I love Leslie W and her books, so special. Have been hoping for a proper Spyplane interview w her. Lovely person, great to talk to. When it comes to artists homes, no one has done it better.
For more of that Capp St feeling, I highly recommend Artists at Work by David Seidner, large format photographs of artists in their studios. Jasper Johns, Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra, John Cage, Joan Mitchell. Some really great spaces.
Also rec Calder at Home by Pedro Guerrero, absoluuuute slapper, showing his homes and studios in France and Connecticut.
Accidentally walked into this house some time in the summer of 2023 and I often think about the broken window upstairs and the tapes full of word associations of things he saw on the street
My gf has been asked multiple times by the newsletter of her workplace to share our house, mostly because shes 'the artsy/creative one' and people have seen snippets through videocalls. Even though we have an admittedly very cool house, she hates being asked to show people and has declined to multiple times, mostly because of the feeling youre describing here.
Needed this post after the new puppy chewed a hole in the corner of my cherished Robin Day lounge chair. I think it can be mended but will try reframing it as ‘life patina’. Probably a sign I need to stop treating my furniture like a sculpture collection!
OK this part: “Creation” and “destruction” are closer than we sometimes realize. As someone who grew up in a crumbling Victorian my parents were trying to DIY restore, that rings especially true to me. Also, I would much prefer how David Ireland shaped this home to the awful millennial grey gut rehabs we see of many old houses.
Ah, I love this. Hadn’t know about David Ireland or his home — or, for that matter, that Robert Frank and June Leaf’s building had gone on the market. Looking at your photos of Ireland’s place (which are very WOI, in a good way) and those in the link about Frank and Leaf’s, the thing that unifies them for me, in addition to the fact that they feel like extensions of the artist-inhabitants’ work, is how little stuff is in them. The décor is not minimalist, per se, but there doesn’t seem to be much clutter, making the things that are there, like the jars of sawdust (or the fridge in Frank and Leaf’s kitchen — wow!), pop even more. Who knows if there was more clutter when these artists were alive, but the lack of clutter (as opposed to what I see when looking in any direction in my own home), is really something to aspire to.
(Also, I love how Ireland polyurethaned layers upon layers on his walls — reminds me of the part in “Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees” in which Robert Irwin talks about how applying layers of paint to the hot rods he worked on as a teen, even in places no one would ever see, later informed his art practice, and his insistence that there is no distinction between people who work on cars in this way and “real” artists.)
yeah i think house tour photos always eliminate some of the detritus of actual humans living actual lives, and more to the point there's a certain zero-clutter look that risks feeling antiseptic and cold, but that's definitely not the case here (nor with Frank's and Leaf's spot)
I love Leslie W and her books, so special. Have been hoping for a proper Spyplane interview w her. Lovely person, great to talk to. When it comes to artists homes, no one has done it better.
For more of that Capp St feeling, I highly recommend Artists at Work by David Seidner, large format photographs of artists in their studios. Jasper Johns, Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra, John Cage, Joan Mitchell. Some really great spaces.
Also rec Calder at Home by Pedro Guerrero, absoluuuute slapper, showing his homes and studios in France and Connecticut.
Accidentally walked into this house some time in the summer of 2023 and I often think about the broken window upstairs and the tapes full of word associations of things he saw on the street
Love seeing David Wilson’s reflection in the round mirror
crazy opening sentence
thought about writing it any other way, simply wasn't possible
You're onto something.
My gf has been asked multiple times by the newsletter of her workplace to share our house, mostly because shes 'the artsy/creative one' and people have seen snippets through videocalls. Even though we have an admittedly very cool house, she hates being asked to show people and has declined to multiple times, mostly because of the feeling youre describing here.
Needed this post after the new puppy chewed a hole in the corner of my cherished Robin Day lounge chair. I think it can be mended but will try reframing it as ‘life patina’. Probably a sign I need to stop treating my furniture like a sculpture collection!
pets really are unparalleled patina creators ; )
Please talk to my cats about using my antique rugs as scratch pads
OK this part: “Creation” and “destruction” are closer than we sometimes realize. As someone who grew up in a crumbling Victorian my parents were trying to DIY restore, that rings especially true to me. Also, I would much prefer how David Ireland shaped this home to the awful millennial grey gut rehabs we see of many old houses.
100%
Ah, I love this. Hadn’t know about David Ireland or his home — or, for that matter, that Robert Frank and June Leaf’s building had gone on the market. Looking at your photos of Ireland’s place (which are very WOI, in a good way) and those in the link about Frank and Leaf’s, the thing that unifies them for me, in addition to the fact that they feel like extensions of the artist-inhabitants’ work, is how little stuff is in them. The décor is not minimalist, per se, but there doesn’t seem to be much clutter, making the things that are there, like the jars of sawdust (or the fridge in Frank and Leaf’s kitchen — wow!), pop even more. Who knows if there was more clutter when these artists were alive, but the lack of clutter (as opposed to what I see when looking in any direction in my own home), is really something to aspire to.
(Also, I love how Ireland polyurethaned layers upon layers on his walls — reminds me of the part in “Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees” in which Robert Irwin talks about how applying layers of paint to the hot rods he worked on as a teen, even in places no one would ever see, later informed his art practice, and his insistence that there is no distinction between people who work on cars in this way and “real” artists.)
yeah i think house tour photos always eliminate some of the detritus of actual humans living actual lives, and more to the point there's a certain zero-clutter look that risks feeling antiseptic and cold, but that's definitely not the case here (nor with Frank's and Leaf's spot)
One hundred percent. These spots, unlike in other house-tour photos, as you mentioned, do feel lived-in.