art_brutale's Profile

going to get a little bit more specific than "African" cooking, as it is a gigantic continent after all with diverse topography and climates. kenyan food. ah, kenyan food! my kenyan mum makes the best, best best best vegetarian food. curried kale with her own house made curry. lentils. peanut sauce. stewed beans. rice with everything! tomato and onion salad marinated in vinegar. currently she's on a stewed amaranth kick. ugali (water and masa farina prepared in place of rice) and stewed cabbage with carrots is such amazing comfort food.

my mouth is watering seeing these photos and thinking of my mum's fragrant, beautiful, not to mention HEALTHY kitchen. after living on 4 continents she keeps saying that cooking in the western kitchen is just not the same, and that she can't get used to it even after living outside her homeland for over half her life. in kenyan homes in the rift valley daily vegetables are grown in home gardens! how awesome. kenyan fare is very sustainable and unbelievably healthy (minus the sweetened tea w/ milk taken all day)-- most of the worlds fastest marathon runners eat traditional kenyan diets and get their full nutrients this way. a lesson for us westerners looking to eat right without dieting! the key is flavour, flavour flavour. spices and herbs are used in every dish.

its so fun watching my mzungu dad in the kitchen, an AMAZING cook with a diverse repertoire, but rarely veers from written recipes, cook beside my mum, who improvises just about everything but has a focused tried and true list of ingredients which never fails her. i feel so lucky to have grown up with such a diverse palette and to have learned my way around the kitchen through both improv and honed technique.

the only things in this kitchen that seem mid-century/scandinavian inspired are the chairs and table. however this is a great kitchen, very bright and lived in, which is refreshing.

i think it is an avocado. amazing house!

I think that Susan's house is a great example of what apartmenttherapy should be about-- affordable, functional yet easy on the eyes.

I would like to agree with what a previous poster said about the photographs. Call me a stickler but as a photographer myself I guess I expect to see quality photographs of an apartment that do the owner justice. A couple of suggestions:

1) second the tripod suggestion.
2) avoid shooting an apartment on "AUTO", if you have an SLR. the problem with auto is the way the camera meters; shoot on maunal and meter for the brightest white in the room.
3) second the wide angle suggestion.
4) play around with photoshop, a lot of the images that were put up could have been lightly adjusted for levels, curves, and would have definitely benefited from it. it's important, I think, when shooting a house to make sure the photographs are true to the color of the pieces in the apartment.

This must be at the Bienale!

I appreciate these things:
- DC to Seattle transplant.
- Seattle Wilco fan.
- Cute doggies!

Go you!

Hey, I think it's definitely got a lot of potential! Check this out for some ideas:

(yes yes I know it's from design sponge)

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/08/weddings-ainjil-and-chris.html/location2

I think that space looks great-- the light is really warm and the white tables dont compete with the barn's structured interior, and the chandeliers soften the interior of the barn.

Okay skipping over the negative before me, I have to say that as a photographer I was pretty impressed with the way you shot this space. True, some other posts have had more impressive text that conveyed the character of the house successfully, but your photos give me a good idea of the space. I can mentally see a blueprint, and while some find this place boring, I think its simplicity is what helped the photographs turn out so well. The shot of the kitchen is gorgeous! I think the use of natural light was fantastic; I am always slightly confused when people on this site use flash, so rock on!

I really like the kitchen, LOVE the map. I have a burgeoning map collection, and it's always interesting to me to see how/where people hang their maps. I also lovelovelove the 3 panel mirror with the candles, but I would include more candles of varying heights.

airtight container!!

lensbaby photo!