BEAUTY: Painting and Drawing-- Adriana Varejão

I will confess that I have had a recurring dream for most of my adult life about places like saunas, large public bathrooms, spas, and pool areas. The common element, of course, is tile.Often these places are underground (almost like subterranean caves and grottoes). In Jungian psychology, water may represent the subconscious. I have spent time in inner life in many environments that are completely tiled and Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão really taps into my visual dream language with her fascinating Saunas and Baths series of drawings and paintings.

Top to bottom: Green Sauna; Mme. F.; The Dreamer; The Mystic; The Obsessive; The Seducer

http://www.adrianavarejao.net/

Heath Ceramics

I went to Sausalito last week to visit my dear friend Sherry Page of Culinary Getaways and we took an impromptu field trip to the Heath Ceramics Studio, located right down by the water. I've loved Heath for years but had never had the opportunity to visit the factory and store until now.

Although there are other Heath locations, the Sausalito space is the original factory started in 1948 by Edith and Brian Heath. In the early 40s, Edith began making ceramics and despite the fact that she had no formal training (or perhaps because of it), she quickly made a name for herself. She had a one-woman exhibition at the San Francisco Legion of Honor in 1944 and a few years later, Heath Ceramics was established. Heath creations went on to adorn many Eichler, Neutra, and mid-century modern homes on tables (in the form of hand-crafted dinnerware), and on floors and walls (in the form of stunning dimensional tile). Edith's work led to advances in clay and glaze development, securing Heath a unique place in ceramic history, along with design awards including the Industrial Arts Award from the American Institute of Architects. Many of her original pieces are a part of the permanent collections of museums such as MOMA and LACMA. The factory itself was built in 1959, and was designed by the Heaths and Marquis and Stoller Architects.

In 2003, the company was bought by Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey and all of Heath’s products are still handcrafted by skilled artisans in small runs in the Bay Area. Edith and Brian Heath’s vision of "making good things for good people—the right way—" lives on.

In addition to serving platters and trays, Heath makes dinnerware of all kinds, including some very special collections, such as the Chez Panisse collection designed in collaboration with Alice Waters and made for the legendary Berkeley restaurant (which is ground zero for the modern foodie movement!).

They also produce clocks, house numbers, candle holders, and vases. But for me, as an interior designer, I am most interested in the specialty tiles they produce. The Sausalito location boasts an extensive tile design studio where you can see the many different colors and glazes they use in addition to the stunning shaped and raised tiles which can be used for many applications such as on fireplace breasts, and as kitchen back splashes or even bathroom walls!

Your blogmaster at the Heath Ceramic store and factory
Photo by Sherry Page

Visit the Heath website for more information about the history of the company, how they make their products, and information about visiting as well as tours of the Sausalito dinnerware factory or the San Francisco tile factory.
http://www.heathceramics.com/

BEAUTY: Sculpture AND Furniture--The Haas Brothers

The Haas Brothers, Nikolai and Simon, are twins creating furniture, lamps, vases, objects, and art in Los Angeles. In both method and presentation, the Haas Brothers (little brothers to actor Lukas Haas) interpret their ideas in quite a unique way. I love their zoomorphic chairs, lounges, ottomans, and stools covered in ethically harvested fur from Iceland (the "Beast" chairs are especially fun with their horns and cloven feet!). The dripping, organic brass creations are assembled from an amazing invention of their own design, a hexagon tile made from brass; the fact that they can create such fluid shapes from such a rigid little material is a wonder. And they also make a line of Accretion Vases with layers and layers of glaze and slip built up so as to resemble cilia in lungs. And the lamps they make look like water splashes frozen by a high-speed camera.

The Haas twins signed a deal with Versace to create bespoke products and collectors are snatching pieces up at six figures, but the brothers are still very much on the fringe of things, conceptually speaking. At Art Basel in Miami this year, they showed their interactive installation "Advocates for the Sexual Outsider." The overarching philosophy of the piece and of the twins themselves is anti-shame and pro-sex. Simon is gay, Niki is straight, and they both see sexuality as something that is expressed by every human being, and that being uncomfortable with sex or feeling shame about one's sexuality comes not from an innate sense, but is imposed by external forces who have an interest in controlling people's minds and behaviors. Just read their marvelous statement at the entrance to the piece:

Below is the entrance to the piece: a stylized vagina covered in ruched leather flanked by stylized bronze erections leads to a private, curtained "den" filled with brass and ebony sex toys, and objects and art that support the brothers' refreshing, sensible no-shame policy.

Simon, seated, Nikolai, standing, are the Haas Brothers.

http://www.thehaasbrothers.com/

BEAUTY: Architecture--Glass Tea House Mondrian

This past July 2014 at the Venice Biennale Architettura, artist Hiroshi Sugimoto unveiled his stunning, lyrical Glass Tea House Mondrian on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. It is a faithful, traditional Japanese tea house with one exception: its walls are made of glass. The art of the tea ceremony is an ancient one and depends upon the silence and solitude of the space and its effect on the tea master and the guests (which is often limited to two or four people). But the seasons and nature are often a large part of the tea ceremony as well: the small food items often served during the ceremony change with the time of year and sometimes a small ikebana arrangement will reflect the outdoors as well. So it seems fitting that the outdoors and inside of the tea house could influence each other in such a vital way.

Sugimoto designed the glass cube in conjunction with Bisazza, the Italian tile manufacturer, who lined the forty-foot long reflecting pool in blue mosaic tiles.

The exterior fencing around the pavilion is made entirely of cedar wood, sourced from the Tōhoku region which was devastated by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

As dictated by tea ceremony tradition, the host (tea master) and guests enter through different doors. Above, the tea master enters the space through this side of the tea house...

...while the guests traditionally enter through a low, small door, a deliberate design which subliminally signals a change of perspective to the guests, and an important shift of consciousness.

Above: Kazuyo Sejima and creator of the tea house Hiroshi Sugimoto with their tea master

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/
http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/