Shirley Geller & The Rockstar Framer

Last month we hung most of the art that had been casually leaning on various credenzas and consoles throughout The Cool House. One piece, however, was deemed by Rockstar Framer, Cherie Via, to have a frame unworthy of its composition, line and color.


This was the Shirley Geller '92 painting I successfully bid on at the Andrew Geller Archive Preservation Fundraiser at DWR last year. I was drawn to it because the bold orange and blue colors and the composition echoed the black beams and new color scheme of the great room. Cherie took it back to Ripe Art Gallery and picked out this fabulously simple mid-brown wood and metal frame for it. We agreed the painting needed to sit in a heavy linear mat to emphasis the dark vertical lines, especially as I envisaged it hanging on this previously blank strip of wall in the kitchen. Three weeks later the piece was ready for collection and yesterday we hung it in place. It is absolutely the finishing touch to the kitchen.


Sadly Shirley Geller passed away last year but memories of her are strong in this house. Here she is, photographed by her grandson Jake with her husband, architect Andrew Geller centre, and The Guy in the yard September 2007. Now we have a great piece of art to look at every day and remember her by. Shirley Geller painted different styles throughout her lifetime and her Whimseys, reproductions of her pen and ink designs, are available here. You can see by her decorated cane what a unique and artistic individual she was and I'm sure she the one and only Rockstar Framer would have got along famously. Thanks to both for making great art fit in our house from The Guy and modernemama.

Festivus Art

Saturday afternoon was spent at the much anticipated "Festivus- Affordable Art for the Rest of Us" show by Nadine Bouler and Louise Millmann at Ripe Art Gallery. Here's just a small selection of the work:


Nadine Bouler's Angry Landscapes


Louise Millmann's collages.


Besides the great art on the walls there was some serious design going on: Nadine Bouler's cloche for example. There were so many pieces we loved it was difficult to choose what to bring home. None of the pieces we picked is in these shots but if you wander over to Nadine's site you'll find them. I'm not going to be more specific until they arrive at The Cool House!


The show attracted an eclectic crowd including this angel. I'm as much freaked out by angels as I am by clowns so it was only the power of the art that kept me from running out screaming when this incarnation wandered in and began her performance. You can catch the show - minus the angel - until January 8 at 67A Broadway, Greenlawn NY 11740 Tel: (631) 239 1805.