Lonnie Lardner – Page 37

“Fifty Shades of Beige” — The Final Escape

June 30, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) A new face on our living room wall (left) “Tangerine Dream” paint by Benjamin Moore. Photo by Josh Kaplan.

At home: my spontaneous need to neutralize the neutrals.

Through the years of writing this blog, I’ve shared some names that are artistically significant to me. These are the names which have impressed me, or surprised me, but who have always inspired me. Names like Rauschenberg, Twombly, Frankenthaler, and Basquiat.

(Pic #2) From beige to blue: “Fidget” shows her preference with a point of her tail. We’ll be painting patio Door #2 tomorrow.

Today I add another name to that list: Benjamin Moore. Yeah, the paint manufacturer. Before you ask the question, no I’m not a paid spokesperson for the company (although if you ask my husband right now he would probably say a little money going the other direction between me and BenMo (as I’ve started to call it) wouldn’t be all bad.)

My husband is a music lover. Hearing certain artists’ voices changes something inside him. There is a visceral reaction to the tone and timbre of the music. It’s blissful. I have the same experience with color, and there is something about the richness of these paints that just makes my soul hum. So it’s a wonder it took 9 years of living in this house to “hit the wall” — with paint. Everything here is beige. Oh there are variations — light beige, medium beige and dark beige. And I know realtors will tell you that beige is not offensive, accepted by everyone, and more likely to showcase your home in a more appealing way. But I don’t care.

(Pic #3) Close-up, “Tangerine Dream” wall approved by Fidget, age 14. Photo by Josh Kaplan.

The inspiration came to make a change when I saw how Mexican painter Frida Kahlo lived. Every room, every hall, every nook, inside and out, was covered in bright yellows, blues, lavenders, greens and reds. It’s as if she gardened clomid with her paint. Then the other night I was watching a TV guy pitching a Matisse print, and its astounding colors shouted out to me. I knew I had to make them the theme for our house. (Pic #4) They are considered a Fauvist palette. Super bright, pure color. Much like Frida’s home.

(Pic #4) “The Dance” by Henri Matisse (1910)

With that image stuck in my head, I ran out to OSH and bought 15 samples of wildly different BenMo paints. (I still get all giddy choosing between the billions of color sample cards in their racks.) I experimented with them all over our walls. And frankly, that might have been the ultimate blast — getting to make a painterly mess — with permission…knowing something really cool was about to happen. The pathetic “beige-ness”of our home was about to be knocked on its boring bland ass.

While Josh was asleep, I managed to finish the one huge textured living room wall in Tangerine Dream, except for the 12-foot high top. He had no idea what I was up to. When he awoke, I got the thumbs up, and he encouraged me to keep going. I was so invigorated by the process, I could barely sleep. Covered in paint, my back aching, images of fresh paint in every color danced happily in my head. It was a perfect day.

(Pic #5) Exploring shades of green

Today is Day 3, but this pop of color still has me smiling all day long. Makes me wish I could share the news with the millions of beige addicts out there… and perhaps, share the joy with my new BFF, Brooklyn’s own (late) Ben Moore, who I sense might be looking down fondly and saying, ‘What, are you nuts? It’s just paint.”

More?

Check out “20 Ways to Use Color Psychology in your home” here.

(Pic #6) Testing is half the fun.

Chalking It Up : Not Just For Kids Anymore

May 31, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #”1) Santa Barbara artist begins street painting, freehand. He says it’s “the only way” he knows. (Photos by Josh Kaplan.)

Santa Barbara’s Chalk Festival reminds us to celebrate our sense of creative play.

We’ve all done it. It usually starts in Kindergarten, when someone bogarts a teacher’s pack of chalk from her blackboard. Sidewalk sketches emerge within minutes, and kids begin writing silly messages or blocking out squares for an impromptu game of hopscotch. No matter how the markings looked, chalk was fun. You could count on it.

(Pic #2) Focused young artist leaving her mark on Mission Grounds, Santa Barbara, Cali (Photo by Josh Kaplan)

As we grow older, we leave the street and get way more serious about where we write or draw. Typically, we settle into our grownup lives and (unless we choose art as a career) we kiss our chalk sticks goodbye. Well guess what. It’s not only possible to recapture the joy of creating something spontaneously in a public space, it’s actually healthy for you.

Research shows activities like painting, sculpting, drawing, and photography that can lower your stress levels and leave you feeling mentally clear and calm. The average person has 60,000 thoughts per day and 95% of them are exactly the same day in, day out. 80% of them are negative. Studies show — if you immerse yourself in something positive and calming — you can reverse those thoughts. (Read more from the Cleveland Clinic here.) You may actually find yourself in what’s known as “the zone” or in a state of “flow.”

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That’s exactly what happened to me at the “I Madonna Italian Street Painting Festival” in Santa Barbara this weekend. I got so excited propecia seeing all this great work blanketing the grounds of the historic Santa Barbara Mission, that I just had to jump in. Totally irrelevant that the art surrounding me was a near match for some of the most famous Renaissance portraits and landscapes ever. What mattered was the experience, not the product. And okay, the place designated for freestyle drawing was called “Kids’ Corner.” Whatever.

(Pic #4) I’m joined “at the canvas” by physicist Jann Kaminsky. Artistically, he totally nailed it, by the way.

By the way, it’s not just me. I’m pretty sure “the lure of the chalk” is universal. They guy you see here on the right (Pic #4) is not a street artist, his name is Dr. Jann Kaminski and he’s a local physicist. Google him and you will see scholarly articles like: “Principal Pilot Line Manufacturing challenges and solutions in Direct Fabrication of a-Si:H TFT Arrays on Flexible Substrates.” Whaaaaaaaat? I have no idea what any of that means, but I’m fairly sure chalk is not involved. Nonetheless there he was — the only genius I know personally — up to his elbows in chalk dust.

This is the 30th year the city of Santa Barbara celebrates “I Madonna Italian Street Painting Festival” with its sister festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy. I’ve assembled some of my favorite images below.

“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Pablo Picasso

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“Kids Corner”

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The event benefits the Children’s Creative Project, a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara County Education Office. The Project serves 50,000 children in more than 100 schools with visual and performing arts workshops and performances throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Art Underfoot

April 30, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Gorgeous stained cement walkway spotted in Ventura, California. Photo by Josh Kaplan

One more argument against walking while texting: the beauty below.

While Fort Lee New Jersey has already passed a law banning texting while walking, other towns are considering the move, in an effort to make streets safer. I applaud it — but for a slightly different reason. Just look what you miss. If your face is buried in the small screen, chances are pretty pharmacy no rx slim you’d see the art beneath your feet just waiting to be discovered.

I grabbed the pictures below with my iPhone while on a walk on the streets of Calabasas. I swore off texting while walking on this day, and feel the universe rewarded me with these.

(Pic #2) Quirky geometric “sidewalk sketches” in Calabasas, California.

(Pic #3) An insecure start to a game of Tic-Tack-Toe, carved into the sidewalk in Calabasas, California.