New York painter Torild Stray, engages in an abstract painting language with figurative elements. Her landscapes are layered, her palette sophisticated and terrestrial. She communicates through visual concepts found in the subconscious.
The sole recipient of the New York Times Scholarship and the Agnes Gund Scholarship, she studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture and the Nordic School of Art.
In her most recent exhibition titled ‘Eruption’ she expresses a turbulent condition of the human form, with a series of the Male and Female cadaver. She works with brushes, palette knives, rags, and lithography. Collectors include Philip Isles a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rupert Murdoch; with a commission from a director of The Guggenheim Museum.
Black diamond ski runs, sleigh rides and ice-skating are just part of the winter activity at Viceroy Snowmass, a luxury all-year round John-Michel Gathy interior-designed resort, that sits seven miles from the heart of Aspen. In the warmer summer months, fly-fishing and American horse-back riding may be enjoyed with an Ute-Indian inspired wellness spa, available for relaxation throughout the four seasons.
Fitting in with the crisp-clean air of Colorado, guests park free if arriving in a High Efficiency Vehicle and for those with rates from $495, $150 per day spa credit is currently given to those who book for longer than a two night stay.
For more details on Viceroy Snowmass and updated offers visit www.viceroyhotelsandresorts.com
I met Wade Jensen and Moire Conroy at a coffee shop in midtown Manhattan for this story. Despite the numerous times I’ve met, you instantly get a sense of ease when you meet this pair. Perhaps it’s their laid-back style and attitude, whatever it is, their attitude and style clearly transcend into their design and creative process. I’ve been fortunate to see this duo nurture their jewelry collection from the beginning, and after months, I’m still amazed at the growth and attention they have dedicated into their craft.
After years of shared classes, honing and building their creative skills at The Art Institute of Chicago, Wade and Moire launched Jensen & Conroy in 2009. Their collection utilizes unusual found materials encased in various yarns and threads, giving it a cocoon like illusion. Their collection also includes large origami like bib necklaces and cuffs, folded into soft, avant-garde like flower buds, intertwined with brass chains. Some of their simpler pieces include, brass cuffs encased in an array of rich muted colored yarns, and various strands of necklaces with found objects encased in their signature yarn technique. Their collection like the times is constantly on an evolutionary ride, but still retain a rustic, artisanal quality to them. Despite some of the scale of the pieces, they are easy to wear and light. Often times you’re wondering if it’s part of the top or a necklace. They can be worn on it’s own, but when wearing multiples, it redefines the neckline adding a soft sculptural element to ones body. It’s a conversational piece, but a conversation you want to over hear and listen to. The collection is not for the soft-hearted, but someone who wants to make a statement without being over the top. Going forth, this duo plans to include scarves, headpieces, and add intricate rings to their already intricate family of necklaces and cuffs. They see their jewelry as vehicles to tell a story, whether it’s momento’s of their own or a clients, it’s personal and intimate.
As Wade and Moire continue to build their collection, their creative environment certainly aids to fuel this duo’s passion. Working out of their studio in Willamsburg, the L train often provides an eclectic display of people, not to mention the neighborhood itself. Wade and Moire find their community nurturing and inspiring. Like a blade of grass growing in the seams of concrete, Jensen & Conroy can be that blade between the seams of this concrete city.
Declaration of Dependence is about the notion of being dependent on someone being good. They say that the most important message in this album is how vividly it reminds us that making music together is not a game, it’s not something to be undertaken lightly, this record is part of a much larger picture, a long and involved relationship that has had its good and bad times. The third album by Kings of Convenience, which came about when Eirik Bøe and Erlend Øye met up, in 2007, on the same beach in Mexico that is pictured on the album’s cover. They went to perform in a concert in the city one month later, which was the first time they had appeared together in two years – and that was when they got the feeling that it was time to make another record. Delighted by their creation, they say it‘s “the most rhythmical pop record ever, that features no percussion or drums”.
LA mixed media artist Leah Devora uses her landscape to make holographic 3 dimensional art,by layering of multiple images and motifs, to create a time capsule that reflects city life and political controversy, and in Hollywood that has to be celebrity old and new.
While her work has already attracted a mixed crowd from the Urban, contemporary, trendy, creative types to the singers and actors in the showbiz town, it has also been featured on the sets TV shows Six Feet Under, West Wing, Entourage, Without a Trace, Vampire Diaries, and has been designed as interior murals in theatres across the US.
As we wait for her next steps in her work, which will be working with 3d motion and movement through digital layering, her paintings are currently made to order and come exclusively in custom sizes, which are painted in color tones from sepia, to rich, bright shades that pop-in-your eye.
Yukako Sakakura’s London debut ‘Texture of Life’ at Reading Room Gallery, Soho, explores the link between fine art and the theatrical moods behind an apparel designers palette.
With sharp-intensity and dark colour, she obsessively draws a mini character of herself, Kako, in a narrative that chases the emotions of her childhood memories under each thought-provoking title. Using acrylic paints on canvas and ancient sumi ink on paper, this is the first time that the Glasgow and Vienna School of Art graduate has stretched her work onto giant 91 cm canvases, retailing at £4,500. Sakakura has already held international exhibitions in Japan, Scotland, England, France and Germany, and she returns with her next collection during the next London Fashion Week.
4th October – 12th November. For more information visit www.readingroom.com
We have arrived at the crossroads of functionality and tailoring, where we comfortably find ourselves today. Conventionality can make us experience our surroundings through rigid stagnant shapes and patterns. The human body and its traditional stance are being challenged by the newly sculpted Spring/Summer 2011 collection “transorganic” by À LA DISPOSITION.
The composition of the collection was drawn on the premises that the imperative lineage of body and its adherent anatomy do not constitute restrictions in wearability. Organic playful silhouettes embrace our natural stance in the dark, whereas explorative pieces meet us in the morning light. Our corporal limitations will further enhance the obsolete characteristic lines of tailoring, by allowing for creative structured detailing, tight linings spiralling off the body whilst subtly lifting the fabric away.
The complex usage of feather light fibres, silks, wools and rich cottons, with complementing shimmering textures, allude to translucent lines, which transcend the outlines of human sartorial fixations. The selected fabrics envelop us whilst we profoundly indulge ourselves. The body, as a mere configurational drawing is uniformly filled in by the contrast between soft and structured pieces. Materials collide to form an array of futuristic chromatic constructed garments, without compromising contemporary wearability and feminine integrity.
For this collection À LA DISPOSITION has worked with its signature pieces: the classic feminine suits, dresses, fitted shirts and pants. Flanking the traditional tailoring of the S/S 11 collection are conceptual sculpted pieces, all of which are exposed to a desaturated colour palette, infused with grey, stone, black and silver tones. À LA DISPOSITION has crafted a line where forms and function are fused in an attempt to enhance our perspective on classic fit, proportion, colour and traditional high-end fabric.
Una Bella Vita picks-up the memory of Chelsea De Luca’s muse, art-deco artist and socialite Tamara de Lempicka.
The painter’s flamboyant soft-cubism portraiture captured risqué bohemians and the magnificent lives of the aristocrats that lived in Paris during the Twenties. Lempicka retired her career in the Seventies to live a life in Mexico, after times changed and glamour wasn’t existent enough to inspire her future works.
De Luca’s dedication to revive the vintage of the glitterati has gained her patrons including Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicky Hilton, among many of the modern day icons who follow her. Her signature pieces are bold as they are beautiful and depict the legacy of a long forgotten era. The Una Bella Vita collection uses strong estate-esque coloured jewels combined with gold.
Stockist details are available from shop@chelseadeluca.com.au
Pan Dei Palais is the love story of Bannu Pan Dei, the young Princess of Chamba, and General Jean-François who made their palace in Saint Tropez.
Today, the boutique hotel has twelve rooms that enthuse the luxury of the French Riviera with the charm of the Eastern Princess’ history. Twelve rooms are filled with intrinsic furniture, wooden floors and Iroko beds that have been hand made from pieces recovered from the ruins of temples in India.
The hotel promises that ‘Pan Dei Palais has kept the size and spirit of a family home while offering the services of a palace.’ For the epicurean who seeks scenery and recreation, the garden features honeymoon beds and large sofas canopies. The tea service is a daily ritual.
The Pan Dei Palais also offers a floating palace for guests wanting to relax around the Côte d’Azur with tranquillity. The Motor Yacht of Pan Dei has a length of 31 meters that sits in the port of Saint-Tropez. Five staff, eight beds and an indoor and outdoor living room are just small luxuries for visitors swimming or lounging on the French Riviera.
Prices range from € 195 in low season for a classic room until € 1,395 for the Two-bedroom in high season.
Angela McCluskey’s new single Handle with Grace , featuring TelePopMusik, is from her second album You Can Start A Fight In An Empty House. The video was shot in downtown LA with 1950s style soft-tint lenses, animated with digitally mastered origami birds that touch the music story as it passes on our screens. It’s the second hit single that’s a collaboration with the French electronic pop trio. The last, Breathe, became a massive global dance hit, Grammy nominated, and tailed with a round the world tour spent ‘Telepopping ’.
Angela’s distinctive soft-soulful voice has allowed her to move into numerous music genres. This album, her first solo in five years, gathers more eclecticism with artists, counting Guns N’ Roses Richard Fortus and a revisit back to TelePopMusik, among many. Eighteen thousand copies of this album sold in three days through a Face Book marketing Campaign ‘Take Five’ by her label Bernadette Records. You Can Start a Fight In An Empty House is available exclusively through Bernadette Online Record Store.
On the fifth floor of 240 Regent Street, there’s a fusion of two different cuisines in Aqua Nueva and Aqua Kyoto. The interior is art-deco with a bronze bull at the heart of the hall joining the two venues. The smell of Rioja wine is faint but fitting in the Spanish restaurant that’s decorated with crystal-drop chandeliers. In the summer nights, there’s a seated balcony holding a view overlooking the centre of the capital. Nueva holds an atmosphere that feels more bustling than the quieter sophistication of the Japanese restaurant in the next room. The menu consists of tapas, lavishly presented on grand silver platters, with other choices of riche-antipasto. Mains are not found on a standard Spanish menú del día, but served with tender meats and fresh bread baked in different types, and replenished throughout the meal. Aqua-spirit drinks are served in classic cocktail glasses at the bar, just after the exits of Nueva and Kyoto. This is an evening that would cost around £60 per person and it’s become a favourable haunt on the London social-circuit.
Who doesn’t remember their first digital watch. You end up fussing with all the buttons trying to set the time appropriately. Once that was done, how on earth do you set the alarm and utilize the stop-watch feature? The woes of a digital watch, but you can’t argue with the fun colors and themes they came in. As a child I wanted to be “grown-up” and didn’t want to seem juvenile reading time from a digital watch, so I didn’t give them a second look.
Long gone are those days, now that we’re wiser, and smarter I’ve given digital watches another try. Now digital watches look retro and can be considered “vintage,” and some look as if they came from the future. As a sports enthusiast I find myself wearing a digital watch 24/7. To measure distance, calculate heart-rate, calculate time etc. It’s always the case of “I wish I knew then what I knew now.” Now that I have the patience and need for a digital watch, they give a different connotation from when I was in grade school. When I see a fellow citizen wearing one, I instantly think “he’s an athlete, adventurous, and if the watch is colorful, he’s easy going and fun.” By no means should we judge a person by his or her watch, but our choices do reflect a part of our character. Whether you’re nostalgic and re-visiting the past, following fashion trends, or counting every minute lost or gained from a run, digital watches has become a great solution for everyday use regardless your lifestyle. Luckily with most digital watches you don’t have to think twice about jumping into the pool. Save your Patek Philippes for the boardroom.
Casio- $99 available at my.casio.com
Old Navy- $11 available at oldnavy.com
FreeStyle-$60 available at freestyleusa.com
Kenneth Cole – $95 available at kennethcole.com
Timex- $55 available at Bloomingdales.com
