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liz gardner

@lizgrdnr

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Creative Director • Stylist • Writer
@maisonbodega
Board of Directors @batcherblockoperahousestaples
Advisory Board @goldstein_museum

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“Time travelling is my favourite fantasy,” says Geoff Howell.

I can’t think of a better introduction to Geoff (@detailsdiary), whose remarkable home in Athens, New York, was the subject of a recent story I wrote for @fthtsi

Geoff’s fascination with antiques began in childhood. At six or seven, he claimed a marble sculpture discovered in the basement, inscribing his name on it in ballpoint pen. His great-aunt Dolly, with a South Orange apartment filled with treasures and stories from her ‘party girl’ days, introduced him to the word ‘ormolu’, a memory he still recalls with great affection.

These early encounters informed his lifelong curiosity about objects and the histories they hold. His 1866 Italianate is filled with these dossiers. A kitchen stove that belonged to his mother, bedrooms devoted to the matriarchs who informed his sensibilities, and countless objects acquired through friendships and chance encounters, like the stained-glass panel purchased on eBay that allegedly belonged to a film star. “Needless to say, a day doesn’t go by when I don’t wonder who it was.” he says.

What stayed with me most was Geoff’s description of the pleasure he takes in his home, even after more than twenty years. He still pinches himself walking downstairs in the morning. I find that enormously moving. His home is a love letter to the people who have shaped his life, and to remain so delighted by the world he’s built is an inspiring accomplishment. 🤍
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Words and image styling: @lizgrdnr
Photography: @taylorhallobrien
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Special thanks to @jellison22 @craftacularuk @katiefcwebb

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As we are looking to start a larger refurbishment of some of the spaces at Woodlands in 2027, I was just looking back at these most gorgeous images by @taylorhallobrien @lizgrdnr and the extremely kind words by @emmabecque of Woodlands for @cabanamagazine a little while back. Excited to add to all the beautiful rooms that already exist here ♥️

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“Time travelling is my favourite fantasy,” says Geoff Howell (@detailsdiary) whose Italianate home in Athens, upstate New York, is a cache of eclectic finds. Howell is the founder of @geoffhowellstudio - a visual merchandising and design business that, over the past 43 years, has created sets for cultural institutions including the Whitney Museum and the American Museum of Natural History and brands such as Gucci and Tiffany & Co. But his home is a dense canvas of antiques, curios and ephemera in which each room takes on the character of a still life. @lizgrdnr writes about it in this weekend’s @fthtsi. Pictures by @taylorhallobrien

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I’ve always dreaded photo shoots- like DREAD. I think it’s the pressure cooker of years of work and creativity culminating into a single image. GAH. Historically I’m sick at a shoot, my body just wants out. But slowly that’s changing and I owe it 100% to this team.
We just wrapped a multi project/multi day shoot. A certain kind of insanity. It’s logistics that you couldn’t even begin to imagine. It’s thousands of micro decisions. It’s a desire to push AMD into new, exciting territory. And it’s a LOT of hustle. Steps. Schlepping. Standing in oddly dark rooms waiting, brainstorming, collaborating in the truest way.
And trust. I have worked with this team now for 4 years on shoots. We’re growing together, and learning to trust the process and each other. It’s just a sliver what I do as a designer, but it’s turning into one of the most rewarding parts. It’s the images, yes. They’re gorgeous and make AMD look so good. But really it’s these people, and the feeling that we are building this together.

All that to say, thanks you guys. 💪🏼❤️ Can’t wait for the next one.

@timlenzphoto @lizgrdnr @permeable @mandamcd @barikessler

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Author’s note: this is the first (and likely last) time I will ever use subtitles or refer to myself in the 3rd person.

Aside from two things that I have in excess, baskets and books share another commonality: they both ask you to engage hands-on with dedicated thoughtful intention. I’m thinking specifically of what happens when you weave a basket or read a book. The hand-to-brain connection, one that we are all participating in less and less feels more important than ever (here I am typing this caption on a computer to post to a digital platform, the irony is not lost on me). I discovered how good it felt to indulge in this connection when I wove a basket with @erinjennie this summer—no phone, no screen—just the feeling of my fingers weaving and good conversation. I’ve been hungry for these experiences: for books over posts, mailed letters over emails. I hope you’ll be compelled to pick up a copy of Once Around the Sun and sit with it, read it, put it down and come back to it. There’s even a workbook in the back meant for drawing and writing about your own seasonal observations and memories should you want to double down on that hand-to-brain goodness.

Basket: @underwater_weaving

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Join us tonight to celebrate Minneapolis and the design that happens here.

October 9, 6 PM–midnight
Maison Bodega
1911 Pleasant Ave, Minneapolis

@bludot is a modern design company headquartered in Minneapolis

Field Trip is a photographic series shot by @galenrayfletcher and art directed by @hello_____hardy

@maisonbodega is a creative practice recognized for its ability to integrate diverse artistic elements into cohesive and visually striking experiences

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Installation Process
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Field Trip @bludot
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Join Us
Friday, October 9, 2026
6pm - midnight
RSVP LINK IN BIO
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After debuting during NYCxDesign, Blu Dot brings Field Trip, a photographic series by @galenrayfletcher and accompanying zine art directed by @hello_____hardy back to Minnesota.
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The series follows the Field Lounge Chair through more than twenty locations across the Twin Cities: from the Saarinen-designed Christ Church Lutheran and the frozen caves behind Minnehaha Falls to the Riverview Theater, Walker Art Center and Kathy’s Live Bait.
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Alongside Fletcher’s photographs, an early Field Lounge Chair prototype, drawings, working materials and personal objects from designer Warren Young expand Field Trip into the chair’s own story of place: how it was made, the Twin Cities influences behind it and the design relationships that shaped it.
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Among them is Young’s earlier work interpreting Ralph Rapson’s sketches for the Rapson Dwell Lounge Chair, a connection explored through archival material from the architect’s eponymous firm.
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It finds a small echo in Maison Bodega itself, renovated nearly a century after it was built in collaboration with Rapson Architects. @toby_rapson
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Cocktails by @nomsupperclub
Wine by @we.are.new.france
Music @612_lemony

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one of the first things i knew i wanted to include in the book was a hero arrangement of sorts that highlighted in-season fruits and vegetables. i didn’t know what to expect as i’ve never arranged in this way but @tara.norvell came through with the most incredible pears and wild apples from tovey’s farm—a windfall of imperfect fruits, skins painted with mottled galaxies of greens and reds and as a bonus, pink (pink!!!) interiors (i will forever have a soft spot for wild apples). @echo_orchard let us clip some of their rambling grapes, and @jesse_lee_wilson @tomo_objects carved scalloped wood blocks to prop everything up on. thanks for letting me geek out on how things started and how things ended up on the page. pub date next week has got me feeling sentimental 💫

photos on slides 1,2,3,4,8,9: @a.p.p.a.r.i.t.i.o.n (@hesselbarth @the.midsommar.muse)

cc: @phaidonpress

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Really excited to share @bludot Field Trip zine I photographed for! Come get your hands, mitts, paws, whatever on a free copy this Friday @maisonbodega

October 9, 6 PM–midnight @maisonbodega  1911 Pleasant Ave, Minneapolis 

Event music by @612_lemony  Cocktails by @nomsupperclub
Wine by @we.are.new.france
Photography by @galenrayfletcher  Art Direction by @hello_____hardy

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September was all about the humans.

As my oldest son Soren gets deeper into his senior year of high school, I find myself feeling alllll the feels. Bursting into tears (literally BURSTING) when I see moms with small boys. Also just baseline wanting to hang out with him more than anything or anyone. Turns out he doesn’t really feel the same way 🫪😆 But it’s a tricky time, to balance a business that feels so wonderfully full and a home that feels like change is a coming. The people in my life are the ones to keep me level, keep me showing up and excited. Keep me from staying at home looking through baby photos and solo birding (middle age hits so fast?!).

While this post isn’t necessarily “design” related, it actually 1000% is. This is life. This is what we design for- the 18th birthdays, the crash after the jam-packed week, the impromptu homecoming gathering, the friends who visit and fill our cups and the team/friends/neighbors who support us through it.

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My best friend @lizgrdnr designed a book written by @brass__tacks and we looked through it together for the first time in my backyard the other night. This book is a beauty. It’s real and honest and full of inspiring natural goodness that travels through the seasons. I am so wildly proud of her. Forever inspired and wowed by her. I wish for every one of you to have a friend like her. Someone you can learn from, be wild and weird with, dig deep into wonder with. She is the quietest yet boldest talents around. Bravo, dear Liz. Love you dearly. (Oh, and we also dug through a box of @cindyfroid ‘s mother’s lace that I’ve recently become the steward of and wow. Just wow. So grateful for women like these in my life.)

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Like many of the most rewarding journeys, this has been a long one, please bear with my chronology. 🌀

In 2024, I was first introduced to @batcherblockoperahousestaples in Staples, Minnesota, by my friend @taylorhallobrien when we documented the space with @penelopepaloma for Cabana Magazine No. 22.

To celebrate its publication, we returned with guests willing to make the Sunday trek for an evening of opera and history, joining the local community around long candlelit tables for the kind of meat-and-potatoes dinner that would make a grandmother proud.

Under original frescoes of cherubs and floral cartouches, @charleseatonbaritone accompanied by @josephlipianist performed Korngold’s “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen” translated, “My Longing, My Dreaming”, from Die tote Stadt.

With the support of @knordstrum @liquidmusicseries @mnopera @maisonbodega @taylorhallobrien and an extraordinary group of artists and collaborators, we experienced the Opera House as Charles Batcher had envisioned it: full of life.

@_soyr @overbite.studio and crew made a film of the evening, “They Don’t See Ghosts”, clips of which you can see in this post. Earlier this year, many of us gathered again, this time at @maisonbodega to screen the short film while Colleen Frost and @toby_rapson spoke about the building.

Today, in @cabanamagazine we’re able to read about the preservation of the Opera House not simply as an architectural project or an act of rural placemaking, but as a form of caretaking.

“A place where dreams really do come true”.

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They Don’t See Ghosts
Directed + Produced by @_soyr
Cinematography by @kellenwitschen
Lighting Gaffer by Daniel Garritsen
Steadicam by @mplspoboy
Analog DP and BTS @kyejouw
Sound by Connor McLevish
Edit @_soyr
Color @kellenwitschen
Dance @kendallmaritkramer
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Special thanks to @housetowrite @knordstrum

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