Cindy's Salon

February 2, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

I made several more visits to the Winter Antique Show last week. Over the days, the sculpture particularly stood out. There are many remarkable examples.

I think there is a dichotomy between people who like sculpture and those who prefer paintings. Many “painting people” tend to disregard sculpture as well as much of the decorative arts. Gillian Wilson pointed out this difference to me when she was curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She once told me, “I know what is in all the paintings galleries, but the curators of paintings never look in mine.” Then she added that I need to know the relationships between all mediums. Her observations made me start asking, “Are you a paintings person ...Read More

January 26, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

For many years, I have helped with the decoration and arrangement of Titi Halle’s booth at the Winter Antique Show. She owns Cora Ginsburg, which is the premier gallery for antique and historic textiles. Last year I wrote a posting about Cora.



Titi carries on a tradition of the gallery exhibiting at this august show. The Winter...Read More

January 20, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Last year I wrote here about what to save and what to give away in a posting titled “What to take with you to Assisted Living." I described moving my cousin Carolyn Baxter into what was called back then "the old folks home" and the process of going through her possessions and helping her to decide how to furnish her room.One of the things she chose to bring was this prized volume, "White Hyacinths" by Elbert Hubbard, from 1907, its full title reading:

"So here cometh White Hyacinths, being a book of the heart by Elbert Hubbard wherein is an attempt to body forth ideas and ideals for the betterment of men, eke women, who are preparing for life of living."

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January 12, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

"Inspiration, Creativity and The Design Process” is the topic of a panel discussion being sponsored by Luxe magazine that I will be participating in this Thursday at the Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) in Ft. Lauderdale. While I was organizing my slides for it, I realized they would also make for an interesting blog.

Designers are inspired by so many different things, so the idea of limiting oneself to seven ideas, as I had to for this talk, would be difficult for anyone. I have narrowed my list and shown how the ideas ended up manifesting themselves in my designs. Inspirations can be so non sequitur and happily, I find so many of them. I thought it would be appropriate to share them here.

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January 5, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (5)

I have been working in the sitting room of our New Orleans apartment where a pair of large golden wings sits in one corner, and a wall clock shaped like a pocket-watch leans against the hearth, both fragments of my costume of Father Time from several Mardi Gras ago. I have been actively and passively thinking about time and its absence as New Year’s Eve approaches and several important dates loom large: Carnival season which starts on Twelfth Night (January 6), Mardi Gras (early this year on February 16) and the deadline for the text of my forthcoming book, “The Finest Rooms” (December 31).

I have long been fascinated by images of Father Time, the iconic old man, naked save for some modest drapery and always armed with a scythe. He ap...Read More