Adornment With An Edge - Jewelry by Joomi Lim

Joomi and I  became fast friends at one of her sample sales a couple of years ago where she featured hair pieces and jewelry. I was immediately taken with her fresh take on all things sparkly. Her creations featured unique shape and color combinations that are guaranteed to reveal every woman's inner good girl/bad girl simultaneously. I always walk away with a new piece of glitter and twinkle, along with a list of must-haves from her upcoming line.

Joomi's collection has been featured in various boutiques throughout the city, in magazines, on Gossip Girl, and even on Rhianna during her New Year's Eve performance in Rockefeller Center. This week, to my surprise, she tucked this gorgeous little nugget (pictured) in with one of my recent orders. Despite the tough-girl appearance of this gold-toned spiked necklace, it looks great with anything from the jeans/t-shirt combo or to offset that frilly dress hanging in your closet. It almost redefines that timeless string of pearls, and is destined to become a new classic. Best of all, it will be available at the one and only Bergdorf's starting this week!

Blog Feature and Interview - KLM Photos

Fellow Etsy seller, Kate, from KLM Photos has recently featured me on her blog. You can read my artist interview here!

Favorite Places - Storm King

This weekend, I am happily housebound by nasty winter weather and reflecting on one of my latest roadtrips. This past November, I rented a car and drove upstate to the Storm King Sculpture Park. It's located a little over an hour north of New York City in the Hudson Valley, and is a peaceful, meditative place settled on 500 acres of rolling fields. On nicer days, you can pack a lunch and spend the entire day looking at massive outdoor sculptures by prominent artists (Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Maya Lin, Andy Goldsworthy, and Mark di Suvero) while taking in a breath of fresh air. To us cramped New Yorkers, this is a place where you can run around freely, roll down the leaf-covered hills and dales (guilty), and hear the echo of crows calling to one another in the otherwise silent landscape. I've been to this wonderful outdoor sanctuary for the arts (and the soul) about three times. I often get carried away when I start taking photographs, especially of places as beautiful as this - here are some of my favorites.

Herb and Dorothy - Movie Review

Last week, I saw a quirky documentary about two senior citizen art collectors, Herb and Dorothy Vogel. This activity, typically reserved for the ultra-rich was accomplished by two people living on very modest budgets- Herb a postal clerk, and Dorothy, a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn Heights. Herb, a self-taught art lover with a voracious appetite and a good eye, and Dorothy, his new wife. As a newlywed couple with a budding passion for the arts, they attempted painting and formal training in the arts, but eventually gave up the vision of being artists themselves because of their all-consuming appreciation for what other artists were creating. Over the years, they amassed a collection of about 4,782 works by some of the most significant minimal and conceptual artists from the last four decades.

When it came to making a purchase, they had only two rules: (1) it had to be affordable, and (2) it had to be able to fit in their apartment. Very simply, they just bought what they liked. Among their first purchases was a Sol Lewitt piece which "set the tone for the collection". The rest of it was "built on the generosity of artists". Their now priceless collection was not dictated by the ebbs and flows of Wall Street, what dealers sold them as being "fashionable" or a good investment, or by the latest reviews in Artforum. Their collection developed by attending every possible gallery opening in New York City, by becoming friends with the artists, and by having a good eye for what they wanted. They often bought works on their limited budget because no one else wanted it, or because it wasn't a significant piece in the artist's body of work. It turns out that many of the pieces in their collection were later seen by (now very famous) artists as transitional pieces of great import.

Through decades of collecting, they never sold a piece, and the physical space of the collection has almost run them out of their apartment. In accordance with their wishes, it is now kept whole as part of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. which in all irony, was the first stop on their honeymoon. The Vogels have truly come full circle. "It's just beautiful that's all. And beauty is enjoyable." Yes, admiring, appreciating, and collecting art can be that simple. Right on, Herb. Right on!

As of 2009, the Vogels are still at it; attending gallery openings, buying art, and loving every minute of it. Proving yet again, that slow and steady wins the race. I'll certainly be looking for them at future art openings here in the city.