Inside a Secret Paris Atelier of Curiosities

Behind what might be the narrowest door in Paris, at the back of a peaceful courtyard, I could hear the faint sound of a radio crackling as I approached the end of a corridor, hoping I’d found the atelier of Maïssa Toulet. I had found a photograph of her work on Tumblr and tracked her…

Abandoned Paris: Surviving through Art

This weekend I spent Friday night with le boyfriend doing what any normal girl likes to do: scoping out derelict buildings. We were having a drink on the Seine in the 13th arrondissement when he remembered there was an enormous old building in the neighborhood infamously occupied by squatters. Off we went. And there it…

The Last American Artist in Paris: Inside the Studio

When I step behind the facades of Paris in search of its hidden treasures, I’m usually not invited. At the promise of a medieval courtyard or an old atelier, I’m guilty of waiting for Parisians to come out of their buildings so I can slip through the doors before they close after them. But this…

A Portal to Bygone Bohemian Paris in the Oldest House of Montmartre

I‘m always looking for a taste of la vie bohème and ways to immerse myself in old world Paris; dare I say it’s become a bit of a habit of mine. So when I want to block out the noise of the modern city and really feel time travelling backwards, there’s one place that always does the trick. Follow me inside…

The Forgotten Bohemian Queen of the Paris Art World: Leonor Fini

Bohemian “It Girl” of Paris, master of surrealist disguise and generally a badass female libertine, Leonor Fini was one of the most photographed people of the 20th century. And yet barely anyone I ask knows her name, even here in Paris, where she once ruled the bohemian Parisian art world, considered one of the few women…

The Lost Industry of Sign Painters

Sometimes I wonder about things like, who’s going to know how to make a piano in twenty years? Which skills will go extinct when the last generations of craftsmen and artisans can’t pass on the legacy of their trade? Forbes recently reported that despite a stubbornly high unemployment rate, skilled trades top the list of…

Discover a Secret Fashion Time Capsule in Paris

When I think of Paris fashion week, I like to think of the historic couture houses and their army of skilled artisans furiously tailoring together glorious silks and handmade fabrics in the final hours before the show. I like to picture long-standing ateliers in the garment district; life-sized dollhouses; each floor with its own particular…

How the Last Great American Flower Factory Still Blooms Over Midtown, NYC

Once upon a time, a woman needed a parrot tulip. Not just any tulip. “She started with something like this,” explains Adam Brand, heir to his family’s 4th generation flower factory business, M&S Schmalberg. He picks up a few flat, flower shaped layers of fabric. “Then we took some little poofs, some hibiscus, all different…

A Time Travelling Greenwich Village Studio Hides an Incredible Art Collection

Wait for no muse. Make a habit of working all the time. Let your wooden sculptures grow up, and your bronze sculptures grow out. Such was the world according to Chaim Gross, the patron saint of bohemian Greenwich Village. As an Arts educator, he was bar none in passion and gave playfully acerbic advice (this…

Artists and their Bohemian Ateliers

This is the Parisian atelier of painter Jules Thulot, little-known today, but in this photograph we get an intimate look inside his personal space. A fabulously bohemian lair, begging to be explored inch by inch. It was the discovery of this photograph that sent me on my hunt for today’s compendium of artists in their…