An exclusive EcoSalon playlist inspired by the streets of the old world. 

You squeeze your way past a busy cafe table, you dodge a Vespa, you nearly miss a run-in with a bike; there’s nothing quite like a European stroll. In the spirit of travel and exploring new cities, this week’s playlist is dedicated to the time spent wandering the sidewalks of a new city. Not because you have somewhere to be, but because you have somewhere to enjoy.

SIDEWALKING♯ by BehindTheWalk-In

10 Songs for the European Sidewalk from ecosalon on 8tracks.

Track list:

1. Sidewalk Of The City – Syd Dale & His Orchestra
2. Safari Strut – Whitefield Brothers
3. Douceur Tropicale – Michel Lorin et son ensemble
4. Madrid – Collage
5. Perdido – Gene Krupa
6. Primitive Spirit – Raymond Guiot & Guy Pedersen
7. Slowrama – Pierre-Alain Dahan
8. Hashish Party – Georges Garvarentz
9. Maïlys – Cortex
10. Mah na mah na – Piero Umiliani

Like what you hear? Check out our entire 10 Songs series. 

Image: Anna Brones

The post 10 Songs To Walk Down a Foreign Sidewalk To appeared first on EcoSalon.

Trust your voice and make believe.

Los Angeles based artist Sabrina Ward Harrison has a new book coming out this month. Rather, not quite a book: more of an interactive journal/collage that encapsulates as much your creative expression and experience as it does hers.

The book, titled And the Story is Happening, is another trademark project from the artist who has approached her life and work as “[an] interplay of artwork, photography, writing and video.” What she calls “True Living.”

Her first book, Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself, was published when she was 23 and she has several other tomes to her name including Messy Thrilling Life: The Art of Figuring Out How to Live and The True and the Questions: A Journal.

We reached out to Sabrina to talk to us about her latest illustrated journal, which features written words, mixed-media artwork, and pieces of paper ephemera enclosed in a vellum pocket in the front of the book.

The paper is meant for you, the reader, providing inspiration and prompting a response with words, sketches and collages of your own.

Can you tell us a bit about your process?

I work large and loose usually on and with found materials, it keeps my processes engaging and adventuresome and without expectation.

Have you always kept a diary or journal? Journaling and collaging is a hobby or practice so many of us have experimented with, but for whatever reason – age, occupation – we stop.

I really began journaling when I was about 18. My personal opinion is to avoid starting out with precious materials, i.e. fresh white pages. Go explore and find bits and pieces of color in your neighborhood.

What materials do you use?   

Everything.

Some of the things are…house paint, India ink, oil pastel, fabric, flowers, light, water.

Do you ever fear “ugly” or second-guess yourself in assembling a personal history/collage? What often happens in journal-keeping is that awareness of the possibility of being found. Did you think about the public’s gaze at all?

I relate to that.  I go back and forth with that all the time.

Yes, I do now [consider the public’s gaze], but I believe that we must create what we most need to find and if one stays true, committing to that in a strong and meaningful way, the work becomes its own.

Your book strikes me as a particularly female – dare I say, romantic – expression. Like something Emily Brontë would have composed if she was a mixed-media artist instead of a solitary poet and novelist. Can you speak to that observation a bit?

I think that is mostly true, although I haven’t heard the reference to Emily Brontë, that is interesting.

Being a woman, being my mother’s daughter, my grandmother’s grandchild. The well that I come from is one that draws from color and texture of a female living in this world.

I would say the color and texture of my emotional landscape is feminine as well, although most of the time making, I feel very Tom Boy. I tend to want to experience the physicality of making, much more that the mental planning of the piece ahead of time. I like to dive in the adventure of the story that is happening all around me.

And the Story is Happening Now (Chronicle Books) is available for pre-order and will be officially released on April 25.

The post For Your Coffee Table: ‘And the Story is Happening’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

Karen McPhail’s ceramics combine the maturity of process with the playfulness of a school art project.

Karen McPhail specializes in functional and decorative earthenware ceramics. Her process involves making simple forms on the wheel and then layering them with imagery collected from daily life and nature. They are then fired up after several applications of colored slip producing a subtle raised decoration.

“My ceramics are robust,” she writes at Papa Stour, where her items are available for purchase. “I aim to achieve a quality of surface with pattern and texture, creating visually satisfying objects that are a pleasure to our sense of touch.”

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

The post Lustables: Karen McPhail Ceramics appeared first on EcoSalon.

Brace yourself. Your eyes are seconds away from falling on an interior simultaneously wearing composed white walls and a chaotic chromatic rush – radiant pockets of vivid hues embellishing a blank shell. This bold serving of design is the London flat of Liza Giles. Ms. Giles has borrowed brilliant color and feminine details from her profession as a senior designer and stylist for Designers Guild.

Ms. Giles has arranged isolated tufts of seemingly unrelated elements that coalesce for a sense of overwhelming cohesion. Each vignette is a gathering of shiny new objects and flea market charms (which, by the way, has me yearning to locate her blissful flea market resources). Once again, James Merrell‘s photography has flawlessly captured endless design details with his talented lens.

This flat literally sings to me; gushing and admiring comes easily when the space is this perfect. I still remember the first time I set eyes upon this interior. Love at first sight. Every time I devour these images I find a new detail that makes it even more endearing (like the unassuming charcoal lace quietly dangling over the living room window). I would move in immediately, forsaking all personal possessions and arriving with only one suitcase and one husband. I have adored this space on my personal (humble, little) blog more than once. I still love it.

I am smitten with the sense of unintentional variety laced with deliberate eclecticism. The subtle whispers of color (through muted artwork) adjacent to the not-so-subtle shouts of color (reflected through gleaming metallic teal wallpaper) form a palatable, delicious tension. All this contrast is balanced into tranquility by the overwhelming silence of stark white walls, floors, and ceilings.

Still craving more? Gain a little more insight (or at least an additional opinion) with these features on {this is glamorous} and decor8.

(Photography by James Merrell via decor8.)

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