I am so tired my eyes are crossed and weepy and twice I have put my underwear on inside out without noticing until the end of the day. Would that I could magically transform my puffy eyes into glory goggles capable of magnificent hallucinatory visions, kind of like this:

I’m not sure how hotshot photographer and art director Charles Bergquist is making these amazing images, but I need to know more.

There is some nutty metaphysical parallel universe bizness going on here, and it is blowing my mind up.

As if it needed any more blowing right now.

Check out more work from Charles Bergquist and buy his prints here.

A few of you have been, ahem, harassing me for updated pictures of the Ebay rug in its new home. I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to finally do this, especially because I appreciate the comments that everyone took the time to write on the original post SO MUCH. Without a doubt, dialogue is the best part of blogging. So in that spirit, I am fulfilling my half of the bargain by saying, hey — I listen. Sometimes. Behold, the new old Ebay rug, now in the dining room.

Now I was pretty pleased with the result until I looked back at a picture I had taken before I moved the Persian rug into there…

Through the magic of time and effort the old picture is better, but mostly what I notice is that I like the old rug, too. And maybe the Persian rug looks crazy with the wacky ceiling?

Here’s what’s happening under the sun. Say howdy to Doris.

Oh, and because someone will tell me that the real problem is the black accent wall, here’s what’s going on with that.

It’s the whole ding dang back wall, and I like it. Please excuse the hideous styling and photography from this very old picture. Our house will never be clean enough to take such a wide angle shot again.

Speaking of cleanliness and photography, I want to say again, SORRY! For being such a pokey turd about posting updates of our house. I get all freaky about the photography being decent. Plus I have a very messy, very curious toddler who often refuses to cooperate with my plans. Please see the following evidence.

So, in order to take this picture of our bedroom, I had to move a few things around…

This is the other end of the room during that shoot. Notice my assistant forgoing the opportunity to climb mount laundry, and instead heading straight for mommy’s very expensive photo equipment.

And there you have it. The Emperor wears no clothes.

But I do have a new old rug.

There is nothing sweeter than an interesting room seen through the eyes of a fantastic photographer. Ok, perhaps world peace, equal rights, and true love might give a pretty picture a run for its money — but not much else. So it is with much whiz bang shazam that I present the work of Vincent Leroux, whose photographs strike a perfect balance between edgy and sophisticated, all seen through the glory of natural and ambient light. Overdone photography is the devil’s work. Thanks the lords of the internets for showering us with some good stuff.

Later, y’alluns. Gotta go run errands before it gets face meltingly hot.

It’s official.  I can completely and totally stop perusing the internet for any more art or design.  It’s all over.  My mind has been blown and there’s no topping it or going back.

Are you sitting down?  Seriously.  Get ready for me to tell you what’s happening here:

So, here’s the deal:  Cuban photographer Abelardo Morell creates these images ON WALLS via a little process you may have heard of called camera obscura.  Ok ok, backing up:  Morell blacks out the windows of rooms then cuts a small hole in the fabric he’s used to shut out all the light.  That pinhole is used to expose the window’s view onto the opposing wall.  He then takes a picture of the projection using a large format camera.  The film often takes up to 10 hours to expose.  Yeah.  It’s bananas.  I don’t even know if people say that anymore but I feel it’s appropriate here.

Ok.  So I might maybe not shut down the blog tomorrow, but it’s going to be a long long time before I stumble upon something this mind-blowingly good again.

UM, PS. How amazing are the views from each of those rooms, by the way?

Confession: another website has been stealing me away, but I’m stopping by our special happy place for a few minutes today, just to say that I still love you. Don’t be mad, baby. Let’s have a three way.

It’s my new interior photography website! I’m still tweaking it (and will probably never stop tweaking it), but erinerinerin.com is finally up and running. Did you just say that is the most amazing site name ever? You can thank gin and Karly for that one.

Click on that link right now and tell me what you think. Lazy people, feast your eyes on picturez:

Dudes I am tired x infinity, plus I’m leaving on a jet plane early tomorrow to see my baby sister graduate from college this weekend (yay!), so I’m going to cut on out of here.

I’ll try to stop by tomorrow, but if I don’t make it have a supercallfragelisticexbealladocious weekend!

Here are a few things you should know about me: 1.  If I were to start a ’90s tribute band it would be called Color Me Rad 2.  I’m not ever going to do that and 3.  I am writing a post about color today so my witty wordplay won’t be lost on my own inner monologue.  You’re welcome.

In gearing up for today’s post I found myself drawn to photos filled edge to edge in big, bold color.  While I’m most definitely steering my home decor ship into the land of neutrals, I still can’t help but swoon when confronted with big bright pattern thrown right in my face.  Let’s look, shall we?

Honestly, I don’t even know what this is.  I’m sure one of you out there does.  Tell us, won’t you?  For now I’m just glad to know someone had this idea and made it happen.

via

I think what I love most about this barn (as with the image above it) is the bright color splashed against a dreary backdrop.  The interest lies in the contrast.

Via

Of course, color against color is pretty great too.  I especially love the little house on the prairie floral mixed in.  And apparently it’s audience participation day here as I’m about to ask you dudes what the hell is happening with that magic light over there?

My affinity for beaded African seating continues.

via

Colorful neon bars hung vertically say “hey, neon isn’t just for Miami and you’re going to like it.” Now, let’s get some Laura Ingalls Wilder Wallpaper up in this joint and we’ll be good to go.

These photos by photographer Alain Delorme pretty much rock my face off.  Why didn’t I just make this whole post about him?  Expect to see him again, be prepared to act surprised.

We will not be making any Rianna references here other than to say that there will be no Rianna references.  This photo is dope and it doesn’t sing through it’s nose so, win.

And there you go.  There was color, it was rad.  You know what it did.

I still dream of unfolding my old 4×5 field camera, of throwing a black cloth over my head, cocking the shutter, and then waiting… and waiting. Landscape photography is about patience and time. It’s about breathless observation — inhale and stand stock still. Tack sharpness cuts both ways. I cannot count how many nights I stood guard beside an open shutter, straining to see what my camera would see.

There are many gods in my pantheon of the vast view: Edward Weston, Richard Misrach, Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, and then there is Dan Holdsworth.

Holdsworth’s works traverse the earth’s edges, from Icelandic vistas to American roadways. Like Timothy O’Sullivan over a century before him, he is master of the sublime, charter of both romance and terror.

Using no tricks, no manipulations — only film and the cool remove of omniscient observation — he shows us the beauty and horror of an alien world that pulses before our very eyes.

And yet it’s the same world we all live in. If you look very carefully you will see it here, there, and everywhere.

Long ago, in a far away land, as a naive student working in practical isolation I made photographs of natural history dioramas only to discover that someone else had done the same thing years before me. Then I made simple black and white photographs of the ocean, only to discover that someone else had already made them (and much more elegantly). In short, Hiroshi Sugimoto is my photographic father. His work pokes at the root of my twin concerns: time and perspective.

He’s also a prodigious badass with almost four decades of experience making pretty pictures. The decor world has taken note.

His theater series was shot by exposing an entire movie on a single sheet of large format film. The result is blinding, as if every neural synapse has fired simultaneously. The architecture is stunning — a reminder of a bygone era, and although these images were largely shot in the 70s, they seem to presage a time when the collective viewing of a film has passed. The sense of loss is palpable.

The seascapes may be his best knows works. Reduced to the singular properties of water and air, they are visually calming but intellectually startling. As Sugimoto points out, the probability of existence for these two elements — responsible for our evolution (or devolution) — is mind bogglingly slim. And yet we search for another planet just like ours.

And then there are the waxworks. In a perfect imitation of Flemish painting (itself meant to conjure a perfect imitation of life), Sugimoto condenses the life and death of history’s most important personages into a single split second, frozen like flies in amber. The vast majority of us have never known these people save through reproduced evidence. A photograph, much like celebrity, keeps us at arm’s length.

Most recently, Sugimoto has composed a body of work that hints at the core nature of analog photography.

Using Van Der Graaf generators and Tesla coils, Sugimoto records each electrical impulse making its way across a piece of large format film. This reminds me of how I destroyed my graphing calculator in high school physics class (Tesla coil + expensive calculator = angry parents), but more importantly it gives hope to us anachronists.

Maybe film won’t go extinct.

There may yet be a reason for me to bust out my ancient large format camera and toss a black hood over my head.

[David Netto, Peter Marino, Elle Decor, Nero Chronicles, MFAMB, photo of Sugimoto via NYT]

I really should have added books to my list of acceptable holiday gifts, mostly because I am a greedy hoarder of all things glossy and gorgeous. Just cracking open a new monograph by a favorite artist is enough to give me a eyegasm, but don’t worry — I like to keep my peeping on the down low (insert lecherous laugh here).

Feast your eyeballs on the Fables series by Karen Knorr and try to restrain yourself. Stunningly staged rooms + Animals = Perfection in print. Enjoy.

Photographed in large format at museums based largely in France, Knorr’s images combine analog craftsmanship with a bit of digital trickery to highlight the chasm between the natural and civilized worlds. The results range from sweetly playful to shockingly menacing.

Buy the book here. This kind of eye candy never gets old.

Found via the very excellent Bertha Mag.

20×200 can be hit or miss for me. On one hand, it makes works by master artists like the Starn twins or Roger Ballen available to middle class collectors, and it also spreads the word about up and coming photographers like Todd Hido and Eirik Johnson. But it can often dive deep into the twee abyss, cranking out overly cute editions. I don’t fault them for it (hey, we’ve all got to make a living somehow), but I like 20×200 best when it takes risks and puts out thoughtful work from relatively unknown artists. And if that thoughtful work is aesthetically interesting, well then super extra bonus points.

Long story short, I like recently published Jenny Odell’s work a lot. Thank you, 20×200. You get a gold star from me.

Odell’s composite images created from satellite views feature industrial buildings, pools, grain silos, and boats. Voyeurism coupled with a smidgen of melancholy, finished by a dash of slick techno remove, makes for a fine series of work.

195 Yachts, Cargo Lines, Tankers, and Other Ships is available for purchase at 20×200 HERE.

I really hope the pools are up for grabs next…

Sweet baby Ike is sick today. Nasty sick — like twin rivers of Tigris and Euphrates snot sick. It takes a special kind of mama love to kiss a baby’s slimy germ infested face, to comfort them even when they cry like… babies. So, either my nurturing mode is in high gear, or the sleep deprivation is getting the best of me, because when I saw these pictures by Adele Enersen, my icy black heart just melted.

Enersen photographs her baby Mila while she sleeps, quietly (I imagine) constructing impromptu sets out of sheets, socks, blankets and books, for her slumbering stage. I’m not sure if I’m more impressed by the creativity, or by the fact that Enersen’s baby is such a great sleeper… Ok, the creativity part is awesomer (by a small margin).

Have a great weekend!

Art is an undervalued endeavor — it does not create algorithms to invest money, invent pharmaceuticals, or generally further business interests in any way. And so, when the young and ambitious set their sights on the humanities, parents get nervous and friends shake their heads, and the young and ambitious learn to eat ramen and wear black. Street cred is a necessity, but so are clothes that hold up to paint, chemicals, and infrequent laundering. It’s pretty glamorous, the life of an artist is.

Photograph by Tracey Moffatt, via Emmas Designblogg

I have spent 15+ years slaving over a hot darkroom sink, many more poring over art books, and several years teaching, but I still can’t get enough of the photographs that set me on the path to poverty in the first place. Once afflicted, there is no cure for what ails you, save to embrace the disease.

Photograph by Andres Serrano, via NYT

And as much as I enjoy just browsing images on the net, it warms my cold, dirty black heart even more to see some of my favorite artists in the homes of the rich and famous. Thank jeebus somebody can make a living off their work, because who else could inspire the young and ambitious to sacrifice wealth, hygiene, and nutrition, in the name of art?

Vik Muniz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Christopher Bucklow, via David Netto

Photos by Mark Shaw via Nate Berkus

Images by Rineke Dijkstra via Fox Mahem

Work by Adam Fuss via David Duncan Livingston

Image by Candida Hofer via Richard Powers

Image by William Eggleston in the home of Krysten Ritter

Photos by Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky via Michael Richman

Photo by Thomas Struth (on the right) via Met Home

Photo by Gilbert and George via OWI

Works by John Coplans (left bottom) and Loretta Lux in the home of Vicente Wolf

Photos by Steven Klein in the home of Nacho Figueras

I got a little obsessed while doing, ahem, “research” for this post, so I hope you won’t be terribly disappointed if I hit you with a two-fer. Back on Monday with another roundup of not quite so epic proportions. In the meantime, I’m entertaining out of town guests, but Karly will be here to regale you with her always acerbic wit.

Have a great week!