raising my glass...

drawing by Ross Albert

Here's to iconoclasts and inopportune love...

inspiration board saturday...

currently......

If anything you see convinces you that we're soulmates, please do let me know.

illustration by cocon

Previews of coming attractions...

Something beautiful is coming soon to "chelliswilson."!   Uber jeweler, Tracy Johnson, has honored me with the opportunity to carry her gorgeous work in the shop.  While the line is launching officially the first week in June (we're designing and building a custom jewelry case especially for Tracy),  I do have a few pieces now for those of you who might be less than patient.  In order of appearance....

fresh water pearl and iolite necklace with 18k gold toggle on the Pip-Squeak Chapeau alpaca throw....

rutilated quartz, tourmaline, 18k & 22k gold detachable earrings, also on alpaca...

18k lapis bud drop earrings on a linen le vestiaire de jeanne top...

the necklace again on Loup Charmant (detail of the "short nightie top")...

and "Tracy Under Glass"....

I know these ladies are certainly impressed....

Please email or call the shop (or come by and visit!) for pricing.

photo by Maria Alexandra Vettese

Ne plus ultra...

In keeping with the title....the above.  Cy Twombly.  For me, the apotheosis of the phrase "ne plus ultra".

There is little in life that surpasses the sensation of encountering something---a human, an object, an idea--that instantaneously bestows a certainty that you are in the presence of your ideal, your superlative, the Great Inner "Yes!".   Not inclined to suffer fools and being particular to a fault, I live to be seduced by whatever is excellent. In such fortunate moments, I gush, I rhapsodize. 

Here are some recently discovered examples. 

beauty every day...

A lovely record of the power of aesthetics, Mady Dooijes' blog, Abundance, nearly bursts with astonishing visuals.  Her eye never fails her and I never fail to be inspired by her discoveries.  Via Abundance, I was led here.  This video record of Yohji Yamamoto's Spring 1999 show left me speechless.  It's perfection.


the beauty and the rite of passage...

  Patrick Demarchelier's lyrical, sensual photographs in combination with Gisele Bundchen's refreshing attitude of common sense and positivity,  achieved something rarely seen in mainstream, American media: a portrait of pregnancy and childbirth as an experience both transformative and absolutely normal.  American Vogue was the last place I expected to find an unapologetic endorsement for home birth as a sane, intimate, safe choice, but find it I did.  Well done.  (This issue is particularly dear to my heart because, in a previous incarnation, I was a home birth midwife, and have experienced the power of home birth with my own children.)  As you might have guessed, I love babies!  And I was besotted with this.


the beauty of devotion...

With her most recent series of photographs, Proud Flesh, a powerful nude study of her husband, Larry Mann, with whom she has spent the last forty years, Sally Mann marks and instructs us once again with her formidable talent.   As literate as she is visual, her essay about this work is a testament to the power of deep trust honed over time.  I was especially moved by this paragraph:

And so it was with fire and ice, the studio woodstove too far away from the light to do him any good on a cold winter afternoon, that Larry and I began this work of exploring what it means to grow older, to let the sunshine fall voluptuously on a still-beautiful form, and to spend quiet afternoons together again. No phone, no kids, two fingers of bourbon, the smell of the ether, the two of us—still in love, still at work.

Something to be said for long term relationships?  Yes, indeed.

Read the rest of this essay here. (thank you, Kellen, for pointing me in this direction)

bonus beauty!
Take a vicarious journey through the American south by reading the journal of the Silt & Sediment project!



Ahhh....it's Sunday.  Stay in bed and read the paper.

On the occasion of his eightieth birthday...

"White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities."


Happy Birthday, Mr. Sondheim.  "Just keep moving on."

The return of the native...

I suppose if I'm terribly lucky, at least one intrepid individual is out there reading this. Because as you, oh lonely reader, know all too well, I have been neglecting this space for some time now.  In favor of?  Well...  Attending to my life. Examining my life. Probably too much, but I'm a chronic ruminator and it's my way....   And so, emerging from a month of obsessing about moral courage in light of the tragedy in Haiti and the death of Howard Zinn, of not being able to figure out for the life of me how to work full-time, be a mother to a young girl, and have any shred of a personal life (simultaneously), and with the realization that I have more interests and longings than one life can possibly hold; I'll edge my way back into this space with a small list of discoveries and a smattering of thoughts. The pile on the table...so to speak (see above.  I'm sure all my dearest intimates can find the secret message in the photo...).

Re Haiti:  Incredibly grateful for this post by Natalie Chanin that spoke to my own feelings of impotence in the face of such overwhelming need, and for introducing all her readers to the work and spirit of the extraordinary Alison Thompson, who is, truly, the epitome of moral courage.  Updates from Alison from Haiti here.


On those days when winter seems too long and reality too harsh, a few fantasies to deliver us...

The Fantasy Retreat.  Either a quick fling. Or true love .

The Fantasy of the Perfect Childhood.  I can't read a word of it, but now I know that Russia must be fairyland. Let's dance.

And finally, a reliable harbinger of increasing temperatures....The Fantasy Man.  Hmmm...let's see.  How about Sam Shepard in "Days of Heaven" circa 1978?

I feel warmer already...

Beautiful and honorable...

 

I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude when I'm in the presence of work that reminds me to honor what is both significant and intangible:  gift, vision, rigor.....ethics, grace, effort.  The top image is the brilliant work of Manon Gignoux, and below is "Epigram" by Paul Villinski (via Morgan Lehman Gallery).  I began with such beauty to put a bit of a cushion between you, dear reader, and what is about to be a bit of a rant.  And though blogs are supposed to be bastions of positivity and "keeping up appearances",  I have to get this one off my chest.  It's January, and in spite of our collective holiday hangovers, we are admonished to take part in the yearly ritual of the "SALE!"  The phenomenon where the consumer and the retailer do the stand-off dance for the sake of acquisition and clearing out, respectively.  And it's great when someone is able to purchase something they love that would otherwise be out of their financial reach.  What I dislke about the whole thing (here comes the rant part), is that it perpetuates the idea that price should be our sole consideration.  The American consumer is so obsessed with the idea of the "bargain", that the real cost of that bargain is mostly forgotten.  (see this, this, and this...)  Yes, as any friend of mine would confirm, one of the quickest ways to get me going is to utter the dreaded phrase "made in China" or something truly oxymoronic like "Rodarte for Target".  What is sold as "accessibility" is actually faux populism for the sake of corporate profits.  Consumer choices based on principles need to be applauded, not reviled as "elitist". 

There. I feel so much better now.  Thank you for your patience...

What, then, to celebrate?  I'd certainly start with all the lovely people whose creations I love, both the names to the right and the many, many other designer/makers who engage in thoughtful, timeless work. 

The unique.  The skillful.  Beauty that takes your breath away.  (this installation by Emily Ann Nachison has been astounding me for days...)  The poetry of a Japanese blog.

And tomorrow, maybe we should all be a little bit crazy and cause a scene.