the beach + west coast + design = easy love affair

I grew up in Arizona, but would often spend my summers on the beach with my cousins in SoCal. Every year I'd look forward to the return to Bolsa Chica, where we would stake out all day and all night, arriving clean in our bathing suits and driving home with sand stuck in all our layers. I have always been drawn to the beach--the infinite sand, the sun that bakes, the resourcefulness of finding things you need when you forgot to bring them, the random assortment of people sharing the space, the predictable tide, the unpredictable wind, that bonfire smell that stays stuck on your hoodie forever, the shells you collect that inspire dreams, the infinite cycle of life.

The notion of a beach, the ocean, that massive body of water that separates land...is a hard thing to conceptualize, but I think it is precisely this complicated environment that has inspired much of what we call west coast design. Sustainability, mixed-media, industrial chic, casual function and inspired reuse are a few prominent themes at the New West Coast Design 2 (NWCD2) exhibit that just opened at the Museum of Craft and Design.

Featuring 60 works from artists/architects/interior, fashion, industrial designers/craftspeople of California, Oregon and Washington, the show is a nice sampler of what is currently going on in the world of west coast design. I was impressed by the variety of pieces and creators. The new museum space is just gorgeous, small enough to be intimate but big enough to wander a bit. Check it out (each photo below links to artist/designer) and then check out the West Coast Craft show next weekend to find even more designers--I'll be there with Etxe and my friend Jane who makes mixed-media collages.

West Coast Design 2 October 26, 2013 – January 05, 2014 Museum of Craft & Design

West Coast Craft November 16th & 17th 10am - 6pm Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion

Pop-Up Shop + Calavera Face Painting

Come visit me + lots of friends at our first Pop-Up Shop!

Do some pre-holiday shopping, get your face painted and grab a glass of wine. Stick around for dinner, check out the altars at Garfield Park and then walk the parade.

From hand-illustrated calendars to yoga pants, handcrafted accessories to clothing for modern tomboys, skin-to-skin baby carriers to unique jewelry, this pop-up shop will have something for everyone.

Every piece is locally made in San Francisco or California (even the wine :). Artist Kimberly Malachowski will be offering calavera face painting for those that want to prep properly for the Día de Los Muertos parade, which starts at 7pm.

Happy hour specials for all wine and beer on tap, and dinner will be available after 5:30pm.

Drink, shop, and play local. Celebrate death by living the life!

La Movida Wine Bar 3066 24th Street, San Francisco 94110 Saturday, November 2nd 2-5pm RSVP here

three jackets I'm thinking about...

Moncler applied to enter the Italian Stock Exchange earlier this week, following the latest trend of designers to tap into luxury retail via going public, but wait what about these coats?! I've always loved Mary Katrantzou's prints and have been loving the Moncler M collection. While it seems all the pieces satisfy the form and function needed for winter wear, these are my favorite prints and bodies. And from her own line, Katrantzou's leather jacket is just gorgeous--a much better use of ombre than on your hair. Buy some Moncler stock and maybe you can afford the price tag.

cowhide sculpture

Sometimes, meat really, really disgusts me. Not just how it is handled and processed, nor the industry that enables us to eat it (I have yet to read Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight), but the pure carnality of it is sometimes shocking.

Cowhide on the other hand, is fascinating. I know it isn't really like using all the parts of an animal, but I like to think that by utilizing already existing cowhide you are being somewhat sustainable. If I ever got over my inability to look at raw meat for long periods of time, I would be interested in raising a calf and then, when the time comes, use every part of its body like my mom's family did when she was little (though, it did kind of scar her for life. I, instead had goats growing up and we never had to eat them). For now, I'll stick with eating eggs from my parent's chickens, and maybe finding a use for their fallen feathers.

South African sculptor Nandipha Mntambo also has a fascination for cowhide, creating ghastly yet beautiful fashion-forward sculptures out of them. Read more about her work in this article on Art Practical and hear her speak at this SFAI Visiting Artist Lecture event on Wednesday, November 6th.

And if you are into a more traditional use of cowhide -- check out my handcrafted mini wallet in our online shop.

Jay DeFeo and Helen Frankenthaler in progress...

it takes time, and work, and patience, and intuition and a lot of natural beauty...

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

And the color of the year is...

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One day, a long time ago, my little sister was painting her room. She picked out the colors herself and spent all day working. I would go in periodically to check, but she wouldn't let me look. Finally, when she was finished, she pulled me in to see her masterpiece.

I scanned the walls and told her she did a great job. But then, I noticed some blue on the cherry railing. In fact, the whole cherry railing was the color of the tape blue. I said, maybe you should take off the painter's tape? And her face just melted. There was no painter's tape, she just picked paint that was the exact shade of painter's tape.

I laughed so hard that eventually she turned from embarrassed to mad and kicked me out of her room. I still feel bad about that, but she did later admit the shade was awfully close. Which is how I feel about Pantone's 'dazzling blue' (18-3949), one of the proposed colors of Spring 2014. A bit like painter's tape, don't ya think? I love it in these pieces nonetheless. You never know what gets stuck in your memory.