Esoteric Survey

  I took a trip up to the Bay Area this weekend. Aalto stools are always great to get. Especially when they're early I had to stop in Ventura on the way up so I took the coast the whole way. I checked online to see if there were any estate sales on the route. There happened to be a good looking one near Pismo Beach. I really wasn't interested in any of the furniture but where there's smoke.  I arrived a couple hours after the sale started, which is when I usually like to go to avoid all the drama. There were a ton of books and they were $5 each. A handful of the usual Amazon book scanners were there with big stacks set aside. If you don't know how these work, they often use handheld or even finger mounted scanners to look up book values by the ISBN or bar codes. If it's worth a certain amount, it turns green and/or beeps if they should buy it. The great thing about them is that the people using them usually have no clue about what to buy outside of what their scanne...

  Peter Blake Gallery curates another  BLAKEHAUS  installation. This time it's at the Hunt House by Craig Ellwood and Jerrold Lomax. It's my first time being back inside since it's been restored. At one point it was on the verge of being demolished . It has since been purchased and restored  by architect Diane Bald and her husband Michael Budman. They were also able to get some of the original furnishing back. Those pieces have been temporarily moved off site for this exhibition. As described by the gallery: This iteration of BLAKEHAUS mines the aesthetics of modern architecture, West Coast minimalism, and historical modern design in a site-specific installation at The Hunt House in Malibu, CA. Eames chair that was deaccessioned from a Greek museum. It has a Hille label on the bottom. That's something you don't often see in the US. This nook looks like it was designed for this DeWain Valentine. The Hunt house really is the perfect setting for West Coast Minimalism ...

Case Study House 16 by Craig Ellwood (1953), also known as the Henry Salzman House and Case Study House 1953 I've driven by this one before but it was my first up close look. It did not disappoint.  This was a spec house for Henry Salzman, Ellwood's friend and the contractor who built some of his early houses. Salzman sold the house after construction and the first actual owner lived in the house into the early 2000's.  Photo: Arts & Architecture Magazine Photo: Marv Rand via California Captured Yes, it's still there.  You know, for kids.  Photo: Marv Rand I wonder what happened to the blackboard? Source: LA Times, Sept. 1953 Finn Juhl is cool but I wish this was filled with California pieces. At least they had VKG in the backyard and the Malcolm Leland vases on the cabinet. Well, and this Craig Ellwood bed by Laguna Living (the company Dorothy Schindele was partners in, with John Nicholson and Glenn Petri). Here's a beautiful color photo of it in the house....