We spend a considerable chunk of our existence(s) sitting and waiting, waiting for doctors, lawyers, clients, (potential) employers, jury foremen, auto repairmen, planes, trains, restaurant seats, ad infinitum. Why do we dread such down time? Because everything about the spaces in which we wait reinforces our sense of suspension, our sense of lost time, our sense that, no matter what work or reading we manage to accomplish in these interstices, we are doing nothing but aging. We sit in waiting rooms.

Cynthia Wylie would have us wait in sitting rooms. She re-Imagines the transitional space as a welcoming locus, a warm and lively-looking environment whose smart and charming details are boldly described and, ultimately, reassuring, reintroducing natural forces otherwise conspicuous by their absence. It doesn’t matter whether these handsome prints and delicate images define a public or a private room; they enliven the domestic setting no less than the common.

And, of course, these apparitions do not confine themselves to the walls. They climb down and insinuate themselves about and beside us, inflecting the objects that might surround us. Together they propose a gracious atmosphere, a lucid and unified “through-composition” that satisfies the intellect with its coherence even as it gratifies the senses with its sober beauty.

Wylie’s approach to design – her dedication to an integrated approach to interior elaboration no less than her complex but highly ordered and carefully stylized “language of form” – harks back to concepts and styles we regard as from a much different time and place. But, if we know that the decorous yet sensuous approaches of Art Nouveau, the Craftsman style, and the Wiener Werkststätte – not to mention their progeny, including Art Deco and the Bauhaus – are the day-before-yesterday’s avant garde, we find that the spirit, and even the manner(s), they unleashed upon a thirsty world a century ago not only remain fresh, but quench the same thirst now. Everything old is new again – and not a moment too soon.

One thing Wylie does that inherits so directly from high-Modernist hip is work and think as an artist and as a designer at the same time. She balances expressive impulse with imagined task, so that decorative detail re-imagines but grows directly out of delicately rendered image. The logic suffuses all the visual stimulation she provides us in her sitting-room concept(s). Each of her trees is at once a presence in and of itself and a source of attractively stylized symbolism. Each tree is not simply a unique figure, but a unique fount of genial heraldry. The pictures and the designs don’t simply talk to one another, they grow out of and elucidate one another. Meaning, balance, symmetric relation pervades these room-proposals.

Who wouldn’t want to sit here? Who would mind waiting here? Who would even want to leave? We wouldn’t fall asleep in such vivacious surroundings, but we wouldn’t be so damned eager to flee them, either. We would move onto our appointments with a certain regret, to be sure, but with refreshed purpose and sense of centeredness. And if we were entertaining or being entertained at home, we would indeed be entertained.

Call it win-win Werkstätte. Cynthia Wylie has rescued and renewed the transitional space, allowing us precisely the happy transit we need.

Peter Frank

Los Angeles

September 2010

Samuel Moyer Love Couch

Pods by PAD

I’ve been reading this old book that my friend Jan gave me entitled, The Science Of Getting Rich.  I forget the author’s name but I’m sure he’s dead because it was published in 1910.  Other than quaint references to the steam locomotive business and the nascent airline industry, it holds up pretty well.  His advice matches mine quite well and probably the reason why my show has come together in spite of myself and my efforts or lack thereof.  This is my interpretation:

1.  Contemplate, dream, vision, imagine, write down what you want.  Contemplate it in great detail but don’t obsess on it.  Release it.

2.  Have an attitude of gratitude in all that you do.  Don’t compete.  Create.  Be grateful.  Be faithful.  If doubts or worries creep in, thank them for sharing and ask them to leave immediately!

3.  Work diligently to make your vision happen.  If you have to do something else in the meantime (e.g. the day job), do it as diligently and with as much integrity as you possibly can.  Give your employer more value in work than he gives you in wages.   

Your dream will come to you.

That’s it.  I’ve been working diligently on my day job.  I made a list the other day of everything I’ve done.  I felt pretty good about it.  I released it.  Everything is going well.  Remember, the universe is always saying yes.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Mammoth.  If you haven’t been there yet, I suggest you get thee to Mammoth ASAP.  The winters are a fairytale of ice and snow and of course the skiing is great.  I’m sure my quasi-friend bought his place becuase he felt the same affinity I do with Mammoth and on some level wanted to just hunker down there for the winters in front of the fireplace, skiing days, reading nights, long walks over the stone covered streets.  But he does not because he has a non-glamorous business in L.A. that he has to work at all day every day and then steal away to Mammoth whenever he gets the chance.  And I feel bad for him.  In reality he is only living half his dream.

Then I thought, is that what I’m doing?  Am l living half my dream?  Because I have a day job?  Should I down-size, cut back,  and just cut out?  Quit my day job, paint all day?  Hell, why not move to Mammoth?  Buy a little cabin.  One with horns on the walls, thick slabs of pine, stone and everything painted black and lavendar.  Put my Bloomersberry wallpaper up.  Have a fire going.   Live my Whole Dream.  What is your whole dream?

And that’s depressing because she is the one who has helped me all along achieve so much of what I’ve achieved.  She is the one who keeps me manic working and painting all at the same time.  But now I know that I can do it without her.

My goal for my show is to sell every painting.  Have I mentioned that already?   My entire marketing effort is to invite all my friends and ask them to invite at least five of their friends.  Thanks everyone!

Last week was the first week of autumn which reminds me of warm colors even though it is getting cooler.  Orange, Brick Red, Umber Brown, Dark Green, Golden Yellow, Rust, Sienna.  I wish I was back East.  In the meantime it was freaking hot here over the weekend.  Finally we had a summer-like weekend, just when summer was over.  I had a great time painting a little – my wooden icons.  Working on my book.  Photographing my pillows (with Evan).  It was glorious.  Like a piece of warm bread pudding with cream on top.

I have to finish my book.  It is slow going.  Here is what I recommend if any of you want to do a book:

1.  Read the directions first.

2.  Make a little mock up book.

I have made all the pages.  I have chosen the font and purchased it – it’s very cool don’t you think?  It’s called, Aged With Style.  I chose the color for under the paintings (R -39, G-2, B-0).  I finished my wallpaper patterns for the opposing pages.  I have photographed the pillows and photoshopped out the background.  Is photoshop officially a word now?  And a verb?  Because no “you misspelled this word red underline popped up under it”.  Amazing.  And I have chosen most of the quotes I’m going to use.  Written my essay-in-lieu-of-bullshit-bio.  (See previous blog entry).  Still waiting for Mick’s essay and Peter Frank’s preface.  I was thinking this morning that I should also take a photograph of all my wooden tiles and drop that in.  Originally I was going to put in pictures of the furniture but I don’t think I have time for that.  I will email Sam and ask him but I would need them by tomorrow, otherwise I will not have a chance to get a proof and get the book in time.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute Ms. Wylie.

Additionally, there is a whole laundry list of things I still need to do for the show including the following:  pick up my large paintings at the framers, put hangers on the back of all my tiles, touch up my paintings, paint the sides umber, finish picking out the furniture and arrange with Sam the finer details (by the way, you must check out his amazing designs – www.SamuelMoyerFurniture.com).  I’m sure there’s more …

]]> http://cynthiawylie.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/the-book/feed/ 1 cynthiawylie Book Cover http://cynthiawylie.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/why-i-paint/ http://cynthiawylie.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/why-i-paint/#comments Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:53:21 +0000 cynthiawylie http://cynthiawylie.wordpress.com/?p=151 ]]>

Firefly Tree

It adds worthiness to my countenance.  I contribute something good to the world.  It makes my legacy richer.  I can give my paintings to friends and family.

It is fun to squeeze paint from a tube.  I love mixing colors.   I love juxtaposing unusual colors in surprising ways to see how they will look together.  I can make something more beautiful than it is.

Simplifying the world around me is soothing.  I can add order to my life.

Painting is exhausting and gratifying like exercise.   I can be physical.

Trees are alive too.  Trees have a life.  They may be the key to our survival.  I can send a message into the world.

I see the birds.  I hear the fountain.  I can listen to music and drink fine wine when I paint.  I can stand outside all day.

It satisfies my drive for accomplishment.  I can finish a painting.

My paintings look beautiful on my walls.   Like a ghost from the past, I can remember a scene I once thought meaningful.

What I am asking of you my dear friends and readers is that each of you invite five friends (hopefully those that collect art!) That is going to be my marketing effort and strategy.

More detail to follow …

Firefly Tree

People think that actions follow thoughts and feelings:  I am happy therefore I will smile.  But really in my estimation, thoughts and feelings follow actions: if I smile, I will be happier. I love that because it’s easier to change your actions than it is to change your thoughts right?!  And if you think about it, you can apply that to any area of your life.  Take art for instance.

If I work on my art, I will feel more creative and alive.

I put the pages and patterns of my book together this weekend.  Huge relief.  I love my new wallpaper patterns.  I spend a lot of trial and error time to get the colors right.  I will also put pictures of the pillows in the book.  I am waiting for the final product from my co-collaborator, embroiderer and designer extraordinaire, Mick Bender.  Mick does the most amazing work that you will see in the show and these handmade, hand embroidered satin and suede pillows are too beautiful to sell.

Try the action/thought thing.  Please comment back here on what you applied it to in your life and how it worked.