A Tour of Philly’s Most Amazing Murals With Nina Glaser

Who says art has to live in a museum?

Nina Glaser of the super-rad scarf line Ash & Anchor is a recent Philadelphia transplant. One of her first obsessions in her new locale: the city’s Mural Arts Program, which includes large-scale artworks in civic spaces all across the city—many of which are created by at-risk kids. “I love how the murals transform the city landscape,” Nina says. “Sometimes you turn a corner you’ve never turned before, and you’re immediately taken into a new world.” These are the four—of the over 3,000 murals that have been created through the program—that speak to her. —carrie neill

“Healing Through Faith and Spirituality” by Joe Brenman
“I love the use of blended colors and patterns—along with an excellent use of mixed media. That top left corner is glass mosaic! It speaks to how no particular belief is more important than another by weaving cultural and spiritual symbols together seamlessly.”
(5531 Germantown Ave.)

“It Has To Be From Here…Forgotten But Unshaken” by Betsy Casanas 
“I adore the color palette of this mural! It’s so bright and vibrant and really lights up the whole block. The patterns and rich colors exemplify the spirit of Latin American heritage, and I love the use of textile patterns like patchwork and mandalas.”
(3263 N. Front St.)

“Schuylkill Tapestry” by Jonny Buss
“This mural adorns columns below the twin bridges that go above the Schuykill River—and it was inspired by kimonos! The glass mosaic fish and water-slash-air bubbles are my favorite part. They’re so unexpected and gorgeously executed.”
(Below Rt 1/Lincoln Hwy at Ridge Ave. and S. Ferry Rd.)

“The Color of Your Voice” by Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez
“The concept is so creative—the artists used poetry that was generated in workshops. They then designated a single color per letter and translated all the poetry into colors. The translated mural also uses pieces of trash to signify colors—many of the green lines are Sprite cans. The artists were inspired by going into the corner store and seeing displays of colorful bags of snacks. The fact that this is both beautiful and abstract—and that a poem can be deciphered from its form—makes it one of my favorite murals in Philly.”
(2417 Ridge Ave.)

Photos from City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

Don’t miss Nina’s equally bright-and-cheery edition, coming tomorrow.

Weather Vain: Las Vegas, Nevada - 77 and Partly Cloudy

It’s always a hot one in Vegas, right? Today’s no exception. And while there are more and more places to hit off the strip, this is not the town for classic neutrals. Here, a party in a suitcase. —erica

Clockwise from top left:

+ The sort of Kain dress that can go big—barMASA? Hyde Bellagio?—if you want to.

+ Jenni Kayne flats fit for exploring the CityCinter’s crazy art collection…or strolling the up-and-coming downtown scene.

+ A Clover Canyon jacket that can compete with the neon AND the desert chill.

+ You need a lucky charm at the blackjack table, right? This Alyssa Norton bracelet will do it.

+ Lizzie Fortunato earrings are ready for the whole pool cabana-to-drinks outfit change.  

+ A little Acne wallet, for the things that can’t be paid for in poker chips.

Get more “Weather Vain” goodness this way…

Dive Into Caroline Z. Hurley’s Amazing Paintings

The artist-turned-designer talks us through four stellar works.

Studio action!

“I feel like I was throwing paint around out of the womb,” Caroline Z. Hurley jokes. Once she grew up a little, she studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and started exhibiting her work all over—New York City, Los Angeles, Rome, Memphis, you name it. Here, Caroline, who now has a namesake line of jewelry and textiles as well, tells about some of her key paintings. —raquel laneri

Pile of Laundry (2004)
“I studied abroad in Rome my junior year of college, and I got really inspired by the clotheslines there. You would see these really personal things, like oversized bras and boxers and really small Speedos for men, and it was just so bold—right in the main square! I did this painting directly after Rome. I set up in my studio in Providence, Rhode Island, with piles of clothing, photos I had taken, and images from magazines or books, so my studio was covered with inspiration, which is the way I like to work best. My work is all about colors, and the colors are the ones I kept seeing in Rome. For example, those three blue streaks at the bottom were part of this sweater I wore there almost every day. That was the year I finally figured out what I wanted to paint. After I came back from Rome, it was like ‘OK. I get it.’”

Rio (2012)
“This painting has transformed so many different times. I keep paintings around and work on them until I feel like they’re done, and this one had been around for like a year. I would just add small things at a time. Then one day I was looking at this magazine about Rio de Janeiro, and all of a sudden I started putting all these pictures of Rio up in my studio. I’ve never been there, but I did a sort of aerial view of what I thought the coast of Rio would look like, with the flashy bikinis and the beachy colors.”

Thank You, Virgin America (2010)
“It was 2010, and I was living in Los Angeles. I had this huge aircraft hanger I used as a studio, and it was so awesome because I could really just let loose and do these huge paintings and be messy. But there was a point where I felt kind of stuck—it was like I had writer’s block but for painting. So I took a trip to New York, and on the way back home, I was walking down the aisle of the plane and every pattern I saw was just popping out at me. It was like this video of awesome shirts and weird patterns, and if you blurred your eyes it kind of looked like a painting. So I sat in my seat, and the whole six-hour ride I was drawing things around me. I had all these sketches to put up in my studio when I got home. I had been so fed up with everything I was doing before then, and this was the painting that refueled my love of painting.”

The Beach (2009)
“I usually do abstract paintings, but with this painting, I was living in New York and really missing the beach. I was looking at this picture of a beach in L.A., and I was like ‘God, I just need to get this out,’ and I did this painting in 10 minutes. I was thrilled by how quickly and easily it came out, and it led to this yearlong series of beaches. I can remember the feeling I had when I was painting this—a little frustrated but also excited by these little patterns and textures—and the feeling is conveyed in the painting.”

Tomorrow, score a piece of Caroline’s (textile!) work. Sign up for our newsletter list so you don’t miss it.

The Six Art Books Kelly Wearstler Says You Need

Spruce up your shelves, stat.

Kelly’s home library. 

It’s no surprise that interior-cum-fashion designer Kelly Wearstler’s Beverly Hills home is gorgeous, but her library is equally impressive.  “To me, collecting rare design books is like collecting art. You can never have too many,” Kelly explains. Though Kelly has quite the stash, we got her to zero in on her favorites. —monica derevjanik

The Shell: Five Hundred Million Years of Inspired Design by Hugh Stix, Marguerite Stix and R. Tucker Abbott
Want to get to the roots of Kelly’s spring 2013 collections? Then flip through this sucker. Many of her patterns and prints were inspired by the subaquatic designs from its pages.

Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents by Nicholas Ganz
Talk about girl power: This book covers a long line of female street artists who are often overlooked by their male colleagues.

Jean-Michel Basquiat by Dieter Buchhart, Glenn O’Brien, Jean-Louis Prat and Jean-Michel Basquiat
Speaking of street art, get to know Jean-Michel Basquiat. The groundbreaking conceptual artist actually got his start in graffiti before becoming an eighties art legend.

The Magic of M. C. Escher by J.L. Locker  
The most amazing thing about Escher’s hyper-precise graphics is that all of his repetitive patterns are actually done by hand. We can only imagine how cross-eyed he’d be after a day of work.

Picasso and the War Years, 1937-1945 by Steven A. Nash, Robert Rosenblum, Brigitte Baer, and Michele Cone
Yah, Picasso is about as mainstream as they come, but this comprehensive guide of this less-discussed period is a can’t-miss, history-filled read.

Rhapsody by Kelly Wearstler
Ok, ok, so obviously this is Kelly’s own book—which makes it the perfect place to go for a closer look at her creative process. And it pairs damn nicely with her Of a Kind edition. DUH.

Cannot wait to reveal Kelly’s edition! Sign up for our newsletter to get it while you can!

Take a Tour of Kelly Wearstler’s Killer L.A. Flagship

This place: home-spiration central.

Picture this: You’re in a 2,400-square-foot Los Angeles pad teeming with custom-made fixtures, rich oak, and museum-worthy sculptures. Now add a cash register and a few adorable salesgirls, and you’ve got the mind-blowingly chic Kelly Wearstler flagship store on Melrose Avenue. Everything from the four-foot-wide starburst lights to the stone-encrusted door handles are dripping with Kelly’s modern-meets-vintage aesthetic. “My main goal was to bring out this residential feeling,” Kelly explains. “It’s all about the lifestyle of the brand.” Check out some of her very favorite fixtures in her very first boutique. —monica derevjanik

“I luckily found this beautiful Louis Durot table at an obscure auction house while I was in Europe. I immediately recognized it for what it was because I’ve always admired his unique, vibrant work.”

“My mannequins were all custom-made in L.A. I wanted them to look unique and to be full of movement and life—which is why they’re in positions that aren’t typically seen on store mannequins. In fact, all of the fixtures and displays in the store were custom-made, down to the black and white cerused oak hangers that have become my signature.”

“This mirrored display case is a vintage piece that I loved so much, I had it recreated. Both of the pieces now house my china collections, which happen to be made by Pickard—America’s oldest maker of fine china. They also supply the china used in White House, so they deserve a good home.”

“This table is custom-made with negro marquina marble in our classic finish and is an original design that’s now part of our new furnishings collection. It’s inspired by my own dining table at home.”

“This ‘People Bianco’ wall sculpture by Franco Scuderi is from my own personal collection. I’m a huge fan of Scuderi and I just love the geometry and texture this adds to the neutral color palette of the store.”

Get on our email list to score Kelly’s amazing edition tomorrow!

Caroline Z. Hurley

When Caroline Zucchero Hurley went to Bali with a bunch of art-school friends in 2011, she knew the island’s gorgeous colors would influence her abstract paintings. But the trip also ended up inspiring her in a completely unexpected way. “We had a craft table where we would gather every night, and I found myself making these block-printed textile things,” the 30-year-old says.

It turned out to be a perfect extension of the Memphis native’s particular brand of painting, and her textiles—think melon throws with black bars or crimson blankets with hot pink triangles, all made of super-absorbent Italian linen—are a lot like her abstract art: colorful, spare, and exuberant. “I teach pre-school part-time, and I’m really inspired by the projects we do in the classroom,” she explains. “It’s great because I come to the studio after work, and I’m in this really playful mood after throwing glitter around and cutting simple shapes all morning. It really puts me in the right mindset to do all my work.”

She also, by the way, makes pretty rad necklaces out of painted pasta and devotes some time to an indie film company she and her friends founded in Los Angeles. How does she keep up with it all? “I don’t really distinguish between my paintings and my products, my teaching and my art,” she says with a shrug. “It’s all about having fun and expressing yourself.” —raquel laneri

carolinezhurley.com

The Ghanaian Artists Osei-Duro Hearts

The designing duo shares the creatives shaking up things up in the West African country.

One of the things that motivated Molly Keogh and Maryanne Mathias to start their vibrant, chill line Osei-Duro in Ghana is how much they were drawn to the work already being produced in the country. “Accra’s creative scene is exploding along with the economy,” exclaims Molly. “It’s pretty amazing to witness.” From artists to musicians to fellow fashion designers, these are the Ghanian makers that get the Osei-Duro girls going, according to Molly. —jessie pascoe

“When we first went to Ghana, Kwadwo Ani was our gracious host and intrepid guide and answered our every question. His knowledge of proverbs, obscure Ghanaian beliefs, and many unfamiliar social structures made him an invaluable friend. It is also what makes him such an insightful artist. His paintings usually depict moments from everyday life worth reflecting on. While this may sound dogmatic, it doesn’t feel that way at all. His paintings are done in the most lighthearted of ways, with rich colors and layers and forms. We have a number of them hanging in our studio.”

“We met Tei Huagie through Kwadwo—the fine art scene in Ghana is pretty small. His work has a great social component to it. He does a lot of community projects and has been involved in the Chale Wote Festival, the new public art festival in Accra. His garments are highly detailed, playful, and totally original. People wait months for his custom pieces.”

“The massive hit out of Ghana six months ago was Azonto, a dance craze sweeping most of the world recently—though seemingly not Los Angeles. Azonto comes from our neighborhood in Accra—it was invented by the teenagers there. Sarkodie [Ed: Pictured above!] and D’Banj have a couple of Azonto numbers, but the original Azonto song is by Fuse ODG with Tiffany.”

“Akwele Suma Glory is a multimedia artist who totally cuts across the high-art/low-art divide in an exciting way. Woman artists are rare in Ghana, and Akwele has cut a brave path.”

“And I am of course a huge fan of my husband, SK Kakraba, who plays traditional xylophone. He comes from a xylophone family, in a xylophone village, in a xylophone region. He was born with the clenched fists that indicate a future xylophone master, and was trained by his late father—Kakraba Lobi. We met through a mutual friend and had a small courthouse wedding in Accra in February 2011. We had a tiny party with about eight guests and lots of dancing!”

Score Molly and Maryanne’s edition now! This mudcloth tote would be a hit in Accra, Amsterdam, or Atlanta.

Lauren Wolf’s Super-Talented Artist Friends

Beeswax-dipped drawings and bird-skull ceramics? Show us more.

The space!

Lauren Wolf’s Oakland boutique Esqueleto, which means skeleton in Spanish, sells jewelry—the work of a dozen designers, including herself, is up for grabs. But it also doubles as an art gallery. The ultra-rad shop, with its white walls, rams’ skulls, and Southwestern rugs, showcases a different on-the-verge artist every two months.  Here, Lauren shares some of Esqueleto’s illustrious alumni, including, adorably, her illustrator boyfriend. —raquel laneri

Speaking of rad, wait ‘til you see the sparkly earrings Lauren made for us. No need to wait, actually: Click here.

Afton Love
“Afton is a native Oakland person, and I met her through one of our jewelry clients. She’s just really starting on her career, and she’s excellent. She does drawings with graphite on tracing paper and then dips them in beeswax, so they have this really ethereal sort-of look, which is awesome. And she has these custom redwood frames build for her work. They’re really stunning pieces.”

Michele Quan
“Right now we have Michele Quan’s work up. She’s a Brooklyn-based ceramicist. One of my friends had told me about her, and then Michele and I both happened to be at the same trade show in New York. A lot of her ceramics are skulls—bird skulls and that type of thing—which fit with our shop name. So it really made sense. And it’s been really well-received so far.”

Patrick Dunaway
“The first person we featured was my boyfriend. The gallery idea was originally something that we had together. He does pen-and-ink drawings, all original. We have known each other since first grade—we did not date the whole time, though! We were always friends and in touch, but we didn’t really end up reconnecting until he moved to New York when I lived there. When that happened, we decided to give it a shot, and now we’re here in Oakland. So, we obviously featured him first. And he’s come and gone with some shows since then.”

The Art and Architecture of Bande des Quatres

How Kandinsky and Hadid do their part.

One look at Bande des Quatres’s totally dramatic rings and bracelets, and you know there’s some serious artistic inspiration at play. But you might not get a sense of just how focused and tight those visual cues are: For the two collections Erin Wahed has created with her jewelry-master mom Janis Kerman, she’s drawn from a very select set of Bauhaus art and modern architecture—and named the lines and the pieces accordingly. Here’s Erin’s tour of exactly how those BDQ translations play out. —jessie pascoe

“Piet Mondrian’s genius rests in his ability to utilize primary colors and quadrilaterals while keeping the viewer entranced with every piece. Our Mondrian ring speaks directly to his paintings, as it uses very similar tools: a rectangle and a square from the quadrilateral family in 18-karat yellow gold and oxidized sterling silver, which creates a blackish tone.”

“Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus School at Dessau, once said, ‘Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society.’ We wanted to make a ring feel like it was an integral part of the hand and body using the same shapes Gropius used to create the school.”

“Credited with painting the first truly abstract works, Wassily Kandinsky thought of his paintings in musical terms, seeing them as improvisations or compositions. His work heavily inspired my photography thesis, where I created visual landscapes using shapes, lines, and colors to develop this harmonious sense of composition that his pieces speak to. With the Kandinsky ring, we isolated one of his most prominent shapes, the circle.”

“To me, Zaha Hadid’s buildings are large scale sculptures. I can imagine that her biggest challenge is in making her buildings work the way she sees them. The Hadid ring was inspired by her way of seeing. It was a design I conceived of, but I was unaware of how it would work. Through intense product development, we were able to achieve the look I originally had in mind.”

“Daniel Libeskind’s use of triangular shapes and his engineering genius inspired the Libeskind ring. With this ring, the goal was to create a piece that pushed a viewer to ask, ‘How is the ring staying on the finger?’” 

“The Venturi ring was the one piece that I conceived that was truly self-indulgent. It is a difficult piece to wear, but there is something about how the shapes come together and how the piece looks on a finger that I just love! With Robert Venturi’s Vanna House, there is an indented curvature above the door of the building that seems to be more of an aesthetic addition than anything else.”

To see the latest hyper-thoughtful BDQ creation, click here. These (diamond!) earrings are about as cool as they come.