live. bake. paint.

Leah Rosenberg is a painter who bakes. Or maybe she's a baker who paints. Either way you slice it, she is an artist & pastry chef, both pursuits interwoven & informing each other in their artistry. Working as the pastry chef for SFMoMA's Blue Bottle coffee bar, her pastries are inspired by pieces in the Museum's permanent collection or a work in a current exhibition. While in graduate school for painting, Rosenberg, while taking a cake decorating class, began noticing the response from fellow students when she brought her cakes to class for critiques. This lead to a question, can paintings be generous?, the resulting ideas surrounding consumption, judgement & creation inspiring her approach to painting.

Her gracious, light-filled home (that kitchen!) & home studio space seem the perfect laboratories for her creative processes, both edible & visual.

photos & more from here

symbols + rituals

Paul Berbera's photographs of Symbols + Rituals'  atelier capture the creative team's eye for great form & the stylishly exotic. Their collections of elegantly simple made & found objects hint at mysterious origins & rich histories, & shout great taste.

 from where they create

more here

work/live

Ariele Alasko's Brooklyn home/studio is an extraordinary space filled with fascinating treasures & beautiful things she built by hand. Preferring natural materials & pieces with a history, her gorgeous, sculptural reclaimed wood tabletops & leaf sculptures (including the incredible wall in her studio) reside cozily with found rusted metal bits & vintage art finds. Weathered glass doors & windows separate her studio space from the living area, letting sunlight stream through & making it feel spacious. The colors, patterns & patinas make for such a serene & personal space. Ariele is my new hero...

check out the restaurant she designed & built here

via here

live work

Fay Andrada's home/studio strikes the perfect balance of casual & stylish. I love the way she broke up space in her living area with a wall of window frames behind the bed, while book cases & a slatted wood wall carve out the kitchen & bedroom areas, giving a soft sense of separateness which allows light to come through. That painted over bit of mortar & brick in her kitchen is brilliant.

Her jewelry designs are simple, architectural & elegant, further exemplifying her eye.

from here

atelier love

I'm happy to say my studio space is clean & organized. I've come up with two new collections of designs which will soon be available, & plan to start taking commissions for monogram necklaces this week. That & the new year have left me feeling excited & energized.

top shelf atelier

Cleaning out & setting up my studio has made me even more interested in artists' live & work spaces, & how they divide & incorporate their living & working worlds. Johanna Burke creates magical & wondrous window displays for Bergdorf Goodman, & her home is in the same industrial building as her studio. Her living area is a well-thought out space with a spectacular wall of paned windows, shelving galore & beautiful columns & walls that show their patina. Her home has the aura of an incubator to me, with rows of books, tools at hand & pieces of art & interesting objects to inspire. And oh, that view. And that light.

Her studio space feels equally as stimulating, yet simple & practical at the same time. Definitely a place where you can roll up your sleeves & get lost in your work, with no worries about leaving a mess or roughing up your more precious possessions; separate enough from your living space, yet conveniently in the same building. Precisely what I would like to achieve, though on a much smaller scale in my little subterranean studio (yet with lovely natural light & a wee garden view - lucky me) in our home.

from here via here

well edited collections

Lara Melchior's Parisian atelier is a beautiful space in which to both create & live; I love spaces where a person's work blends into their daily lives, & so stylishly. Her space is so serene & simple, with interesting details & collections that draw one's eye about & inspire. It's not surprising that her work is absolutely stunning, as well.

photos by Garance Doré

from here

a shed of one's own

A gardening shed would be nice, but a writing or painting shed is more up my alley. I've seen Thoreau's in person, & have read much about Woolf's, both eliciting a longing for a little hut, a secluded space separate from home, a place to get away & get to work. Like these forts for grownups & gypsy wagons, a small base that is off-limits to others is not just the stuff of children, but creative people as well. Perhaps that childlike need is part of the secret of creativity.

I love that Shaw named his shed "London", so that when he was working & directed his staff to tell inquirers that he was in London, they wouldn't be lying.

George Bernard Shaw's London

Roald Dahl's Gipsy House

Virginia Woolf's writing shed

Dylan Thomas' writing hut

Henry David Thoreau's writing cabin

via here