Not your grandmother's wallpaper

I have had a raft of wallpaper news and events drift across my desk in the last couple of weeks. I know that sounds odd and I share a lot of peoples' preconceptions of the stuff. I hear wallpaper and my mind leaps to horrible magnolia borders in doctor's offices or that country crap that burns my eyes. Yuck! Look at it if you can.

The type of wallpaper news and activities I've been seeing are as a long way removed for the pastiche of sunflowers and herb jars (no longer to say bow-wearing geese) because it's feasible to get. Perhaps there's an possibility right here to name this new stuff some thing else. The term "wall treatments" receives bandied about but I suppose it sounds too fussy. Hey, why now not talk over with what I'm about to demonstrate as wallpaper and rubbish above as schlock? Hmmmm.

Anyhow, my beloved St. Petersburg Times ran a feature story on a Tampa wallpaper designer yesterday. Her name is Given Campbell and she's been getting a lot of press lately. I am crazy for her work. Crazy for it. She does both hand and machine-printed designs and to call her work beautiful only shows how limited our language is. Her stuff goes beyond beauty and distinction. Check out her website! http://givencampbell.com/default.aspx

A lot of her paintings makes use of the motif of a repeated letter. This pattern, referred to as "Angelfish" is a sequence of repeated Ys

This pattern, referred to as "Bamboo" is an arrangement of Capital Ts.

This safari-inspired layout is a horizontal repetition of a lower case K.

This almost Byzantine-looking paper is based totally on a capital Z.

She leaves at the back of the letter motifs effortlessly and brings a sparkling eye to the pop aesthetic of the mid-20th Century. This pattern is my new favorite component in the world. My idolization of the glass tile mosaic might be coming to an stop after having seen these things. Well, maybe no longer however it is nevertheless without a doubt cool.

This rings a bell in my memory of a Pucci cloth circa 1968. I can see it in my rest room already.

And if you cannot resist a botanical print, here is a very well cutting-edge one in order to never grace the pages of "Country Living" magazine and for that we need to be ceaselessly thankful.