MoMA & Modern Atlanta

Modern Atlanta officially starts this weekend, YIPPIEEEE! If you aren't familiar, you should be ashamed of yourself. Here is the deal (straight from their website):

"The original event was born in 2007 out of a desire for an Atlanta-based forum diverse in content, eclectic in spirit, and international in appeal. Each year the event will be built on these aspirations, attracting a diverse range of speakers, exhibitors and attendees prepared to push the boundaries of applied contemporary design and urbanism.

MA’s aim is to embrace and connect a wide spectrum of practices including architecture and design, retail and trade, industry and academia, the arts, and NPO foundations. MA activities attract innovators, visionaries, independent minds, creative leaders, students, and non-specialist audiences with discussions on how design and innovative products improve everyday lives. MA provides the right conditions and venues for manufacturers and designers to successfully connect with businesses, consumers, and the public alike, by way of elevated local and international design exhibitions that expose all facets of the creative process including innovation and implementation. MA produces programs and events and provides marketing and promotional services for cultivating and showcasing the international design industry in Atlanta. These programs and services are not only a platform for professionals, but also an arena for experimental and student work, and a meeting point for the international community."

I will be doing my best to hit up as many of the events as possible but if you're like me, this is your busy season. I will for sure be checking out Karim Rashid at Pedini on Wednesday and I will be hitting up Room & Board for Annette Joseph's presentation.

All of that is good and well, but not the point of this post. Last night I had the privilege of being invited to the 25th Anniversary Dinner for Corporate Environments. It was a beautiful evening at The High Museum with a private viewing of the "Modern By Design" Exhibition, of which Corporate Environments is a sponsor. This to me is the highlight of MA2011, it's just a fantastic collection borrowed from MoMA and displayed beautifully. I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I didn't know that until I had already taken some, you're welcome...It is a really beautiful exhibition and each floor is better then the one before it. I got some really good pictures, but I don't want to ruin it for you. GO SEE IT.

This is a robot. He builds furniture. He is Joris Laarman's idea.


This is one of his tables.


It is made from zillions of these tiny metal cubes and held together with glue.


Super awesome. I used that light fixture at DIFFA one year but in white.


MWDA's Table for DIFFA 2008

Those cushy-cabbage looking things are cute. It took every ounce of restraint not to squish them down.


That's enough out of me (maybe even too much) go see it for yourself.
"Modern by Design" at The High Museum of Art
June 4th - August 21st

Water Lilies

I have an affinity for water lilies. My favorite Uncle passed away a few years ago and it really devastated me and our family. It was very sudden and very sad. He and I had a special connection and had so much in common, unfortunately the older I get the more I realize that connection and wish I had more time. We love old art books, peonies, Chinese food, San Francisco, jazz. One of my favorite painters is Monet, not sure if it was his too but I know he loved impressionist art. The last painting he worked on was one of Water Lilies. Not necessarily trying to emulate what Monet had done, but a similar concept regardless. The concept of water and reflection and how light modifies our perception of what we see was really what he was studying in that piece. The original panting is still unfinished and still in California. I will get it over to Atlanta at some point, I don't care that it isn't finished, I want it that way. But I do have a small painting he did as a test run. It lives above the fire place in my bedroom. Monet's Water Lily exhibition opened this past Saturday in Atlanta at the High Museum of Art. I don't think I have ever been so excited to go to a museum in my life. I know that I have seen those pieces before (they are on loan from MoMa in NYC) but I don't care, everytime I see them I am still amazed by them. Before my uncle passed away I went home to see him and he asked me to do one thing, something that I haven't told anyone before, he asked me to live a little bit of my life for him. I think about that often and always try to do that for him. Every time I go to a museum, have great Chineese food, or find a great art book I feel like I am doing that. Yesterday when I was walking through the exhibition with my Father was so special to me and something I wish I could have shared with my Uncle. Anyway, below are some photos of the exhibition at the High, I suggest, even if you have seen these pieces before, just go again, they are just so beautiful.

Monet built a large studio for himself so he could display his pieces they way he wanted. Some of the most impressive water lilie paintings are enormous and are tryptichs. He wanted to build an oval room so that the viewer would feel surrounded and completely enveloped by the water and beauty.

"These Landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession.
They are beyond the powers of an old man, and I nevertheless want to succed in rendering what I percieve." -Claude Monet

It is just so beautiful and impressive. This silly little photo doesn't do it any justice, truly it is an amazing work of art. The sheer scale and size alone is enough to blow you away, but once you start to study it there is a soothing beauty about it and it is hard to leave it.

This is my favorite. We have agapanthas growing along our driveway in California and this painting reminds me of home.