Then she invited me next door to see her place. She and I have the same floor plan but, boy, our places couldn’t look any more different. If I had to put a one word label on her place it would be ‘happy’ or ‘classy’ or ‘cool’. Okay, that’s three words but the first view of her space reminded me of a Paul Cezanne still life. She’s got an ancient carpet that covers most of the living room area that has a wide, bright blue border with a solid, "old gold" center and accents of red and black dead center and on the edges of the blue border. It’s spectacular! One red club chair is the next thing you notice, then your eyes are directed to a gray, mid-century modern couch along a wall with a red throw cushion with a black Scottie dog on its face. Two other club chairs--one in black, one that matches the couch completes her main sitting area. Over her couch is an large abstract with primaries---red, blue, yellow, black and lots of white.
In her window bay, where I have my art easel, are two of the finest examples of mid-century modern antique Eames, Herman Miller fiberglass shell chairs I’ve ever seen and I've seen the ones in the furniture museum (see example in the photo above). They'd been in her family since they were new in 1950 and they are a rich, vibrant blue, in perfect condition. Eames chairs were a huge deal when they were first manufactured and they are still a big deal in the history of furniture making because of its then unique use of fiberglass.
If you haven’t picked up on it, I’m impressed by my neighbor's decorating taste. She was a psychologist and social worker and is pure class in her dress, her home, the way she carries herself and her taste in dogs. By the way, I’m going to kidnap Robbie someday. I haven’t told her that yet but I did offer to dog sit should she ever have a need.
Another notable person I’ve met lately who lives in my building is also into art but after listening to her drone on and on about how much she loves painting religious icons I decided it’s best not to sit near her in the future. She’s been doing them for years, has even spends several weeks at religious retreats to do them in silence. She goes to church nearly every morning, sometimes goes back again later in the day and I just can’t find any common life experiences to relate with her. And to make it worse her soft, angel-like voice reminds me of an episode on Jerry Seinfeld so even thought she's a nice lady I have trouble making small talk with her. And wouldn't you know it, last night the only seat left at a dinner table for eight was at her right.
After dinner she invited me to stop at her place to see her paintings, new Shoji screen and fireplace. I’ve been thinking about getting a Shoji screen to block off my art easel area so I was eager to go. She, too, has the same floor plan as my place and she, too, has bold colors like Robbie’s mom. Only her colors were gold, black, turquoise and orange. If you’ve been reading my blog right along you know I hate the color orange. But she had her furniture arranged in a good configuration that makes her space look larger than mine; I might be moving mine and my area rug after the holidays.
Her religious icon paintings were done on polished wood slabs with lots of gold leafing. Quality workmanship but certainly not my cup of tea. She talked about the saints she depicts like they're guys I’d know…and probably I should have, having had an aunt who spent her entire life scrubbing floors at a Catholic hospital and had dozens of religious icons up on her walls. My soft-spoken neighbor rotates them on her walls according to the holidays.
But the most curious thing in Icon Lady’s space was the fact that she had red cardinals tied to all the cupboard door handles. Twelve cardinals. Are they still "spiritual messengers from God" when you buy them yourself and mount them in your kitchen? Either way they did give me something in common with her since I have a red cardinal in the wreath on my door. ©
