Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Artist
Billy Sullivan is a painter who is obsessed with his and other people's dogs. I met Billy last summer with his husband Klaus at Malcolm Morley's house for dinner. We didn't talk dogs but we will from now on.
You probably know me through my Instagram project @PickleBeholding. What you may not know is that I started the Instagram project because I work as a private art advisor for individuals and companies. In other words, I help people figure out what art to buy within their budget and taste. A lot of that work is taking away the stigmas and fears of feeling uneducated enough or not wealthy enough to appreciate and buy art. You don’t have to be super educated to appreciate contemporary art. Liking it is appreciating it, and if you like it enough to want to live with it, you should.
Beverly Allan introduced me to the work of Lia Chavez, a visual and performance artist who divides her time between Brookhaven Hamlet and Manhattan with her husband, David Shing, a futurist and their rescue dog London. Lia will be performing a piece entitled, "Light Body", a contemplative dance piece this Saturday at the farm of Isabella Rossellini. "The performance marks the artist’s emergence from a 40-day vow of silence. Inspired by John Cage’s renowned experiments with sensory deprivation and historical accounts of activating the light body through deep meditation, Chavez has drawn upon the mystical concept of “feasting on light” — a reference to the Yogic practice of sustaining the physical and energetic bodies with meditation and the breath.
The visual artworks created over this period will be the subject of a private exhibition at Isabella Rossellini's home concurrently. (Beverly Allan and Nur EL Shami's press release).
I had a run in Portland the other day and came across these amazing paintings that, of course, had dogs in them. I made my way into in the Froelick Gallery to find out about the artist Rick Bartow and learned that he had passed away last April. When I asked the gallery about the dogs in his work this is what I found out, "Rick said when he didn’t have an idea of what to paint or draw he would look to a dog for inspiration - they were always doing something they “shouldn’t”." Of course they were, as they always do.
Creative director extraordinaire with the likes of Tommy's such as Hilfiger and Bahama under his belt, Ferdinand is also a brilliant illustrator with a knack for twisting words and waving wands!
Here at Mrs sizzle we delight in a group of Ferd animal inspired illustrations that make me smile every time I look at them!
Anne DeVito loves dogs. So much so that she recently had a book come out called DOG LOVE, published by Penguin Books, that features different breeds of dogs. It was with great pleasure that I received this delightful book and a surprise piece of art for my very own of the Sizzle sisters! It inspired me to reach out to this wonderful artist and toss her names of a few of my favorite instagram accounts that highlight dogs, to inspire some new illustrations!
Thankfully I am able to expand on this notion of Robert and dogs to announce a new book out entitled, "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Archive", by Frances Terpak and Michelle Brunnick. It is with painstaking detail that this meticulous collection of Mapplethopre art and artifacts are brought to life by the two authors. Robert Mapplethorpe was my boss and a prolific artist. He, "challenged the limits of censorship and conformity, combining technical and formal mastery with unexpected, often provocative content that secured his place in history. Mapplethorpe’s artistic vision helped shape the social and cultural fabric of the 1970s and ’80s and, following his death in 1989 from AIDS, informed the political landscape of the 1990s. His photographic works continue to resonate with audiences all over the world.
When I left Glamour magazine, I was lucky enough to be given an original Kaitlin O'Connor drawing by Kelly Sherin, one of the brilliant photo people in the Glamour photo department at the time. I was seriously blown away by the gift and it hangs in my office, above where Edie and Clair now sleep, while I work. I reached out to talk to the artist about her work:
If we're going to be honest, when we walked into the studio of the artist Alexis Rockman, the primary purpose was to meet his dog. Instead, what we found were magical drawings on the wall - the results of a 20 years study about indigenous species and his collaboration with scientists along his travels. The most fascinating part about the drawings is that they are made from organic materials that Alexis found locally in the locale of each particular animal he paints. His show, Natural History of Life in New York City, opens at Salon 94 in April. That's all I will reveal about the art now as we are here to learn about Padme, Alexis Rockman's dog.
Author, illustrator, stylist and most importantly, dog lover, Julie Muszynski loves to draw dogs. So it only seems appropriate to present some of her gorgeous work on Mrs. Sizzle while the Westminster Dog Show is in full swing!
Seventy years before there was Grumpy Cat, there was Walter Chandoha. Chandoha's gorgeous, candy-colored photos of adorable cats literally defined the genre of cat photography for more than seven decades, and his new book, Walter Chandoha, The Cat Photographer, published by Aperture features his 50 best images.
How divine are these please!? Imagine artist Denise Fiedler in San Francisco collaging her life away! As she calls it the collages are her reuse project- "I use vintage and discarded books for the collage paper." First she paints the subjects and then her scissors go wild. Of course what caught my eye were the dogs as my best friend Peg Patterson gave me some from her store DISH in Hudson, but the people are pretty exciting too.
To learn more about how to get your pets portrait done click here. It's so fun!
Love of their lives, Ines and Vinoodh post Leo's pic every day at @INEZVINOODH. I don't know who is cuter, Leo or their son Charles!
