think it's definitely an idea worth investigating.

R 97

From a thrift shop in Hialeah, Fl., $9.00 

An excellent job, R, whoever you are. Thanks.

Unfinished idea

One of my favorite objects, from an estate sale, deep in the abandoned basement workshop. To me, everything about this is perfect. The design, the scale/math, the craftsmanship, the mistakes, the patina, and the magic marker "unfinished drill index box". It opens perfectly in half on hinges that stay open at any degree. There's a chunk of pine which looks as if it was poured into the box it's so seamless. The patina and little dings and abrasions make you wonder how many years this was going to be left unfinished-- or did whoever made it realize that it actually was finished, since really in the time it took to write "unfinished drill index box" they could have just drilled the holes.

Taking some inspiration from it, I think it would make a really great chair (/loveseat/sofa), the basis of which is the closed box. Enlarged,  it would have the feeling of a brutalist Tony Smith sculpture, and opened, like a Tony Smith sculpture opened up by Josef Albers into a canopy chair. Not to be presumptuous, but I think if Donald Judd had been in this basement he would have had the same idea. 

conceivable in-situ view:

This would have been the perfect jumping-off point for this project, and conceivably what it could look like at the landing. Unfortunately it was too unaerodynamic too put on top of the car for the drive back from Florida a couple of months ago. The price was right though (free).

Calder, Moore, The Viking

The fantastic light-filled studios of Alexander Calder and Henry Moore, from the excellent yard sale book "Architectural Digest Celebrity Homes II" (1981). Notice Calder's beautiful hooked rugs, designed by him and hooked by his wife Louisa. The Moore studio is the less impressive, but the wavy corrugated pvc roof is a great idea, and makes me wonder why more roofs aren't made like this, although the one over our deck will be within a month!

Another take on a personalized something-that-gets-stepped-on is this great idea from Kirk Douglas' backyard: the caption reads, "Stepping-stones inscribed by prominent guests over the years lead from the terrace, across the back lawn, to the screening room."

Unrelated, other than it was at the same yard sale, is this old leather belt themed pipe-smoking-at-the-desk set made by Gucci. Originally I saw just the ashtray, but then Linda said there was a humidor, and then the blotter and stand appeared from deep in the garage.