artist’s spaces

Escape to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s Casa Azul

Transported via the virtual tour of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s Casa Azul in Mexico City, we found ourselves wandering through gardens, studios and living spaces: much-needed escape and delight.

Lost Bohemia: Inside Carnegie Hall’s Artist Studios

(Video link HERE.) For over 100 years,some of the 20th century’s most significant artists and performers lived and worked in the 165 studios that lay hidden atop Carnegie Hall. The studios were rented by creative people of all stripes, from fashion designers to painters and ballerinas, an eccentric mix to be sure. Some lived there.…

Artist’s Cool Precursors to the Pallet Bed

Artists Donald Judd and Martin Kippenberger both liked sleeping on a low platform, unbounded in the room…the precursor to the popular pallet bed?

House Tour: Jean Cocteau’s Villa Santo Sospir

An image of bookshelves set into a wall painted by Jean Cocteau sent us looking for its origin, which is we discovered, is Villa Santo Sospir, the artist’s home in the South of France. And such a home it is. Cocteau used the walls and other surfaces — even lampshades — as the canvas for his drawings, transforming the house into magical dwelling.

How Often Do You Just Hang Out and Make?

Our new favorite interiors blog for its inspiring, REAL undesigny spaces is Bohemian Homes. This image reminded us of when we used to hang out on a rug and draw… …hmmm. Why not now? With thanks to Maria Robledo.

Francois Halard’s Big Book of Interiors

Among the very effete and interesting spaces of famous artists, designers and tastemakers in Francois Halard, a retrospective collection of the famed interiors photographer’s work are images that are VERY Improvised Life.

seth godin on creatives: ‘there’s only what works for you’

In the course of a year, quite a few people ask me for advice about how to DO what they dream of doing. Many, not all, are writers. The question is not about how to achieve success, but simply how to start and keep going. It is a central question of the creative process. Seth…

maira kalman's real apartment and her dream apartment

maira kalman’s real apartment and her fantasy one

In the new Spring Design Issue of New York Magazine, artist Maira Kalman talks to longtime neighbor and friend Isaac Mizrahi about how Tel Aviv has influenced her New York apartment. The two images of Kalman’s apartment shows a warm, personal, comfortable, loose space, very different from the stark interiors of so many other designer’s…

pablo neruda’s poetic houses (+ his ‘ode to the present’)

Last October, we wrote about our friend’s advice to start the day reading something uplifting or illuminating rather than jumping online; since then, we’ve put the idea into practice. More often than not we read poetry, often out loud, and lately have found ourselves totally smitten with the odes of Pablo Neruda, which express a zen-like awareness…