coyleart

happy holidays and happy new year!

wishing you all the best - see you next year!

party like it's 1999

Things are a lot heavier these days than they were back in 1999, that's for sure. Oh the 90's! Young upstarts with technical prowess were making money in the internet frenzy. Clients with generous budgets were there for the picking, and quite a few of them needed illos or flash animations for their new websites. When I wasn't working I was traveling and my aspirational lifestyle bible was Wallpaper Magazine. Cue the trip-hop and acid jazz soundtrack...

And the big news this time 8 years ago was all the concern over just how nasty the lurking Y2K bug would turn out to be. Wallpaper captured the feeling in it's cheeky, James Bond jet-setter style with this cover image:

The feature article contained lots of great tips on the well-dressed bunker, including the suggestion to stock up on champagne, cigars, gold bars and keep a manual typewriter on hand, not to mention the crossbow.

These days Wallpaper is a little too serious for me, but I cherish the stack of issues from the time when it was more fabulous fun. Parties with underwear models strewn about, holiday recipes for reindeer cutlets and port infused cranberry jelly. Some of the uber-hip illustrators whose work appeared regularly and became a source of inspiration for me were: Jordi Labanda, John Pirman, Bo Lundberg, and Liselotte Watkins. Of course I'm biased, but without the illustration the magazine is looking pretty sedate and well, sober - it's not 1999 anymore.

It's time to lay in that supply of champagne.

WACSO

I found this site today in my wanderings and must share.

Check out WACSO his drawings are great, and the commentary next to each makes me love them even more. And looking at this NYC series made me wish I had paid a visit to Bemelman's Bar - I will have to make a point to go next time I visit NY. I sure do love me some Bemelman's art.

Walking into the bar made me weak in the knees. Seeing his actual drawings on the walls of what i consider to be the “perfect” New York bar. Old school. Waiters in tuxes. Jazz supplied by a live band. Woman in fur coats. Doormen. $20 martinis. God i love New York. I felt like i stepped back in time to 1940 something.

Sounds good to me.

Also, here's a link to a post on my music blog about a house concert I went to recently. I was inspired to bring my camera and got some interesting shots.

The concert took place a tiny bungalow style house, so the musicians were crowded into the dining room with a grand piano (the drummer was almost squeezed out into the hallway) and the audience watched and listened from the sunroom and spilled over into the kitchen. The whole thing made me realize that you don't need a grand space to host something like this. The evening was about the love of music and the hospitality of our host Mary Jo, who fostered an instant community out of all of us there. It was a beautiful evening.

shop 'til you drop

©Laura Coyle

Is anybody going to NYC for the holidays? Flying US Airways? Here's a map that accompanies a story in US Airways Magazine this month so you can take your own little walking tour of the holiday windows in some of NY's most famous department stores.

Back when I lived in NYC and I thrived on looking at the window displays year-round. I always loved the windows at ABC, in fact I think I loved everything there - a wonderland with miles of beautiful inspiring things, all just a bit outside my price range.

Me and Jenny. Can you find us?

how many chandeliers would you like today?

Speaking of New Yorky things with alphabet names, I have to recommend the B&H Dairy in the east village on 2nd Ave near St. Marks Place. This is the perfect time of year for a nice hot bowl of vegetarian borscht with a dollop of sour cream and thick slices of challah toast with butter. And B&H has been there forever, it feels like you are going back in time when you grab a seat at the counter in this narrow little restaurant. And the nicest guys behind that counter. Kugel? Knishes? Blintzes? They've got them, but I am a creature of habit - always the borscht.

a bowl ah borscht comin' right up.

oh the challah! the challah! with buttah! Oh how I miss New York.

yeah, he's comin' to town

©Laura Coyle 2007

Here's the latest promo from me and Kiki at Alexander|Pollard. You can click on the image above to be taken to some of my other seasonal imagery at my Workbook online portfolio. Enjoy! Don't forget to leave out some cookies this year.