S . P. E . E . C . H . L . E . S . S
Photos by C. Whitney-Ward
I first met Orren (above left) at SOFA and he was wearing this larger-than-life puzzle necklace made by his partner Robert (above right).
Months later I was invited to photograph their home for Chasing. They told me that it was a bit eccentric and wonderfully outrageousness, but when I walked through their front door - I was speechless. It was like stepping inside a zany, playful, uber -colorful kaleidoscope. I didn't know where to begin 'shooting'.
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Passionate collectors of Outsider Art and partners for 35 years, Orren and Robert (they own the delightful shop Wink at Sanbusco) have turned their home into a living museum, and lucky the individual or museum group that gets to take a personal tour. Here goes..ready or not!
This large, velvet painting - framed with Mexican flowers - is your first hint of the exuberance within. But just so you can put it all in perspective, Orren and Robert designed and built their house to accommodate their vast collections. Below is a photograph of their living room before they moved in...and below that is the after photo.
The Collections...
How do they choose.? Do they ever disagree on what to buy?
"No," quips Robert, "we see everything with 'one' eye."
Singular art and collections have been artfully arranged on chairs
and tabletops everywhere...
And every wall is festooned with paintings and art.
Even the skylights are graced with Robert's lace spider webs..
They rarely buy just one of anything. "When we find somebody or something we like," says Orren, "we try to gather a collection.That way we can document the artist's path, and it then becomes a diary of our life."
Color, texture, pattern and whimsy abound.
