Home Improvements

It's a cruel, cruel lie. Trading Spaces would have us believe that we can have a beautifully decorated living room for under $1,000 and one weekend. If I had $1,000 and one weekend, I would be in Vegas--not making slipcovers. To top it off, there is this fantasy where our neighbors cheerfully help us out, instead of complaining to the building manager about the racket. And is that Hildi Santo-Tomas insane?!? Hay? Feathers? Cardboard? as wall treatments? It's not enough that the stuffing is coming out of the upholstery of my couch while I watch this show, this snooty woman thinks that I going to believe that this is chic? I am not that kind of gay.

Actually, one thing I did "learn" from watching these home improvement shows, is that you don't have to buy art to have nice pictures on your walls. You could buy some used monographs or coffee table books, cut out the pages, put it under a nice mat and frame, and voila--art! On one of my business trips, in the airline magazine, there was a profile on artist Sarah Morris and her abstract paintings of buildings. I am really not one for abstract art, but these were very striking. Prior to this, the only abstract art that I liked was Piet Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie." I took a couple of copies of the magazine, tore off the pages and framed the pictures. It looks cool. Nobody has said it was tacky--yet.

The New Yorker had a little blurb about a new Sarah Morris exhibit so I decided to check it out. The top four are similar to the ones I have on my wall.





Check out some of her work at the Petzel, and at Air de Paris. Here's a PDF of her biography and a image-rich slideshow.