Looking for a fun body positive coloring book that celebrates our bodies and gives us representation? Check out the newest coloring book for us, Body Love: A Fat Activism Coloring Book
Fields of Vision Boris Vervoordt brings rare Egyptian treasure and bold Sugimoto photography to California for this year’s San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, opening next week, with a preview party on October 28. DATELINE: ANTWERP, BELGIUM — It’s a freezing cold winter evening, already midnight dark and damp at 6pm. I’m standing at the stone gatehouse of Axel Vervoordt’s twelfth-century castle in the silent ‘s-Grevenwezel countryside, on the fog-swathed outskirts of Antwerp. I’m meeting Axel and May Vervoordt and their sons Boris and Dick for the first time at the castle, invited for a family dinner. Around me in many layers is enough cashmere to choke a mountain goat, and still I am shivering as I ring the doorbell, my hands protected with cashmere-lined leather gloves. Lights are flickering in the castle, visible in the mist across the moat. Someone unseen buzzes the door; I push it open and make a dash across the dark cobblestones and over the moat bridge. Breathless, I make it up the wide, stone stairs of the castle, and to the front door. Axel and Boris are waiting there, back-lit and beaming, welcoming me into some of the most beautiful rooms in Europe. I’d flown from San Francisco to London, and then straight on to Antwerp. I set down my bags at the exquisite all-white De Witte Lelie hotel, and almost immediately headed to Axel’s. Axel offered me a well-chilled flute of Krug Champagne, and invited me upstairs to see new acquisitions, sculptures and paintings. Perhaps my favorite, in the rather bare Oriental room, is the twelve-foot tall Antoni Tapies oil painting from 1972. In a signature Vervoordt juxtaposition, it hangs near a sixties Lucio Fontana abstract bronze sculpture that looks like an asteroid. Displayed throughout the formal downstairs living rooms and the family’s upstairs quarters are exquisite 13th-century Thai vases, Khmer statues of Buddha, and second-millennium BC stone sculptures from Ecuador, Egyptian porphyry bowls, and a collection of Lucio Fontana Spatialist paintings as well as the more-expected Old Master paintings and venerable European antiques. May’s lovely flowers, including amaryllis grown in the Orangerie, are placed elegantly on tables and in window niches. Highlights from the Vervoordt photo album include the dramatic 12th-century castle residence northeast of Antwerp. The interior of the castle, where Axel and May live and work, is rich in detail. Best of all, there are densely detailed rooms like Axel’s study with walls of antique embossed and gilded leather (a Belgian tradition). My favorite is an Oriental sitting room with scrubbed pine floors, and a music room, the white dining room. The castle windows, which overlook the moat and gardens, all have deep reveals. Axel arranges collections of porcelains there, and May sets flowers from the garden on the windowsills. Images courtesy of axelvervoordt.com. This was perhaps twelve or thirteen years ago, maybe more, and Axel Vervoordt was not yet widely known except to European cognoscenti, certain designers, antique dealers in the inner circle, and European royalty, naturally. Now, of course he has published two marvelous volumes and has been ‘copied’ by designers left and right. There is ought to be a ‘Vervoordt style’, though his work ranges from palatial period rooms and humble country cottages to stark art-filled galleries, as well as Venetian palazzi. Never published are decades of handsome country houses dotted around Antwerp, all of them surrounded with Jacques Wirtz gardens. Axel’s books make it apparent that his collections and designs are worldly, highly individual, and always authoritative. They paint a portrait of the owners and their lives and aspirations—but there is always a sign of Axel, in a Fontana painting, an Anish Kapoor sculpture, the floor (often bare), the fabrics (never printed patterns and usually no motif at all), spare rather than over-blown backgrounds, and a reverence for aged and old and worn and time-altered surfaces. I’ve since had the great pleasure to return to the castle several times. In summer that meant dining with the family in the cutting garden beneath a flowering apple tree. One evening, young Antwerp student musicians were invited to play for dinner guests. Vervoordt family members have always been generous patrons of both accomplished musicians and music students. Some years later, on a warm day in July, we sipped an aperitif in the Orangerie, and later Boris took me to meet the great landscaper Jacques Wirtz, before heading to the dramatic new Kanaal headquarters. And last year, Axel presented the acclaimed Artempo exhibition at the Fortuny palazzo in Venice. I was fortunate to be there at the right moment, and both Axel and Boris conducted me through the rooms, stopping to announce a favorite video, an unknown sculptor, a fetish object, and an antiquity. Heaven. This year in Venice Vervoordt is presenting In-finitum, conceived by the Vervoordt Foundation and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and set in the mysterious and exquisite Palazzo Fortuny. The concept of this new show, Axel told me, is a discourse on art and life and death and creativity. Rather more abstract that last year’s debut show, it expressed, said Axel, the infinite in the finite, the indefinite, and unfinished art of all kinds. Art without words, I would say. In-finitum exhibits 300 works of art, including large and small-scale pieces, video and photographic works, conceptual works, old and modern masters as well as archaeological artifacts. Artists include Picasso, Rothko, Viola, Miró, Twombly, Fontana and Kapoor. The exhibition will remain open until 15 November. As with everything Vervoordt, the collection is one-of-a-kind and provocative and it combines today’s cutting edge conceptual art with archaeological digs and rare masterpieces. Axel Vervoordt, courtsey of Architectural Digest Axel Vervoordt’s interiors are always heart-breakingly beautiful and poetic—without being in any way dramatic or emphatic. Vervoordt can do simple interiors—and he can happily accrete the antiques and books and objects that make his study one of the most compelling rooms in the world (outside a museum). There, too, are his famous sofas—long, simple, spare, and dramatic (larger than they look in these photos). I sat on one recently, sipping Champagne, and enjoying lively conversation with the Vervoordt family. Dinner later in the blue and white dining room. I look forward to more meetings with the Vervoordts—in San Francisco, at the new palace in Venice, and in Antwerp or Paris. Always a great pleasure. Axel Vervoordt, over the last three decades, has established himself as a favorite antiques dealer of both the European Old Guard and American tech moguls (he never drops names, but Bill Gates has been a client). He was, not long ago, a secret source whispered among friends. Appointments at his castle headquarters just outside Antwerp required a discreet call made through a decorator or architect. Clients as diverse as Sting, the piano-playing duo Katia and Marielle Labeque, San Francisco interior designer Steven Volpe, as well as fashion designer Bill Blass, San Francisco interior designers Douglas Durkin and Paul Wiseman, and Antwerp fashion designer Dries van Noten have all acquired antiques and art from Axel Vervoordt. Not that the discreet Vervoordt drops these names or would offer any hint as to their acquisitions. Axel Vervoordt's office, courtesy of axelvervoordt.com The scholarly Vervoordt, 64, an engaging, warm and articulate man who moves without fanfare in the rarified realms of Europe’s royalty and dedicated antiques collectors, was one of the founders of the prestigious annual European Fine Arts Fair in Maastricht, and has been a vivid presence at both the New York International Fine Art and Antique Dealers show, the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, and the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires for many years. The dazzling Labeque sisters, however, do speak of Vervoordt as a mentor, and have filled their Tuscan palazzo with Vervoordt treasures placed with Vervoordt style: gilded Venetian mirrors, a polychrome Piedmontese cabinet, antique Cambodian pots, and a Thai bust of a warrior prince. The chic sisters and the Vervoordts have become close friends. In California, too, Vervoordt has been an inspiration. “Axel is one of the few truly cross-cultural antiquaires, who draws his collections of antiques and garden ornament from the far corners of the earth and several millennia,” commented Ed Hardy, a leading antiques dealer in California Today, Boris Vervoordt, Axel and May’s elder son, has taken over management of the company and he is now the director. Axel spends more time with his foundation, his Venetian projects, and handpicked clients. In this new capacity, Boris oversees core activities of the Axel Vervoordt company-- art and antiques, home collection and interior design. He continues the company’s values of quality, durability, harmony. The concept is that Axel and his wife May Vervoordt will act as mentors and éminences grises within the company. Axel channels the majority of his time and energy into the Vervoordt Foundation, which he and May established, and of which Axel is the President. Boris Vervoordt “From day one, the core and drive of our company has been an uncompromising search for quality, beauty and harmony,” said Boris. “The realities of the new economy all point in one direction: a revaluation of basic values,” said Boris. Our continued strength has been that we have never lost sight of these ideals. They run through all our activities, they are our raison d’être and the key to our success. The current zeitgeist fits our strategy and mission like a glove.” May Vervoordt The Axel Vervoordt approach continues to be a search for absolute harmony, serenity, purity, authenticity and genuine soul, said Boris, an engaging dinner partner. This week, October 28, will see the next stage and statement of the Vervoordts. Rare Egyptian treasures and modern art collections are among the selections Boris is bringing to the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. He’s accompanied by his colleague, Cecile Terwan. And perhaps in the winter I will fly off to Antwerp to take another winter visit to the castle. Treasures await inside. ABOVE: Axel Vervoordt at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show 2008. BELOW: An exciting preview of what Boris Vervoordt will be bringing to at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show this year, beginning this week at Fort Mason. The San Francisco Fall Antiques Show: A Benefit for Enterprise for High School Students The presenting sponsor is 1stdibs Wine sponsor is Michael Polenske, Blackbird Vineyards Designer Vignettes: Four vignettes include a chic classic modern style by Grant K. Gibson (with antiques from Therien & Co and Epoca), along with style statements by architect Stephen Sutro, a living room setting by Cheryl DuCote, and a garden scene by Elizabeth Everdell. Lectures: Among speakers on Egyptian style are: John Saladino, Suzanne Tucker, and one of my favorite design bloggers, Emily Evans Eerdmans. Exhibit: Egyptomania—Nile Style in the Decorative Arts—Planned and directed by Lisa Podos. Curated by Maria Santangelo. Creative director is Andrew Skurman. Presents paintings, jewelry, decorative accessories, cabinets, etchings and influential styles through the centuries. Displays in glass cabinets surround the café. The San Francisco Fall Antiques Show Fort Mason Center, Festival Pavilion Marina Boulevard at Buchanan Street San Francisco, CA 94123 2009 Preview Party Benefit Gala Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 7 to 9 p.m. 2009 Show October 29 to November 1, 2009 Thursday - Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Noon to 6 p.m. For more information: www.sffas.org, email: [email protected] or phone 415-989-9019. See you there! Some years ago, I wrote a feature on Axel Vervoordt for Departures. This involved many days of directing photography of the garden, the many rooms of the castle, the orangerie, the park, the rhododendrons, the statuary, with photographer Deidi von Schaewen, who I adore. Deidi and I had also worked together on the huge best seller, the Icon book 'Paris Style' published to great success by Taschen. Toward the end of this magical week chez Vervoordt, Axel and I were talking of his horses. I suddenly had the idea to take a portrait of him, formal, very Gainsborough, on one of his fine Andalusian horses. I selected his (English, of course) riding gear and styled him for this shoot. As Deidi was getting her light readings and we were getting horse and rider in position, with the castle in the background, I pulled out my own camera and snapped Axel. The picture is one of my favorites, and a lovely reminder of a wonderful moment and a great and generous person (and the most beautiful horse, ever.)
Anne Kreamer started turning gray at 25.
Looking for a fun body positive coloring book that celebrates our bodies and gives us representation? Check out the newest coloring book for us, Body Love: A Fat Activism Coloring Book
Looking for a fun body positive coloring book that celebrates our bodies and gives us representation? Check out the newest coloring book for us, Body Love: A Fat Activism Coloring Book
My 6th graders werefinishing up their still life projects and I had to be gone for a Relay for Life commitment. So that meant I had to have a sub during a super important step. I knew they sub but I was still NERVOUS. Mrs. Hahn at Mini Matisse to the rescue. I was writing out my lessons when her blog post "I'm in LOVE with notans" came through my reader. I just knew it would solve my problems... The kids would still get to do a fun project but I don't have to worry about them "messing" up an important step on their still-life drawings. Thank you Mrs. Hahn for the idea and Mrs. Couch for teaching a great lesson... I love how they turned out. The students were given the task of using one 6x6 piece of red paper and one 9x12 piece of white paper. They had to cut out hearts, reversing the paper in and out (like you do with notans) BUT their goal was to create a graphic image and not a "valentiney looking" image. I think they did a great job!
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Add a splash of color to your sewing with the Rainbow by Natalie Zipper Box set! These cheerful hanks come in vivid hues that'll have your project poppin' with pizzazz. Gotta love that you can easily sew these zippers without any hand-crankin' - so you can go from zero to seams-a-stitchin' in no time. Brighten up your work and get your needle and thread ready - this set has all the colors of the rainbow! These are MY favorite colors for the "rainbow", meaning Red is not a true red- it's MELON. Orange is tangerine. Yellow is Lemon-y, green is tealish, blue is more turquoise, and purple is like Kona Gumdrop fabric. GORJUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Each hank/color is 3 yards in length x 6 colors as pictured, = 18 yards of zipper tape. #5 size / 5mm If you need matching pulls, we have packs of 20 pulls here. Click here for a short video on how to attach pulls. Use the Zipper Jig for ULTRA easy zipper pull attachments!
Beautiful bold color meets funky patterns and designs! You gotta love and appreciate the beauty of this Natural Life original print! Smocking and wide adjustable straps create a customized fit on the empire waist bodice. Yes – pockets included! This cute short dress is way too pretty to wear only in the summer – it’s a good thing it carries you from season to season with a little layering!
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As a young bride, Jennifer Smith couldn’t wait to build her life with the man she adored. She dreamed of closeness, of being fully known and loved by her
This coloring page can be found in the Loving Yourself Book 2 coloring book. One of many positive affirmations to spread love throughout your day as you color.
Colorblock LOVE doesn’t have a complicated color story, but like most quilts, it will sing brighter when you get your fabric choices tuned in. So here are some tips for choosing your fabrics. This post […]
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It was an early autumn morning at the retreat center and I was walking through the back meadow in the pre-dawn light. Even with the hood of my
Carol Ponsford emailed me this week to show me what she's been doing with my new stamps (available through Stampington.com and maybe even at a stamp store near you). Aren't these ATCs wonderful? Carol said, "I wanted to share with...
