Weekend Edition #6
Weekend Edition #6
It's taken six weeks, but we've arrived at ART.
Hello!
You know what I love about art? Anything goes. Maybe not in the highly lucrative art market,1 but you just have to observe any pre-school art class to recognize the joy that comes with looking and making. And for me, that’s what defines art. What catches my eye and holds it? What keeps my hands busy? What makes my heart happy.
Whenever I think about the future and what I might want it to look like, I go back to the past. Some of my happiest memories are from the art classes I attended after school: painting small canvases in the garage of a neighborhood artist, learning fashion illustration in a small studio on the banks of the Delaware River, making messy pottery and waiting anxiously for the next week when it would come out of the kiln. I’ve always found flow when I’m being creative, and I’m always trying to find time to be more creative. As I get older, it becomes more and more of a priority. I think it’s one of the secrets to happiness, for me.
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon was an incredible artist who passed away this week at the age of 95. She was a graphic designer and landscape architect who carried out dynamic and innovative large and small-scale art projects all over the world. Everything from designing utopian communities like Sea Ranch in Northern California to utilitarian objects like street signs in downtown San Francisco. If you have a moment, please read this article about her work and life. In fact, go now. I won’t mind.
If you’ve stayed, I’ll share a bit more about Solomon. After her first husband died, she learned graphic design so she could support herself and her young daughter. She started her own graphic design studio in the 1960s and is credited with creating an entirely new design language called “supergraphics,” which was her unique blend of place and art. I’ll share some examples below.
She worked her whole life and despite achieving early success with one iconic style, she reinvented herself and her work many times over. A reminder that perhaps curiosity is one fountain of youth. And change is good. She was also a mother and grandmother who often remarked that she’d like to be remembered for “being a good mommy.” According to her daughter, “she died with Liquid Paper on her hands.” What a way to go.
[And incidentally, Liquid Paper was invented around the time that Soloman was starting her career by a Texan named Bette Nesmith Graham. She was also a single mother looking for a way to support herself and her son (Michael Nesmith, of Monkees fame!). She began secretarial work and then invented Liquid Paper in her kitchen as a way to allow herself and other secretaries to correct their typing mistakes. She ended up creating a wildly successful product and business, made a fortune, and started two foundations, one that supported women in need with shelter, counseling, and college scholarships, and one that collected paintings and other artworks by women. She considered herself a "feminist who wants freedom for myself and everybody else." If you have time, please read this article, too.]
These women! This art! What inspirations.
Have a wonderful weekend.
x Lindsay
P.S. Happy birthday to my husband, Morgan. Who is also my secret to happiness.
I recently had the opportunity to walk through the Sotheby’s contemporary art galleries with a friend who is a Vice President and market expert at the famed auction house. These galleries are filled with world-class art ahead of the spring auctions next week and are free and open to the public to visit. If you’re in New York City, go! In particular, look for the four gorgeous abstract paintings by Joan Mitchell, each representing a different decade of her long, illustrious career. It is such a treat to look at incredible art that is temporarily living in the city before making its way to museums and collections all over the world!