O’TOOLE-EWALD INTERVIEWS THE ART WORLD
By: Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D., ASA, FRICS

1.    You’re an Arizona girl. How did you wind up as an international interior designer based in New York and did your early years impact on any of your design work?
 
Growing up in Paradise Valley, Arizona, I spent a great deal of time in an expansive back yard called the desert – riding my horse "White Eagle" and being awestruck by nature. My family is related to Oscar Berninghaus, a founder of the Taos Founders Society of Artists, and my father collects his paintings of works from that group of artists as well as pre-historic material culture from the West.  So, art, in many forms, was a staple in our home.
 
After earning my undergraduate degree in art history from the University of Arizona, I spent time learning about decorative arts in Mexico, where I acquired an appreciation for the country’s rich heritage of crafts, passed down from generations of skilled artisans that worked throughout the country. I then enrolled in the American Fine & Decorative Arts Master’s program at Sotheby’s in New York City, which equipped me with the academic background I needed to pursue a career in the history of design and the arts.
 
2.    Who and what were the first influencers at the beginning of your career?
 
I credit my grandmother with first inspiring me to become an interior designer. She was an artist and collector of all kinds of exotic materials from around the world – pottery, shells, coral stones, minerals and different kinds of paper. She created miniature worlds and environments all around her, so I followed suit naturally. Nature is a friend and teacher, a mentor who shaped my imagination early on and continues to inform my interior design. 
 
3.    What was the first significant job you had that made you feel you’d made it into the major leagues in your field?
 
After graduating from Sotheby’s, I became the design director of the Lin-Weinberg Gallery. Andy Lin and Larry Weinberg, seasoned experts in international design, were part of a small coterie of design dealers who were instrumental in elevating the stature of vintage modernist furnishings. I had access to their extensive furniture, ceramics, textile and art library, which was filled with current and out-of-print reference books, and I took full advantage of it.
 
I curated the gallery creating mini vignettes of furniture arrangements and decorative arts, doing archival upholstery and refinishing on the pieces and participated in creating the environments for the international shows we participated in, such as Modernism each year held at the Armory. It was through these experiences that I decided to start my own interior design studio, Amy Lau Design, which I have been principal of since 2001.
 
4.    What were your first international projects and how did they come about?
 
I think my truly first big international interior design project was working on a palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a Prince's family home.  He became introduced to my design work by seeing a fabric line I designed using custom water-colors inspired by Abstract Expressionism and Op Art for the fabric company S. Harris. Currently I am working on a special family vacation residence on Harbour Island in the Bahamas, and a very exciting project in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. 
 
I am working with an international development team to create the look and feel of what a true contemporary Mexico home looks like with couture "one of a kind" artisanal furniture and furnishings that are being specially created all throughout Mexico with unique artists and artisans.  I am particularly excited about this project as it is utilizing all I learned in my early days in Mexico.
 
5.    Are there any major mishaps that you wish hadn’t happened in any of your work?
 
I’ve been in this business for nearly two decades, and in that time, I have experienced plenty of challenges. You just need to keep going. I’ve learned from every single one of my setbacks and have turned them into motivation and determination.
 
6.    Can you describe how interior design has altered since you began your career?

3D Rendering and systems such as Sketch-up has really changed the way we are able to walk a client through a space and what we have designed and have them experience particular design choices within an architectural structure. Clients can now see virtually how wallpaper, paint colors, furniture pieces and flooring look with a click of a button.

3D printing has allowed me to quickly demonstrate certain ideas to a client, such as intricate details on a furniture piece that have been made in a smaller scale so they can see their whole form, molding or screen details.  The time between an idea's conception and its implementation has been drastically reduced.  
 
7.    What trends, colors, furnishings are currently the most promoted in the design field today?
 
While trends come and go, I prefer to maintain my design philosophy that less is more, to curate rather than decorate. Thus, I intellectually and meticulously edit each and every item in a space, so as to maintain a clear purpose for every object. I consider myself someone who cohesively draws upon my experiences in the worlds of nature, art and design, and I consider it a privilege to earn my living by enhancing people’s lives.
 
8.    Your design work has branched out into related fields. Can you speak to that?
 
In 2017 I was the first interior designer invited to be a part of The Salon Art + Design, so I had the great pleasure of creating a living room environment I titled “The New Nouveau.” This installation was conceived as a unified whole, featuring natural forms and curved structures inspired by an array of international designers, past and present, and embracing a vast range of mediums – ceramics, glass, metal, minerals, textiles, and wood. Wallpaper magazine described the installation as "a sumptuous setting and a sight to behold". In 2005 I co-founded Design Miami, the global forum for design, bringing together the most influential collectors, gallerists, designers and curators and critics from around the world in celebration of design culture and commerce.
 
Each year it coincides with the Art Basel fair in Miami and Switzerland. Also, when I have the opportunity, I enjoy designing product lines: Kyle Bunting for rugs and pillows, Maya Romanoff for wallcoverings, Kohler for tiles, and fabrics for S. Harris among others.
 
9.    How do you assist clients in choosing artwork for their home(s)? How do you keep up with the market?
 
I absolutely love discovering artists and artisans and keeping up to date with the work of those I already follow via Instagram, discover at gallery openings, studio visits and international fairs. One of the things I particularly like is to select specific artists to collaborate with for individual projects for a "site specific setting", which infuses a layer of individuality, ultimately creating a "one of a kind" space.
 
Most of my clients are already art collectors, and knowing them and their homes well allows me to advise on the best size, placement, period-movement, and medium for new purchases they are considering.
 
10. What are your favorite architects/designers of all time? Who are your greatest influences? 
 
My greatest muses and mentors who have inspired my life and work - whether they chose architecture, interior design, or painting - took the road less traveled, and envisioned the ordinary as extraordinary.
 
One of those who I think instinctively committed to their personal aesthetic and pursued it fearlessly was Tapio Wirkkala, as he broke down the boundaries between art and craft, and experimented with every material imaginable. Among my favorites of his pieces are his glassworks, which abstract Finland's wintry landscapes in such a beautiful and unexpected way.
 
Another true pioneer was Mary Jane Colter, who trained to be a designer and architect at the turn of the twentieth century, when men dominated both professions. Fred Harvey employed her for twenty-one years, during which she created a series of hotels throughout the Southwest, many of which now have historic landmark status. At La Posada, Hopi House, and the Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, she synthesized a number of indigenous styles with modern tastes, without diminishing their authenticity.
 
Gio Ponti excelled at any discipline where he tried his hand. One of Italy's most important architects and industrial designers, his bottles, sinks, sofas, silverware, tiles and lamps became staples of twentieth-century households. His graphic, playful, whimsical, yet pared down style and sensitivity to color, has inspired me and my work a great deal.
 
Known mainly for his unique glasswork, Louis Comfort Tiffany experimented tirelessly, inventing both glassmaking techniques and finishes. His world travels influenced his designs, and taught him how to think unconventionally as a designer of objects and interiors.  
 
I am perpetually moved and inspired by Gaudi's conviction, perseverance and absolute artistry. His work was totally unique as he embraced Gothic, Art Nouveau, and traditional Catalan architecture, combined with a love of mother nature. From furniture, hardware, stained glass and architecture, there is no one in the world that has influenced me more.   
 
Vladimir Kagan, my dear friend and mentor, taught me about prioritizing comfort, bio morphism, form, and how my love of nature's graceful shapes could be incorporated into every object. That furniture could be looked at as prominently as artwork in an interior, and to not sweat the small stuff, and to purely enjoy life at its fullest.