GE Reveal Lighting Makeover

Stained glass lamp fitted with standard light bulb.

One of my most prized possessions is a stained glass lamp designed and made by my grandmother.  Reminiscent of the art glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the lamp is special not only because it is her own design, but because she created it in her favorite palette of colors.  I put together this outfit inspired by the lamp, and by the beautifully artistic eye of my grandmother.

GE asked me to test out their new Reveal lightbulb, and I couldn't wait to see how it would look in my grandmother's lamp.  With the Reveal bulb, the beautiful colors of the glass and intricacy of the design are much more apparent.

Stained glass lamp fitted with GE Reveal bulb.

GE reveal® bulbs make it easy to enhance the colors and patterns around you, something that is extremely important to visual people like myself. The LED lightbulbs filter out dull yellow rays of standard incandescents, and provide a beautiful, clear light , perfect for a workspace, to showcase artwork, or simply to light your home. An added bonus is that the Reveal bulbs use 28% less energy than standard incandescents.

To learn more about the difference reveal® can make, watch this fun video engaging tastemakers who depend on the best lighting possible for their craft.

Thank you to GE for the opportunity to test out the Reveal bulb!

Blouse: Vintage

Leather pants: Tracy Reese

Boots: DKNY

ARTFULLY AWEAR + PANTONE: Emerald.

After a brief hiatus, I'm back with my latest Artfully Awear + Pantone post, featuring the Color of the Year: Emerald.

Emerald has always been one of my personal favorite colors, and is surprisingly flattering with almost any skin tone. The hue is also well represented in the work of Helen Frankenthaler.

Her oversized canvases, though seemingly abstract, were often inspired by landscapes, such as her most famous work, Mountains and Sea, which measures 7 feet by 10 feet.

One of the few female artists recognized alongside the group of second generation Abstract Expressionists, Frankenthaler (1928-2011) was a Color Field painter.

The thin veils of paint that make up her paintings are reminiscent of watercolors, even though they are actually oils. Her "soak stain" method of thinning oil paint and applying to unprimed canvas was adopted by other artists including Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

Two of my favorite posts of all time are inspired by Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

Color Field painting was different from Abstract Expressionism in its denial of emotional or mythical themes.

"You have to know how to use the accident, how to recognise it, how to control it, and ways to eliminate it so that the whole surface looks felt and born all at once". --Helen Frankenthaler

Dress: Nicole Miller Artelier (full length version here for $100!)

Shoes: Calvin Klein

Necklace: Anthropologie Chasca

[Photos by @kay_elle_pea; images from stylesight.com, newcriterion.com, justalittlegreen.tumblr.com, and accidental-brilliance.com.]

ARTFULLY AWEAR + PANTONE: Grenadine.

For the second installment of my Artfully Awear + Pantone series, I'm featuring Grenadine.

I originally intended to use this dress in relation to the flower paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe (see my previous post here), but when I came across Jason Martin's paintings on Artsy, the resemblance to both color and form was undeniable.

Martin's (b. 1970) paintings are almost sculptures, utilizing thick impasto, resembling brushstrokes.  They are actually made using modeling paste on canvas.

The "brushstroke" is the subject of these monochrome works, and his paintings have been described as paying homage to Abstract Expressionism because of their focus on the process of painting itself.

They hearken back even to Suprematism, reminiscent of works such as Kazimir Malevich's Visual Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions (Red Square), 1915, and even Piero Manzoni's Achrome series, which I discussed here.

I appreciate the paintings because of the way they collapse the realms of two-dimensional and three-dimensional artwork, existing simultaneously as both.  

Dress: BCBGMAXAZRIA Ginger Strapless Ruffled Silk Dress (the color in my photos is closer to the actual hue)

Necklace: Emporio Armani (some options here)

Shoes: Lisa for Donald J. Pliner (75% off here!)

Leather clutch: Lauren Merkin (similar here in straw)

Photos by @kay_elle_pea, images from artsy.net

ARTFULLY AWEAR + PANTONE: Magenta Purple.

I'd like to present Magenta Purple, the first color in my Artfully Awear + Pantone series.

When I discovered this gown, featuring Magenta Purple at the yoke and gradually changing gradient, I could not overlook its relationship to the Color Field paintings of Morris Louis.

Louis (1912-1962) lived and worked for most of his career in Washington, DC, becoming central to the Washington Color Movement along with Kenneth Noland and others.

Louis is best known for his gorgeous unprimed canvases featuring specially formulated Magna Paint.

Two important series make up his artistic oeuvre, the Unfurleds and the Veil paintings, pictured here.  View my previous Morris Louis post here, from 2011.

In addition to the beautiful tissue-like quality of the layers of paint on Louis' umprimed surfaces, I've always been drawn to his use of color, and the way they interact on the canvas by overlapping and becoming more or less sheer.

Dress: Nicole Miller Evening Ombre Strapless Gown (on sale!)

Shoes: Badgley Mischka Ginnie

Beaded handbag: Vintage, thrifted

Necklace: So Good Jewelry in SoHo

Thank you to Pantone for sponsoring this post!

Photos by @kay_elle_pea

Images from phillipscollection.org, dfwarts2010.files.wordpress.com, faculty.etsu.edu, and guggenheim.org

ARTFULLY AWEAR + PANTONE

Anyone who knows me understands the importance of color in my wardrobe (and life!) and I am beyond thrilled to announce a new series sponsored by THE color experts at Pantone. 

The Pantone team selected a gorgeous palette of fashion trend colors for Spring 2014, and I've created a collection of outfits showcasing their forecasted hues, shown below.

Green Glow, Blue Aster, Emerald (2013 color of the year), Champagne Beige, Knockout Pink, Grenadine, Magenta Purple

I debuted all of the outfits at The Art Directors Club's 92nd Annual Awards Gala on April 4 in South Beach, and I'm excited to unveil the first installment (featuring Magenta Purple) here tomorrow. 

Stay tuned!

Many thanks to Giovanni with Pantone, my quick change specialist, Olga, and my longsuffering photographer, Kathy. 

LICHTENSTEIN GIRL

Pop Art looks out into the world.  It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.  --Roy Lichtenstein

This year's costume was inspired by the comic strip paintings of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (whose birthday happened to be on the day I wore this).  I painted my face with Ben-Day dots using lipliner, wore a yellow wig, and turned a wire-framed purse into a makeshift word bubble.

I'm wearing a vintage dress and earrings courtesy of Lydell NYC.

[Lichtenstein images from artsamerica.org and art-glossary.com.]

ART TO WEAR: Filigree

Jewelry, especially from ancient times, is just as much artwork as artifact, especially when you consider the craftsmanship behind each piece.  Filigree is a type of metalwork used for jewelry since the 6th century B.C., and is represented in many ancient cultures, including Italian, French, Greek, and Etruscan, and is still popularly used today. Filigree is accomplished by soldering together many tiny filaments to form a piece of metal that resembles lace.

I'm wearing the Filigree Statement Necklace, courtesy of Lydell NYC.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

When I came across this dress, the layered, petal-like hem and rosy hue called to mind the flower paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe.

O'Keeffe (1887-1986) is widely regarded as one of the most important American artists of the 20th century, notable not only for her paintings of stark landscapes and larger-than-life blooms, but also as a woman who rose to renown in a male-dominated field.

Throughout her life, she lived and worked all over the country, depicting her natural surroundings from Illinois to New York, South Carolina, Virginia, Hawaii, Texas, and, finally, New Mexico.

Married to famed photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, O'Keeffe was also closely associated with other American modernists such as Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, and Marsden Hartley.  See my Dove post here and Hartley post here.

O'Keeffe's most well-known works are her close-up views of nature, such as the flower paintings depicted here.

There have been many varied readings of O'Keeffe's flower paintings, particularly related to the feminist art movement of the 1970s, and the flowers' innate sensuality.  O'Keeffe maintained that her work simply existed to confront the viewer with the enchantment of nature.

"I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty." --Georgia O'Keeffe

I'm wearing a dress courtesy of sway chic, necklace from H&M, and Boutique 9 shoes.

Photos by @kay_elle_pea on the High Line.

STREET ART

Continuing the theme of art in public places begun in my last outfit post, I've always been inspired by street art.  I took these few photos while running errands, and they are just a tiny sampling of the work that I pass on a daily basis.

Anonymous or attributed, street art can be found nearly everywhere, and can take the form of almost any media.  See one of my previous posts on the Kenny Scharf mural here.

Because it often exists outside the traditional context for artwork, street art is privileged with the opportunity to give the viewer pause, and possibly make a statement about the relationship between art and its environment.

Street art is regularly covered, removed, or defaced without notice.  Because of its ephemeral nature, I always photograph any work I find interesting, as it may be gone the next time I pass.

I'm wearing the Brooklyn Canvas dress, courtesy of Sugarlips, Uniqlo jeans, an H&M necklace, and Joe Fresh boots.

Photos by Kathy, Chelsea, and me.  Thanks to Sugarlips for their affiliation with Artfully Awear.