Lofty Ideas cont... (The Photo Shoot)

We wanted to share these great shots of Stacy Weiss' new loft located in Shadyside. For some great loft design tips straight from Stacy, read yesterday's blog...

Some Lofty Ideas

In a city like Pittsburgh, there isn't much "new" construction. However, Pittsburgh certainly does have a plethora of really great, old buildings. New loft units are popping up left and right in trendy, up and coming neighborhoods like Lawrenceville and Garfield. For many people, especially people who were born and raised in the suburbs, the allure of city life and the availability of some really cool living spaces has made moving closer to the city more attractive than it was in the past.

Our very own, Stacy Weiss has recently moved from her amazing home in Squirrel Hill to a bright and open loft in Shadyside. Stacy shared some tips for designing her own loft that can be adapted to your space whether it's a loft, spacious apartment or a home with an open floor plan. "Take advantage of the ceiling height, hang art floor to ceiling and warm up your space with rugs." Stacy also said, "Just because it's a loft, does not mean that it has to be/look sparse."

For a little more design inspiration, check out one of our past blogs where we staged the Glass Lofts. It was featured on our website and in Pittsburgh Magazine. http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/July-2011/Glass-Lofts-in-Garfield/

Unique Bar Stools With a Mob Past

Weisshouse is known for high end furniture, flooring, and accessories as well as unique, vintage one-of-a-kind items. Recently, we purchased four bar stools that once belonged to the infamous mobster Hoboken Joe Stassi.

In a post from http://www.sonnysmobsocialclub.com/mobblog.html, "Sonny" states, " A number of years ago, I had a good friend named Joe Stassi, who was known in mob circles as “Joe Rogers.” Who was Joe Rogers? Joe was like a grandfather who had been a feared killer in his early days, most notably for arranging the murder of Dutch Schultz on Luciano’s orders, who became the representative for the mob in Havana during its heyday. In his book about the mob in Cuba, “Havana Nocturne,” T. J. English writes about weekly mob summit meetings in Havana, “These meetings took place on Thursday or Friday at the Miramar home of Joe Stassi, the gravelly-voiced Mafioso…Stassi’s home was located on a winding, well-hidden road…not far from the site of Lansky’s highly anticipated Hotel Riviera…with Stassi presiding as a kind of go-between for the various parties in attendance…along with Meyer, and sometimes his brother, Jake, the participants included [Santo] Trafficante, the Cellini brothers…others in attendance were a collection of men…most with experience in the casino-gambling business – who filled out the lower ranks of the Havana mob.” Joe Rogers, was the ultimate insider…and Joe Rogers was my friend."

A Scott Redden Comes to Pittsburgh

We are so excited to announce that we have an original Scott Redden oil painting at the showroom available for purchase (Yellow Truck II, 1999, oil on canvas, 60" x 64"). It is currently hanging in our showroom window at 324 S Highland Avenue for your viewing pleasure. Below, you will find Scott Redden's biography courtesy of Dillon Gallery located in Chelsea.

Scott Redden combines motifs of rolling pastures, voluminous clouds, verdant trees and homestead architecture, creating nostalgic paintings evocative of an earlier, simpler rural reality. Yet beneath the bucolic surface of the landscape settings exists an urban undertow (he has created the most of his paintings in New York City) that flavors the imagery. Distinguished by lone or cropped placement, the isolation and confinement of these forms contrast poignantly with the implied atmosphere of warmth and connectedness in his chosen subject. He effectively juxtaposes complimentary characteristics: past with present, cheer with melancholy, interconnectedness with disconnection, clarity with mystery. Redden’s paintings are conceived from minimal yet mindful sketches culled from photographic fragments, memories, and imagination, so that the inspiration of his pictorial imagery straddles truth and invention. Once his composition is established, the drawing is transferred to canvas by hand in sections at a time over a period of days or weeks. This tactical process ensures that each individual element receives the same attentive care as the overall composition, and enhances the forms with perfect puzzle-like correspondence with each other.
In Addition, Stacy Smith of the Zimmerli Museum states:

Redden's work is as much an exploration of the nature of painting as of natural environment and notions of place. Distinctive for unabashed and often inventive color, multiple points of interest, flat planes, and modified traditional imagery, Redden’s work engenders natural associations with folk painting. However, while it shares visual qualities with naïve art, it is in fact quite sophisticated. Exploring the way objects relate to each other abstractly, Redden expands on its representation in unique and imaginative ways. Mixing formal geometry with gestural brushstrokes, variations of scale and configuration with motif repetition, and simplified modeling with detail, he activates his personal iconography instilling the pictorial imagery with an atmosphere of stasis.

Yellow Truck II, 1999, oil on canvas, 60" x 64"

House Painting (yellow white), 1998, oil on canvas, 70" x 70"

House and Cloud, 1998, oil on canvas, 46" x 29"