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Elaine Scary in her book On Beauty and Being Just writes that beauty replicates itself and one of the first acts of replication is staring. “The first flash of the bird incites the desire to duplicate not by translating the glimpsed image into a drawing or poem or a photograph but simply by continuing to see her five seconds, twenty-five seconds, forty-five seconds later–as long as the bird is there to be beheld.” Beauty also increases, I think, through staring. When looking long enough at something, it can jump out at you where before it wasn’t. It’s my fun new practice.
I came across these photos I took last year at the Toile de Jouy Museum. The toiles were all traditional red and white, but I’ve been influenced my Instagram where technology helps reality be more interesting. At the museum there were two slipcover examples–a sofa and a daybed– that are just wonderful. I like them because they look like slipcovers. I have always thought slipcovers should look like slipcovers; they shouldn’t look like upholstery. I mean if you want your sofa upholstered, have it upholstered, right?
Here, the slip cover goes over the cushions–not individually wrapped. I could do without the scallop edge. It seems like a tedious amount of extra work.
The day bed–the curtains are a bit grand, but why not–who wouldn’t want a good pelmet?
