Sunday, March 20, 2016

Wild designs

Maureen and Mary George have created incredibly unique art over the years, and fortunately some of it is in our collection. I know that I have written about it before, however, on a cold spring morning with light shining in from the sunrise, it is appropriate to share.

There is the “fainting couch” designed as a Mother and Daughter collaboration with the help of a fine carpenter, Murray, from Hermosa Beach. Maureen’s idea was to create a piece that was inspired by the waves at the beach, thus the couch is called “The Wave”.

It is about the size of a full bed and sleeps one comfortably. Many guests have slept on that from California to Virginia. It has undergone color transformations. Today it is silver with a leopard skin pattern on the seat. That must have been Mary’s idea at some point.

Anyway, it goes together like a Chinese puzzle with some tricky maneuvers at the end. I declared that I have assembled this for the last time in my life, so someone down the road will have to figure out the next move. It isn’t a couch, per se, it is a work of art.

The sun shines into the fireplace this morning. That fireplace will not have burning wood in there, because that is too much trouble and too inefficient. However, Mary designed sculptures from concrete and clay that serve as a better replacement than continuous loop digital images of a burning fire that might be the Quaker’s substitute. (As seen on TV.)

The blue and yellow sculpted shapes have the appearance of flames. While they have been stationed around galleries and our homes in different positions, inside the fireplace is the safest location as now, I won’t stub my toes on them.


Mary’s wearable artifacts are hanging around here. Now, we await a visit from Mary, Vicki and their boys someday to show off the work of their famous Mom.


'The Wave' couch by Maureen and Mary George


Paintings by Maureen and sculpture in the fireplace by Mary George


Wearable art by Mary George