I have a wardrobe of accessories for my home that I change seasonally or according to mood. The backbone of my décor is neutral to allow me to do this. My rationale is that I wouldn’t wear the same blouse or scarf every day and that is exactly how I feel about cushion covers.

It does, however, make me an uneasy participant in consumer culture. When you review the shelter magazines regularly, as I do, you trip across “must-have” lists of new items that are intended to inform you about current trends and surely keep their advertisers happy.

There was a time when I asked my Mom’s opinion about a new acquisition that I thought made a vast improvement to my décor. She replied, “It’s not better or worse, just different.” Initially, I was dismayed by her response. Now, it seems to me that it is a good yardstick for judging proposed change.

I am ready to spend more money to do things that make an improvement; but I’m less enthusiastic about dropping big bucks just to make it different. That’s where flea markets, second-hand shops and discount stores come in.

Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics writes about “The Hedonic Treadmill” in his fascinating book, The Upside of Irrationality. Apparently, it is hedonic adaptation that causes us to tire – or fail to notice – things that once delighted. A good read for anyone contemplating major purchases.

PS Don’t you just love the new shawl draping my chair? $15.00 from Winners. And, by the way, it’s a rhetorical question.

- Jane

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

Who doesn’t dream of a secret hideaway in some remote spot, where you are surrounded by the beauty of nature? More fodder for those dreams is encapsulated in one small book entitled Under Arizona Skies: the apprenticeship desert shelters at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen West.

It starts, “Tucked away in the desert surrounding Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West is a landscape of architectural experiments.” For seventy- five years, students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesen West have been building and living in experimental designs. Conceived as an alternative to dormitory rooms, they are spaces where students can experience the natural environment and learn to design in response to it.

Some of the more adventurous students have taken the miniscule start-up money provided by the school. Then, they scrounged materials from the School junkyard, from the surrounding desert or found builders to donate materials for these fascinating little shelters.

Some of the shelters are identified by the name or nationality of the builder like Lath Shelter or Japanese Shelter. Other names refer to the type of structure or place like Desert Perch, Lotus and Ironwood. The Brittlebush Shelter really caught my eye with its graceful amorphous canvas roof, elevated sleeping platform and fireplace. I also found a blog which offers an in depth perspective to the design.

It is nice to dream and maybe plot and plan. How lovely it would be to live in a climate where an open-sided tent seems like a great idea for most of the year. Sigh.

- Candace

Many of our new books are beautiful. In fact, that’s the norm in the Arts Department at Central. But, from time to time, we get bizarre and goofy too and that’s a lot of fun.

Susie Says is an adult picture book by photographer and doll collector Gina Garan. Garan takes a 70’s fashion doll, “Susie Sad Eyes”, dresses her up – and down – and takes her on the town. Or to the beach, the park and the mountains. Mostly it’s urban Susie; but some of her streets are mean ones.

At times she’s ravishing with glamorous outfits, big hair and makeup. She has outings with cute friends to happy places with sunny skies. Other times she’s wasted and hung over. But she’s never short of pop philosophy.

The words of wisdom come from performer Justin Vivian Bond who supplies Susie with a voice to suit the outfits and the setting. Susie’s outlook ranges from cheery and optimistic to wistful and gloomy whenever she trips over life's hard truths. Her impressive mood swings are a large part of the appeal.

Garan has made a career out of vintage fashion dolls and has collaborated on the design and production of several new ones. If you enjoy Susie, check out Blythe.

-Jane

I love the beautiful decorating books in our collection and enjoy reviewing the new ones. Many of them are glossy and shallow confections which I still appreciate if I like the design style portrayed. A picture says a thousand words and all that.

Every now and again, one of the pretty ones offers a little more than I expected and that’s a treat. Like this one.

Bringing Nature Home is a new book about flower arrangement that combines the talents of a lifestyle photographer with floral and prop arrangers.

They have chosen common flowers from garden and meadow, arranged them with inspired simplicity and placed them in lovely, uncomplicated room settings which are as intriguing as the arrangements.

As well, they provide information about the historical cultivation of the flowers and their place in art and literature.

A graceful branch of bleeding heart is tucked into each of a pair of modern white vases that complement an art grouping. Bleeding heart is combined with daffodils, pansies and Solomon’s seal for another charming kitchen bouquet. You see it again mixed with tulips, crab apple blossoms and geranium leaves in a sturdy pottery container set on an end table.

Along the way you learn, among other things, that there are more than 25,000 cultivars of daffodils and have been reminded of a famous Wordsworth poem.

The book is a beautiful page turner with arrangements organized by season. And it all looks so effortless.

“This would make a great gift book,” said Janet, an Arts Department colleague. I agree.

- Jane

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

It has been a good week for the art lover at the library. A treasure trove of new books on artists has arrived. In particular, one book has really grabbed my attention. It is a tribute to Colleen Browning.

As in my previous blog on the surrealist women artists in Mexico, I have more reason to rejoice in the publishers who are now making books about important, but little-known work. Colleen Browning: The Enchantment of Realism celebrates a woman whose paintings have been neglected for many years.

Born in England at the end of the First World War into a military family, she came to the United States in 1949 to marry an American author and scholar. Having survived the blitz in England as a young woman, she resolved that her art would be harmonious and free from fear. “It bears pointing out that choosing to accentuate the positive is a courageous, rather than a naïve choice, as art critics sometimes claim. Browning deliberately banished nightmares from her images – not mystery.”

She had considerable acclaim as a young woman before realism was upstaged by abstract expressionism on the art scene. As an artist, she continued to follow her vision and paid dearly for it in terms of her career. Her work was largely forgotten or dismissed as being sentimental.

To my mind, her compositions are very strong and in line with her mastery of the figure. A meander through the pages of this book left me with strong admiration for this artist and her commitment to figurative work.

- Candace

Country style is relaxed and embraces the idea of a quality of life that’s an antidote to the fast, noisy pace of the city. It’s a style often adopted by city dwellers who want to evoke a little bit of country no matter where they are living.

The country-style books in our collection are generated from all corners of the globe. A newer one, Tuscany: Artists at Home, combines the beauty of an area that is a magnet to travelers with the stories of lives devoted to art. And a delicious pairing it is.

Studios overlook countryside of heart-wrenching beauty with the hazy hills of 16^th Century landscape art. Vine-covered pergolas provide peaceful refuge for a glass of wine. There are terraces massed with lavender and punctuated by fountain or pool. Beyond the terrace, lie kitchen gardens and vineyards.

You learn of a life where time is divided between painting and gardening or perhaps sculpture and carpentry. You see tapestries on mellow stone, cool tile floors and sculptural stucco walls. Most of the homes have lovingly evolved over long, artistic lifetimes.

The artists have also applied their skills to walls and furniture, creating exciting murals and whimsical decoration. Sculpture dots the woods and gardens.

If you are looking for armchair travel and summer fantasy, let this book transport you to Tuscany.

-Jane

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

The library has acquired four out of five titles in the series, The Unheralded Artists of BC. We now have the books about artists Ina D.D. Uhthoff, Mildred Valley Thornton, George Fertig and David Marshall. This artists series is published by Mother Tongue Press which operates from Salt Spring Island. All have fine reproductions printed on good quality paper – a bonus for the bibliophile. They are definitely worth a look.

The newest addition, The Life and Art of Ina D. D. Uhthoff, shines light on an influential woman of the arts in Victoria. Her biography shows how hard she worked to survive and care for her children as she balanced her artistic needs with the responsibilities of family.

Her husband had been damaged as the result of World War I (probably shell shock). Although they lived apart for much of their married life, she appears to have supported him, as well as her children, for many years. An amazing woman, her name is linked with the establishment of the Greater Victoria Art Gallery. She was a respected art teacher who knew Emily Carr. She founded and taught at the Victoria School of Art until forced to return to private teaching by the Second World War. Her paintings attest to her talent.

I suspect that she was formidable.

- Candace

If you have a weakness for the English country style of decorating you will enjoy the newest book from veteran design writer, Ros Byam Shaw: Perfect English Farmhouse.

The homes presented are labours of love. She tells the stories of how they were acquired and the work that went into making them places fit for the glossy pages of a design book.

Often, they begin like the tale of a love story. The house is glimpsed and the person smitten. A house is pursued, or even “stalked”, until the buyer possesses the object of desire.

The houses presented are no longer part of working farms but have been separated from properties that are now consolidated into larger holdings to make them economically viable. The owners tend to be writers and artists, shop owners and antique dealers.

These homes have the character and patina that comes with age and feature many of the characteristics associated with the genre. There are mellow bricks and beams, tiled floors, enameled Aga cookers and faded chintz. Buildings are nestled into charming gardens where hybrid chickens scratch at the bricks in the sun-dappled courtyard.

For those who are fans of country-modern style, the section, No Frills Farmhouse, shows fabulous old houses with interior furnishings that are spare and contemporary.

I want Becca and Bill to invite me for tea in their lovely long kitchen/sitting room. Sigh. It’s all a fantasy world of idyllic English country living.

- Jane