a store visit with Reform, Los Angeles

<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">....</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"There are your good friends and I like them fine.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> 'Cause <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">they are your past and your present time</span></span>.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> But would you even be the same if you left them behind?"</span><br /><br />-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIDPQM91l9U"><span style="font-style: italic;"> Kathleeen Edwards</span></a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7035/6526878115_46d16f230d_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7035/6526878115_46d16f230d_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 505px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br />all photographs by</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><a href="http://www.marcoannunziata.com/" style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Marco Annunziata</span></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br />Gerard O'Brien's store <span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reform </span></span>on Melrose in the heart of Los Angeles tells a specific story of craft & design. It is here in this store that I have been firsthand introduced to the works of <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >J.B. Blunk</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 51);font-size:100%;" >Howard Werner</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >David Cressey's ceramics</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Gerald McCabe's sculptural furniture</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><span class="description" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102); font-weight: bold;">Tanya Aguiniga's felted works</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Kapel</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">,</span> only to name a few.<br /><br />For collectors or design geeks like myself, Reform is what I might call a <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">"temple of the hands."</span> A place where the lines are blurred between craft + art + design. Gerard's enormous collection of books in the back room is the best public archive of this sort that I know about here in L.A. I've spent many hours of the afternoon speaking with Gerard about the current state of craft in America , as well as attending the store's events. Last year he hosted <a href="http://lesliewilliamsonphoto.blogspot.com/2011/06/tonight-handcrafted-modern-book-party.html" style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Leslie Williamson for her book, Handcrafted Modern</span></a>, and spoke recently at <a href="http://www.reform-modern.com/news.html"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 51);">LACMA on The Legacy of California Design.</span></a> Designers such as myself are extremely grateful for Gerard's dedication to telling the story of Southern California's design, and encouraging a new generation to work with their hands. Please take time to visit Reform. <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">- David John</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6526866231_09687f7257_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6526866231_09687f7257_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 701px; height: 468px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br />Pacific Standard Time since 2003.</span><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6526865119_d605227c06_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6526865119_d605227c06_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 466px;" /></a> <div style="text-align: center; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-style: italic;">a portion of the library at Reform....</span><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6526865835_c4b8f47d55_b.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6526865835_c4b8f47d55_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 467px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It's All Good!...</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6526865445_3a79cc9c12_b.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6526865445_3a79cc9c12_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 466px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br /><br />large ceramic text based sculptural works....<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/6526866507_1fd6626dac_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/6526866507_1fd6626dac_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 699px; height: 466px;" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6526864673_65aef1fe2c_b.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6526864673_65aef1fe2c_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 468px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Tanya Aguiniga's felted chairs</span><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7151/6532872997_5cb3f65525_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7151/6532872997_5cb3f65525_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 704px; height: 470px;" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">all photographs by</span> <a href="http://www.marcoannunziata.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Marco Annunziata</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">a store visit with</span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.reform-modern.com/index.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reform</span></a></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">6819 Melrose, Los Angeles</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">-----------------</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">---------------</span>

a store visit with Reform, Los Angeles

.... "There are your good friends and I like them fine. 'Cause they are your past and your present time . But would you even be t...

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<span style="font-style: italic;">"I like to think of my work as a threshold between</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> in and out, object and space, heavy and light."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">- Peter Shelton</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6036/6355730903_22a40fb337_b.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6036/6355730903_22a40fb337_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 701px; height: 307px;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Peter Shelton</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">eyehand </span><br />Selected sculpture from <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1975 - 2011</span></span> at<a href="http://www.lalouver.com/index.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> L.A. Louver</span></a>, Los Angeles<br />19 November - 30 December 2011<br /><br /><br />"A lot of my early work started off nominally geometric and constructed, but I would sneak in a reference to the body without depicting the body, which was a way of creating a kind of subversive connection.<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 51, 51);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Desire, memory, humor, even wistfulness are powerful psychic qualities that I do not avoid. </span></span>I wanted to enter the work directly and have its narrative understood as much in the body as the mind."<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">I like to think of my work as a threshold between in and out, object and space, heavy and light. </span></span>You can see a preoccupation with the piercing of a membrane as a theme in flattop, 1975, with its overhead plane extended endlessly by mobility of it wheels. holecan, 1980 is an anthropometric planetarium of perforations. And recently blackslot, 2008-10 pushes its elusive objectified inner out to its edges where its containing skin defuses into an indefinite surface bleeding off into space.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">-- Peter Shelton</span><br /><br /><br />Born in 1951,<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Peter Shelton</span></span> was a pre-medical student at Pomona College, studying sociology, anthropology and theatre, before he switched to major in fine art. Shelton went on to earn a trade certificate in welding from the Hobart School of Welding Technology in his hometown of Troy, Ohio, in 1974, and a MFA from the University of California Los Angeles in 1979.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lalouver.com/html/gallery-history-images/press-releases/Peter-Shelton-press-release-2011.pdf"><span style="font-style: italic;">more here....</span></a>

"I like to think of my work as a threshold between in and out, object and space, heavy and light." - Peter Shelton Peter Shelton ...

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