Restaurant Design!

Many of you out there are into home design but I wonder what your thoughts are when it comes to restaurant interiors. A friend of mine, Chef Jesus Seoane, has just taken over the kitchen at this fabulous new restaurant, Barça, in Hartford, Connecticut. It's located in a renovated factory space turned design center with residential loft apartments that are absolutely gorgeous. (I know, I've had the tour!) Let's face it, Hartford is not a bustling metropolis à la New York, San Fran, or even Baltimore, (BTW, I love Baltimore), and restaurant design is usually limited to small store front type spaces. Additionally, Hartford has it's share of urban issues and launching any business here, especially a restaurant, is a leap of faith. Fortunately, developer Carlos Mouta, an area real estate mogul/restaurateur has hedged his bets on Hartford! Did I mention the food is fab!

Chef Jesus Seoane


Paella for one - yum!

My Artist!

I recently attended the 7th Annual Brew Fest at The Old State House in Hartford. It's just steps from my workplace and on a warm June evening, a relaxing way to pass the time. My own in-house artist, my husband, does the art work for the event. He has his own advertising & design business and works from home in his newly renovated studio. His creativity and life style are my envy and inspiration! Here are some fun pics from the event...





My co-workers: Joe, Arkeya, Angela, Christian Roby

The T-shirt!

Cape Cod Vacation!

Three weeks and counting...until my one week of rest & relaxation...because as the world knows, we Americans love to work practically every week of the year! After all, we might miss something, lose something...might not be productive, competitive...make enough of the almighty $$ dollar! This is where I go looking for a cocktail at about five minutes past noon.
I am obviously in dire need of my Cape Cod vacation. We have rented a lovely, house in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on the edge of a beautiful marsh, just five minutes from the quaint, old New England town center and more importantly, the beach. My husband, my three daughters, one of their girlfriends and I, are heading to the Cape this July to spend a glorious week of sun and fun. (I know what you're thinking, all that estrogen, lucky guy!)
The house is an 1849 Greek Revival Cape built by Captain "Scotto" Foster which was later purchased in 1912 by American Impressionist Painter, Lillian Meeser. She is the grandmother of the present owner and in the house still hang some of her paintings. Needless to say I can't wait to go. I don't know how America will carry on without me!

Lillian Meeser Painting of the Cape

Our Wellfleet House





The Marsh

Photos of the Cape by Steve Pinker

Clapton Live!

Had a date with my husband last night and saw Eric Clapton live at the Mohegan Sun Casino. The man once referred to as "God" (don't mean to offend anyone here) played for two and a half hours and I must admit he and his band were incredible. I have also recently read his biography and in between, above and around all the sex and drugs, is the rock and roll. He is a man obsessed with music and hearing him play for the first time just blew me away. He is, the real deal.

(Clapton 1970s)

(With Patty Boyd Harrison Clapton)

Career Change!

I've been putting together a travel website of Connecticut and New England as a sort of first step in exploring the possibility of generating income online. ANYWAY...in researching my lovely home state I came across a local story of the ultimate career change.
Dolores Hart, who was the recipient of Elvis' first on-screen kiss in the 1957 film Loving You, and went on to star in the 1960 cult classic, Where The Boys Are, made the ultimate career change when she left Hollywood behind to become a nun at the tender age of 25. She joined the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis, in the rolling hills of Bethlehem, Connecticut.
Here, in a 1961 interview, we can perhaps see evidence of her future inclinations when the subject turns to men and marriage:
"Every man," she said good humoredly, albeit with conviction obviously born of experience, "is guilty until proven innocent." She had men neatly pigeon-holed in two classifications—those who want to tarry and those who want to marry. Nor did she lack the sophistication to recognize that the two roles were easily interchangeable. " [A] girl has to be on guard until she gets married. She must keep a wary eye on the situation. Now when I'm tempted to relax and have a good time, I try to think of how the man may react—what he may have in mind."

I Remember Tierney

Tierney Gearon, photographer, former model, dancer, mother, daughter.
In my search to find a new direction in my own life, I have been seeking out those I've known and taken a look at where their passions have led them. Like my old friend, photographer Donna Demari, fellow model Tierney Gearon also chose to express herself by shooting the world as she sees it, through the lens of a camera. After a controversial 2001 showing at the Saatchi Gallery in London, where some of her work contained nude images of her own young children, Tierney was thrust into the international spotlight when the English press pounced on the story and Tierney came the reluctant poster child for artistic freedom. In 2006, The Mother Project, a documentary, four years in the making by Jack Youngelson and Peter Sutherland follows Tierney as she puts together her most recent body of work, a series of 70 photographs focused on her mentally ill mother entitled Daddy, Where Are You?
As for the years when my path coincided with Tierney's - we were both living in Paris, working with the same agency, both American and former dancers. We would often end up in Hamburg, Germany, working for the same client, staying in the same rooming house and traveling to and from Paris together. She stood apart even then, in a very personal way that you could never put your finger on. Years later, we both married, moved to London, eventually divorcing and returning home to the States. I am not surprised by her work, despite the alarm the images have caused in the media. I admire her for being true to herself and when I heard her voice on the The Mother Project video trailer, it made me smile.

Coral Bay Inspiration!

Coral Bay, St. John U.S.V.I.
I had the good fortune last month to take a week and relax in St. John, United States Virgin Islands. I hadn't had any time off since last July, so believe me - it was a long overdue break!
We stayed in the sweetest cottage overlooking Coral Bay and spent our days swimming, hiking and sailing. The owners of the rental cottage, Mary & Jay are in semi retirement, having moved from Cape Cod several years ago. They were wonderful hosts and introduced us to many of their friends - most of them transplants from New England as well. On the bed in our cottage was the most beautiful quilt. Apparently Mary has been quilting for years and has incorporated a sewing room into her new island home. I think she has a real gift for color and all of her pieces are finished beautifully. She is just another inspiration for me on my quest to create my own Cottage Industry!

Old Friends

Years ago I was fortunate to know a wonderful group of people all living in Milan, Italy - each trying to make a name for themselves in the fashion industry. It's been many years since then but lately, as I delve into my own creative depths, I remember my old friends - many of them photographers and wonder where life has brought them.
One of them is Donna DeMari. She has done well over the years, a successful fashion photographer noted for being the first woman to photograph the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition in 1996. It is her black & white photos of horses though, that really touch me. Turning the pages of her book, her passion for their equine majesty is unmistakable. It is nice to see that she has moved beyond the confines of commercial success and created something she surely loves.

Corporate Lawyers go Cottage Industry

Talk about life style change! Robert & Kara Brooks, husband & wife, ages 50 & 34 respectively, left corporate litigation behind to open Still River Cafe in Eastford, Connecticut. Turning a 150 year old barn on 27 acres deep in the Connecticut countryside into a "jewel box operation", they are noted for growing their own organic produce and using local sources for their meat, fish and poultry. I have a special place in my heart for this gem of a restaurant. Not only is it an inspiration for me on my quest to start my own business, but I was married there last summer - to the man of my dreams I might add - and it was the perfect place for me to celebrate a new beginning!

Don't Forget ME!

My friend, A Bird In The Hand pointed out that I had forgotten Katherine Hepburn in yesterday's post about Hartford's famous natives. In fact, being my favorite, I was saving her for her very own mention. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1907, Kate, as her friends called her went on to become one of the most celebrated actresses of the century - practically living it herself, leaving this world in 2003 at the age of 96. Her life and work speak for themselves. Winning four Oscars for Best Actress, she was actually nominated twelve times. She was a life long resident of Connecticut, spending her final years at her home in Old Saybrook, over looking the Long Island Sound.
At the end of the day I think Humphrey Bogart's impression of "Katie" sums it up best:

"Hepburn has unassailability. She is a dyed in the wool eccentric. There is nothing phony about her. She is not beautiful, more like a nylon-covered skeleton. She's no chicken any more either, but she's really fascinating with a tremendous off-beat kind of sex appeal which throws out a challenge that not any hunk of man can take up. She's shy, though. At interviews she shakes like a leaf, although she has the guts not to show it. She's got maybe half a dozen friends in Hollywood and she just circulates among them. You never see her at the nightclubs. When you spend six weeks on a boat in the jungle with a woman and all around you are down with malaria you kind of get to know her. I got to know Katie like a favourite book."
(London Daily Mirror, 1953)

The Love of her Life, Spencer Tracy

With Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby" 1938

Hepburn Family in Hartford 1914

Home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut

Katherine Hepburn 1907 - 2003

Impressionism Still Lives!

Essex Cat Boat from South Cove - morning
LEIF NILSSON SPRING STREET STUDIO & GALLERY
As a former art student, I can never get away from first falling in love with the works of Manet, Monet, Degas & Renoir. There is something so magical and transcendent about this style of painting. One of Connecticut's best in this genre is Leif Nilsson. Originally from Old Lyme, CT - a town that could be described as a painting itself, Leif now resides in the other quintessential Connecticut River Valley town of Chester. I don't pretend to begin to have this kind of talent but am certainly inspired by someone making mucho dinero doing something they love. Below are the artist and his studio.

Kaffe Fassett

Years ago I was married to a Brit and living in London. My tea drinking, freelance illustrator neighbor turned me on to Kaffe Fassett. If you are not familiar with him, he is a textile, knitware/needlepoint designer. I fell in love with his designs and colors and immediately started making his tapestry pillow kits. He's recently made a push toward the textile industry but started out dropping out of art school in England to do his own knitting designs. He's an American - born in San Francisco but living in England since the '60's, so he might as well be a Brit. In this age of muted colors (or as the Brits write it: "colours") it's refreshing for me to see such intense color in such quantity. It's so rich you can almost taste it.