Photograph (c) Sebastian Li
Photograph (c) Sebastian Li
Homegrown flowers from my friend Sebastian Li's own garden. Sebastian (named after Evelyn Waugh's character in Brideshead Revisited by his mother, painter Poco Murphy) comes from a long line of avant-garde artists and film makers. His maternal Grandmother, Katherine Hawley Murphy, was an Isadora Duncan dancer and famous model for photographers Man Ray and Arnold Genthe. His Grandfather, film director Dudley Murphy, is best remembered for his films St. Louis Blues (1929) with Bessie Smith, Black and Tan Fantasy (1929) with Duke Ellington and Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones (1933), starring Paul Robeson. Dudley collaborated on projects with French artist Fernand Léger, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. He opened Malibu's first hip watering hole, The Holiday House, designed by architect Richard Neutra. In the early '60s you'd find Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and dozens of others at his hideaway. (More about Dudley Murphy and Malibu via Sebastian's uncle Michael Murphy).
As an Event Planner, Sebastian offers distinctive designs and production for every occasion. His design philosophy is to make events “clean and elegant with high visual impact.” Fresh flowers, fragrant greenery and spectacular trees for private homes, commercial settings and holiday events.New York and East Hampton
Pencils, 1990
Roy in Yellow interior,1991
Bathing Beauties, Blue 1990
Photograph (c) Sebastian Li 
Photograph (c) Sebastian Li 
Guests Stefano Tonchi, the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of W Magazine and Alexander Vreeland, Founder of Kids For Kids, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation fundraiser (President and COO, Slane & Slane).
Vinoodh 2010 Photograph, wax, enamel
Root 2009 Photograph, wax, enamel
Bird of Paradise 2005
Detail close-up of wings in Bird of Paradise 2005 (above)
This letter was written by Vincent van Gogh to Émile Bernard, March 18th, 1888, a month after leaving Paris for Arles: My dear Bernard, having promised to write to you, I want to begin by telling you that this part of the world seems to me as beautiful as Japan...The women’s costume is pretty, and especially on the boulevard on Sunday you see some very naive and well-chosen arrangements of color. And that, too, will doubtless get even livelier in summer. Read transcript here
21-year-old Andy Warhol wrote in response to a request for 'biographical information': my life couldn't fill a penny postcard. i was born in pittsburgh in 1928 (like everyone else - in a steel mill). i graduated from Carnegie Tech. now i'm in NY city moving from one roach infested apartment to another.– andy warhol
Russian-born artist Moses Soyer wrote a number of letters to his teenage sons; nearly all replete with fantastic illustrations as charming as this
This letter, to ex-President Herbert Hoover, regards the alarming ill-health and living situation of Nikola Tesla, the man who changed our modern world with his invention–alternating current electricity. Three days after it was written, Tesla passed away. Read transcript here
