Friday Favorites 4/11/2014

Paula Bodah, Senior Editor 
We New Englanders suffer a bit during the short, gray days of winter. We rejoice on that first, almost-spring day when we notice a hint of light in the sky even as dinnertime approaches. Eva Whitmore understands. The native of Sweden, who now lives in Newport, Rhode Island, knows all too well what it means to endure a long, dark winter. No wonder she spends her time creating light. Ljusa, the company she owns with her husband, Tom Whitmore, designs lamps that bring light and energy to the home even before they’re switched on. Shown here are pieces from the Vibrant and Exposures collections. The vivid, energetic shades of the Vibrant lamps are inspired by modern Scandinavian artists and textile designers, while the Exposures shades are made from old images (in this case, a circa-1889 picture of Maude Adams as Babbie in the play The Little Minister). The bases may be new, hand-thrown ceramic, or vintage lamp bases. In any case, each unique lamp is handmade in Newport, numbered, and catalogued.

Cheryl Katz, Contributing Editor
Next week will mark the two-year anniversary of my obsession with painter Mike Geno. It was April 17, 2012, when I first read about the 41-year-old Philadelphia artist in the Dining and Wine section of the New York Times. Then and there I knew that anyone who painted a portrait of Bayley Hazen Blue like he did had to be my kind of guy. For more of Geno’s cheese portraits, go to mikegeno.com