Arts

Modern Love

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I’ve loved design and architecture for the whole of my adult life. While a Fine Art major in college years ago, I had considered studying design instead of scientific illustration (I ended up with a degree in Literature and Writing in the end…go figure..)

There are many different types of architectural design I like, but none so dear to my heart as Midcentury Modern – Desert Modernism to be specific. Brought on by a mixture of both the International style and Bauhaus Movement, each building has function, style and a grace that makes my heart go pitter patter.

There is nowhere else in the world you can find more mid-century marvels than in Palm Springs, California. Recently the Art Museum of Palm Springs (a fantastic place to visit if given the opportunity) opened the Architecture and Design Center in the historic Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan building designed by renowned modern architect E. Stewart Williams.

Palm Springs itself (one of my favorite places to visit in the United States) has managed to keep its Hollywood flare. It wasn’t a place stars like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and the likes went to bask on the beaches. It’s where they went to have dinner parties, lounge by private swimming pools like desert lizards. It’s where the cocktail hour was serious business…and still is.

I’ll not forget the residents of today though. They are as contemporary and modern as the architecture itself and I adore their flamboyancy. I’ll write about them in another post though. This post is strictly architecture and design.

I was salivating at the idea of the new museum so naturally this week I headed to Palm Springs.

Being a small city, I was able to walk to most places although I did rent a bike (a lovely city cruiser with a basket and bell) for three house early in the morning. This helped me cover more ground on my tour of homes. It was a sunny 75 degree and not a cloud in the sky. I had headed into the neighborhoods and downtown. I had wanted to view my favorite house – The Kaufmann Desert House. The Frey House II (designed by Albert Frey, another favorite of mine) sits on a hillside and is private so I was unable to see one of my other great loves..but oh well.

After my long ride, I showered, changed and set out on foot to the museum. First I stopped by the Art Museum to do some Christmas Shopping and see the exhibits. I then headed to The Architecture and Design Museum – saving the best for last.

Deep sigh….

It was quiet inside as it was mid-day and everyone else was having lunch or just waking from the last nights partying (they party a lot there.)

I was in heaven. The current exhibit, An Eloquent Modernist: E. Stewart Williams, Architect, showcases Williams’, as well as his sons, dedication to both good city planning and even better modern architecture.

I could go on and on here and I can’t recommend the exhibit enough. So for anyone interested, you can find more information at http://www.psmuseum.org/architecture-design-center/

With regards to my favorite Kaufmann Desert House, I was hoping the house, designed by Richard Neutra (http://www.ncmodernist.org/neutra.htm) would be open to the public in February during Modernism Week (February 12-22nd) but I believe it wont be (insert sad face here.) I will, however, be viewing the Frey House II (insert happy face here.)

Below are a few photos I took while on my cruiser. I’ve chosen not to convert them to black and white as I believe the desert colors are quite lovely. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.
-Frank Lloyd Wright

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Shadows Deep, A Photograph of Books

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WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
– W.B Yeats

Vintage Books, Tacoma WA
Vintage Books, Tacoma WA

Travel, A Photograph

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“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do.

At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves – that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.

If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.”
– Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

Travel - Jennifer Allison
Travel – Jennifer Allison

 

Janus, A Painting

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“Sensual and spiritual are not easy words to use; that there are, perhaps, not two
Aphrodites, but one Aphrodite with a Janus face.” 
– E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey

I am preparing for my first one-woman art exhibit in June at a local gallery.  This particular watercolor painting is rather large in size for me, but was always one of my favorite little sketches.  I tend to paint and draw sensuality as exhibited here in “Janus.” With this show preparation comes an opening of insecurities, moods of every shade and a sweet time of self-reflection.

Janus - Jennifer Allison
Janus – Jennifer Allison

Palm Springs, California and Amazon-Struck

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“I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t.”
– Marilyn Monroe

I’ve never been a Marilyn Monroe fan.  It’s not that I disliked her, or even thought her talentless.  In fact, she was pretty good in Some Like it Hot.   I’ve just never been one of those people to be star-struck I guess.  I’ve been poet-struck, humanity-struck, philosophy-struck and even love-struck at times in my life, however I’ve never really “gotten” the star-struck phenomenon.

Although when I was wondering around Palm Springs alone last Friday afternoon before heading home I found myself confronted with a 26 feet tall Marilyn statue.  Essentially the artist turned her into an amazon – larger than life.  Originally I was simply captivated by the photo opportunity but after arriving back at my hotel to pack my things I began wondering what it was about her, besides her look, that held so many people, including the artist who sculpted the statue, in such awe.  I spent some time while home researching the buxom blonde a bit more and found that although she was a stunner to look at, she also seemed to have a brain as well, which I respect.

In fact, the quote above seems suited for many people – myself included.  I find that when people actually take the time to get to know me – not what perceive me to be – but really know me – I often hear, “I had no idea you were an artist, write poetry, like to… [insert word here]”  Sadly, some of those people have been part of my life for years.

This amazon woman, standing 26 feet tall in the bedazzled and bejeweled city of old Palm Springs perhaps should have a small plaque beside her gigantic foot that begs the question – Who do you really know?

Large - Jennifer Allison
Large – Jennifer Allison

 

La Mar, A Photograph

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“He always thought of the sea as ‘la mar’ which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as ‘el mar’ which is masculine.They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.”
– Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man in the Sea

I’ve always loved Hemingway’s book, The Old Man in the Sea.  When I see an opportunity to try to portray the book through art of some kind, I’ll take a stab at it.  This photograph, taken in Bellingham, Washington, I thought appropriate.  I appreciate that the Old Man likened the sea to the feminine.  She is affected by moons, yes, but perhaps it is because she is all-encompassing and consuming as well….as many of us woman are.

La Mar – Jennifer Allison