Church of San Pietro in Cherasco, Italy

Cherasco is a Medieval hill town in Piemonte, Italy. This church, dedicated to San. Pietro, was built between the 12th and 13th centuries and altered during the 18th and 19th centuries.  These incredible sculpted stone pieces were brought to Cherasco, possibly from The Holy Land, and added to the Romanesque facade which already featured brickwork and marble with reliefs, majolica cups and sculptured heads.  I love that this random mix of found-object artwork was given pride of place on the city's oldest church. I find the bird sculptures that have softened almost to the point of disappearance incredibly beautiful.

Gianni Vallino lamps

Some of Gianni's incredibly beautiful lamps.

Photos by Megan Gage.

Embroidery from Holland and Sherry

These are examples of the embroidery program at Holland and Sherry.

Completely divine.

This is the interior of the Mission San Miguel in San Miguel, California. 

The interior paintings by Don Esteban Munras were completed in 1821.  He used a sketch book by Vitruvious of classical Roman buildings as a source for many of the decorative patterns. 

Here are some pictures of the garden.

Pisa Baptistry

On a very hot day this June, we tucked into the cool, sacred calm of the Baptistry in Pisa, 

Italy. While thousands of people were photographing themselves "holding up" the leaning 

tower nearby, we were treated to a perfect moment of relative solitude in one of the most 

beautifully designed spaces in the world.

Sycamores

This allee' of Sycamores is in the San Ynez Valley, not far from my home. There are 26 trees, 13 in each row, planted about 8 years ago, in two rows marking the path to the stable.

What is it about this gesture that is so moving? The fact that this row of trees will outlive the planter and all of us? The idea that using this luxury of space and time to this purpose belongs to another era, and maybe to a sensibility that we have lost? Maybe it's the fact that we are so aware of man's power to impact nature, but this time that power is used to express something poetic.

Designing an art wall

Here is the collage of artwork we hung last week in Ojai, California.

First I did the layout on the floor, which turned out to be a great method.