beauty, affordability, frugality & ethics in home design
I no longer shop at the Urban Outfitters / Anthropologie duo of companies because I am uncomfortable with their corporate practices, but I do visit their sites for decor ideas. I was excited to see that UO was featuring removable wallpapers that are, they say, “easy to apply and remove.” Unfortunately for the Urban Outfitters photog director, though, the close-up shots are comically bad. Enjoy!
First impression is nice, right?
Wait…Are those bubbles?
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Our new home has slowly resolved itself from a complete mess to something resembling a work-in-progress. I don’t have anything too composed to show just yet, so I thought it might be fun to show the place off piece-by-piece in vignettes, as they are pulled together.
Today: book storage. Back story….We sold and donated 70% of our book collection as well as our old $18 Walmart-bought bookcases before we moved. While I wanted something antique, ornate and preferably glass-fronted, by the time we moved in I knew it was unlikely to happen and resigned myself to something from Ikea. Rather than going with faux wood, I thought the silver Billy bookcases would add height to the area flanking our living room windows. Here are a few shelves:
I love the color. It is a lavender-infused silver, very feminine and much more like a grey than a metallic imitation. It’s also surprisingly sturdy and was square and level as soon as it went up. The only disappointment was the essential but cheap-looking backer board. The thick, clumsy visible seams drive me nuts and I and going to have to cover them with paper of some sort sooner or later. Nonetheless, a good buy.
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Andy Mc Cready is a 28 year old artist at an exciting place in her life. Successfully represented by an art gallery in her native New Zealand, she has recently brought giclée prints of her original art to etsy, bringing her a wider audience through her shop, Gilt and Envy. Her work is feminine, Surrealist, intricate and intimate. Still awaiting her first etsy sale, she was kind enough to answer some questions about her work with One Grand Home. If you love what you see, just click the pics to purchase.
Where does your illustrative style come from?
It comes from drawing in the way I feel is most natural and intuitive to me – and this just happens to go against most of the rules I was taught in art school (ie: to work loosely, sketch in big shapes first, slowly build up the whole image simultaneously). None of this made any sense to me, as someone who is more at home creating intricate miniatures rather than oversized gestural paintings. I like details, being meticulous, line rather than form, a tight controlled hand, and working on one section at a time.
. . . I don’t think my own style was really liberated until I started to discover more alternative, illustration-based work and realised that this was what I was more passionate about – give me John John Jesse or Audrey Kawasaki over Jackson Pollock any day.
Doe Eyed - Large limited edition giclée print, $95
When I’m creating original paintings I like to get very hands-on and messy. More often than not my materials come from the hardware store rather than the traditional art shop, which I guess is a little incongruous given that I create such girly pictures with these stereotypically manly materials!
I mostly work in cheapo acrylic paint and pencil on mdf board that I cut down and file and sand myself, with a bit of spraypaint thrown in for good measure. Before I start drawing, I’ll cut a number of pieces of mdf board to the right sizes, and as I’m working I’ll move these around constantly to work out what should go where – like piecing together a jigsaw.
Although I have a general idea of what I want the finished product to look like (ie: a colour scheme, patterns, content, etc.), it usually evolves and changes as I work.
When I’m satisfied by how the work looks, I’ll glue and clamp all the separate pieces of board together. Then it’s time to photograph the works, and get digital files of them that I can take to get printed as limited edition giclées by the wonderful folk at McK Design.
All this generally takes place on my cluttered bedroom floor with music blaring and the consumption of much coffee.
What are some of the themes you are most interested in exploring in your work, including any that you are struggling to express?
Beehive - Large limited edition giclée print, $95
I’m interested in exploring the transience of beauty, the construction of identity through the piecing together of fragments, the decorative, interior decorating as something we also do to ourselves (makeup, renovation, DIY, creating facades or masks), the feminine, the fantastic.
I’d really like to develop and clarify my thoughts about Surrealism in my art work. I wrote my Masters thesis on Surrealism, and I adore artists like Magritte, Tanguy and Dali, but I’m cautious about describing my own work in this way because I’m aware of the complexities involved in the theory, and am sometimes bothered by the casual and inarticulate way people bandy about the word ‘surreal’ to describe absolutely anything.
Tarred and Feathered - Large limited edition giclée print, $100
I see you have an interest in the themes of mental illness and madness. How do you deal with those states or conditions without exoticizing or fetishizing them?
I think the nature of illustrating or aestheticising a condition by giving it visual form is such that you can’t help but exoticise or fetishise it to a certain extent. I understand the need to avoid this when say presenting a scientific study or attempting to report on something in an objective way, but art is so incredibly subjective, and relies on this for its effect. When I view art, I want it to fascinate and attract me, and there is usually some beauty to be found in things that are dark or desperate.
Gilt and Envy - Large limited edition giclée, $100
What’s your ultimate goal for yourself as an artist?
Obviously being able to sustain a living solely from my art is a big one. I can’t think of anything better than being left to my own devices to paint all day.
More specifically, if I had to think of a particular achievement to work towards that would make me the most proud, it would probably be having my imagery on the cover of an album by one of my favourite bands. And of course – every struggling illustration artist’s dream – a feature in Juxtapoz magazine wouldn’t go astray…
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It’s down to the wire for Christmas presents and a lot of last-minute shopping is driven by having no idea what to get your … wife’s aunt / co-worker / cousin who you haven’t seen in four Christmases / person who seems to have anything. Well perhaps nothing is more fool-proof than a blue Tiffany box. Tiffany has quietly gone masstige, offering a lot of under-$65 options. While I wouldn’t call these gifts soulful or personal as artisanal or homemade items, they present well and offer the aura without the cost. Free shipping until noon today.
Happy gifting.
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