Studio Visit: Ina Grau

When it comes to my dress I keep it fairly simple, and this extends to my shoewear. I have a basic black canvas shoe I wear 99% of the time and when its too cold for that pair, I wear a pair of black desert boots. I wish I could have the confidence wear bright colors and mix/match patterns but my palette tends to remain fairly neutral and when I do venture into pattern its not too crazy. 

The shoes by Ina Grau, however, are different. I would wear all sorts of Ina Grau in a second. Their materials and colors are by themselves pretty neutral but the way they mix them up is just the right amount of statement. Customizable lace colors sporting brass ends and cute polka dot patterns burned into the bottoms of the shoes are the perfect finishing touches. They are lovely and considered details not immediately noticeable, but you love knowing that they are there.

They invited me over to their Minneapolis studio earlier this year and I had the best time chatting with Luisa and Crystal, and being shown around their workspace. In my mind, shoemaking is such a traditional men's craft, so it is really awesome to see two very talented women take this on and just totally kill it. The traditional craftsmanship is there and it is impeccable, but the vibe is entirely now, young, and exciting. 

What I also loved about meeting them is there is this creative energy that they exude. You get a sense of how much fun they are having doing what they do, as well as how excited they are to experiment and learn more about it. I left their studio feeling incredibly inspired and wanting my own pair of Ina Grau shoes more than ever. 

See the entire visit over on  Visitvisit.us !

STUDIO VISIT: TODD BAXTER

I know I've posted about Todd Baxter before, specifically the embroidery work that I did for his Owl Scout series. But I could not do a studio visit series without doing a visit with him. A commercial and fine art photographer based in Chicago and now in Los Angeles, he is one of the people who has helped me a lot in getting to where I am today.

I started out working for Todd as an intern while attending SAIC and went on to work as his studio manager after I graduated. Everything I learned about being in the photo business I learned working for him and I'm happy to count him not only as a mentor but a friend as well.

I was lucky to have gotten the chance to shoot his Chicago studio before he moved to LA. His process is a very involved one. There is a great amount of research and prepping  that went into both the Owl Scouts and his new upcoming Astoria series and there is evidence of it everywhere in his studio. Props, costumes, binders full of reference material, miniature models of sets and characters that will be either composited or simply used as models for the final images have to be made before a single image is shot. He draws upon the talents of a number of people to collaborate with him to create his vision.

 And so every single image he creates is actually comprised of many (many many) images, composited seamlessly together.  I would not be lying when I say that almost every plant in a forest scene was originally  its own image. It is a process that is completely on the other end of the spectrum compared to my own but it made for one of the most interesting studio visits I've done.

A few select images from the visit below. Check out the entire set on VisitVisit.us !

Studio Tour: Falconwright

This month's Studio Tour is all about Falconwright!  -- Makers/Designers of some of the cutest pouches, clutches, bags with cool colors and fun patterns. For me their stuff totally hits all the sweet spots. I'm not joking when I say about 70% of my birthday and Christmas gift lists comprise of Falconwright accessories and one hopes they haven't all sold out gift time comes by.

I reached out to Sandi and Danielle over the holidays last year knowing I would be visiting Toronto and they were totally game. I arrived on a snowy day and they greeted me with donuts and coffee. In fact, they introduced me to what is now one of my favorite coffees ever! (Sam James!) We chatted about how they met and how they came to work together -- Sandi is an illustrator and designer and Danielle designs jewelry .

Their space is one large room with a small kitchen area and a restroom, which may be a weird thing to mention but I feel its a luxury when it comes to studio spaces. Big windows along an entire wall giving the most beautiful winter light, and a large reclaimed wood table in the middle, it really feels like a cozy home away from home.   Seeing all those Falconwright products, the stuff I only got to see online until then, was really really cool. Their party couch also got lots of attention :)

This is definitely one of the top tours that I've had the pleasure of shooting. Please enjoy.





See the entire photo series on my site or on Flickr

Studio Tour: Ellen Van Dusen

So when I went into shoot ALL Knitwear's studio tour, I had no idea that Ellen Van Dusen of Dusen Dusen shared the exact same room!


I felt:

1. Embarrasment for not having already known it.
2. Excitement that I would get to meet Ellen!
3. Panic -- would she be into my doing a studio tour with her too? did I bring enough memory cards? were my camera batteries charged up? Did I dress cute enough?



Luckily, she was into it or at least was gracious enough to allow me to shoot her space.

I mean, can you imagine? I have been coveting her clothes for so long! She has such a fun sense of pattern and color mixed with cool, comfortable and easy silhouettes and now I got to be all up in them. And I love it when two designers share a space and I get to see how they play off each other. And of course, meeting her cute dog Snips.

These images were shot last October and it has been inspiring to see her do so many things since then like present her line at NY fashion week.





See all the pictures on Flickr or on my website.

Studio Tour: Annie Larson

There is that special moment when you discover someone's work and it is just so completely different from anything you've seen and it actually changes your perspective, and your perception. I feel like this when I see certain succulents and I had talked about this a little bit on a previous studio visit and I feel like this about Annie Larson's work.

Her combinations of patterns and colors are not something that I would personally have thought would go well together BUT THEY DO. And they are perfect. Her clothing and accessories exude such a sense of joy, youth, freedom, and friendliness (child magic). I feel like her clothing represents the kind of person I want to be.

Please enjoy these studio visit pictures as much as I enjoyed visiting her studio!



View all images on my website or on Flickr

Studio Tour: Anna Asilo-Pamasa

I first met Anna through Lilian (BFGF) back in 2011. She comes off as friendly, super chill, and kind of quiet. This is why its really surprising to see her highly visual  paintings. Sometimes cacophonous, sometimes peaceful but often a nice mixture of both,  she strings together various subjects, creating striking forms and strange narratives. Cultural references, pop cultural references and things like, "clouds, bathrooms, [her dog] lupe, gravity, hands, fast food motifs, memories, body dialect, foil, fabric that hangs just right, strangers, the texture of water, wishful thinking, hillsides" all come together in this beautiful, subconscious landscape. Pieces that you can get lost in.

Last fall, I was able to pay Anna a visit at her and her girlfriend Jocelyne's home and studio before they moved abroad. Their space is like a physical manifestation of her paintings. Not only because the walls are filled with her paintings but also decorated with pictures of family, friends, each other, books, toys, trinkets, and lots of plants. Everything arranged awkwardly and perfectly.


Take a look:






See all images on my site or on flickr

Studio Tour: Cursive Design + Up In The Air Somewhere

As someone who loves to look at things, and obsessively partakes in internet-window shopping, I subscribe to a lot of blogs, tumblrs, pinterests, and the like. I go through so much visual candy everyday and it gets to a point where you like a lot of whats going on but its also a lot of the same things and its easy to just skim through much of it. But when I discovered Susan's ceramics and Sarah's jewelry, it was a kind of revelation because they showed me something I hadn't seen before, ideas that I haven't thought of before. Airy, dreamy, almost-way-too-delicate, gold accented vessels that straddle the line between art and functionality? Also some of it looked like water towers? Balls-y and playful collage based jewelry in a weird but perfect mix of disparate materials? AWESOME. 

At some point, I realized that the two share a studio together in Chicago's West Town neighborhood (coincidentally, adjacent to Laura Lombardi's space which I shot that same day). They have always been at the top of my list when I started this studio tour series and thought it was a great opportunity to meet and hang out with two people I've always wanted to meet and hang out with! Their studio is, of course, beautiful and dreamy just like their work. As I snooped around with my camera, it was cool to see how two artists working in different areas, that don't really make the same work aesthetically, can also play off each other in small ways. I hope this comes through in the images. 

Enjoy !

See all the images on my site or on Flickr

Studio Tour: Dante Carlos

I've posted about Dante before on this blog so you all know how great my brother's work is and how proud of him I am.  He has this natural ability to take something you never knew you would like and use it to make something you love. It is as if his ideas come out of nowhere but now will be on your radar forever.  There is such a strong sense of play and yet it feels somehow perfectly restrained. It would be remiss of me not to say that so much of his taste and his work has informed so much of mine. 

 Dante describes his process as: "I read a bunch of things online or in books, and then start generating ideas while watching a ton of really bad television, like murder she wrote, or 24. There's a pizza in there somewhere." But that is his practice at its simplest iteration. 

When you walk through his home/studio, you can see his inspiration, reference materials and interests everywhere in stacks of books, prints taped to the wall, his music collection, little interesting arrangements tucked into corners. Everything is surprising, lovely. His collection is of the high and the low -- gay and straight erotica to maps to car engine diagrams to various other cultural debris.  A mixture both strange and informed, just like his work. 








See all the images on my site or on Flickr

Studio Tour: Laura Lombardi

The thing about Laura Lombardi's jewelry is that each piece seems to be full of history. Its true that she uses vintage and dead stock pieces to create her jewelry which has something to do with it but I think she composes in such a way that  it implies that each bracelet, necklace, pendant was found in some ruin, having been worn by an oracle, priestess, prophetess, seer. Although her jewelry gives the feeling of antiquity and ceremony, they are also thoroughly modern, edgy and feminine.

A couple of months ago, Laura agreed to let me stop by her studio in Chicago with my camera. A gracious hostess, she chatted with me about her work, background, inspiration, gave me a little sneak peek at her spring line and, of course, let me snoop around. She even made me a necklace while I was there which makes it even more special. To see someone as nice as she, enjoying such great success at a young age is really inspiring. I hope you find these pictures equally as interesting and inspiring.




Also view images on my site or on Flickr

Studio Tour: Doug Johnston & Tomoe Matsuoka

Last October, Doug Johnston started a shop on his site to sell some of his rope vessel creations. Since then he has had numerous blog and magazine features, both national and international.  Compared to most people, who build that kind of demand and following over a period of years, his popularity has pretty much exploded overnight.

While in New York in June, I got to meet Doug and his wife Tomoe when they stopped by my booth at Renegade Craft Fair. I asked if they would be willing to show me their studio in Brooklyn and they said yes !  A couple of days later, my band of friends and I made our way to Ditmas Park.  He took us through the space, shared his process with us and even gave us a little demo.

Doug's wife, Tomoe Matsuoka, shares the studio as well and her work deals in conceptual, performative, interactive structures / wearables and furniture design. It is fun and full of child magic which is a quality I love.

Also, hello cute clothes. Can I have you?

He ended our tour by showing us the amazing rooftop space with a 360º view of the neighborhood. We could even see the  One World Trade Center being built in the distance.

Enjoy !

View images on my site or on Flickr.

Studio Tour: The Post Family

The Post Family makes me proud to be living and working in Chicago.  Super talents who are also kind, generous,  encouraging and will do a lot to promote the work of artists they like, which is something surprising and awesome especially when it comes to the art world.


The Family is comprised of a group of young designers -- Rod Hunting, Alex Fuller, Chad Kouri, David Sieren, Sam Rosen, Davey Sommers & Scott Thomas -- who all have day jobs , regular freelancing gigs and their own projects going on. But at the end of the day, the members come together in The Family Room for the joy of going back to basics to make some beautiful things. They have gotten a ton of attention and were even recently featured by the BBC! You can also see an older video of them here.

Last May, Alex asked me to shoot some images of the show that was opening in their art gallery attached to the studio.  He was gracious enough to let me get some shots of their workspace for my little Studio Tour series. Their studio is comprised of four areas -- an office, three work rooms and the art gallery. It is full of little (and big) surprises and, being designers, everything is arranged just so.

Enjoy !

View images in Flickr

Studio Tour: Boyfren Girlfren

If you are a long time reader of this blog or my twitter or my other social media outlets, you may have seen me talk about Lilian Martinez before. She is a talented designer, founder of a company called Boyfren/Girlfren and a good friend. We do many things together and it is fun!

Last week we got together to work on a project (to be written about here later this week!) and took the opportunity to snap some photos of her studio. Its hard not to be inspired by her space. Her and her husband are amazing thrifters and makers and create little thoughtful compositions of objects throughout their home. Also, they have a great collection of plants and their place gets so much light. How could I not get all snap happy?

Enjoy!