Summer Lovin'

Summer Lovin'! And by that, I mean summer lovin' what you already live with!

This is the best time of the year to be creative with old furniture and larger-scale objects in and around your home. Working outside or in the garage is as good as it gets. The ventilation of fresh air and summer breezes is ideal for painting and re-finishing. It reduces the toxicidity of any possible fumes and also helps projects dry much quicker.

Every person has one item. Yes, at least one item. I hear it all the time. Something of your Grandmother's; something in the attic from your Aunt Helen; something from your childhood. It has sentimental value yet it's outright character just doesn't seem to be current with your everyday lifestyle. Things are only old if you see them that way. That's why I choose to see things in the nature of their character and substance. It's much more enjoyable!!

My background in art is a clear advantage in being so attuned to color. I truly see in color -especially the antique pieces. While most antique pieces are exquisite, many more are simply exhausted. Color is easy, especially with the less-is-more approach of black or soft whites. One thing I love to do is to actually do layers of tone on tone for more depth in color. For example, I may do a coat of White Corn followed by a coat of Angel Food Cake followed by another coat of White Corn. It makes color much richer. Most pieces can be done with one quart of paint which can range from $8 to $12. How great is that?!

I love to browse the fire-sale paint table for great colors at great prices. At Lowe's in particular, if a color is blended incorrectly it goes on a table where the cost for a quart is as little as $3. You need to keep in mind however, that this color is a mistake so if you go with it, all that is in that quart is all you have, so make sure you size the scale of your project. You also need to read the paint's details as this table will have a mix of outdoor, indoor, latex, flat finish, etc. Make sure you get an appropriate type of paint for your project. Having said that, it can also be much more fun to break the rules! I know an artist who sells fantastic paintings for collectors around the country and her paints are house paints. You would never know if you saw her work! Make it all your own, however that may be!

The other fun way to personalize and modernize a piece of furniture, or a mirror, or a chair - is decoupage it! Decoupage is great because you can be designer-like and get papers that are in character of fine fabrics and cover pieces for a fraction of the cost, or in fact, cover pieces which couldn't be covered in a fabric at all, such as a desk. Or...and this is great for kids, decoupage with old wrapping paper from birthday parties, party invitations, and tickets from last summer's visit to Holiday World...add some pictures and its even better! Mod-podge is an easily accessible decoupage formula at most craft stores and the art supply store, Dick Blick.

The best part of lovin' and livin' with what you already have is that it is as eco-friendly as it gets. You are re-using and re-newing something which already exists and in other instances would become something disposable, which means, it woud have been added to a landfill which in a round-about scenario contributes to global warming. It's much easier, to me, to think: What color? than to think: How I am going to get rid of this?

It's summer! Live and Love!

Brown with Envy

Today I find myself in an amazing log home on a private lake in Brown County, Indiana wondering how it all came to be. Indoors I am surrounded by profound pieces of original artwork by a pair of the country's best-selling artists and outdoors, I am feeding foxes and raccoons and chipmunks. I begin each morning here by sitting on a calm lake under a canopy of lush maples thinking about very little. I find myself anxious by the evening to return to the same spot to do the very same thing, even though by day's end I justly consider it my day's "reflection". What absolute bliss to consider that my mind is simply "airing" out after way too long of a time. I have expressed to the home's owners, who are currently in Sante Fe, that they will need a crowbar to wedge me out of here when they return! I am not going anywhere. (Seriously, I am not!!)

So what is it about this place, Brown County? Coming from the great urban landscape of Chicago as my hometown I wonder how rolling hills and pastoral meadows make me feel more at home and in my element than anywhere else I can currently think of. One thing I realize is that this place allows me to be one with myself; at peace with myself. The "pieces" around me right now contribute to a greater sense of "peace".

I love the faded barns and side-of-the-road quick stops selling everything from rusty tractor parts to fresh strawberries in season. As I relate it to my effort with the Lost and Found shop, it makes me think of a little seed of an idea I had several years ago. At that time I had considered opening my own fine art gallery in Chicago's River North Gallery District. I had toyed with calling it "Peace by Piece". Clearly it would have had some upgraded graphic design associated with it, as to not be confused with an upscale bakery purveying fine pieces of chocolate cake (ahhh, peace by "piece"...of cake)!

Anyway, as I have explored the local venues of Brown County into Bloomington and all of the other way nearly out to Seymour (well truthfully, in that direction I was looking for a sighting of John Mellencamp, but even seeing a little pink house in a rural Indiana landscape would have been pretty nifty!) - what I love is that this area promotes stories. The scenery, the activities, the people and culture, and the collectibles. The distressed tables, weathered architectural elements, vintage clothing items, aged mirrors that are crackled and unclear - they are all so real. They are real. Things here are created, not produced...not mass-produced to be specific. I see wonderful items and I immediately find myself wondering where they have been: what's been their passage of time and their course of events. It's such a pleasant experience as opposed to simply coming upon something and being stuck in thought: where's this going to go?

So my hope is that the Lost & Found shop is seeding itself to be such a place rich in inspiration and story and vision. It's a twist on my urban inspiration from years ago: peace by "piece". I know this is quite a lofty ambition and I am not the pioneer of the movement in re-claiming, re-using and re-newing. Yet we all have our part in going green, and my visit to a county called Brown has only deepened and expanded my passion for this mission. For some time to come, when I think green, I will remember Brown....