The backside of the tubby chairs. I can’t believe I forgot to include this photo in the previous post. Please understand that the front two rooms are a long way from being complete with furnishings, art, and decorative objects which will add color, variety, and vibrancy to the overall spaces. This process is called decorating one square inch at a time.
A pair of tubby armchairs. That’s how 1stdibs had listed them when I first added them to my portfolio. Before all the restoration work, I had lived with a lot of traditional hand-me-downs and antique mall finds. In other words, my décor suffered greatly from the brown furniture syndrome in an out-of-date arts and crafts style. It was time to grow up in a timeless manner, since I no longer needed trendy objects to disguise a house that desperately needed structural updating. The key words that must apply to any new object chosen for my house are: timeless, integrity, functional, quality, quiet, sophisticated, and gracious.
The handmade clay brick paver work is complete, and I would now like to bore you with the technical design details of brick laying. It all started with a series of books written and illustrated by Peter Joel Harrison, who was the first to research and illustrate the historic details of fences, gates, gazebos, trellises, brick pavement, and garden walls. I won’t tell you why and how he came to do this, because you can easily find this out by visiting his website.
Day 14. Preparation for the lace fence installation. The fence contractor, Bryan Warrick of Allen Fence Company, is a full time firefighter who does this on his days off. On Tuesday, he had installed all but 3 fence posts when the University Park’s code enforcement swung by and shut us down because no permit had been issued. DRAT! I had warned all of them that a permit was needed, but they chose to fly under the radar. My landscape contractor thought that since we were replacing an old chin link with a newer one that the city’s approval wouldn’t be needed. Who would think that UP would be desperate for the cash? After all the Park Cities has some of the wealthiest folks living here who pay hefty property taxes. Go figure. Bryan then drove to the code enforcement offices, filed the drawings, requested a permit, and then called it a day. Thursday, his next day off, he would continue after picking up the permit.
A pink fiberglass pokey. It may be pink, but I guarantee there will be a stink once it’s removed five weeks from now. With no fantastic tale to share, suffice to say that my left hand has a major broken bone, and typing with one hand doesn’t inspire witty copy.
What survived in one of the hottest summers on record. Take one last look at the current setup of my front shade garden, because this fall or early next spring it will be expanded. Due to climate change and the growing tree canopies, what worked ten years ago has either died back or outgrown its location. I will be extending the beds, replacing most of the grass lawn, transplanting a few perennials, and adding perennials that will survive Dallas’ more frequent climate extremes. Once complete, I hope not to depend on seasonal annuals to fill in the voids as much as I have these past ten years.
If you’re wondering how often I run the sprinkler system, the answer would be twice a week. Instead, I hand water every evening, which is a real pain and has not been fun, but this is — hands down — the most efficient way to water annuals. Next year, once the re-design has been completed, a soaker hose system will be implemented, because I want my life back.
Keri Oldham’s exhibition of film related work will open with a reception tomorrow, Saturday, August 13 from 7 to 9 pm at The Reading Room, 3715 Parry Avenue. It will continue through August 28.
The pieces in this exhibition are the fade-out “end scenes” from various films, re-imagined and used to examine endings on a personal level. Oldham is interested in how we are influenced by film and television narratives and incorporate stories about love, success, and morality into our lives both consciously and subconsciously.
Oldham is an artist, curator, writer, and former Dallasite now living in Brooklyn. Her work has been shown at Camel Art Space, Fountain Art Fair, and Dave Bown Projects as well as The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 500X Gallery, Centraltrak Artist Residency, and Kirk Hopper Fine Art in Dallas. She holds degrees in philosophy from Loyola University and in curatorial studies from San Francisco State University. She is a 2010 BRIC Arts Media Fellow.
Glasstire has also done a writeup about The Reading Room and this upcoming exhibition. If you’re interested in knowing more about visual art here in Texas, Glasstire is definitely worth a read and a bookmark.
UPDATE: Follow the below link for more images of Keri Oldham’s work exhibited at The Reading Room.
The continuing saga of the lace fence. After arriving last week, the package was too long and heavy for one man and a dolly to maneuver from the truck, through the gates and into my garage. So it’s just been lying on my driveway ever since. From looking at the package, it appeared that they had shipped the fabric in separate panels and not in the continuous roll that I expected. This worried me, but after opening it up, we discovered that it was indeed one continuous piece of fabric. Yes! Yes! Yes! On closer inspection we realized that the woven lace designs were small and tight and would have never been able to conform to a compact rolling technique.
A sampling from my summer collection of hand fans. With our Dallas temperature consistently hovering around 109 degrees, I can’t imagine life without this simple accessory. Over the years, I’ve collected an interesting group, despite the fact they are hard to find — that is if you’re looking for something more sophisticated than the Asian souvenir type of fan. How can a basic and beautiful tool be so under appreciated? The Asian sandalwood fan is my everyday choice. They are a bit fragile, but easier to find, very affordable, and have a wonderful scent. Occasionally I come across a stinky one that has been unnaturally enhanced and requires a year to calm down before it can be taken out into public. If you’re in Dallas, World Market has a fun selection of paper souvenir types of fans along with the sandalwood variety.
Handmade clay brick pavers don’t seem to be popular anymore, and until a close match can be found, the backyard job is on hold. For at least a week anyway. The pavers on my front steps that you see in the above photo were installed seven years ago, and I failed to make a note of their name and color at that time. Ideally, the pavers for the new back steps and extended paths should match what I already have. Since they aren’t stocking many paver choices, the dealer has been kind enough to offer to walk their Denton yard to see if he can come up with enough pavers to match from the overage pallets left over from previous years.
Tomorrow, Thursday, the lace fence fabric will be delivered sometime between one and five, and once it’s physically here, I will ask Hadden Landscaping to schedule the fence’s installation. I don’t expect this to happen this week. Knowing my luck, the fence and pavers will be installed at the same time on the same day causing mass confusion.