Stay tuned...

Sorry for the lack of posting recently! It's been hectic around here. We'll be back to regularly scheduled posts next week! In the meantime, you can catch me on twitter and pinterest. Happy early weekend readers!

Weekend Recap: Memorial Day

This weekend we celebrated Memorial Day with some friends and cook-out in the garden. We bought bison burgers at the farmer's market just for the occasion. I would like to say I'm an adventurous food eater, as I'm constantly inspired by Anthony Bourdain and his culinary travels, and I am with some things - sweets, cheese, fruits, and vegetables - just not really with meat. I'm not a huge meat eater. I don't even really like hamburgers. For years I didn't even cook meat at home, poor Gman.

However, there has been some buzz over bison and its leaner, healthier qualities and we like the bison (and pork) guy at the farmer's market. So I decided to give Gman the green light for a taste test. As soon as we mentioned to our guests that a) we were having bison burgers and b) where we got them, they were giddy with excitement. The same guy goes to their market! I wish I could remember his name now, though I'm sure if you live in DC and are a meat eater, you know who I'm talking about.

I'm happy to report that I really liked it! The meat was tender, slightly marbled with fat, just enough to give it a juicy texture. It was light and slightly sweet. I liked it much better than beef. Like a lot more. I'm so glad I pushed myself to try something new!

What about you? Are you adventurous with food or do you stick to just a few favorites?

PS - I totally destroyed that Strawberry Rhubarb pie. It's basically the only thing I ate all weekend. That and a vanilla ice cream accompaniment.

I'm gettin' my art blog on.

Aaron Canipe, Native Place

I've been crazy busy lately with some exciting new ventures, in addition to some new project for High Heeled Traveler, I've been hired by ArtSee DC as a blogger (yippie!).

If you aren't familiar with ArtSee DC, they are an arts company who engage with artists and art enthusiasts in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia to discover, exchange, and promote art in the community. I will write a monthly artist interview column as well as review gallery exhibitions. Check out my first interview with photographer Aaron Canipe here!

Discovering Art and Art History: Pottery with Jonathan Adler

large jade bird bowl, limited edition ceramic croc, charade drape vase, capuchine large gourd, georgia vase  

When I was in undergrad I went through an obsessive ancient Greek sculpture and vase phase. I was so into it that I could go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and guess the time periods of the artwork correctly without looking at the labels. I knew which type of drapery was associated with each artistic period and what region it was from. Besides being generally impressed by the skill and sophistication of it all, I thought it was interesting that a lot of the sculpture and particularly the vases were decorative objects made for everyday and ceremonial use. Just like us today, many people then wanted to be surrounded by beautiful objects. Many of the vases made were designed and created by craftsmen. They were made in workshops and sold as craft. We look at them now in the museum setting and think about how precious they are (I mean anything that lasts +2,000 years is well-made in my book) but then they were part of people’s everyday life and culture. There is a blurred line here between artist and craftsman, art object and commercial object.

This leads me to Jonathan Adler. I had the pleasure of attending his lecture (and meeting him!) on Tuesday night at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design. He spoke to a standing-room-only audience about his professional journey. If you aren’t familiar with his brand of decorative objects, I highly recommend you read his manifesto and bio ASAP. You will be laughing out loud. His “irreverent luxury” and making “happy” a brand were indeed inspiring. There were many take-aways for me but I kept coming back to this idea of art vs. craft as Mr. Adler’s career is founded on his insatiable passion for creating pottery.

He started his career creating pots for artistic consumption, “one of a kind” type objects that one might find at a local art fair. But he soon saw the value in producing his work on a grander scale, the opportunity in changing motifs with the seasons, and the challenge of mixing the creative with the sellable. Mr. Adler noted that his animal sculptures are best sellers and recommends to “anyone trying to do a business - do animals. People love them” :).

Throughout the lecture, Mr. Adler kept mentioning that during the course of his career he has dealt with the same aesthetic concerns of silhouette and proportion in his pottery (which he still does daily, literally hands on in the design process). He wants to liberate each pot from its raw form; to be “uncovered rather than created” as if it had always existed. He wants each sculpture to be perfect. Each new motif- inspired by everything from nature, shop mannequins, drapes, to precious pups-enlivens his passion to pull the perfect form from the mud. These concerns are those of an artist, no?

However, he creates decorative objects that we can use in our everyday life. Instead of plain ol’ salt and pepper shakers, how about one with a moustache? Instead of a glass vase, how about a porcelain one with a perfect geometric design? His designs are mass produced in workshops worldwide (mostly in Peru through Aid to Artisans), so are they still artistically valuable? I ask myself, would one of his Georgia vases one day end up in a museum representing our time and culture? Is a craftsman a purveyor of artistic aesthetic? Is a commercially successful potter speaking about his work in a historical museum ironic? Can there be a blurred line to art and craft in the contemporary world or is it something left in the past? What do you think? Tell me in the comments below…

A Poetry Tasting: A New Series!

Hello dear readers! I want to introduce you to our first contributor and a new series on High Heeled Traveler called A Poetry Tasting. I've been wanting to add some poetic delights to the blog for a while but it's one style of story telling that escapes me. Luckily one of my best friends, Kate, is a poet and agreed to write some special rhymes just for us! Let me/us know what you think in the comments below.
So here you go, the first poem in our monthly series...

Ode to a Hotel Room
by Kate Lindblom

A hotel room is made up of three plain things:
security, simplicity, and sighs.
Peace sinks to the core
when we're behind a door
that to us has no ties.

First, security of the calmest kind,
is ready to greet each guest.
With plastered walls
and silent halls
A traveler can take a rest

from winds that gust and rains that pelt
to snow that crusts to ice.
Brass locks that click
and clocks that tick
soothe us through the night.

Simplicity comes in the form of things
like smooth ivory tiles and sheets
as blank and clean
as twilights unseen,
as cool as the mossy peat.

Soap that under a fingernail curls
and pillows stuffed with things
like slanted sunlight
and sounds of the night
a freshness to us brings.

And what of the sighs that from us arise
when we thump our bags on the floor?
They're the same ones heard
instead of a word
when the lamp shines gold no more.

Sheets of glass and cotton curtains
Keep us apart from the noise.
So let out your sighs
and close your eyes.
Let a hotel room bring you joy.

Shoe Love: Wedding delights

I can't believe I was so distracted last week by those yellow pumps that I forgot to share with you my wedding day shoes! My original plan was to go with a colored pump, then I changed my mind and wanted glitter. But when I finally found the lace dress I didn't want anything to take away from its delicate prettiness. So I went with something surprisingly traditional- a dreamy pair of creamy satin d'orsay Manolo Blahniks.

Wardrobe: Chesapeake Bay

Tshirt, bracelet, hoody, tote, sunglasses, boat shoes, shorts, ring

Out on Chesapeake Bay you'll want to be comfortable for a long day on the boat and not all boating weather is bikini weather. I found my good ol' fashioned hoody to be a lifesaver and the classic Sperry boat shoes are brought to life with gold metallic (these are great for commuting too, as I'm told by many a New York lady friend). The print on these shorts is so funky and fun, I couldn't resist. Such a nice break from my black or khaki go to.