Vivian Swift’s Atelier

 Author Vivian is clearly an expert embroiderer. Some might be inclined to conclude that she is also an expert at embroidery in the figuritive sense as well.

 I visited last Friday to check out her claim of owning NINE cats(!)  Cat#1.

 If you look at Vivian's books, Le Road Trip and When Wanderers Cease to Roam, you'll see many cats strewn about liberally.

 I decided to take a count. Here is cat#2.

 Cat#3

 Vivian claims there is a cat lurking in her closet.

Do you see it? I do not.

 This is Vivian's studio or  atelier where her books are created. This is for real.

 Vivian's inspo board.

 And the butterflies in Le Road Trip on page 163. Definitely for real.

 Why Vivian has seen fit to hang on to samples of French dirt illustrated in Le Road Trip, I did not inquire, not wanting to seem nosy. Perhaps they have sentimental value?

 Sketches for her newest book in the works on gardens. (I hope I'm not giving away trade secrets here).

 More embroidery samples on the studio wall.

 

Another page from Le Road Trip: A Traveler's Journal of Love and France. I did not see any Morris Columns in Vivian's atelier. Not even a miniature. Honestly it really doesn't matter how many cats she says she has, the woman can tell a very good story and will have you laughing endlessly as well as becoming informed on France in ways that make excellent conversation at a dinner party.

Just do it!

Les Maitres du Desordre - Musee Branly

 By chance I popped into the musee Branly and they were playing my song.
 

 Les Maitres du Desordre is on till 29 July.

 If you're messy DON'T MISS IT!

It will validate you in ways you never imagined.

 I felt instantly at home.

Basquiat I LOVE U!
 

 Regarde:

There are artists messier than I am.

Who knew?

 Voila!

 The exhibit of course is very orderly.

It's French.

 Amazing to see mess displayed this way.

 Sometimes messiness entraps you and doesn't feel so creative. Have you ever wasted oodles of time looking for vital papers that were right in front of you?
 

 I've shown my messy studio many times.
 

 Somehow it doesn't look so bad..?
 

 Though nothing like YSL's perfect order.

 I loved the explanations for disorder in the exhibit.

'Order does not exist without ambivalence. All order including the divine order, is fundamentally flawed'.

Hmmm...

 Sometimes there can be happy disorder!

 I was quite orderly for my dinner party last week - a miracle really...



The French are very orderly (like French Girl). Is that why I'm so attracted to them?

I'm having two very disorderly days.

I catch AirFrance 'home' today, but it doesn't feel so much like home anymore.

Paris has become so comfortable. 

Been bawling for 2 days straight without knowing why :(

Off to take an orderly swim. Then come back and make order of my disorder before takeoff.

Wish me luck!

My Studio 2011

WELCOME! You're invited in to my studio 2011

Not that much different from my studio 2010 is it?

OK maybe it is.

Amazing how many ways you can throw stuff up in the air and it comes down in different patterns like pickup sticks.

These macarons are only 3 months old.

I use a pastry box to reflect the light - another Eureka moment.

Do you believe if you surround yourself with the things you love, eventually they'll sink into your brain by osmosis? I do.

I love Morandi, Wayne Thiebaud, Japanese prints, and Fr pastry.

The studio exhibit is constantly changing.

Here is a pile of Parisian gifts-with-purchase I send out with your watercolors.What BEAR is reading these days.

BONJOUR STUDIO 2011!

Paris Pastry Meditation

Religieuse Violette, watercolor, 9" x 11"
I thought I was posting on the lovely, orderly way Parisian patissiers.
Line up their creations.

Like soldiers standing to attention in perfect rows.
Then I had one of those Eureka! moments. Is it possible my obsession with French pastry has everything to do with a desperate need for order and nothing to do with chocolate or whipped cream?

These perfect disks lined up with such precision.

Labeled and priced, measured centimeters apart, are the exact opposite of my chaotic studio.

I fight a losing battle with entropy daily,

Yet the vision of glossy tartes.

Is like a Zen meditation.

Do I start an ashram in Paris and spread the joie?

Should I go to pastry school?Would you like a peek at my studio 2011 to see if there's been any improvement?

Do tell PBers.
BONJOUR PASTRY MEDIATATION!