Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Design

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

A collected look, a mashup of cultural influences, a global mix -- all are phrases used to describe yet another idea influencing today's interiors that can trace its roots through Frank Lloyd Wright's work. Highly influenced by time spent in Japan, he embraced tenets of Japanese and Chinese design, including reverence for natural materials and an inherent simplicity and lack of clutter.

It's something that I feel is really resonant right now. We live in in a world where we can buy anything and get it delivered tomorrow. But we can recognize the humbleness and simplicity and purity of really thinking about everything that we bring into our homes. That was something Wright thought about as an architect, but it's an idea that can really benefit every homeowner -- just slowing down and taking time to choose and enjoy the things you have in your home. Decorating is a word that we use to describe how things can improve our quality of life, and it's not really about more things -- it's about, maybe, the right things or even fewer things.

Though he championed a uniquely American style of architecture, Wright's own homes and those of his clients gained richness and depth from a few treasured pieces of rough-hewn Japanese pottery, a handmade textile from Africa, or beautiful Mexican paintings. His display of handmade objects from around the world in the context of Modern interiors added a layer of educated elegance to his rooms.

The lesson? The world is big and there is much to gain from that.

Wright fathered a new kind of architecture and kept on evolving from there -- but more than a century later, it's the timelessness of his ideas that make his influence so enduring.

When you look at his work today and it doesn't look all that strange or new --that's because what he was doing has been incorporated into our daily life. We can relate to what he was doing because it has permeated the way we live today. He was trying to change the way we live and do something different -- to break through to that next thing -- and he succeeded.

Felix Candela: The Wizard of Concrete Shells

Félix Candela

Félix Candela

Félix Candela

Félix Candela

Félix Candela

"The Wizard of Concrete Shells," Félix Candela, is regarded as one the greatest Spanish-born architects of the 20th century. Candela is celebrated for his feats of architectural engineering that transformed concrete into visual poetry. Candela's visionary structural designs featuring curvaceous, thin-shell roofs based on the hyperbolic paraboloid geometric form departed from the dominant linear directives of the International Style.

Félix Candela was born in Madrid, Spain in 1910. In 1935 he completed his studies in architecture at the Madrid Superior Technical School of Architecture. When the Spanish Civil War erupted, Candela enlisted in the Republican Army where he served as Captain of Engineers until the republican's defeat in 1939. Following the war, Candela was exiled from Spain, and like several other architects of Spanish origin, sought refuge in Mexico, where, in 1950, he founded his company "Cubiertas Ala," translated as "Wing Roofs."

A year later he executed the "Pabellón de Rayos Cósmicos," or "Cosmic Rays Pavilion," which was his first structure utilizing his signature hyperbolic paraboloid geometry. The building began a decade of experimentation with thin-shell construction and the hyperbolic paraboloid form that garnered him international recognition, including the 1961 Auguste Perret Award from the International Union of Architects and a 1961 Gold Medal from the Institute of Structural Engineers. 

In 1971, Candela immigrated to the United States and accepted a faculty position at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois. Candela's final project, executed posthumously following his death in 1997 at 88 years of age, was the restaurant at the Valencia Oceanographic Park in Spain.

Zapotec Mini-Rug/Coaster Fiber Art

I recently bought some of these on eBay for my collection:

Hand-woven five by five-inch Zapotec wool mini-rug/coasters. No two are alike and it has been kept that way for thousands of years. Unlike the Navajo where women weave, only Zapotec men are allowed to weave these mini wool rugs, but the raising, sheering, and dyeing of the wool is open to anyone.

In these pieces, their 2000-year old heritage is as deep and fertile as the Oaxacan Valley of Southern Mexico where the Zapotec Natives have woven a culture from the fibers of their own strong roots -- dyed with design influences from the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Colonial Spanish, and more recently, even the “modern world."

Teotitlan de Valle, while maintaining a traditional standard of design which distinguishes them as time-honored artisans, have evolved their wool-weaving art; adapting and absorbing ideas from other cultures through history. The Zapotecs today, in weaving each piece, still use 100% sheep’s wool and natural dyes derived from the plants and insects of this rich region. The Spanish colonial floor loom was introduced during the conquest of Mexico, and has been adopted and maintained as the machine of the predominantly male craftsman.

A Salute to My Friend, Suzanne Kelley Clark: Joy of Art

Joy of Art

by Suzanne Kelley Clark

While painting on a beach in Mexico a woman came up and sat beside me. Occasionally she would gesture with her arms. Then another woman sat down near me and said, "She wants your painting, don't give it to her, she's crazy." "Really?" I said. She told me that she consistently did things like this to make money. Being in a place where I did not understand the language, nor the customs... I thought, well if she likes it that much, if it gives her that much joy... because she became more excited as I worked... I did give it to her. She lifted it up, danced around smiling and laughing, the other woman who was trying to help me, shook her head. But I have to say it was very satisfying watching someone become excited about having the small painting. 

Then later the maid in the motel room became very interested in the watercolors themselves, again I could not communicate with her. She looked at the tubes and the palette with excitement and longing. After she left, I went through the pack of supplies I had brought with me, made a pack including paint, brushes, paper and a small palette and gave it to her the next day. She almost cried. 

The realities I encountered there were so extreme. Somehow my experiences in Mexico made it clear why I am making art and also what an amazing form of communication it is. On my return, it made it easier for me to show it, sell it, and give it away.

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Suzanne Kelley Clark

Tantor: Another Painted Tarzan Cover from Mexico

From Tarzan #363. Dave Karlen has tenatively identified the artist as Rodrigo Orduna.

Kreegah! Painted Mexican Tarzan and Korak Covers

My pal, art collector Dave Karlen, got me interested in collecting South-of-the-Border Tarzan cover art. Dave estimates there are well over a thousand Mexican covers out there somewhere and we have been buying them up whenever we can. This one is by the artist, Betan. Being a "catch and release" collector these days, I'm sure I will end up flipping them. There is always more art than money!