Why Didn't You Think of That?

Putting It Together

Design for Living

INCIDENTAL TREASURES

The world of art can be a confusing place. Trudy Rosato, a New York art dealer, came by to help us demystify it all and give me her opinion on a piece I had just recently acquired - a beautiful Katz acrylic that had belonged to my grandparents.

She said there are always new genres to look out for, and old genres that make comebacks. Some of the current trends are:

Pulp Art: This style of art originated as cover art for pulp fiction novels of the 30's 40's and 50's. It frequently depicts criminal imagery. It's popular now because of its link to the past and its often times gruesome subjects. The more lurid and complex the scene, the more valuable the piece is.

Op-art: Optical art is a product of the 60's and 70's. This style of art is characterized by fool-the-eye graphics, and usually clean simple lines and shapes and bold graphic color schemes.

Illustration art: This style of art was frequently created for commerce - fashion or advertising. Because of this it tends to idealize its subjects and feature beauty rather then complexity.

Trudy says that knowing what you like is the single most important thing you need to know to start a collection. You don't have to spend a lot of money to begin a collection. New and exciting artists are producing art right now and selling it at bargain basement prices. If you like a piece and can afford it, pick it up. Who knows, you may have yourself another Matisse!

OUT AND ABOUT

John Gargone showed us how to explore the world of garnish in the simplest way imaginable. Potato daisies are made by using a daisy shaped cookie cutter to cut out daisy shapes from slices of potato, which are then skewered onto a wooden skewer thats been sheathed with the greens from a scallion. The center can be made with a grape tomato or an olive.

The apple mushroom is made using an apple corer. You can find them at kitchen supply places and anywhere kitchen gadgets are sold. Insert the apple corer into the bottom of the apple and push it about half way in. Then slice around the apple horizontally all the way to the apple corer, still in the apple. Insert the plunger in the apple corer and push the apple out. It will separate from the bottom half leaving a "stem" of apple core protruding from the top half of the apple. Use the bottom, turned over on its flat side as a base into which to stick the resulting "mushroom". Just darling!

John has a book out called Food Art, Garnishing Made Easy. It has all the information you need to create all the garnishes seen on the show and so many more. It's available HERE

HELP ME BRINI!

How do you meld together two collections of art, or anything else for that matter, when you move in with a life partner? Try editing the collection in question, using one or two of the more delightful pieces as accents. Or you can devote a lair to the display of the collection in its entirety. The most important point to remember is when you love someone respecting his or her choices comes with the territory.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

This show was a favorite of my producer Julie. She especially liked the quirky nature of the projects, John Gargone's irreverence, and the idea of redecorating the living room set.

We shot the segment with John at Chef Central in Yonkers in the evening after the store closed. It was fun to be in there so late - kind of like being locked in the museum after closing time.