I was at Dolphin Gallery last week and noticed a card for Ellen Greene’s work which had been at Birdie’s.  Greene collects vintage gloves and uses them as her canvas.  Seeing gloves as a symbol of a past ideal of femininity, of protection and restraint, she marries them with images of tattoos, the art of which is rooted in a male tradition.  I did have my eyelids done and while I’m happy with the results, I can’t quite shake the niggling feeling that I have capitulated to two forces: personal vanity and some sort of larger mystical pressure that stresses physical beauty as ideal.   I’m not torturing myself over it (in fact, I bought eye shadow for the first time in years) but it’s bugging me.  Greene’s pieces hit me when I may be most vulnerable to them.  You can find them here.

Image, “Omi Wise” via artbyellengreene.com.

When I met Mitch Owens a few years ago in the offices at Elle Decor I did not know that he was the author of the esteemed design blog, An Aesthete’s Lament.  I did not find out until a few months later when another blogger casually mentioned it in an email.  It immediately made sense that this blog, which reflected a near encyclopedic knowledge of design, was the work of a seasoned and talented interior design writer. Mitch is currently Special Projects Editor at Architectural Digest and Ms. Russell has made an honest man of him.  No more clandestine meetings on the blogspot – Mitch is blogging as The Aesthete on Daily AD.  And, in case you’re worried that I’ve outed him, I have not; he casually steps from behind the curtain in his first post.  I will be looking forward to more.