The Art of Home

It’s been quite some time since I last posted, and this entry will shed some light on why.  Between working  and preparing for field research, I haven’t had time to do much else.  During the rarest of free moments, I’ve been spending time at home with Jenn.  Now, these activities might be susceptible to a bit of ridicule from Christian Lander, but hey, we are who we are.

We don’t really watch much television.  We generally prefer to hand pick from the finer entertainment options available on Netflix.  Yes, yes, we dig The Wire.  We dug the Sopranos, too.  It’s not because the hyper-macho foulmouthed dialogue makes us feel more edgy or something (though at times that’s entertaining in its own crass way) or even because the stories are that great (though humanizing junkies and gangsters offers big dramatic payoffs).  No, it’s really more about time, mutual proximity, and snuggling the pup.

Here’s the thing: we prefer chill time in an environment with some style.  We entertain often and we don’t go out all that much, so whether it’s dinner, dance party, or some other random diversion, it’s got to reflect a contemporary eclecticism.  Jenn and I moved into our place a few months ago, and we started decorating almost immediately by painting four of the rooms.  One of our first art hanging projects was to create a salon wall in the front room.

It’s an ongoing project that will accommodate new pieces and rotating items as we have time and space to shift things around.

Early in August, Jenn completed a painting project on a large heirloom mirror to really tie our central hallway together.  I had never hung a piece this large, so that was pretty interesting, but I got by with a little help from a curator friend.  As with many large frames, the wire causes this mirror to lean into the room slightly at the top.  That works out great as a quasi full length mirror directly between bathroom and bedroom.

One of John Wilson‘s originals from the robot/monkey collection adorns another wall in the same room.  He’s a badass.  We procured a trio of originals from another artist friend over the past year, too.  Olan Quattro, we miss you!  Your witty, francophile collage pieces adorn the wall in our den.

Those curtains in the corner are the latest addition.  As a gift for our fifth anniversary, my mother solicited suggestions from Jenn, designed these curtains, and made them for us.  We just got them up last weekend, and we’re really enjoying them.  Check ’em out behind our superhip extra-long-even-accommodates-pete-for-a-nap vintage couch:

All of this makes for multiple awesome places to read, study, listen, click, converse, chill, snuggle, eat, danceparty, or hold a woodwind quintet rehearsal.  More on that later.  Believe it or not, the pix for that rehearsal were taken on a 35mm, so I have to get the film developed.  Technological dinosaur lovers: holla!