“As you can see behind me, there are lots of happy vibes here,” says artist and designer Elyse Graham, founder of the Elyse Graham Studio in Los Angeles. It’s true, as you’ll see in this week’s Milkshake: Behind her you’ll see rows of vibrant objects, including several samples from her Hydro line of lamps. They’re the perfect reference point for her work: gorgeously colored, beautifully shaped, and the product of exceptionally intensive processes that create one-of-a-kind surfaces – here, dazzlingly marbled. “It’s a new take on our marbling technique that we’re using for these vessels and lamps,” she says. “I’m just so into the psychedelic ’70s, flower vibes – I just think that we could all use a little bit of fun and playfulness right now, and just looking on the bright side of things.”
The Hydro collection shares essential DNA with her Meta Murals. Each mural begins as a small piece of her signature composite resin “MetaMATERIAL” – just as vibrantly colored and labor intensive as the Hydro collection. From there, that small piece is digitally scaled up to fit a given wall, and then (equally laboriously!) hand painted. “Our Meta Murals are painted murals that we do that are based on our resin MetaMATERIAL,” she says. “We make these wild patterns in resin and then transfer them into painted designs for murals. We’ve done a couple of interiors and we have some really exciting commissions on the way – I’m really dying to do something outdoors.” She’s currently casting for a good wall in Los Angeles – let us know if you have one.
Also in this week’s Milkshake: We talk to Elyse about the dividing line between art and commerce, where she’s finding “happy vibes” these days (beyond her own brilliantly cheerful work), and what she’s most excited to be working on right now: “I’m really excited about the work that we’re doing that will be coming out this fall,” she says. “We’re working on several new table designs – some of which are top secret, but we’re incorporating a lot of translucency into our work. That’s something that’s pretty new for us, and something that I just feel like the world needs right now – a little transparency, a little light. I’m really excited to see how our wild resin patterns translate into more translucent designs.”
To see more, tune in!
Diana Ostrom, who has written for Wallpaper, Interior Design, ID, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets, is also the author of Faraway Places, a newsletter about travel.
Milkshake, DMTV (Design Milk TV)’s first regular series, shakes up the traditional interview format by asking designers, creatives, educators and industry professionals to select interview questions at random from their favorite bowl or vessel. During their candid discussions, you’ll not only gain a peek into their personal homeware collections, but also valuable insights into their work, life and passions.