thegreatadventure2015 decoration

a conversation with Blackman Cruz

"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things." - Jean Cocteau <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6812378619_441dbefc8b_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6812378619_441dbefc8b_b.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 769px; height: 1024px;" /></a> <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6812381739_619b60a43d_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6812381739_619b60a43d_b.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 1024px; height: 769px;" /></a>(all photography by <a href="http://lendonflanagan.com/">Lendon Flanagan</a>) </div> "And what costume shall the poor girl wear To all tomorrow's parties Why silks and linens of yesterday's gowns To all tomorrow's parties" - Velvet Underground, "All Tomorrow's Parties" Adam Blackman and David Cruz begin in 1993 as a resource for adventurous collectors and designers who "share their passion for exceptional, idiosyncratic furniture and accessories." Their 9,000 sq/ft showroom is in the heart of Los Angeles on Highland. Their product line, BC Workshop, is produced locally by artisans and craftsmen. Both of their exquisite homes were featured in last year' s coffee table book, Dealer’s Choice: At Home with Purveyors of Antique and Vintage Furnishings. Whether you are a designer, collector, or a voyeur, their newly redesigned website is a perfect entry into what they find beautiful. Their palette is textural, masculine, full of shape-shifting shadows, utilizing materials of bronze, velvets, and glass. And if you are very quiet, you might just hear the whispers.... <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6812381463_2b15cc36a7_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6812381463_2b15cc36a7_b.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 999px;" /></a> "Stay a while my inner child I'd like to learn your tricks Know what makes you tick... Some universal elegance.... - Conor Oberst How would you describe the Blackman Cruz design philosophy & general vibe of Blackman Cruz? Masculine. Your work has level of detail in the fabrication process. What’s the attraction to working with metal, and bronze in specific? The permanence of bronze. It will be around for generations to come. Are your BC Workshop pieces fabricated in Los Angeles? We are proud to say that all of the pieces that we have designed for the BC Workshop are in fact completely manufactured in Los Angeles. If Blackman Cruz was a song or a musical group, what would it be? Conor Oberst. "Bright Eyes" The Velvet Underground. or perhaps, Leonard Cohen. How many designers are currently working on BC WORKSHOP pieces? There are 3 of us. How many pieces are created each year? Depending on our inspiration....about a dozen each year. Does BC do interior design projects? No, we don't do design projects. We are asked frequently.. Countries to travel to looking for items for Blackman Cruz? Italy, Mexico and Belgium. The bat incense holder? The bat incense burner was based on a 19th century Japanese piece. As you very well know, bats are a symbol of good luck and bring happiness and peace. PROBE, the gay dance club that was once featured in American Gigolo, is the LA headquarters for Blackman Cruz. I’m bummed I never got to go PROBE, because there is a certain joy in seeing spaces transformed. Do you still feel the energy of that old gay dance club? The feeling of our showroom is alive with the days of The Probe. The energy of our space is very fluid and every once in a while we get a subtle smell of sweat and poppers. Lol. Any reservations when you first saw the space? We fell in love with the space immediately. It has great provenance and all kidding aside, the feeling and flow is marvelous. Any particular BC WORKSHOP piece that you have a particular fondness for? We love all of our children just the same. <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6812379097_b7493818f0_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6812379097_b7493818f0_b.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 1024px; height: 652px;" /></a><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6812381347_e2db18a00f_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6812381347_e2db18a00f_b.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 1024px; height: 769px;" /></a> Hard lines carved in your face The sunshine's so cliche Just like love and pain You tried your best the rorschach test But there's just nothing to see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIWCxSmAI_w" style="font-style: italic;">- Bright Eyes, The Beginner's Mind</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blackmancruz.com">Blackman Cruz</a> is a ride through a curated collection of intriguing objects and design — brought together by two adventurous minds. Adam Blackman and David Cruz created Blackman Cruz as a resource for collectors and designers who share their passion for offbeat curiosities. The ever-changing selection of unexpected oddities is housed in an equally offbeat location — a former infamous nightclub once featured in American Gigolo. The 9000-square-foot showroom is also home to Blackman Cruzʼs own product line, BC Workshop. Visit: 836 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038 -----

a conversation with Blackman Cruz

"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things." - Jean Cocteau (all photography by Lendon Flanagan ) "And what costume ...

8:55 AM

a studio visit with Stephen Kenn, L.A. designer <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6813950403_f1b913aebd_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6813950403_f1b913aebd_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 701px; height: 251px;" /></a> I spent this morning with <a href="http://stephenkenn.com/" style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Stephen Kenn</a> drinking <a href="http://www.handsomecoffee.com/" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Handsome coffee</a> (L.A.'s finest) while talking about Stephen's collection of interior inspired works at his home / showroom / cafe in a warehouse space in downtown Los Angeles. Stephen, who once designed fashion is now reflecting on art, object making, and furniture. At an accelerating rate, designers are launching companies with items produced locally in this city. Stephen mentioned <a href="http://maxlamb.org/">Max Lamb</a>, and design icons <a href="http://www.vitra.com/en-us/">VITRA</a> as models of inspiration. He is attracted towards work that speaks of a story. It's also extremely important to Stephen that his products are made locally. His Inheritance Collection is from repurposed materials combined with a modern, comfortable design that is conducive to community and conversation. If you are in L.A., I suggest dropping by, drinking some coffee, and having old fashioned conversation. Get in touch. - David John <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6813919655_809569f89a_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6813919655_809569f89a_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 701px; height: 467px;" /></a> <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6813805741_16bb0cbab0_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6813805741_16bb0cbab0_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 701px; height: 467px;" /></a> The Inheritance Collection is designed, sourced & crafted in L.A. 1250 Long Beach Ave Suite 120 Los Angeles, CA 90021 (Thanks Stephen and Bek for being so generous with your time....) -----------------

a studio visit with Stephen Kenn , L.A. designer I spent this morning with Stephen Kenn drinking Handsome coffee (L.A.'s finest) whi...

1:45 PM

"I’m trying to communicate transparency." “The reward for good work is more work.” – Tom Sachs <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6805119475_faf2f377ca_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6805119475_faf2f377ca_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 553px;" /></a> Intermission Magazine recently posted an interesting interview with Tom Sachs, artist.<a href="http://www.intermissionmagazine.com/2011/12/tom-sachs/" style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"> (read the interview here)</a>. His thoughts are reflections on "object" making, both as consumers, viewers, and voyeurs. What do our objects mean? "I’m trying to communicate transparency. I’m looking to show the scars of labor and the evidence of construction. I can’t afford to make things that are perfect – if you look at your phone, or your computer, everything that you buy looks as though it was miraculously hatched out of thin air. One way of making things special is to make them by hand. That’s what people look for in your jewelry as well; it’s hands-on, which is part of its charm. I would like to be an advocate for this particular politic of building. Being a builder, I think ideas translate beyond the realms of painting and sculpture. We’re seeing a global recession because we’ve been making terrible shit, terrible cars and so on, and as a result the chickens have come home to roost. But if we create things showing how they’re made, showing transparency, we’ll know how to fix them if they fail. And maybe they won’t fail because we’ll be able to see the cracks before it happens." <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6805119439_b074b9931c_b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6805119439_b074b9931c_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 553px;" /></a> "<a href="http://tomsachs.org/">TOM SACHS</a> is a sculptor, probably best known for his elaborate recreations of various Modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. In an early show he made Knoll office furniture out of phone books and duct tape; later, he recreated Le Corbusier's 1952 Unité d'Habitation using only foamcore and a glue gun.<span class=" down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img alt="Link" border="0" class="gl_link" src="img/blank.gif" /> Other projects have included his versions of various Cold War masterpieces, like the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module, and the bridge of the battleship USS Enterprise. And because no engineering project is more complex and pervasive than the corporate ecosystem, he's done versions of those, too, including a McDonald's he built using plywood, glue, assorted kitchen appliances. " <a href="http://tomsachs.org/">Tom Sachs here..</a> <a href="http://www.intermissionmagazine.com/2011/12/tom-sachs/">Read the interview here.</a> ---------------

"I’m trying to communicate transparency. " “ The reward for good work is more work.” – Tom Sachs Intermission Magazine recentl...

8:56 PM

thegreatadventure2015 decoration

a conversation with Blackman Cruz

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