Black Eyed Peas just got more delicious!

Silver Orbs Rinne Allen

December brings joys both new and old. In looking forward to the coming year, there is an inherent nostalgia as we pause to review seasons past.

Not so long ago, team EHD decamped for a southern idyl (rather a week or so of intense large scale installation madness) in Athens, Georgia.

Hotel Indigo Athens model room, art by Rinne Allen

In the midst of installing 5 floors of furniture, art and accessories in the LEED Gold Hotel Indigo Athens , we girls DID have to eat! We found culinary treasures- five and ten, the national, the grit and the Four Coursemen to name some faves. Local artists, gallerists and crafts people lent their talents to our project, and shared Athens' gustatorial gems.

The office end-of-year gift! Go to page 103 to ensure luck in the new year

And now what a joy to stumble upon this beautifully designed new cookbook by Hugh Acheson, the chef of one of our most visited restaurants. With photography by Rinne Allen who contributed beautiful work to the hotel decor, we put this into the shopping cart immediately.

Hand illustrated table of contents, love!

Needless to say, end-of-year gift giving just got simpler! Not a moment too soon because we are always looking for new black-eyed pea recipes to share on January first to ensure a prosperous new year. Throw in some cabbage (page 218) if you are hoping for more "green" next year!

Erica Wilson, we'll miss you!

photo © todd selby 2010, all rights reserved

The 'Julia Child of Needle Work' according to the New York Times

One of Ms. Wilson's popular needle work books

Former Erica Wilson students, Ellen and Beth Hanson, winding wool

from needleplay - highlights from the televison series "erica" by erica wilson , 1975

Sad news today as we learned of the passing of a great and influential crafts woman and artist. Impressing young girls on Nantucket teaching them revered needle arts...
Reaching into our living rooms and residing on our bookshelves...
Bringing us craft, color and joy...

You will be missed!

New York Times, Market Ready!

Photo by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times. Nice to see some recognition for STARK PAINT, our favorite palette these days!

 Well, it has been a long time, but we definitely have something to share today!
A few weeks back Ellen had a chat with Tim McKeough of the New York Times about the prudence of investing in sustainability to increase resale value.

What a great surprise when our inbox had notes from friends commenting on this week's Market Ready article. Check out the great tips from Ellen and real estate agent Jeffrey Schleider!

'Eco-lacquer' in a LEED Gold boutique hotel designed by Ellen Hanson Designs

LEEDers of The Pack

Copyright Hester + Hardaway Photographers, Fayetteville, Texas

We are very proud to share with you our latest article published in the on-line magazine, Introspective, at 1st Dibs.
The search for our favorite LEED buildings was enlightening and fun. We present ten dazzling projects here.
Which is your favorite?

Snow Day

Who wants to get out of bed on a day like this?
All I want to do is wrap myself in a soft, warm and specially colored blanket.
The color needs to match my mood and today's choice would be this hot red number from D Bryant Archie.

D Bryant Archie Throw photographed by Kristy Knight

Some people have to carry their blankets with them everywhere they go like these Maasai warriors who inspired D's Shuka Blanket.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons sharing, Brutere for Wikipedia

Most people I know leave their blankets on their bed or sometimes drape one over a cozy chair where they like to sit.

Ellen Hanson's Sag Harbor home
Photo by Anastassios Mentis

But Marie Watt, a native merican artist in the Northwest, has been working on a project that explores the history of wool blankets and the stories and rituals in these everyday objects. And she says "On a wall, a blanket functions as a tapestry, but on a body it functions as a robe and a living art object"

Marie Watt Marker: Axis Mundi 2010
image from PDX Contemporary Art

Marie Watt Conversation (Eastern Door) 2006
image from PDX Contemporary Art

If you want to leave your bedding in the bedroom but are sick of the way it all looks, check out this article in the Off Duty section of the Wall Street Journal where Sara Ruffin Costello explores alternatives to the fluffy down comforters of the last decade.

Paul Costello for the Wall Street Journal

 Sara, I agree, it is time for a make-over in the inner sanctum!
Sourcing antique textiles, fresh bedlinen and alpaca throws are on the top of my 2011 resolutions list. Warning Dear Reader: you may be a beneficiary of this effort.

Twist My Arm

While we here at Ellen Hanson Designs sing the praises of Reduce  Reuse  Recycle there comes a time when nothing will do but a brand new gift picked just for that special someone.
On a weekly basis we screen hundreds of blogs, product releases, magazines and shopping sites. And that is not to mention the weekly newsletters we subscribe to which pop up in our in-box enticing us to check back in  with sites like 1stdibs and etsy.

Looking through so many products one can't help but get some big ideas about that perfect gift. After posting a few wonderful  ideas on our Facebook page, we finally decided to make it official.

So, here for your joy and perusal, we present our fantasy secret Santa shop.
TV advertisers sarcastically ask "has anyone ever wished for a smaller holiday gift?" however putting this wish list together reminded us that although a folding bike would be awesome sometimes the best gifts are those tiny stocking stuffers that come in handy just when you need them.

Nature Morte

The change of season from late summer to fall along with autumnal bounty from the farm also brings a touch of sadness.  Once vibrant flowers and trees prepare for the tilt of earth away from the sun.  Usually I enjoy this shift, but this year we were relaxing at home in Sag Harbor when a small thud brought us to the kitchen door where we found this little bird had dropped from the sky. 

Dead bird of unknown species, help us identify it!
October 2010 Sag Harbor, NY. Photo by Ellen Hanson

I wondered if this was an ominous sign and spent some time trolling the internet looking for meaning. At first I found nothing but silly sites with psychic readings for $10 but then I started turning up images of dead birds going way back.  Seems they've been a topic of fascination with artists for quite some time.

Albert Pinkham Ryder  Dead Bird  c. 1890

The catalog of The Phillips Collection, The Eye of Duncan Phillips: a Collection in the Making  calls Dead Bird  a "powerful image," noting that it "explores a recurrent illusory theme: the coexistence of the corporeal and the ethereal."

John Singer Sargent Studies of a Dead Bird 1878

Turns out you can buy this John Singer Sargent painting on the world wide web for only $189 (oh and I have a bridge to sell you.)


This appreciation has persisted into modern work as well.

  Candace Bohannon on her Dead Bird "Though I go out walking in the woodlands often, it is rare for me to come across a recent carcass like this.  The forest teems with creatures that dine on such fare, and I just happened to be the quickest scavenger that day."

Candace Bohannon Dead Bird (one day study)
2010 Oil on Board  

Petah Coyne Canto VIII, 2008

 This taxidermic bird sports a feathered peplum, pearl-headed hatpins and cable bolts



Because of their connection to the sky, birds have often been thought of as a supernatural link between the Heavens and the Earth.

I don't know whether we had an undelivered message from the spirit world or a prosaic reminder of the impermanence of life, but as a next step in my meditation on this topic I plan to purchase some guidance

Getting Fired Up with Patrick Dougherty

Ketchum, Idaho 2010 Patrick Dougherty Installation, photo by Ellen Hanson

Ketchum, Idaho 2010 Patrick Dougherty Installation, photo by Ellen Hanson

This summer my husband Richard and I were the sponsors of a wonderful public artwork by Patrick Dougherty in Ketchum Idaho. The structure he built was a magnet for folks of all ages.

Ann Hanson investigates a Dougherty shelter in Ketchum Idaho. Photo by Ellen Hanson

Most of the time we saw little kids running through it squealing with delight but we we also caught my Mom posing in the window.

I think MY favorite feature is the porthole to the sky.

Patrick Dougherty, Ketchum Idaho 2010. Photo by Ellen Hanson

In reading the article about Dougherty in today's NYT Home Section I was surprised and thrilled to learn that Patrick Dougherty gets fired up by The Foxfire Books- a favorite with all of us here in the office.

This revelation sent me back through the pages looking for the connective tissue. Log cabin building is an obvious thread but the real "aha" moment? Hidden forest structures built to camouflage illegal moonshine stills.

These improvised frames were draped with twigs and saplings to create a forest room to hide stills in plain sight. Courtesy of The Firefox Book

While enjoying Dougherty's Ketchum installation my friends and I discussed why public art matters. My companions were the folks at Mercury Artworks visitng from Athens, Georgia. They had several ruminations on the subject. My personal favorite:
"Public art is like another form of wilderness. It pushes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to pause, and have a pure experience" Chris Wyrick

 

“Natural History,” five winsome wind-blown pods that Mr. Dougherty described as “lairs for feral children or wayward adults” photo and caption courtesy of Artslope


Dougherty brought his magic to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens at the end of the summer using saplings gathered in Staten Island's marshes and providing Brooklynites a wild habitat for its feral inner child. 

 I'm just surprised these guys didn't figure out the connection and move in!



Kings County Distellery, Brooklyn Moonshine



From No Man's Land to Woman's Work: Boltanski and Bourgeois

I was dumbstruck, while wandering through the recent Christian Boltanski installation, No Man’s Land, at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, to learn from one of my companions of Louise Bourgeois’s death.  What a strange place to hear of the loss of one of my favorite artists. It seemed the sadness I was experiencing was amplified like the human heartbeats emanating from speakers on black metal poles.

 

photo by Kristy Knight

I thought about Bourgeois’s many works made of recycled textiles as we wandered through a grid created by discarded clothing while a menacing robotic red claw mechanically picked up and dropped more abandoned clothes on a mountainous pile.

  photo by Kristy Knight

There was something desperately sad but very compelling about the experience. 

Bourgeois’s work could not be more different. She once said “my work unsettles the viewer, but nobody wants to be alarmed.”

 from Louise Bourgeois Aller-Retour: Drawings and Sculptures

And though images of violence are characterized in her early work, there came a feminine sensitivity, elegance and optimism that could not be more strikingly different from Boltanski’s work.

 Both images from Louise Bourgeois Aller-Retour: Drawings and Sculptures

I never thought of LBs work as being feminist per se but certainly her embroideries and textile art might place her there in some folk’s estimation. “the sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole”

 photo by Jeff Hirsch

Boltanski said "art is not meant to give pleasure but to ask questions and make people think"

Louise said "the subject of pain is the business I am in" 

she also made this:

 From Louise Bourgeois Aller-Retour: Drawings and Sculptures

We'll miss you, Lou

LAS VEGAS...NEW ORLEANS...LONG BEACH..MIAMI... and ATHENS, GEORGIA!

The hits just keep on coming...

Ellen Hanson Designs has been recognized along with Rialto Property Partners and Surber, Barber, Choate & Hertlein for their work on Hotel Indigo Athens.  Here is the feature in Hotel Lodging Magazine.

Here are more shots from the hotel

Love Your Mother, Earth

Workers prepare for first Earth Day at the headquarters of the Environmental Action Coalition in New York Theological Seminary building. Credit: John Sotomayor/The New York Times

 
We have a lot to celebrate here at EHD on this the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day.
Our LEED gold Hotel Indigo has just won an award and is in consideration for other recognition. We are proud to have beeen part of the design team for the ninth such such property in the world.

Over at Inhabitat Jill Fehrenbacher rightly points out that "Earth Day" is to greenwashing latecomers what Valentine's Day is to Chocolatiers- a great marketing ploy (but that there is a great value to the opportunity to raise awareness as well).

However, this day finds us with a renewed vigor and sense of excitement as we witness other companies in our industry committing themselves to environmentally responsible practices and organizations forming to help those of us in the business of making things understand our responsibility in it all.
We have a long way to go but we celebrate this day with optimism and hope. 


Here is a link to just a few more Earth Day related posts we've been persuing when we should be working today:
Earth days, the movie
How to Green Your Parents
Greenbloggers Speak: Does Earthday Matter? 

The Exquisite Creations of James de Givenchy

We have been very busy here at Ellen Hanson Designs...looking at beautiful jewelry among other things!  Ellen wrote a lovely profile of Taffin proprietor/jewelry designer James de Givenchy for 1st Dibs.

Poring through the photos of each exquisitely detailed and inspired creation has ignited some serious bling lust.  Some birthdays are coming up....

Please take a look and pick out your favorite here: 1st Dibs Introspective: Eye on Design with James de Givenchy.