Thursday, January 5, 2012

Eva Zeisel/RIP

On December 30, 2011, Eva Zeisel passed away. I was lucky enough to photograph her country home for Handcrafted Modern and ended up hanging out with the family for lunch and dinner while I was there. When I met her she was 102 or maybe 103. Crazy, right? And yet, she was all there. She asked me who was in my book and when I mentioned Gropius, she said she approved. What I rememeber most about her is that she was all about enjoying her life. The sun was out that day (it was May) and she just wanted to sit in the sun. At dinner, although we had a delicious spread, she ate 2 bites and said, "Ok, I'm ready for my chocolate!" But when her red wine was almost cleared before she was done, she put her foot down. Sun, chocolate, and red wine. my kind of girl! She kind of cracked me up! I mean, god knows if you have lived to be 102 you should be able to eat and drink whatever you want and soak up as much sun too! She had  a prolific, long life to be sure, but also witnessed so many changes in our society as well as art. I cannot say I was surprised when I saw the news but frankly, I was reduced to a puddle of tears anyway. She was a love.
This image is of her chair in her studio in New City, NY. And that is her butt print...I'm pretty sure....

1 comment:

  1. leslie i just want you to know i LOVE this - somebody turned me on to this after reading my blogpost- about eva, my next door neighbor, right there in new city. the biggest surprise is how you turned her studio into something that looks modern in your gorgeous photos. we should have a glass of red wine sometime to eva-- here is my eva story if you want to check it out

    http://carolynrayinc.blogspot.com/2012/06/seeing-things-evas-way-we-all-know-that.html#comment-form

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