Lincolnville Harbor 1994

One of my favorite museums is The Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, and it was there I first discovered the work of Alex Katz, whose studio is nearby in Lincolnville. I wandered into a room and watched a movie of this man painting birch trees on a huge canvas. I loved watching his energy and how quickly he was able to assess which move he was going to make next. I can’t really describe it better than Sanford Schwartz does in this book:

Katz has always been so clear and forceful about his goals, and those goals are such a fine blend of the naturalistic, the abstract and the theatrical, that literally where he works can seem a little beside the point. But the possibility that, in some slight degree, Lincolnville lets him connect with a freer self adds a wrinkle of feeling to the pictures he makes there.

study for Fishing Boats 2000

Ives Field, 1956

Hammon House 3 1963

Smile Awhile 1983

Cow 1986

(part of) Wildflowers 3 1993

Untitled Drawing 1953

all images by Alex Katz, as seen in Alex Katz in Maine

Yesterday I gave you a peek at some of my friend Lucas’s clever artwork tricks. Today I thought I’d show you his balcony, which is in this flickr set. This loft is right around the corner from The King Center in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward. Lucas has really made the most of his balcony. It overlooks Freedom Parkway, Downtown, and Midtown. I was at a party at Casa Luca last week and at one point there were at least seven of us seated comfortably out there.

He has softened modern pieces with pillows, plants, and a rug. At night, he brings out his rechargeable lanterns from Vessel (on the chair in the top photo). Once you lounge on this daybed, you NEVER want to get up. The fabric is weather-resistant, and he also has a cover for it.

Lucas likes to take some time out to enjoy The View. And when he turns his head sideways, he gets this view. Not too shabby!

I am a huge fan of most of the Showtime original shows, so the Metropolitan Home Showhouse Showtime theme is so appealing to me (even a room inspired by by Dexter). The Tribeca tour is running on weekends through October 18, and all of the proceeds from the $20 tickets go to Housing Works.

Whoopsy, the picture above is from last year’s Dexter house, thanks to Maria for clarifying in the comments section! Dexter’s rooms for 2009 are right here. The entire pointclickhome slideshow for this year is here.

Decorated Life is covering each room after her visit. I know I’ll enjoy seeing all the rooms through her blog! Here’s one of her shots of the hospital/pill-themed Nurse Jackie Waiting Room/Lounge:

Tour the Californication house at pointclickhome:

images from showtime.com, Decorated Life, and pointclickhome respectively. Click on photos to link to the original sources.

I stopped by my friend Lucas’s loft in the Old Fourth Ward today and took about a million pictures. Between the funky flash and the fact that I was dizzy, I’m not thrilled with the results, but the ideas are so good I had to share a few with you immediately anyway. I’ll share more of a house tour in a later post after some photo editing attempts, but for now, here are a few of his great ideas.

Aren’t these ticket stub shadowboxes a great idea? I have ticket stubs floating all over my house, some in scrapbooks, some on bulletin boards, I even saw one in my laundry room the other day. I’d love to get them all in one place, as each one carries different memories (side note: perhaps I’ll blow up the one from the Depeche Mode concert this past month – that show was AWESOME! OK, back to Lucas…) Lucas is a singer-songwriter and goes to see live music ALL the time. I even spy Suzanne Vega’s signature on a stub in his collection.

Lucas has a knack with IKEA frames. The piece above was bought from an artist in Provincetown, and he gave it more of a presence with an inexpensive black frame. The piece below is a tangle of old guitar wires that he was gathering up to toss out. When he saw they had formed a heart shape, he popped them in another frame:

Every surface around the loft is well-curated. Living in a small studio instilled the feeling of only keeping things you need and love around the house. Lucas entertains a lot, and I noticed he utilized trays and modern tray tables all over his home for various things. He keeps his bar beautiful with fresh flowers and candles.

A TV-related tree, currently some sort of shrine to Carrie Bradshaw!

Again, sorry for the photo quality. I’m not sure what happened there, and I feel like they don’t do the art or the space justice! Luckily, I have a bunch of photos from Lucas himself which are much better than mine. You can sort through them all in this flickr set if you’d like a peek before the house tour post!

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the note in the shadowbox, “U Cute” was a note left in grease pen on a Burger King bag by a toothless cashier who was staring at Lucas so much that he said “I was afraid he was gonna cut me.” It was only later as he picked up his burger detritus that he saw the note and it all made sense! Did I mention that Lucas is hilarious?

I was just informed about yet another design-related iPhone app (I am really behind on the app bandwagon – my friends are always bonking their iPhones together and figuring out our social schedules with Urban Spoon, and I can barely sync my phone). This one is called I.D. Wood. In a nutshell:

I.D. Wood allows a user to quickly browse by Wood Samples, Species Names or Other Names to aide in quick identification. Categories allow for quickly finding woods of a particular use, durability or sustainable status.

I have this image of this app saving Jeff Lewis from bringing a million stain samples to that celebrity hairdresser client of his on Flipping Out.

To learn more, click here.