Webb Gallery

Another magical find. Jonathan and I had a rather "fly by the seat of our pantaloons" kinda Sunday last week, and we ended up in Waxahachie, Texas. Webb Gallery is an oddball treasure we luckily uncovered (thanks to the our friends Paul and SJ) in the small town. It's nestled just near one of those charming southern town squares. Apparently, this is a place lots of hip people in Dallas already know about, cause when I instagramed this business, everyone was all "Duh Duh Duh, you're not cool unless you pee your pants hang out at the Webb Gallery!"

This space is brimming with old carnival signs and vintage strange-art and folk art and all sorts of twisted little americana nuggets of antiquity and abnormality. The owners of Webb Gallery are a husband and wife team, and apparently travel around the country searching for fun things, and self-taught artists to fill their gallery. Also, and very importantly, the owners are seemingly dog-people (this place has a cute pooch that greets everyone at the door)! Bright colors everywhere! Free Beer! Americana! Doggies! Vintage thangs! It's totally worth the trip, y'all.

If you live in DFW and support the arts in any way there is no reason why you shouldn't go here. So get there.

www.webbartgallery.com

Diane Arbus and Mohammed Ali by Tim Kerr

 Admirers of Dexter, and Dexter himself

 Upstairs, there were figurines that had been decapitated and carefully painted and reassembled with different heads. These were some of my FAVORITE pieces there. I'm not sure of the artist though. If you know, please comment! Also pictured, a gorgeous farm table that looked to be about 25 ft long!

There's Paul!

 More art by Tim Kerr

 I fell in love with the light in the back of the gallery where this old staircase leads to the second floor loft space. (A menorah AND Muddy Waters? If you know me, you know why this excites me so! Awwwww shit yeah!)

Lovely little spaces with lovely things and lovely light. 

I need to go back soon. 

Following the Leader

I discovered an artist I am ashamed of not knowing of until now. Mary Blair.  Disney movies like Cinderella, The Three Caballeros, Alice and Wonderland, and especially Peter Pan have influenced my imagination and sensibilities and shower singing since childhood. She is the color stylist and concept artist behind all these films. Considering the release date of Peter Pan (1953), this is rather impressive.....obviously the art world for women wasn't exactly an open playing field at the time. She's said to be "Disney's Modernist" and now I'm obseeesssed. 

“Mary was the first artist I knew of to have different shades of red next to each other. You just didn’t do that! But Mary made it work,” said Animator Frank Thomas.

Apparently she wore glasses with different tinted lenses because she liked seeing all the different colors. Who knows how much of an impact artists like Mary Blair had over such a vast age-group of children,  How they interpreted the world...color.....characters.  

She made Captain Hook's coat red. She made Alice's dress that bright blue. She made the Cheshire Cat purple and pink

There is so much more to her than what is in this measly post. I highly recommend web researching her RIGHT NOW while you're surfing the web at work. 

 This is one of her early water colors before she worked for Disney. The heavy use of like-colors in the majority of the painting makes the fire so vibrant, I love the reflection of light in the underbelly of the umbrella! It reminds me of the Peter Pan and Tiger Lily scene in Peter Pan.

I'm sure you can piece together which movies these concept pieces influenced. 

She was also the designer behind "It's a Small World" at Disney land. Her use of shape and color is so reminiscent of that time. Such cluttered geometric loveliness. Where do you think she derived her inspiration from?

Aaaaaaaaaaaand she was beautiful and rocked the peasant blouse hard. 

Sources: www.thestylerookie.com, www.tarlani.com, www.magicofmaryblair.com

Western Ware (and the unveiling of horseface)

I know. Corduroys and a long sleeve denim shirt....We're still experiencing very hight temps, 

but this is what I wear to work. You see, I work in subzero temperatures at JCP HQ. 

Working in the styling room from 9-5 often actually gives me a runny nose. So...that explains it. 

I don't wear much make-up. Every now and then I'll bust out with some eyeshadow

for special ocasions. Thankfully I found a red lipstick that works with my 

fair skin tone and very neutral makeup stylings. I also found that during the day just piling 

on red lipstick requires a lot of upkeep, so I figured out a way to make it look more like a stain.

It's less of a hassle. I just dab it on and blend it with my finger then apply clear gloss and blot. 

Easy as pie.

(Maybelline Moisture Extreme in Royal Red...discontinued whhaaa whaaa)

My new thing=doubling up rings. The tri-stud ring on the left is from F21, and on the right

are my Nana's diamonds. The turquoise necklace is hers too. After she passed I had lots of bags of 

her jewelry to look through. A lot of Rhinestones, (She was a diamonds and champagne type of lady)

so imagine my surprise when I found a whole set of sterling and turquoise Southwestern craftings. 

I like to imagine her taking a road trip with my Poppy from Tampa to New Mexico in the 60's 

and purchasing this from some old Navajo. She would've thought it was so novelty. 

She probably wore it while it was in fashion, and tucked it away for me to find

whilst sitting on my parents driveway at a garage sale 3 weeks after she passed.  

Hey look !!! I made the DIY bracelets I said I was going to! It was very easy and I've already 

made 3 for me, 2 for my husband and a couple for my friends! Go here for the full how-to!

And just to prove that I'm really a huge dork, I will now reveal to you my ultimate huge horse smile

never seen before on this blog. This is actually a before and after sequence. Before is me pretending

to look at my Man Ray portrait book (ahem....first edition, not that you needed proof I'm cool)..

and the second is my reaction when Jonathan said, "loose the book, you look contrived"

CALLED OUT AND THAT'S WHY I LOVE HIM.

 

Cords: H&M, Shirt: F21, Belt: Thrifted, Bralette: UO, Sandals: JCP

The Clark Gable framed drawing behind me is by an artist...Jonathan Brooks....

maybe you've heard of him.

Have a Happy Holiday 

Drowning Beautiful

Not sure if you guys have stumbled upon Stumbleupon, but it's one of my favorite ways to surf 

the world wide webs. I promise you it is atleast 200 times more entertaining than 

facebook stalking. Every now and then it will lead me to an artist like this...and I am completely mystified. 

Breath taken away.

Jason de Caires Taylor sculpts life-size figures, and then submerges them in water, where

they are allowed to take on a life of their own, or rather become apart of the natural underwater

seascape. His works span from the waters of Mexico to Greece, and give the viewer a sense of 

simultaneously peering into the future and the past. 

I've always been fascinated with water and sea life (which is why we got married on the 

beach). Maybe it's because I find water to be so calming and at the same time

so totally untamed and powerful. Enough babbling. Get Lost:

  

Spare Parts

 This was the best weekend I've had this summer. This past week I had to make
 a pretty tough decision concerning finances/jobby-job thangs.
After seeking counsel from many wise ones I am blessed to  know,
I went with what was weighing on my heart to do....which was a bit scary. 

This entire weekend has been filled with affirmation from what
I choose to call God (you can call it what you want).
I asked for a sign and I got tons of them. It made me so immensely grateful. 

And now the trick is to not look back. 

Now! Onto something a bit more light hearted!

I got two free tickets to Spare Parts, a show in which Jonathan donated a piece.
It was at The Belmont, which is my favorite Dallas Boutique Hotel,
and was catered by smoke. Yummy BBQ. 

  

Shorts: Cut off thrifted pants, Bag: Dolly Python, Shoes: Steve Madden

Shirt: Chelsea and Violet, Glasses: F21,

 Jewelry: Too much to specify, I'm sure they were all gifts or thrifted or F21 or Penney's. 

Upon parking, Haley and I found some bikers, and solicited their photography skills 

so we could pose like jackasses. 

The whole idea was found objects or junk recreated into art thangs for our viewing pleasure!

This one is Jonathan's. 

The pieces surrounded the pool, and the lawn over looked the Dallas skyline. 

One of the best spots for an event in town.

Fish with a spatula tail!!! WUT?

Oh yeah, the Mavs are world champions. 

SUCK IT MIAMI. 

luv, 

ashley

Oh, Jonny II

 I'd thought I'd share some of Jonathan's current work. All of these pieces are constructed with found objects. Rope, door, chains, screens, old photographs, and documents. We find a lot of it at estate sales....or even better on the side of the road. He told me it makes him feel good to give these rejected objects new homes. Gotta love caring for inanimate objects like little orphans....Some of these pieces can be found in the Illume Gallery (mentioned a few posts ago). 

 This one he felt inspired to do on the side of the street in Brooklyn, and he just left it there. Makes me happy.

All of these pieces are rather large. If you're interested in one email me...he's pretty damn generous with his work. Like I said, he just wants them to find good homes.