New Bedroom

The old bedroom used to be almost entirely white - we simplified the whole room and painted the walls a greenish french gray. We also rehung all the artwork using the picture-rail.

Glass and Stone

This would be a nice place to weather the snow. Source. Origin.

Current Project

Inspired by all of the elaborately painted interiors of Rome, I've started adding some decorative painting to our dining room:

lots of tape

part one complete

part two complete

New interior pictures

Our living room- Iron folding chair is from an antique store in Central City, the bench is from a used furniture store in Denver, the credenza is from ModLivin, the long highway painting is mine, the chairs are vintage - found in Savannah, Georgia and the coffee table is Lane.
The view from the living room looking towards the dining room - the dark painting in the dining room is mine and the framed painting in the dining room is by Alan Kitchen.
The couch is from Room & Board and there's a Mammoth tusk in the window sill on the left. The dining room table is from ModLivin. The painting above the couch is by Kay Tuttle.
The dining room - with a cast resin antler by Lauri Lynnxe Murphy. You can see the pigeon racing trophies in the window sill on the left. The room on the right of the photo is my studio. Our place isn't usually quite this clean - ha ha.

Recent Inspiration: Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen

Whale Vertebrae furniture

Ever since a visit to Wartburg castle in Germany in 1999 the image of Martin Luther's footstool stayed with me. He used a whale vertebrae as his footstool while translating the Bible (pictured below). It has a beautiful sculptural quality to it and for reasons I'm having trouble articulating, using the backbone of a whale as a footstool while translating religious texts seems poetic.

On a related note, I came across a great modern stool inspired by the whale vertebrae - by Alda Hall.

Langreyður - kollur


Langreyður - kollur


Langreyður - kollur

The Constant Gatherer: Artist at Home feature

Our apartment is featured this weekend on the blog of my friend Katie Runnels -The Constant Gatherer. Katie is a fellow SCAD grad and artist. Thanks Katie!

Living Room update

Living Room update, originally uploaded by nathanabels.

Living Room update, originally uploaded by nathanabels.

New Couch, etc.

Here's what our living room looked like with the old couch:
We got a new couch yesterday and moved a lot of the room around. Having a couch that sits higher off the ground really opens up the room. Where the wildfire painting hangs in the photo above we've re-hung the eight foot long highway painting. We moved the credenza (and tv) underneath it instead of on the opposite wall. What we're still planning on changing is the rug, the lampshades and the curtains. Changing the rug to something larger and more neutral will make a big difference - I'm dreaming of these rugs. We're even considering re-covering the side chairs with a softer fabric. For now, we'll just have to imagine those changes because shipping and back-orders mean we won't have this room quite how we want it for another couple of months.

Recent Interior Inspiration

We've been changing our decor around lately and today marks the arrival of a new couch (photos soon). Yesterday I retired an old thesis-show painting to our basement storage space.

Our interior inspiration been Harriet Maxwell Macdonald’s home from a 2007 issue of Domino magazine. These rooms balance a variety of textures with a calm, airy feel and the palette is muted but not bland:

New Print on the Knack

Knack studios posted my new print and a couple of other works on their blog today. Check out all the other great places my print has shown up here (eight more places!).

EDIT: Things magazine also put up a link to my work this week as well as Design Crisis.

Jarred De Palo at Newspeak

On a walk yesterday, I stumbled upon a great show of prints titled "Dependency" by Jarred De Palo. It is in the front of a tattoo shop that also sells some art supplies and clothing - called Newspeak (2907 E. Colfax - near the Shoppe and the Fabric Lab). I'm glad I walked in, because this is a show that should not be missed. The hand-pulled and editioned silk screened prints are all very reasonably priced - $30-60 if I recall right. They look like they are printed on high-quality paper with nice little embellishments near the signature. Jarred has composed a lot of clever and interesting silhouette designs, most of which are also being printed on some clothing. Check it out!



T-Shirt designs by Jarred De Palo (these same designs are printed in positive on white paper for the short-run editions).

Three works by Todd Keyser

Todd Keyser
Up Rooted
2006
Acrylic on Canvas
20"x20"
Todd Keyser
Glam
2006
Acrylic on Canvas
20"x20"
Todd Keyser
Corp.
2006
Acrylic on Canvas
50"x50"

Decorate Your Device

"Laika" by Juan Marín at Poolga

Several websites have made a variety of artistic backgrounds and videos availble for free download to put on your zune or ipod/iphone. Zune-arts in particular is a great resource for videos, music, and tons of backgrounds for your desktop and zune. Also check out Poolga for more. Customizing is fun. If you don't have a digital device like a zune or ipod/iphone - you can download desktop backgrounds from the Zune-arts site too. Everybody wins. There's a great blog with tons of videos here too.

Ghost Tree and "Silver Spears"

Although it is well out of my financial price range, I've always loved this "Ghost Tree" by Erich Ginder. If you're in Denver - Forest Room Five has one of these. It's a great combination of high modern design (the base), and nature.

I took some photos yesterday that accompany the "Ghost Tree" well. We hiked from the town of Marble, CO to what remains of an old mining town called Crystal, CO. We met someone there that was enjoying the isolation that can be found in Crystal and she let us fill our water bottle from the mountain spring that supplied water to the few people there. She told us that on an early autumn morning, the sunlight carves between two of the mountains and hits the side of the aspen trees and they look like "silver spears reaching up to the sky."

More Fun - Mixko Designs

Fun times on a Wednesday - here's a couple of treats (ha ha) from Mixko Design

via NOTCOT

Titanic Lamp and Design Inspirations

Topoware - China
Topoware - Tablecloth

from Viable London

I'd love to try tomake the "titanic lamp" - but it would be hard to make on that didn't just look like a broken lamp. All of these discoveries (plus many more) made possible by a new-to-me website NOTCOT

Derek Erdman Paintings

"Derek Erdman VS James J. Williams - Round 2"
January 2007

12"x12"
Catalog #1376
$35 (shipping included)

Derek Erdman, "Pair Of Castros & A Double Deck Bus"
January 2007

16"x24"
Catalog #1378
$50 (shipping included)

Derek Erdman, "Floating Zebra"
December 2006

30"x30"
Catalog #1342
$50 (shipping included)

Derek Erdman, "Bowling"
February 2007

24"x16"
Catalog #1405
$40 (shipping included)

I looked through nearly every painting on his site and had quite a bit of trouble picking out a few to highlight because there's so many highlights. It's light-hearted pop-influenced art with ridiculously affordable prices. You can get one of his paintings for less the price of an evening out. Support artists - he's got everything from pigeons, to Saddam Hussein, to a depiction of tug a war with a giant squirrel. Great stuff. Check out his site here:

Derek Erdman

or click any of the above images to link to its respective page.

Cal Lane Art and Laser Cut Design

Cal Lane, "Shovels", 2005

Cal Lane, "Wheel Barrel", 2005

There's a clever juxtoposition of fragility/strength and the characteristics of work in these pieces. They look great in the gallery setting from her Foley Gallery show, but I've also been interested in laser cut design elements for modern interiors. Here are a few interesting examples:


"Between Two Chairs" (2002) designed for the invite only competition to give form to a chair for his royal highness the crown prince of Denmark. Made of laser cut metal frame and water cut rubber.I also like these laser cut felt rugs by Liora Manne in various sizes and colors.


And I love these shelves by Susan Bradley from her "Creep" series of tables and shelves. She also does interesting "outdoor wallpaper" and other laser cut pieces.