Euroports - Iron Home&Garden



"IN AN ERA OF MASS TASTE it isn't always easy for the individual spirit to reveal itself. But happily there are irrepressible people out there-designers, architects, artisans-who insist on cutting the cloth of the world to fit a company of one. Call them obsessives or just perfectionists, these are people who must go to extremes, creating the sorts of environments that show the rest of us why the furnishings of a unique vision are usually one of a kind." Home & Garden 1999



I have a wonderful friend, Gail, who refers to this as making mud pies. Fun, magical, and in the moment. It also allows all the people who say to me that they are not creative to have permission to be creative. How wonderful to be able to makeover your room with the addition of a work of art in colors that show your love of life, your personality and your passion. These are the private things that make up our souls, some of which we do not parade in the world's eyes, in our conservative jobs, homes or cars. However, in our homes, our creativity can be gaudy and festive and can be rooted in the joy of showing our true colours. Creativity is mutable, and self-expression is the heart of creativity. The artist way by Julia Cameron encourages us to be our most colorful selves and to express our secret dreams and yearnings. This is where we can allow our heart to decorate and not our heads. I have an out of state client who is a VP for a major company and who has commissioned leopard coffee tables, handblocked marble paper decoupage table tops on copper metal alloys bases painted with trompe l'oeil and gilded ormulu. Much different than her day job! Often the client possesses a piece handed down in their family, and I share my thoughts on redoing your grandmothers old furniture: "Those pieces are like the clothes you have had in the closet for a long time, or your mother has had in hers. You rediscover them and wear them like they were never worn before". Andrew Reczkowski, a New York based designer, says, "Living with things from the past is a very tactile form of memory". What an eclectic sense of YOUR own expression to commission a work of art. If a client doesn't already own a piece to redo, sometimes, after seeing finished work in the gallery they shop in my studio for raw material. Sometimes a piece spoke to them and they just had to buy it, and it has the attachment of that special moment. But it didn't fit in with anything they have and it has sat somewhere unloved. Both of these are Serendipity. After we have our canvas, next we go to the finishes. What do we want this to look like? We usually start with my portfolio of completed work as well as what is currently in the gallery so you can see and feel the finishes and have a general sense of what your design aesthetics are. My thoughts on updating and embracing Classics: "This is much more about sensibility. Functional art. I try to come up with what I think will make this piece look NOW, au courant, respecting the past but representing what trends my clients are interested in, and interpreting into that what I feel at the moment". Then we need the colors of the surrounding room, fabrics, paint swatches, etc. And we start the symphony, we pick colors, papers, metal alloy finishes that appeal to you. Or, a client will know intuitively what color they are interested in. If we are building the room around the piece, which happens many times, we go directly to colors. Since everything is custom, including paint I send a colorway board out to the client with choices including paints, paper if appropriate, and ask them to live with it and then decide. It is so important to note that a sketch and colorways are only an aide-memoire, It's working on the piece, listening to the whisperings in your heart and soul as you connect with that canvas of living art, that is inspiration, not by working to the preordained concept. As an artist, I always retain the right to tweak the piece from our original concept. The results have always awed me, for in that moment you know you are just the messenger. The work of creation commences which takes time and requires patience both for the artist and client. Often if the client wants to be involved, I will email photos of the work in progress, or they will call and stop by. This can be a nail biting and exhilarating experience for the uninitiated. Very often when working with multiple glazes the in-between steps can look horrid. This is when there needs to be a mutual respect between the artist and client.
This is your completed symphony. It is ready for you to delight in, to cherish, to give, to adorn. On that final day, the client comes in to pick up their new creation, or we make arrangements to ship etc. and off it goes to a new life.