Holy Mother Of God. As if 2020 is a year that anyone really wants to memorialize for eternity, a company calling itself Dot Com Product has created a Covid-19 themed ornament with that you can personalize and add to your Holiday Tree. Unreal. According to the description (unedited by me): “Each ornament is complemented with 2020 memorabilia including adorable Santa Hat Persons Wearing Masks, Hand Sanitizer, Toilet Paper, and the Year 2020” (with a Covid Germ representing the First Zero). Kill me.
You can order these crazy things with up to seven individual masked-heads (depending on how many people in your family survived the year, I suppose), and you can also add a pet. You have to personalize the ornaments yourself though (a black sharpie is recommended). If this looks like the bad taste / white elephant gift you need to own, you can read more about them, and place an order, at This Link.
Chinese fretwork first appeared in Britain in the early eighteenth century on garden fences, but it was not until midcentury that the vogue for fretwork on furniture erupted.
Here, the three-dimensional angular pattern seems to float in midair to support a small, six-sided tray. The exact design for these candelstands comes from the first edition (1754) of Thomas Chippendale’s Gentlemen and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.
This Pair of Mahogany Candlestands (Circa 1755 – 60) Was Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Image Source (All Other Photos By Gail Except Where Noted)
Some of our favorite Halloween traditions may be off-the-table for this year’s scariest night, but there’s still time to create your own delicious festivities with a treat from Gourmet Gift Baskets that can be delivered direct to your door! Honored by Newsweek earlier in 2020 as a Top Food Site, Gourmet Gift Baskets has a few new offerings for Halloween that are scary good ways to treat yourself, or someone you love! Check out the Boo Baked Good Gift Box, packed with tasty sweets that I am currently enjoying here in the Chickpad.
Before we take a peak at what’s inside, can I just say that anyone would love this adorable, lidded-box that lets the gift keep on giving as it can be re-used to store whatever strikes your fancy once the enclosed treats have been gobbled up! So cute!
Brand new this season, the Boo Baked Good Gift Box, ($29.99) is stuffed with nearly dozen fresh-baked goods, including delectable, chewy chocolate chip cookies, fudge brownie cookies and a novelty crispy rice treat shaped like a giant Candy Corn. You need to see this to be sure your eyes aren’t tricking you! This very affordable gift will make anyone’s Halloween feel special.
The baked goods are individually wrapped to stay fresh, and each gift box arrives with its own greeting card, so your recipient knows it came from you.
Rice Crispy Treats are a favorite of mine since I was a wee lass and used to bake them with my Mom. I’m happy report that the Gourmet Gift Baskets bakers’ version of this classic is just as soft and chewy as I remember, and the candy coating takes it to the next level. This oversized treat is so rich that you might want share it with a friend, or wrap half of it to save for later!
Also brand new, for those looking for a more Adult-geared gift, is the Eat, Drink & Be Scary Beer Bucket ($69.99) which features delicious treats like handcrafted Kettle popcorn, peanut butter cups, and Halloween Junior Mints — packed in a fun and functional black cauldron pail — plus 6 assorted Beers that provide a perfect pairing.
Find the perfect Halloween Treats for your scary celebration now at Gourmet Gift Baskets!
The Death of Munrow (circa 1820 – 30), a glazed earthenware figure group by an unknown artist, records a specific historic event in 1791, in which Hugh Munrow, a British soldier, was killed by a tiger in India. Its composition was inspired by an almost life-size wooden automaton of a tiger killing a European that was owned by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore in India. Tipu’s Tiger was seized by the British army in 1799 and brought to London, where it was placed on public display.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
Felt works by Robert Morris, including this piece entitled Pink Felt (1970) embody his notion of Anti-Form. Instead of executing a predetermined design, Morris allowed the final outcome of a sculpture to be determined as much by his simple actions (cutting and draping the material) as by gravity and chance.
Pink Felt, Detail
A departure from earlier, unitary geometric forms of the Minimalist sculptures that the created in the 19603, Morris’s felt works, including Pink Felt, foreground the physical qualities of his materials and the artist’s physical process.
Installation View
“Disengagement with preconceived enduring forms and orders for things is a positive assertion,” the artist writes in his 1968 essay, Anti Form. “It is part of the work’s refusal to continue estheticizing form by dealing with it as a prescribed end.”
In the early days of the Covid 19 lockdown, most of us — not just here in Manhattan but around the globe — were spending close to 24 hours a day in our homes. It was during this time that photos began appearing on the Internet and Instagram depicting places like Times Square and other generally heavily-populated ‘tourist destinations’ in states of complete abandonment. It was as if civilization as we know it had ceased to exist, and our cities been left to the elements. The world was looking more apocalyptic by the day. The only thing missing were the zombies.
I thought of these images immediately when I got an email from Hashimoto Contemporary Gallery about their latest exhibition, Quarantine by artist Scott Listfield — who is known for his paintings featuring a lone exploratory astronaut lost in a landscape cluttered with pop culture icons, corporate logos and tongue-in-cheek science fiction references.
The gallery is walking distance from my home, so I made an appointment to see these enigmatic and compelling paintings in person. I was the only person in the gallery at the time of my visit, which made the experience even more powerful. To say that Scott Listfield’s work encourages imaginative extrapolation is an understatement.
A member of a wealthy banking family and sophisticated patron of the arts, Thomas Hope (1739 – 1861) set out to influence and improve contemporary taste through the publication of his own collection in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807).
Installation View
Following interest in ancient Rome and Greece, attention turned to Egypt as a major source of inspiration for furniture and interior design. This ‘Egyptian” bench shows influence of Hope’s archeological taste and may have been part of the furnishings of his country house The Deepdene, Dorking, Surrey (outside London). It was possibly sold in the Christie’s sale of the Hope heirlooms held at Deepdene over six consecutive days in September of 1917. Lot 1044, sold on September 17th, consisted of: “a carved 4ft. 4in. gilt Egyptian pattern settee with scroll ends, on claw feet, and squab seat upholstered in gold satin damask.”
While several surviving pieces of furniture can be attached to the detailed line drawings, Hope never remarked on the fabrics to be used. The present wool covers are based on fiber fragments from this bench and on original textile remains from a settee also designed by Hope, which is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
To find the Shark, you must have the Eye of The Shark! Fortunately, I possess that eye. This little guy, made from precisely-arranged, blue glass marbles, was spotted — just waiting to attack — on the sidewalk outside of The Pearl Room, a restaurant located at 8518 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
“Singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind.” This is how the radical philosopher William Godwin described his daughter, the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, who achieved fame and infamy for her groundbreaking Gothic fiction Frankenstein (1818), written at the remarkable age of twenty-one. Here, the Italian neoclassicist Camillo Pistrucci uses the imposing genre of the white marble portrait bust (1843) to present Shelley in the grand manner of a virtuoso. Balancing the rhythmic forms of the face and drapery with the dazzling details of her sweeping Victorian hairstyle, Pistrucci achieves a precision and finesse that betrays the influence of his father, Benedetto Pistrucci, the unrivaled cameo carver. The artist carved the bust in Rome in the year of Shelley’s Italian sojourn.
Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851)
Photographed in the British Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Outdoor dining during the Covid 19 pandemic has really saved New York City, not only economically but morale-wise. I love how the little temporary dining areas that restaurants have built curbside make it seem like there’s street fair going on all the time! This Pink Tent and Picket Fence was spotted on Bleecker Street in the West Village.
