Monday, November 13, 2006
The Red Room
The walls are a deep crimson red, eggshell finish, so that they sort of glow like a piece of polished red porcelain, and they really do seem to glow with a welcoming warmth. Against this stunning deep red ....we worried so about the right exact shade, and as it happens, we could not have chosen a more beautiful and perfect tone and color ...not too bright and not too dark...truly just right. Anyway, our ebony shiny black baby grand piano looks elegantly beautiful against that red wall, and the oak armoir, that we finally got rehooked up so the lights would work on the glass bar portion of it, well...that oak piece looks fabulous against the walls as well, especially with the lights on, and the shiny crystal glassware and bottles set just so on the top shelf. (Drew, finally we are able to display the fabulous cut crystal decanter and glasses you so generously gave us as a wedding gift...they look glorious in the oak bar)....I'm glad we put that piece back into the room....it adds elegance but of a less formal sort, and sort of makes the perfect bridge bewteen the dark table and chairs and the piano....the red walls warm everything up so wonderfully. The Andy Warhol "Gertrude Stein" against which I matched the red color I wanted (she has a small border of red around her matting) is hung perfectly on the wall you first see as you enter the room, so right away you know you are in what may be referred to as an "important" room (Ann J. you would be so proud of me)...and the two new orientals we bought, both against a cream background with intricate patterns in deep red, black and blue, tie it all together so deliciously. Perfect lamps from around our apartment seem to have been made for the new red room, and each one looks perfect. Tonight we will hang the new ceiling fixtures...and a dimmer switch to control them. We will hang either a Tiffany-style with deep red touches in it, or a beautiful classic looking thing with black curly ironwork around the glass shade...the one we don't use in the new dining room will go on the hallway ceiling. The Stein is on one wall, and the large black charcoal sketch of me done by Robert Reynolds in on the wall behind the dining table. It looks great. We will also hang the La Scala poster by the piano, and a cluster of beautiful things we have been collecting on yet another wall.
I taught a private lesson in there today and it was calm and lovely to work in. We were working on "Cordelia" from LEAR, (Kevin Kline is doing it at the Public and one of my students is up for that daughter). Shakespeare seems right for that room now.
For the past couple of days, now that I have seen how perfectly lovely the red walls are, I have been thinking a lot about my Momma. When she finally moved to her own apartment in Chicago, (after my Daddy died in Atlanta, Momma pulled up roots and moved back to her family in the Windy City), the first thing she bought, the very first thing she hung to establish the feeling of her new home: a long elegant set of deep red silk curtains at her windows! I was stunned because in all the years I had known her up to that point (I was in my early 20's) i never knew she ever even wanted such a thing as red curtains...and there they were!
It was like a part of her was free ...to...well...express herself! Daddy had always been the artist in the family and had made such decisions, although i don't remember our home being fashionable in any particular way...it was simply comfortable and very lived in. But those red curtains of Momma's...nothing else in the Fullerton Avenue apartment at all...but those deep red curtains hanging straight and proud. A deep blood red. I felt something for her that I had never felt before: pride. I felt proud of her. Not that i had ever been ashamed of her, but I had never felt that strong a pride either...i was too busy being self-concerned and self-ish. Those red curtains made me sit up and take notice of her! In a new way .
That is the red that now colors our dining room walls and I cannot help but think she would love that room . And be proud of that color that I chose. A Momma sort of choice.
I taught a private lesson in there today and it was calm and lovely to work in. We were working on "Cordelia" from LEAR, (Kevin Kline is doing it at the Public and one of my students is up for that daughter). Shakespeare seems right for that room now.
For the past couple of days, now that I have seen how perfectly lovely the red walls are, I have been thinking a lot about my Momma. When she finally moved to her own apartment in Chicago, (after my Daddy died in Atlanta, Momma pulled up roots and moved back to her family in the Windy City), the first thing she bought, the very first thing she hung to establish the feeling of her new home: a long elegant set of deep red silk curtains at her windows! I was stunned because in all the years I had known her up to that point (I was in my early 20's) i never knew she ever even wanted such a thing as red curtains...and there they were!
It was like a part of her was free ...to...well...express herself! Daddy had always been the artist in the family and had made such decisions, although i don't remember our home being fashionable in any particular way...it was simply comfortable and very lived in. But those red curtains of Momma's...nothing else in the Fullerton Avenue apartment at all...but those deep red curtains hanging straight and proud. A deep blood red. I felt something for her that I had never felt before: pride. I felt proud of her. Not that i had ever been ashamed of her, but I had never felt that strong a pride either...i was too busy being self-concerned and self-ish. Those red curtains made me sit up and take notice of her! In a new way .
That is the red that now colors our dining room walls and I cannot help but think she would love that room . And be proud of that color that I chose. A Momma sort of choice.
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