Just a quick update!

I just wanted to quickly say how happy I am to be at Alpha.  It is such a great community and everybody is extremely nice.  The offices are in a building with 17 floors, Alpha being on 4 of them (14th, 13th, 12th, and 3rd).  This morning I took my apple and made my rounds around each floor running up and down the stairs.  I said “hi” to everybody and everybody smiled, remembered my name, and told me what they were doing as well as asking me about myself.  I felt like Eloise at the Plaza, running from floor to floor with everybody recognizing me and making me feel welcome in their workspace.

In lieu of Eloise, I absooooolutely positively love my job at Alpha.

Did I sound like her???

Albrecht Durer

Chapter 4 of Secret Lives:  Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer is a German artist who was best known for his sales man persona, the only reason you know his art is because of the way he could sell what he was doing.  Albrecht is considered the first business man of the art world, designing pieces for mass production and allowing people of all classes to afford art in their homes, specifically his.

His most famous engraving is called Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513)

Durer is an artist that clearly history has kept rediscovering and finding new ways to appreciate him.  Other artists in this book make their name with that one painting that floored everybody, yet Durer’s ways of thinking are the reason he is in this book.

What Durer did that was so ingenious for his time is made things that the public would appreciate.  He found out what the public was interested in, created it, printed it, and then hired three salesmen to go around Italy and promote his work.  In 1495 when he was 24 he became a large part of the Nuremberg thinking set and quickly became friends with many humanist scholars.  They described his work as “one of the liberal arts rather than a mere craft.”

High Tech Toilet

Provided that you haven’t used up your 20 views for the New York Times wesbite for the month of April, you absolutely need to check out this new toilet design.  It has everything you don’t need and didn’t realize you wanted, until you read about it.

The High-Tech Toilet by Kohler is a $6,390 toilet.  It comes with eco-friendly flushes, dryer, foot warmer, and sound system.  The toilet has some weird features though, like a stainless-steel cleansing wand (for what exactly?!) and the sensory system is ridiculous.  The lid automatically lifts up when you arrive and the sound system starts, a deodorizer comes on, (provided your put your feet in the appropriate place) the toilet makes your feet warm, and if you’re a man you can hit a button with your foot and the seat rises as well.  This is all pretty awesome, but it sounds more like a really versatile La-Z-Boy chair so if you buy this, expect a long line for your bathroom.

The Mona Lisa

So now part 2 of the Leonardo da Vinci post, focusing on the Mona Lisa.

Contrary to popular belief, the Mona Lisa is not a man.  I personally never saw it but I recall hearing people spreading rumors about her.  She was a Florentine housewife, Madonna Lisa Gherardini.

This painting has taken time to become so amazing and about 350 years after it was painted was it truly appreciated.  It began in the hands of the king of France, Francis I, once Leonardo died where it was not put on display.  Then after the French Revolution, Napoleon briefly had it hanging in his bedroom at the Tuileries Palace.  Then in 1804, the work was hung in the Louvre, a portion of the palace which was converted to the gallery.  However, the Mona Lisa had competition considering that works by Michelangelo and Raphael’s work was far more popular in the museum.

The Mona Lisa became noted around the mid-nineteenth century by French Symbolist poets purely by accident.  French Symbolist poets were enthralled by femme fatales, “women believed to be as devouring as they were beautiful.”  and somehow, the Mona Lisa found herself in this grouping.

Once the French public became aware of how astounding the Mona Lisa was, it was stolen.  The theft drew international attention in 1911 until 1913 when (clearly unintelligent) Vincenzo Peruggia, former Louvre employee, called an art dealer from Florence and offered to sell him the Mona Lisa that he stole two years prior.  From there, the rest is history.

Approximately 8.3 million visitors go to the Louvre each year (according to numbers from 2006), all who see the Mona Lisa.  The Mona Lisa is now encased in bullet proof, climate controlled case.  Interestingly enough, the climate controlled aspect of the casing is absolutely key to the preservation of the Mona Lisa because Leonardo hated painting on wet plaster like many of the artists of his time.  Because of the fact that he used oils on dry surfaces, his paint cracks and peals.  Without the casing, the Mona Lisa would most likely chip away as time goes on.

Leonardo de Vinci

Chapter 3 (because chapter 2 was rather boring) of Secret Lives: Leonardo da Vinci

If anything, da Vinci’s name is probably one of the most widely known names in the art world because of his paintings, Mona Lisa (“La Gioconda”), and The Last Supper.  I admit an error I made though, he was never called “da Vinci” but rather Leonardo.  When signing documents he was “Leonardo ser Piero [son of Piero] da Vinci”.  Surnames were not popular for lower and middle class families so the “da” aspect of the last name actually says where you’re from.  For example, I would be “Hannah ser Dan da New York”.  I’m obviously not Dan’s son but you get the picture.

Leonardo had very bad ADD and therefore has very few “completed” works, even though Leonardo claims that “art is never finished, only abandoned.”  Maybe he was just making an excuse for himself, however there is no way to know.  In 1476, Leonardo was accused of being homosexual and fled to Milan in 1482.  Upon leaving Florence, he left behind half finished pieces as well as sculptures, and about 13,ooo pages of notes.

Two strange facts about Leonardo: 1.  He loved to design war machines, 2.  He was an excellent lute player.

In 1516, Leonardo went to France to become the king’s painter, but really just ended up being there to converse with the king and died shortly after in 1519 from a stroke.

The Mona Lisa deserves her own post.

The non-profit

This will sound silly, but I never fully understood how much dedication and time needs to be put into running a non-profit.  For the past day and a half I have been on a foundation website, reading hundreds of companies bios to see if they would donate to us for scholarships.

In addition, I have been answering the phones.  Mostly the calls are people wanting to see samples or who have questions about Alpha as a company.  Of course I am not experienced enough to answer these questions but I wish I was, hopefully by May 13th I will be.

This internship has made me respect Alpha even more than I already did.  Not only is this a non-profit, which organizes a great opportunity for people with HIV/AIDS, but they are also an interior design business with orders to fill.  So my day consists of trying to find donations, as well as organizing the show room in the front of the office.  Technically, Alpha has double the work of a company and non-profit.

Next week I will be going down to the work rooms and photographing them so you can more accurately understand how dedicated the designers are.  What they produce is stunning, all faux finishings.  I can’t wait to go downstairs!  I’ve been there a few times but I’m excited to watch them hand paint the wall paper and see how they create a wood grain or marble finish!

Jamie Drake

Yesterday I met Jamie Drake!  In the interior design world, Jamie Drake is a celebrity because he is able to make a room complex and simple at the same time.  Simple meaning it is easy to the untrained eye and complements itself.  Complex meaning that to somebody with experience, it is much more than just a room but rather a piece of art that you are walking into, with connections through astounding creativity.

Another reason why Drake is so admirable, he always seems to remember the non-profits linked to his profession.  For example, he did a favor for an architecture firm and the architect Jeffery Goodman.  Goodman asked Drake, “How can I thank you?”  and Drake responded, “Donate money to Alpha Workshops.”

It is people like Drake who challenge the constant assumption that designers are difficult to deal with.  I have never met somebody so respected in their field who was also so lovely to talk with.  He had questions for me about me and didn’t seem to care that I was just an intern.

Drake and Alpha have worked in collaboration multiple times, most notably in Gracie Mansion.  Drake has been Mayor Bloomberg’s designer for the past 20 years!

You’ve probably seen Jamie Drake’s face on the side of buses because he and two other designers partnered with Benjamin Moore paints.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk with him for a large amount of time but I was thrilled to have met a board member of Alpha as well as such a notable figure in the interior design world.

Jan Van Eyck

Chapter 1 of Secret Lives of Great Artists: Jan Van Eyck

The Arnolfini Portrait (1434)

This is Van Eyck’s most notable painting because it was considered revolutionary for the time.  Above the mirror in the middle of the painting, it says ” Jan Van Eyck was here.”  Two things which are interesting about this; 1. Van Eyck was the first artist to sign his work.  All the other artists prior to Van Eyck worked for God and did not identify with what they created.  2.  The most common, universal graffiti came from this painting.

Another reason why Van Eyck was extraordinary is because he was one of the first artists of his time not to paint something having to do with religion, as well as painting with depth, background, and shadowing.

His secret? Many scholars believe that Van Eyck used a mirror to trace the forms projected through it.  So it is assumed that Van Eyck was a semi cheater, and that is why he was so accurate.  Today, if somebody traced the images they saw on to a mirror (as has been done in the past), it would be considered a very interesting canvas opposed to a method of cheating.  Or maybe Van Eyck actually understood shading and the difference between back ground and foreground, but that would mean we’d have to give him credit and who wants that…?

A Short Life of Trouble

I am in the middle of reading A Short Life of Trouble: forty years in the New York art world by Marcia Tucker.  Tucker was the curator at the Whitney Museum and then moved on to create her own museum, the New Museum.  I’m about a third of the way into the book and as she is just discovering the art world of New York City.  In the prologue, she talks about how she approaches art and to me, it is a very mature and optimistic look at art that you might not fall in love with everybody.

“It takes a while to get the hang of it, to learn to listen carefully to what an artist is saying, to suspend judgment, to avoid thinking about whether or not you can ‘use’ the art you’re looking at.  When I first started going to studios, I was looking for work that met my own terms, even if I couldn’t quite define them.  But after a while, I realized that I was approaching the whole enterprise from the wrong end.  I needed to find out what the work’s terms were, and then see if I could stretch my own understanding to meet them.”

I feel like this is an idea that everybody, regardless of it not relating to art necessarily, should remember.  If the public approaches the world so that they fit into it, opposed to approaching the world and making it fit for them, I think that there would be a generally happier out look on life.  The more the public goes into a situation expecting something, the more the public will be disappointed.  However, if the public does not expect anything and accepts the world for what it has and where they are in society, the public will be generally happier.

The Strand

It was raining today and I decided that there was no other place that I would rather spend my time than The Strand.  The Strand is located on Broadway and 13th street and is home to 18,000 miles of books.  It is a three story new and used book store with endless categories and genres.  When I go, I go straight to the third floor and on the left side are about 10 shelves of art history books.  Luckily for me, nobody really goes down these aisles too often on a Tuesday afternoon so I am able to sit in between shelves and open every book that interests me.  Today, I went in with a goal.  I wanted to find biographies for many artists, all in one book.  A summery of each artist’s life, a few pieces, and a few side notes about them, just to get me acquainted with artists that I might not have heard of and to expand my knowledge beyond just the name.  I found “Secret Lives of Great Artists” by Elizabeth Lunday.  This is exactly what I was looking for!  I know the majority of the artists that are mentioned, but it is still cool to read facts about them that aren’t necessarily the first thing you’ll hear while taking an art history course.  In addition, it also has one great quote of the artist, that if you read while having his or her works in mind, you read it in a different way.

So far this book is very helpful and introduces the reader to the artist with very straightforward terms and language.  I would definitely recommend it to anybody who didn’t know that there was a Manet and a Monet, or if you just want to learn random facts about revolutionary artists.