Today's blog comes from Janet Millett, Central Library staff:

When we need help with home decorating, a lot of us reach for books with titles like Cheap Chic, Dime Store Decorating or Junk Beautiful. Creating a fabulous space on a shoestring can be creative and fun. There are times, however, when it can also be fun to glimpse the rarified lives of those who decorate with an unlimited budget and an in-demand designer.

Martyn Lawrence Bullard is such a designer and his clients are a variety of well-moneyed celebrities. Bullard discovered at an early age that he had an affinity for design. By the age of 16, he ran a profitable little antiques business with a dedicated following of dealers and collectors.

Despite his talent in this area, he still made his way to Hollywood with aspirations of becoming an actor. However, his passion for decorating and design resurfaced and won over those who visited his space.

Through word of mouth he became a very popular designer. As his celebrity clientele grew, he soon found himself jetting around the world, collecting the perfect textiles and artworks with an unerring sense of style and cultivated eye. And, as life can ironically work out, he now is the host of the television show, Million Dollar Decorators.

Being a confidant and a friend to celebrities such as Elton John, Ellen Pompeo and Cher, Bullard has insight into their characters and lifestyles. This he confides in the introduction of each chapter. You then lose yourself in the sumptuous photos with a greater understanding of how and why they came to be.

He can also be very discreet. In the October 2011 issue of In Style magazine, he was asked about his more eccentric décor requests. He replied, “One of the maddest things I was asked to do was to apply gold leaf to the interior of a garage! I actually declined, thinking it would ruin my reputation.” No name was disclosed.

Love of colour and design is universal. And although these spaces are decorated with budgets most of us can only dream about, you can still see how his inspirations might just work in your own humble abode.

-Jan Millett

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

There are many reasons to love UPPERCASE, one of our newest magazine additions. Let’s name two for starters. The magazine is Calgary based with its head office two blocks away from the Central Library in Arts Central. It’s great to support local initiative while celebrating creativity on a global level which for me is reason number two. Contributors to UPPERCASE come from all parts of the globe.

Its mission statement calls it “a magazine for the creative and curious”. What a mission! They have produced 13 editions and to judge from the issue that I have in hand, it is mission accomplished.

I am reading issue 12 where the theme is the love of paper. The articles tend to be quick reads with web links so that you can further explore anything that catches your fancy. You may find, like me, that a great deal of the content does.

The layout is very catchy, with loads of pictures interspersed with text set with various types, from standard computer font to old fashioned typewriter font. Much of the content pays homage to the fast-vanishing world of print.

While it may surprise some people, I find that paper appears to be going nowhere fast. A world of paper worshippers exists. Institutions discard their print and artists make igloos, home decorations and sculpture out of it. Take a look at this link for a smattering of possibilities.

Pages 54 – 56 have a great little article by an urban-sketcher, Sigrid Albert, who lives in Vancouver. Interested? See my last blog on the Art of Urban Sketching for a great new book and website.

An ever-so-short article on the NYC Library is full of images and an impressionist snippet that ends, “Although we didn’t leave with any borrowed books, we left with an excess of inspiration.” I always feel this way about libraries. They have been a source of inspiration since I was a kid and that was a while ago.

This is not a magazine that circulates (yet), so have a look, make notes or get your own subscription. I probably will. While you decide, grab a chair and immerse yourself in a world of ideas.

-Candace

Jane's Two Cents: Don't you just love that fabulous pigeon on the cover? The UPPERCASE website makes a visit to the studio of the artist, Anne Smith, who drew the illustration.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

I have just been reminded that the pencil is a wonderful travel companion. Gabriel Campanario takes it on tour in The Art of Urban Sketching: drawing on location around the world. Funny how with so many apps and tablets with instant web links, artists still want to record their impressions on paper, using techniques that have been around for centuries.

Campanario is the founder of Urban Sketchers website which connects an international following of artists who record their travels and communities. Their motto is “see the world one drawing at a time.”

While most of the book consists of sketches of unique locales, there is also a section called Drawing Inspiration. It deals with typical urban features that offer inspiration to the artist, from skylines, streetscapes, and panoramas to monuments, cars and furniture.

The sketchbooks themselves are interesting. One urban sketcher repurposed old accounting ledgers for his drawings.

I had a lot of fun looking through this book and it reminded me of an older book from the collection, one of our gems. Holy China by Feliks Topolski was published in 1968. With loose and expressive pencil sketches, Topolski recorded the changing landscape of people and places in China in the early days of the Cultural Revolution.

- Candace

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

We just received a new copy of an old favourite, The Artist’s Way: a spiritual path to higher creativity, by Julia Cameron. There are so many ways in which this book works for anyone seeking to explore their creativity. It has remained a perennial favourite with CPL cardholders since it was first published in 1992.

When I first found this book and started out with the exercises, there wasn’t a web presence or iPhone/iPad apps. Today, Cameron has a website and an international community of artists who look to her for guidance.

Starting things is a habit with me, finishing is quite another story; so the second coming of the book is a chance to revisit what could turn out to be a very good habit. It came as a surprise to find that the book is part of a trilogy with the other two titles being Walking in this World: the practical art of creativity and Finding Water: the art of perseverance.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I browsed Finding Water. I discovered that it builds upon the first book’s exercises and clarifies the process. I was surprised to find this helpful and worthwhile and not simply a rehash of the first book.

Let me share a quotation from “Finding Water” that struck a responsive chord. It is by novelist William Styron: “I’ve always had a very comfortable relationship with No. 2 pencils.” Now, there is one of the great truths; he has identified my favourite tool for expressing whatever is on my mind.

Keep your pencil handy. It goes travelling in my next blog.

- Candace

When art and craft are a big part of your life, you need space for the materials and equipment that go with it. Creative people apply their gifts not only to the work they produce, but to the spaces where they produce it.

Inside the creative studio shows the work places of painters, jewelry makers, textile and mixed-media artists and more. The studios are as individual as the work.

Some have integrated studios into their living rooms or attics; others have appropriated barns and sheds. All have applied ingenuity to organizing the materials they work with so that the materials are at hand and also a source of inspiration.

The tools of organization come from many sources like restaurant suppliers, flea markets and home improvement centres. Every manner of container is used to sort supplies, including plastic bins, baskets and buckets. They make use of dowels, garden trellis, and pegboard, as well as repurposed furniture.

Each example includes a floor plan for the space and an essay by the artist describing what works for them best.

Untamed clutter can defeat the creative process. These creative types have found ingenious ways to conquer the monster and make a space that inspires their work.

If you are pursuing a career in fashion design or just curious about the industry, check out the new edition of Research and Design. The book promises to lead you through the essential stages of fashion research and how to translate the research into fashion design ideas.

What we are talking about here is the creative investigation that precedes the development of a collection. It includes visual inspiration for the concept, gathering information about materials for the collection as well as consumer or market research.

You learn that sources of inspiration may be found in many places: museum and art galleries, architecture, flea markets, film and theatre and street culture. The author provides sketch-book examples to demonstrate.

New technologies produce new synthetic fabrics. For example, E-textiles embed computing and digital components into everyday garments. In addition, materials investigation includes the exploration of ethical issues and sustainability.

The author explores methods to compile the information gathered and offers exercises to translate the research into design.

Throughout the book, interviews with established designers provide examples of how the process works for them in creating a new collection.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

Sometimes it is fun to revisit the shelves in the hopes of snagging a couple of interesting browses. Since I like to make things, the books that get my attention are often about methods of making. Spanish jeweler, Carles Codina, has three books in our collection that fit this criterion:

Complete Book on Jewelry Making,

Goldsmithing & Silver Work and

The New Jewelry.

His books cover a wide range of techniques; articles range from how to make a North African bracelet to an article on the specific properties of gems. As a novice jewelry maker and fiddle-around type, I found them packed with information, full of things to try or to dream about trying.

Codina’s books are refreshing in that the esthetic offered is quite different from much of the jewelry I have seen in Calgary – although the market appears to be changing. Witness Nikola, a shop in Inglewood where the proprietor sells jewelry that is bold and unusual, made by local and Western-Canadian artists.

Building on the bold-and-unusual-jewelry theme, another book from our collection, 500 Silver Jewelry Designs, contains a plethora of great images, most of which are terrific fun to look at.

Who knows what an inspired, jewelry-making dabbler might come up with after combining ideas from these lovely books?

-Candace

The title for this blog should really be: The Power of Love, Art and Vicious Medicine.

In 1969 Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. She undertook a horrendous, experimental course of chemotherapy.

During her treatment, her husband, artist and satirical cartoonist Ronald Searle, created a Mrs. Mole drawing to cheer her through each chemo session.

These tender little drawings were never intended for publication. They evoke a blissful future life in the house in Provence which the Searles had recently purchased and were restoring.

“He was wonderful throughout – a tower of strength and a continual source of pleasure,” wrote Monica. Her harrowing treatments lasted five years and, against all odds, she survived. Ironically, although she survived the treatments so many years ago, she passed away recently before this little book of drawings was published.

Searle’s pictures are full of light and love and hope. The title of the book, Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole, refers to a 15^th Century illuminated manuscript,Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry.

If you have forgotten his work – or are too young to remember it – take a look at some of his other books in our collection. Ah yes, I Remember it Well: Paris 1961-1975 contains drawings of Paris where the Searles were living when Monica received her diagnosis.

While humourous, they have a biting edge: lovers entwined on a bench overlooking the Seine are sitting next to a dissolute street person.

And speaking of dissolute, check out Something in the Cellar: Ronald Searle's wonderful world of wine. It’s a hilarious look at wine culture around the world where almost everyone is wasted and no one escapes unscathed.

-Jane

A few months back, we added a new title to our collection called Fresh American Spaces by Annie Selke. If you are yearning for a splash of colour to brighten winter-weary interiors, this book will give you a fix.

Selke is a product designer whose popular home furnishings frequently decorate the pages of shelter magazines such as House Beautiful and Better Homes & Gardens. She identifies five distinct design/lifestyle perspectives that she uses to guide her design.

The first one, which she labels Everyday Exuberance, is characterized by vibrant colour. I am captivated by a room inspired by an exotic rug. Here, walls are painted lilac and furniture is upholstered in pink and burnt orange. Sweet colours of the same intensity are balanced by earth tones. The result is a knock-out.

Exciting colour is also a theme in her Cultured Eclectic outlook where colour appears in ethnic textiles, such as Afghani Suzani embroidery and Indonesian batiks. Happy Preppy borrows crayon-box colours to cheer up the rooms.

If you prefer to colour your world with subtlety, she shows the way with Nuanced Neutral and Refined Romantic. She advocates a restrained approach to romantic style that “is about incorporating beauty, grace, and elegance into a space without a heavy hand”.

I like this book a lot. Out in the design world, there is a swirling sea of ideas; if you subscribe to too many of them, your interior landscape becomes chaotic. Selke has the ability to sift through the ocean, distill ideas that work together and help the reader learn from her experience.

One of my favourite house books belongs to the literature collection on the 4^th floor at Central. Lev Tolstoy and Yasnaya Polyana tells the story of Tolstoy’s creative life at his beautiful and beloved estate in Tula, Russia.

It’s been many years since I have read the companion essays in the book which, I recall, betray the communist sympathies of the authors; however, I love to pull it off the shelf from time to time just to look at the pictures.

The rooms are comfortable and unpretentious and reveal the interests of the occupants. They remain attractive and inviting by today’s standards.

Tolstoy’s study includes a Persian walnut desk that belonged to his father, a long black leather sofa and several arm chairs. The caption mentions a big Italian window and door leading out to the balcony. Although, the window is not in the picture of the study, other photos allow you to imagine its effect on the room.

Sophia Andreyevna’s room includes a handsome writing table where she wrote letters and diaries and kept the household accounts.

On the walls around her bed are photos of husband, children, grandchildren and friends. “All who knew [her] commented upon the forcefulness of her character…”

This comment reminds me of the movie The Last Station* which tells the story of their final days on the estate which Tolstoy surrendered to the government. (It is now a museum.) The 2009 film was based on the novel by Jay Parini. In the screen version, Helen Mirren plays the feisty Sophia and Christopher Plummer is Tolstoy – and it’s another stunning performance from this year’s Academy Award winner.

* Editor's Note: We are unable to link the movie directly to our catalogue, but you if you search the catalogue, you will find it.