emerson fry s/s 2012

Emerson Fry (formerly EmersonMade) launched their new sping/summer collection last week, and although I am somewhat disappointed by the name change, the look and quality of the designs have remained unmistakably the same. I have always loved Emerson's blend of sophistication and versatility, of modern city style and classic country living, but the new collection truly hits home. The rich fabrics are so dreamy but casual, the colours soft and down-to-earth, the fits both loose and feminine, perfect for summer days and nights, for both work and play. I think Emerson Fry is becoming something of a modern classic, offering women the perfect combination of femininity and practical, boyish charm.

View the entire collection here.

(Air Dots Blouse / White Mod Dress / Paulo Loafer in nude / Four Button Jacket in ivory and The Perfect Raglan Pullover / The Perfect Raglan T, Band Shorts in rose, and The Ankle Strap Heel in nude / U Dress in blue and Toe Patch Slingback in caramel and black calkskin / Light Indigo Ikat Tunic / White Sandwashed Tuxedo Shirt and Band Shorts in ivory)

weekend delights

My neighbourhood Roman Catholic church, Église Saint-Édouard in the borrough of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie. I love living so close to such a grand church. I find the sound of the bells to be oddly comforting and grounding // La chocolatine (also known as pain au chocolat) is my all-time favourite Montreal pastry. It would not be a stretch to say that I live for the chocolatine. I often eat several a week.

A display of vintage hand wall hooks at Style LABO, an incredible vintage boutique in Montreal's Mile End that features an impressive, carefully curated collection of antique furnishings, objets d'art, and curiosities. It can often be expensive, but some of the finds are so unique and intriguing that they are worth indulging in. I took home one of the smallest hand hooks and am already thinking about creatie ways to put it to use // My Sunday night bedside reading. I picked up the Penguin's "Great Ideas" edition of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own on a whim from Libraire Drawn & Quarterly this weekend, my favourite Montreal independant bookstore. It is such a wonderful read. 

Andrew sent me a few photos of life in Laurentian Valley this weekend as the first signs of Spring emerged (the snow has finally melted!). As everything is slowly coming back to life, the backyard has been overflowing with a variety of species of birds (which has put Hunter into a craze) and he managed to capture snapshots of a few, including one of my favourites, the Morning Dove (left), as well as a Red Wing Black Bird (right). I wish I could spend Spring in the country this year and awake to bird songs and fresh crisp air every morning, but at least I will get to visit in a couple weeks and I will be able to spend the summer there. For now, my mornings are welcomed by pigeons in the back of my Montreal apartment and broken sunrises over the buildings and through the tree tops.

a home is made of love

It's Friday and my first week back in the city, away from my family, is coming to an end. I miss them all so much. When I saw this lovely new print by Rebekka Seale the other day, I thought that it perfectly captured the way I have been feeling since Andrew and Glasgow left after bringing me "home" to Montreal last weekend. Except that Montreal isn't my home anymore, even though most of my belongings are here, and my daily life will be here for the next couple of months. If "a home is made of love alone," then my home is with my lovely little family in Laurentian Valley, where all three of them are patiently (or perhaps not-so patiently) waiting for me to come home. It is strange living in two places and leading what feels at times like a double life, but it is also deeply comforting and warming knowing that I have a real home somewhere, even if it isn't here. Where do you feel most at home? Is home a place or more of a feeling?

On a happier note, the weather forecasted for this weekend is full of sunshine and warm temperatures, so I think I am finally going to break out of the house and explore the city, and maybe even participate in some St. Patrick's Day festivities. 

I wish you a wonderful, love-filled weekend, whether you are at home or away....

xo, 

sara

melanie pullen

I was first introduced to Melanie Pullen's High Fashion Crime Scenes, a series of photographs based on vintage crime-scene images, first-hand accounts, and documents the artist culled from the archives of the Los Angeles Police Department and County Coroner's Office, by a colleague while doing my Master's in the History of Art, Design, & Vuisual Culture.We shared a love of the grotesque and macabre (although she professed a greater love for high fashion than I did), so when she presented the images to me I was immediately struck by their disturbing beauty and surreal, almost cinematic quality, but also by the compelling stories underlying the works.

Pullen began the project after reading a copy of Luc Sante's 1992 book, Evidence (1914-1919), chronicling early-twentieth-century crime scene photos from the New York Police Department. As she recounts, she became so fascinated with the details and artful framing of the images that she almost didn't notice the crimes, their violence and gruesomeness receding into the background. Intrigued by the ways in which we have become desensitized to violent images in contemporary visual and media culture, she re-creates the crime scenes and styles the photos to draw out these details, outfitting her "victims" in haute couture and bold, saturated colours. In doing so, she employs the power of the cultures of fashion and beauty to distract, to divert our attention away from what are otherwise deeply disturbing events and subjects, while nevertheless allowing this violence to ambiguously lurk in the background. All of the photos in the series are based on real crime scenes and speak to real tragedies, however buried in the past or lost in archives they may seem. It is these haunting and inaccesible back stories that drives the series and that Pullen seeks to evoke, examining our desensitized, glamourized relationship to violent imagery. At the same time, however, she also celebrates the history of crime scene photography, paying homage to photographers like Eugene Atget, Alexander Gardner, Jacob Riis, and Arthur Fellig (aka Weegee) who often worked as both artists and professional photographers, producing artistic crime scene photos that were evocative of tabloid illustrations or film noir at the same time that they documented violent and gruesome events.

Melanie Pullen, Anna & The Grass, 2003

Melanie Pullen, Dorothy (Barrel Series), 2003

Melanie Pullen, Half Prada (Hanging Series), 2003

Melanie Pullen, Miyake (Metro Series), 2005

Melanie Pullen, Last Light, 2004

Melanie Pullen, Red (Water Series), 2005

Melanie Pullen, Mr. Rossi, 2004

Melanie Pullen, Caovilla, 2004

Melanie Pullen, Phones, 2005

Melane Pullen, Oscar's Grass, 2005

Melanie Pullen, Blue (Water Series), 2005

Melanie Pullen, Milla's Welcome, 2004

 

Melanie Pullen, Hugo's Camera, 2004

Melanie Pullen, The Weitzman File, 2004

Melanie Pullen, Self-Portrait, 2003

Melanie Pullen, Mirror (Hanging Series), 2005

Melanie Pullen, Renee's Tree, 2004

Melanie Pullen, Rebecca, 2004

spring forward

I will be fully emerging out of hibernation soon, but for now I wanted to at least say a long overdue "hello" and imprint myself here, even if in the smallest of ways. I officially submitted my comprehensive exams a week ago today and am now back in the city. I am still a little stunned and am slowly returning to a slightly more normal and balanced life (i.e. one in which I am not hunched over my computer for 12-16 hours a day frantically trying to make sense of large amounts of material and write coherent essay responses to two excellently posed and provocative exam questions). I still have an oral exam to compliment my written work next week (for which I am of course nervous and feel utterly unprepared), so I am not out of the woods yet, but I at least have time to pause and ground myself before then. I am absolutely and in every way exhausted, but I have so many exciting plans and projects ahead, and Spring will soon be here, so I don't feel completely defeated (despite losing an hour of sleep this weekend as a result of "springing forward," when I needed it most!). I did, however, have to say a sad and emotional (although also temporary) goodbye to Andrew on Sunday evening, when he left to return to the country after taking me and all my stuff back to Montreal for the next few months as I live out the rest of the school year in flesh instead of as a long distance "ghost" student. Although our long-distance relationship will soon be coming to an end and we have SO much to look forward to, including a small and intimate wedding this summer, it nevertheless gets harder and harder every time we have to say goodbye and return to our respective posts (I hestitate to say "homes," because I feel so divided between our two residences and my real home is with him and our little family, so "posts" is perhaps a better description). Both Hunter and Glasgow are staying with Andrew, so I am deeply missing the whole family.

Inspired  in part by this exhausting exam process, as well as by Hila, the writer behind the always inspiring le projet d'amour, and by conversations with my colleagues, who likewise experience the loneliness, stresses, and self-doubt as graduate students and researchers, I am thinking of starting a new series "on doing a PhD in the arts" to relate my experiences and provide a small forum for a discussion of the difficulties (but also the pleasures and rewards) we face as PhD students in the humanities and social sciences. Although I am admittedly the type to lock myself up in my home workspace and self-isolate as an academic, community and encouragement in this field are so important. I also want to share more of my research and art historical perspectives, integrating these aspects of myself into arterie & co. rather than simply using the blog as a healthy escape from my academic work.

I have a few unfinished draft blog posts floating around, but I have not yet committed to anything and am undecided as to how I want to return to regular (or semi-regular) blogging. I am also trying to focus on nova lily designs and a new website so that I can launch the new collection(s) soon! There is so much to do, so please be patient as I readjust, slowly come out of hibernation, and continue to spring forward....

The above image is a view from my desk at our small and humble home in Laurentian Valley. Both the botanical calendar and fox card are from the lovely Rifle Paper Co., and the other small prints adorning the magnetic board (which is actually a door conventiently covering an electric panel) are by artists Leah Duncan, Yelena Bryksenkova, and Eva Juilet.

a few good things no. 4

i am writing to end this long week with a few good things.
i need this slight repose, as i will be working all through the weekend.
andrew is going ice-fishing with the boys tomorrow,
so after a lazy morning filled with good coffee
and our regular Saturday morning waffles
drenched in real local butter & pure Canadian maple syrup,
i will cozy in for what i hope will be a mellow
but productive afternoon of writing.
of course, i still need to get through today's long day of writing,
but there are some lovely things
and a nice big gin & tonic (or several!) waiting at the end
to get me through it.

1. i am loving these pants from the Canadian-line Thieves. they are even on sale in my size! i feel like i could live in them, though i suspect they might be too short on my long legs.

2. hand-crafted camano coffee mill from Old Faithful. 

3. i have been wanting to check out this Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the National Gallery in Ottawa, but it is almost coming to an end. it's been on for almost a year (!), but every time we pass through the city it is so rushed. this tiny little installation view from the Personages series and Forêt (Night Garden) is not at all satisfying me! must try to go.

4. also must have this wood table and brush set from Toronto-based Mjolk. i will be buying one very soon!

5. i have long loved ceramic artist Vanessa Villarreal's work and i was so happy to see her as Etsy's featured seller this week. these black spruce porcelain tumblers have always been my favourite. there is something so romantic and dreamy (but also at times sad and haunting) about spruce trees, and of course, i love anything porcelain.

6. Cold Spring Apothecary has been on my list of things to try for awhile now. i love their philosophy and branding, and their products sound perfectly divine: like this juniper wood soap. actually, i need new shampoo, so it might just be the perfect time to try something from their hair care collection.

7. how lovely are these compostable bowls from Cachette? they're made in Japan from recycled sugar cane and reeds fibre. yup, lovely.

8. if i hadn't already bought one almost exactly like this from Scout & Catalogue (handmade in all cream wool), i would have pounced on this gorgeous vintage wool cape from Dear Golden as soon as i saw it. oh, and it's on sale along with all other coats in the shop too! i am so SO tempted but i am trying very responsibly to listen to my voice of reason.

9. oh-so pretty and elegant ivory lace-trimmed silk-chiffon slip from Rosamosario. this is one timeless beauty....
10. i'm pretty sure these are the perfect nude leather ballet flats. a "wise" investment? good thing a girl can dream!
11. i find myself returning over and over again to this simple but richly layered work by artist Matthew Jensen. it is available as a set of four prints from Little Paper Planes. i share in and have a deep appreciation for his humble, "unassuming methods..." and attention to detail., and love the stories these prints have to tell. i would be more than happy to add them to my collection.


happy weekend; hope it's a good one!

xo, sara

these days

i've been fully immersed in writing my comps for almost two weeks now, and i am already exhausted. i try to find or create little bits of brightness in the mornings to kickstart my consistently long days and to help keep me going. this morning, i happily watched three blue jays flutter around in the trees in the backyard; other mornings, it's just orange juice and vanilla yogourt with strawberries.

i always look forward to my daily afternoon walks with glasgow; the only real thing that gets me out of the house. it's been fairly warm this week and we've even had a couple sunny days, which make me want to stay outside forever. yesterday, the snow was starting to melt and things were softening up, making it perfect to collect lichen and other forest bits preserved in the snow. i can't think of a better, more relaxing and fulfilling break from writing. 

my evenings have been fairly mellow and follow a general routine. if am really stressed or in the writing zone, andrew cooks me dinner. otherwise, we prepare dinner together and sit down to watch The X-Files while we eat. i usually unwind after long days of writing with a glass of wine or a beer, without which i honestly don't think i could get through this kind of intensive writing (or grad school, period). the thing that i truly cherish most, though, is spending time with my little family in our cozy little space together. none of this would be worth it if it weren't for their love and companionship.

love poems

i have never been one to celebrate Valentine's day. i don't fully boycott or denounce it, but i don't willingly embrace it either. ever the romantics, andrew and i regularly make gestures to show our love in both subtle and bold ways. i much prefer to be surprised by unexpected love notes, "love you" gifts, and other small but thoughtful acts of love than to be unnecessarily showered with gifts and sentiments on one designated day. when the mood strikes, however, i do sometimes spoil andrew or my close friends with a little Valentine's love. i have a soft spot for paper goods and hand-written love letters.

so to celebrate love in the tradition of the written word rather than in images or material goods, i thought i would share two of my favourite love poems from two entirely different traditions, although both are equally charged with sensuality and earthly passion. the first poem is by Naubel Laureate Pablo Neruda, translated from its original Spanish by Donald. D. Walsh. the second is the twelfth and final chapter from Sanskrit poet Jayadeva's twelfth-century lyrical poem, the Gita Govinda, which tells of the divine love of the Hindu deity Krishna and Radha, his favourite gopi or cowherd girl. this excerpt is from Barbara Stoler Miller's 1977 translation, Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gita Govinda.

YOUR HANDS

When your hands go out,
love, toward mine
what do they bring me flying?
Why did they stop
at my mouth, suddenly,
why do I recognize them
as if then, before,
I had touched them,
as if before they existed
they had passed over
my forehead, my waist?

Their softness came
flying over time,
over the sea, over the smoke,
over the spring,
and when you placed
your hands on my chest,
I recognized those golden
dove wings,
I recognized that clay
and that color of wheat.

All the years of my life
I walked around looking for them.
I went up the stairs,
I crossed the roads,
trains carried me,
waters brought me,
and in the skin of the grapes
I thought I touched you.
The wood suddennly
brought me your touch,
the almond announced to me
your secret softness,
until your hands
closed on my chest
and there like two wings
they ended their journey.

THE TWELFTH PART

Ecstatic Krishna 


When her friends had gone,

Smiles spread on Radha's lips

While love's deep fantasies

Struggled with her modesty.

Seeing the mood in Radha's heart,

Hari spoke to his love;

Her eyes were fixed

On his bed of buds and tender shoots.             

The Twenty-third Song, sung with Raga '"Vibhasa"

Leave lotus footprints on my bed of tender shoots, loving Radha! Let my place be ravaged by your tender feet!

    Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!                     

I stroke your foot with my lotus hand—You have come far.
Set your golden anklet on my bed like the sun.
     Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!              

Consent to my love; let elixir pour from your face!
To end our separation I bare my chest of the silk that bars your breast.
     Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!                  

Throbbing breasts aching for loving embrace are hard to touch.
Rest these vessels on my chest! Quench love's burning fire!
     Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!            

Offer your lips' nectar to revive a dying slave, Radha!
His obsessed mind and listless body burn in love's d/desolation.
     Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!                      

Radha, make your jeweled girdle cords echo the tone of your voice!
Soothe the long torture my ears have suffered from cuckoo's shrill cries!
     Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!                      

Your eyes are ashamed now to see me tortured by baseless anger;
Glance at me and end my passion's despair!
     Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!                   

Each verse of Jayadeva's song echoes the delight of Madhu's foe.
Let emotion rise to a joyful mood of love in sensitive men!
      Narayana is faithful now. Love me, Radhika!  

Displaying her passion

In loveplay as the battle began,

She launched a bold offensive

Above him

And triumphed over her lover.

Her hips were still,

Her vine-like arm was slack,

Her chest was heaving,

Her eyes were closed.

Why does a mood of manly force

Succeed for women in love ?

The Twenty-fourth Song, sung with Raga "Ramakari”

Yadava hero, your hand is cooler than sandalbalm on my breast;

Paint a leaf design with deer musk here on Love's ritual vessel!

     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.    

Lover, draw kohl glossier than a swarm of black bees on my eyes!
Your lips kissed away the lampblack bow that shoots arrows of Love.
     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.      

My ears reflect the restless gleam of doe eyes, graceful Lord.
Hang earrings on their magic circles to form snares for love.
     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.      

Pin back the teasing lock of hair on my smooth lotus face!

It fell before me to mime a gleaming line of black bees.

     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.      

Make a mark with liquid deer musk on my moonlit brow!

Make a moon shadow, Krishna! The sweat drops are dried.

     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.       

Fix flowers in shining hair loosened by loveplay, Krishna!
Make a flywhisk outshining peacock plumage to be the banner of Love.
     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.        

My beautiful loins are a deep cavern to take the thrusts of love—

Cover them with jeweled girdles, cloths, and ornaments, Krishna!

She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.     

Make your heart sympathetic to Jayadeva's splendid speech!

Recalling Hari's feet is elixir against fevers of this dark time.

     She told the joyful Yadu hero, playing to delight her heart.     

"Paint a leaf on my breasts!

Put color on my cheeks!

Lay a girdle on my hips!

Twine my heavy braid with flowers!

Fix rows of bangles on my hands

And jeweled anklets on my feet!"

Her yellow-robed lover

Did what Radha said.                                           

His musical skill, his meditation on Vishnu,

His vision of reality in the erotic mood,

His graceful play in these poems,

All show that master-poet Jayadeva's soul

Is in perfect tune with Krishna—

Let blissful men of wisdom purify the world

By singing his Gitagovinda.