"capturing wonder" Victoria Thorne

It started with my request for Elsie de Wolfe.  An Elsie wearing green shoes, though the green shoes aren't visible, Elsie materialized!

Friend and fellow blogger-who I've found a kindred spirit in, Victoria Thorne, is sketching-making people I've long admired materialize before my eyes. When one has the gift to capture features- a gleam in the eye or an unturned corner of a grin from a photograph in line and shade, we can see something new-something lost in the image itself. Perhaps it is seeing something beyond, or seeing what the viewer misses, that allows an artist to bring a photograph to life-or at the least, add their vision. Zeroing in on that "thing" that makes a person memorable. This is what Victoria has been able to do. This is why her portraits are compelling, exciting.

AMY WINEHOUSE

WE only said goodbye with words

I died a hundred times

You go back to her-

and I go back to 

Black. ~Amy Winehouse

ELIZABETHS I & II

I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. ~"I"

I asked Victoria to tell me how this all started. Here's what she said:

I actually started college in the art department, but wandered over to the English building freshman year, fell in love with Andrew Marvell and stayed there. For many years after, I worked as an artist and copywriter, always freelance, fitting it around the schedules of our four amazing kids.

The art jobs sort became design jobs and, some time last year, I realized that not going back to art–drawing, painting, calligraphy, collage–was sort of like continuing a forced march away from my soul.

So I started again, which felt bumpy at first. I thank God for the support of my family. My kids received (and applauded, usually) regular strange texts with odd doodles, my husband was incredibly understanding as the house became 90% art studio, and my Instagram pretty much turned into a giant pad of newsprint.

The people who stuck with me through months of sketch after sketch after strange little collage followed by yet another sketch: I'm so thankful. Beyond grateful. And those I've meant who've become collaborators and friends: a true treasure.

One of my kids said, several months before I started putting the art out there: Commit. Treat this as a full-time job. Her advice was good. I am so thankful for the chance to do this. And so appreciative that you have asked me how it came about.

THE POETS

When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes - 

And fled with every one ~ED 

In Fashion

Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. ~GC

Women have always been the strong ones of the world. The men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on. They are always longing for the mother who held them as infants. ~ Chanel

In mythology and palmistry, the left hand is called the dreamer because the ring finger on the left hand leads directly to the heart. I find it a very poetic idea. And that's why I only wear nail polish on my left ring finger. ~Gloria Vanderbilt

Bettina Ballard of Vogue called her "the most elegant and most talked-about woman in Paris, and Karl Lagerfeld called her, "the chicest woman I ever laid eyes on."

 IF I were seeking out great fashion icons it wouldn’t be my first impulse to search the rosters of Nobel laureates or members of the Academie Francaise. On the other hand, an examination of the lives of the greatest women of style generally reveals individuals of some cultural sophistication. I can’t think of anyone who is known for her stylishness to be stupid or purely instinctive. The memorable women of fashion have to be intelligent enough to understand the rules and codes, often nuanced, implicit in fashion, and how far they can go in testing the limits and boundaries of those accepted standards. I love the fact that when someone is perfectly put together they are said to look “smart.” That’s as intellectual as fashion has to be. ~Harold Koda




And then, after All -there is the utter charm in many of Victoria's pieces, capturing the whimsy- the wonderment -of a fleeting fashion idiosyncrasy, or the innocence of a child. 

Isn't that what draws us to anything worthwhile?
The inexpressible-the "we just know it" wonder of something that we may not remember indefinitely, but that we can feast on for a time. On Instagram, the essence of that same wonder, Victoria posts her portraits, compiles them, draws insta-ration from the images others post. 

Living in that childish wonder is a most beautiful feeling - I can so well remember it. There was always something more - behind and beyond everything - to me, the golden spectacles were very, very big. Kate Greenaway



If you've a notion to such a feeling, of such wonderment, follow Victoria here, & also on her blog- here.

I'm delving into Instagram too-& you can find me here posting daily. It's another avenue into what's inspiring me this instant.

FASHION favorite

(Hot pink poncho edged with giant pom-pons. Unknown photographer. Circa 1965-CRM)

It's no surprise-my penchant for fashion. As I sit and write this, a kaftan will suffice most days-any day, yet I do find it fashionating...Its lighting speed change, and its "nothing new under the sun" life expectancy makes it ever a subject of interest.
I just opened a book today that satisfies all those quirks of my own, and many of yours-I suspect. After all, we have been writing each other for years.

FASHION A Timeline in Photographs:1850 to Today is a cunning combination of the scholarly-and the blur that Fashion persists in running along. Caroline Rennolds Milbank is the author, this her newest of numerous books on what we share- a passion for fashion. The book's laser focus on fashion since just before the Civil War until today, illustrates each year's fashion "moment" with photographs and commentary. Harold Koda writes the foreword, solidifying the book's importance as to how we look at & in fashion. Milbank's culling of photographs-which must have been thousands and thousands, or more, is quite brilliant. This book is a heavenly marriage of fashion and photography, and we are immersed, and we are seduced, blissfully drowning in its beauty and weight.


Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion. Jean-Luc Godard

Nati Abascal y Romero-Toro in Valentino lace-trimmed ball gown with see-through bodice at the opening of the Valentino retrospective Thirty Years of Magic at the New York Armory. Guests were asked to wear black or white. Photo by Mary Hilliard. -CRM



The best-dressed woman is one whose clothes wouldn't look too strange in the country. Hardy Amies

Walking ensemble with wool cape with ruffle at collar, plaid shirtwaist, taffeta skirt trimmed with pinked-edged ruffles and gathered up over a checked petticoat; gaiters, straw hat with velvet trim; walking stick. Photo by Britton & Sons (Barnstaple, England). Circa 1863. -CRM



Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously. Henry David Thoreau

Singers wearing strapless ball-length evening dresses in pale blue tulle. Male musician in a yellow suit with spectator shoes. Photo by Walter Otto Wyss (Los Angeles). Circa 1951. -CRM



Many thanks to the author & publisher for this book-and all photographs are from the book & used with permission.

100 dresses

 .
you will want this one.
Harold Koda keeper of the Costume Institute at the MET writes about 100 Dresses. 
a must have-
must wait.
(release date Oct 26 2010)

.

10 Things I like about You

Do you occasionally see a room in your favorite magazine that overwhelms? for the good-of course.

Or do you have pages torn out of that special room, checking the details over and over til those pages are dog eared - I do- And though my taste has changed over the 30+ years I have been collecting them-some remain. This is a new favorite-

What's not to like about this? a small library in the home of Harold Koda and Alan Kornberg, just "footsteps away from the Met- where Koda is curator of the Costume Institute.

Here are 10 things I like-

what initially caught my eye was the ART-what I thought was a topographical photograph turns out to be a brilliant photograph of computer chips by Chris Jordan,the scale of the work is great for the enclosed space.

2. I love the little NICHE area for the sofa- the surrounding bookcases. This is a great technique for using space to the max and feeling wrapped in Books. Book lovers will love this.

3. of course The BOOKS-books are books- no covers, no apologies.

4. & look out OVERHEAD, again Maxing the space- perfectly sized cubes for perfectly sized books.

5. all the better to see the art with and add to the intimacy of the space- the cylindrical LIGHTING cleverly mounted on the sides of the bookcases.

6. and that SOFA or divan- beautiful, tufted - in a golden ripe blonde wood grain velvet. naturalistic elements are always beautiful to me- I love silver or bronze in twig, tree bark or trunk or leaf forms- (see 7)

7. BRONZE TABLES with thorny legs by Herve van de Straeten, 2004. (van de straeten on 1st dibs)

8. using TWO TABLES in front of the long sofa creates more space and more intimacy too. It just works and always works in front of sofas (surely there are exceptions-but ...)

9. COLOR- the room is bathed in that golden blonde the WALLS, WOOD, FABRIC... and rug

10. the RUG-a pronounced gold with muted gray carved stylized designs- a 1920's Spanish Cuenca Carpet from Doris Leslie Blau.

that's an easy 10 and I didn't even mention
the FUR.


(photographs by Eric Boman in The World of Interiors August 2007 article "Arrangement in Blue, Gray and Black, written by Boman.)