California fireplaces are the best!

Years ago I bought my first house in California and was thrilled to discover the gas pipe under the fireplace grate that provided instant flames under logs of any size.  No more struggling with kindling, newspaper, or firestarters --- this was civilization at its best!  You can imagine what a let-down it was to land in New England years later and discover that building codes forbade the installation such gas lines.  Why???

 

While sitting next to the crackling fireplaces this week, I was also pondering the somewhat cheesy appearance of some of the fireplace mantles in this historic Lodge.  Apparently, they were all replaced relatively recently in the 1980s.  Would the passage of time make the mantle below look more elegant and beautiful? 

 

Selected Insects (and Tarantula) from Lake Arrowhead

The North Shore Tavern in 1932, playground of the rich and famous (in particular, Hollywood movie stars).   Now the facility is  owned by the University of California Los Angeles and is called the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center. The Tavern was given to the University of California in 1957.

Local insects collected by Bob "bug man" Dowell in front lobby

 

 

  

and of course, the stink beetle and the hairy stink beetle.....

Roof artistry, Lake Arrowhead, California

 

 

 

 

Somewhere in the San Bernadino Mountains is an amazing craftsman/craftswoman.

Pimpernel, 1876, Let me count the colorways

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

Willow, willow, on the wall...

 

 The Willow Bedroom, Standen

 

 Bedroom at Kelmscott Manor

 Stairwell, Victorian row house

 

Staircase, Wrightwick Manor

  

Morris's bed at Kelmscott Manor

 

 Willow Bough (1887)

Willow Bough is William Morris's most well-known and popular pattern.  These pictures are from two beautiful books:  William Morris Decor and Design (Elizabeth Wilhide) and Essential William Morris (Iain Zaczek).

Edward Burne-Jones' Magical World

The Beguiling of Merlin, 1874

Burne-Jones, on his art:  "I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any light that ever shone - in a land no one can define or remember, only desire - and the forms divinely beautiful - and then I wake up"

Love among the ruins, 1894 

Phyllis and Demophoön, 1870

Head of Nimue, c. 1873

 Pan and Psyche, 1874

St. George and the Dragon, 1866-1893

 Sleeping Beauty, 1870-1890 

 Edward Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898) was the de facto equivalent of William Morris's freshman college roommate.  They met as teenagers at Oxford and remained close friends for their entire lives.  In 1998, on the 100th anniversary of Burne-Jones's death, a huge retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.  I fell in love.

The Fifties, V&A Pattern, part 2

Wright was obviously a fan.  I wonder if the others were?

Frank Lloyd Wright, "Design 706", 1956, wallpaper

Bent Karlby, "Haelderne", 1951, wallpaper

Pablo Picasso, cotton fabric, 1956

 

Joan Miro, cotton fabric, 1956

Joan Miro, "People and Birds", 1956, cotton fabric

Shinkichi Tajiri, "Louisiana", 1954, wallpaper

Gigi Tessari, "Spago", 1957, cotton fabric

Pictures from the book "V&A Pattern".

Related Post:  Part 1, Mughal Empire Florals at the V&A.

To My Only Desire

 Last week, on my favorite blog BoingBoing, I came across a post about artist Joey Syta who has spent two years creating a one third size replica of the À Mon Seul Désir panel of The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, ALL IN Lite-Brites -- approximately 55,000 pegs.  This happens to be my very favorite tapestry in the world, one that I stop in and commune with whenever I'm in Paris.  It's in a fabulous round room at the Musée National du Moyen Âge (aka the Cluny Museum) in the Latin Quarter.


Here is the original:

À Mon Seul Désir (written on tent)

This panel is the sixth (or the first?) in series of tapestries made in the fifteenth century which were rediscovered in France in the early 18th century (purportedly by George Sand).   Much ink has been spilled in the years since trying to decipher the meaning of this tapestry.  The other five are now universally agreed to represent the five senses (see below).....but what of the last tapestry?  What is her desire?  The unicorn?  or a closer union with the heavenly father?  In that case is she renouncing earthly (sensual) pleasures, symbolically indicated by the placement of her necklace (worn in the previous five panels) into a box?  This seems to be the reigning interpretation at the moment, that freedom from the passions of the senses would ensure proper (aka moral) behavior.....Liberium arbitrium, so to speak.

However, I have my own interpretation.  I think the lady is telling her lover (symbolized by the unicorn of course) that she is ready to give herself completely to him, embracing all the senses.  The blue tent stands as a medieval "love shack" and the lady is actually beginning to disrobe (and as every woman knows, the first thing you do is take off your jewelry).

What do you think?  The thing I can't figure out is why William Morris never wrote about these tapestries (or did he? anyone?).  He had to have known about them --- not only did numerous writers write about them (Sand, Rilke, Cocteau...), Morris was clearly also an expert in the field of medieval tapestry.  I'm surprised he didn't write a book about them.

note added 1/29/10:  It was pointed out to me today that my hypothesis does not explain the presence of the lion in each tapestry and is therefore incomplete.  I agree.  I will continue to ponder the significance of the lion as I pursue my Grand Unified Theory (GUT) of the Unicorn Tapestries.

 

smell (making wreath of flowers/monkey smells flower)

 

hearing (lady playing organ)

 

sight (unicorn looks at his reflection in mirror)

 touch (lady gently touches unicorn's horn)

 

 

taste (lady eats sweets)

P.S. while we're on the subject of tapestries: here is a link to an article about contemporary artists working in the medium of tapestries that was in the NY Times yesterday.

"Vote Alan Measles for God" (2008), Grayson Perry