Click Above for information on Kelly’s current shows and where you can pick up a painting for a truly local, unique holiday gift!

Go here to see Richard Yeagley’s website for The Tradesmen Documentary.

http://thetradesmendocumentary.com/

http://www.thomcomm.net/featurefilmmarketing/thetradesmen.html

Here is the link to WYPR’s page where you can listen to the interview.

http://www.wypr.org/podcast/signal-050611-050711-muggle-quidditch-filmmakers-todd-rohal-richard-yeagley-cassette-rock-qu

http://thetradesmendocumentary.com/

By Jessica Bizik
Photographed by Erik Kvalsvik
If these walls could talk, they might just say, “Well, hurry up already!”

That’s the level of enthusiasm (and urgency) homeowners Nancy and Jack Dwyer brought to Patrick Sutton when asking him to redesign their Roland Park home… in just…more

f these walls could talk, they might just say, “Well, hurry up already!”

That’s the level of enthusiasm (and urgency) homeowners Nancy and Jack Dwyer brought to Patrick Sutton when asking him to redesign their Roland Park home… in just three weeks.

The Dwyers moved into the Colonial Revival more than a decade ago. In fact, it graced the pages of Style in 1998. But over the years, the couple grew tired of the traditional design and wanted a change— a change they decided to make 21 days before Jack’s annual holiday party. Fortunately, Sutton was up for the challenge.

“You walk into this amazing manse with the most gorgeous bones— and you just can’t wait to get started,” says Sutton of the fast-paced project that included updates to the foyer, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom and his-and-hers dressing rooms.

By bones, Sutton means the home’s historic details, including millwork and trim so sexy it could make Martha Washington blush. The problem, according to the designer who is also trained as an architect, is the house “got trapped in the decorating,” which relied heavily on period-inspired finishes and furnishings.

Think freestanding Greek columns, Persian rugs, oodles of porcelain and a color palette of yellows and reds— all elegant choices originally selected to celebrate the home’s history. But eventually these trappings made the house (and its inhabitants, including two daughters, now in high school) feel a little sleepy.

“The house was so formal before, it felt too stuffy for us,” says Nancy, who hired Sutton after seeing his work at some of the couple’s favorite restaurants around town. “When you go to Cinghiale, Charleston, Pazo… they all have such fun, inviting atmospheres. I wanted that for my home.”

So Sutton set about warming up the home’s interior, starting with the foyer, where he replaced yellow-and-cream striped wallpaper with pale green French grass cloth for a “soft, shimmery, happy” effect. This single change was transformative for the space— and symbolic of a key tenet in Sutton’s design philosophy. Namely, that mixing contemporary touches with classical architecture can elevate them both.

“When you decorate in the same period style as the architecture, you do a disservice. It’s like you’re freezing the house in time,” he says.

Additional updates in the foyer include simple-chic wall sconces, an “uber-contemporary” burnt umber rug (“It’s just about texture,” says Sutton) and a center hall table from Panache. Taking its cues from traditional Italian design, the base of this walnut hand-carved beauty is both intricate and organic, like the roots of a tree.

As for the bronze-and-glass lantern above? “The way the fixture is configured, it creates a dappling effect on the ceiling, like sunlight coming through leaves,” says Sutton.

But the real force of nature in this home is the dramatic new dining room, designed with Mr. Dwyer (aka the resident wine aficionado) in mind.

“Jack loves hosting dinner parties and opening great bottles of wine with friends. So I asked what kind of atmosphere would be conducive to that,” says Sutton. “It’s not white walls and yellow drapery, which feels really ‘breakfast roomy’ to me. But rather it’s rich chocolate browns, cozy indulgence, moments of light and darkness.”

In addition to painting all the moulding and trim dark brown, Kelly Walker of Artstar developed a brand-new wall finish in record time: gold leaf treated with an erosive agent then topped with glaze. (“It literally glows,” says Sutton.) Candlelight now dances in the hammered Indian tin mirror hung between the windows. And the old Baltimore gentlemen’s club-style chandelier was refinished and topped with modern silk string shades.

Sutton literally elevated the design by removing valances that “cut the room” and hanging tall-dark-and-handsome velvet curtains with brass Ralph Lauren hardware accented by stitched leather finials. The drapery now soars to the ceiling.

“On the ceiling we did an ultra-high gloss, so it almost feels mirrored,” says Sutton. “It’s like there’s another dinner party going on above you.”

What a perfect theme for this modern family home: The more the merrier.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011

Here is the address to the article: http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/home_garden_article/home_modern_family_jf11/”>

Counterbalance-3–KWA-2010Life often organizes itself into recognizable patterns of 2’s and 3’s: two lovers, best friends, or three in a love triangle, the third wheel. Kelly Walker’s exhibit Counterbalance steers us through the familiar as well as the unsaid. Upon approaching her triptych and diptych paintings, one sees the first impression, the recognizable context, but in another moment, a blurring of interpretation occurs. In the triptych, Orange Opportunity, she paints variations and of reds and oranges in layers that ripple across all three images. At first, I associated the images to a sunrise that I witnessed in New Mexico where the snow reflected the reds of the sky, but later, they became a smoldering sunset before dusk. These paintings, like many of the others, effortlessly hold the tension between contradictory emotions. Hope and fear, loss and rebirth are exquisitely represented and displayed. The amount of time one spends before Walker’s paintings or the mood the viewer brings to each work determines what impression or mood is gleaned from the series.

This amorphous ambiguity presents itself again in Dawning a gorgeous piece that stretches out a panoramic view of a city scene, desert ridge, or seaside town. Using dramatic textures, shadows, and colors, the exhibit Counterbalance seduces with the predominant palette of red, green, and gold. Gestation in Green is a triptych of lace and shadows of dark greens. Nature is invoked in the three images as if one is peering upward through a thick branch of leaves into the waning sun or through early moonlight.

Walker said, “The show Counterbalance is all about my desperate attempt to find balance in my art, artistic business and life.” There was a shift that happened while creating the last two pieces for this show. A separation from her partner, a difficult breakup in the midst of her process forced a different technique and display of her skills. In Crimson Gala and Expanse, there is so much more control, a subdued force. In Crimson Gala, a creeping network of black cells grips the red slate. Expanse exerts the same kind of precision in gold heavens that hover over green plains.

Sandra who has witnessed her work for along time said, “ I am blown away by her work, and she has evolved as an artist.” She said that Kelly started as a decorative painter, and it is clear that she has taken this to a whole new level. Kelly Walker is serious about her work and finding ways to live as an artist. More of her decorative as well as fine art can be found here www.baltimoreartstar.com. Counterbalance is a testament to her dedication and compelling need for expression through painting. Witnessing her work is a lesson in projection and self-observation. Through her body of work, we start to observe and grasp the complex network of relationships that we form in our minds and recollections.

Showing now until October 29, 2010
Second floor of School 33 Art Center
www.SCHOOL33.org

Photos by Nicholas Schauman
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By Soo Young Lee

Filed Under: Feature Sights

More photos under:

Radar Redux webpage with article:

http://www.radarredux.com/2010/09/shape-shifting-kelly-walker-school-33-art-center/

http://www.bmoremedia.com/features/artandbusiness100609.aspx