Meet the Artists Who Inspire our Luxury Smoking Accessories
- At House of Puff, we love to draw inspiration for our luxury smoking accessories from talented female artists, both past and present.
- Our unconventional color names honor the lives and works of some of our faves.
X-minute read
House of Puff is all about supporting artists. We originally hail from the art world and are inspired by the art around us every day. So, we continually draw on the visual arts to create our luxury smoking accessories. We’ve always worked with artists—especially women artists—to create our products. We also consciously look to artists for our color palette. You might have wondered where our unconventional color names come from. Well, let us introduce you to the women artists we hope to honor with them.
Georgia O’Keeffe knew the power of Pink
There’s something about pink. Warm, vibrant, or exhilarating, it has a singular ability to lift your mood. Georgia O’Keeffe knew that and capitalized on it. So, we borrowed her Camellia pink (yep, just like the flower) for our Barrow Street Herb Bowl, the design of which was inspired by a beautiful walk down a tree-lined lane in the West Village.
RADICAL ABSTRACTION
Georgia is one of the most recognizable American artists. But when she started painting her abstractions of flowers in the early 20th century, they were radical. Because of them, she’s now recognized as the mother of American Modernism. She was also a fellow New Yorker, who painted skyscrapers. In fact, she studied at the Art Students League and lived in Manhattan for years with her husband, famed New York gallerist, Alfred Stieglitz.
COMBINE ART, COLOR, AND CANNABIS TO LIFT YOUR MOOD
We can’t help but get inspired whenever we see Georgia’s work. Shake out some of your fave strain into her namesake O’Keeffe Camellia herb bowl and combine it with a browse through her paintings to boost your mood anytime you’re feeling low.
Check out Georgia’s entire oeuvre online at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
LIKE CANNABIS, ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI IS RECLAIMING HER PLACE IN THE SUN
Like cannabis, Artemisia Gentileschi has just started to regain her place in the sun. This 17th-century Italian artist was one of the most gifted painters of her time. But it’s taken till just the past few years for the world to truly recognize the genius of her work and center her in the canon of masters. Her self portrait above inspired the gorgeous Gentileschi Green hue of our Horatio Hemp Wick Holder.
BUSTING STEREOTYPES AND STIGMAS
In the tradition of other strong women throughout history, Artemisia challenged stereotypical gender constraints. Not only a talented artist, she also taught herself to read and write. She even survived the social stigma of sexual violence. Against all odds, she enjoyed critical acclaim and financial success in her lifetime with a bevy of aristocratic, royal, and high church patrons. That’s an amazing feat for any artist.
PORTRAITS OF REAL WOMEN
What makes us love Artemisia even more is the way she revealed feminine strength in her subjects. The women she painted weren’t just victims or models of virtue. Her subjects reveal real women in all our power and resourceful glory. She once said, “The works will speak for themselves.” We can only hope that ours live up to her legacy.
For more, check out Artemisia’s recent exhibition at the National Gallery in London.
ADELA ANDEA’S LUMINESCENT SCULPTURES AND OUR ICONIC LE PIPE
At the end of a crazy day, the soothing aura of lavender feels especially appealing. So, when we looked for artistic inspirations for our Le Pipe one hitter, the often purplish luminescence of Adela Andea’s sculptures was a natural choice.
TURNING UNWIELDY TECH INTO DREAMY MAGIC
Adela offers a thoughtful take on the relationship between nature and technology. Our tech-infused world can feel overwhelming. But, she reminds us how adaptable nature actually is. Made of unwieldy industrial electronic parts and other mass-produced objects, her work nonetheless evokes the dreamy magic of phenomena like bioluminescence.
LUXURY SMOKING ACCESSORIES AS CALMING AGENTS
When we sit down to enjoy a smoke with the newest of our luxury smoking accessories in Adela Lavender, they remind us of her calming illuminated sculptures. Like cannabis, her often all-encompassing installations ask us to slow down and fully experience the world around us.
Experience Adela’s works for yourself at Cris Worley Fine Art.
MICKALENE THOMAS’ PAINTING INSPIRED OUR YELLOW NEBULA ROLLING TRAY
Yellow has been seriously in vogue over the past few years. It’s started popping up all over right before the pandemic—from fashion runways to of-the-moment interiors. And it’s showed remarkable staying power. The Mickalene Marigold we use on our gorgeous ceramic pieces is inspired by a portrait painted by pioneering Black artist, Mickalene Thomas.
WE’RE ALL ABOUT COMPELLING SUBJECTS
In Din, Une Tres Belle Negresse #2 above, Mickalene’s compelling subject dominates the painting. That’s exactly how we see the House of Puff woman—independent, stylish, and unapologetic. You stand out no matter where you are, even against bold backgrounds like the yellow and blue florals in this painting. Mickalene’s work is always a riot of color, which she explains, pays “homage to a certain ‘80s New Wave aesthetic,” as well as canonical artists like Matisse and Manet.
THE BLACK WOMAN AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
Prefiguring the Black Lives Movement, Mickalene has been working for years to expose the relationship of the Black woman to contemporary culture. Perfecting a yellow that echoed the visual presence of this painting was no small feat for our team. It took a myriad of tries and tests. But we persevered until we captured its power.
Read more about Mickalene at the Brooklyn Museum.
GET MORE CANNA-CURIOUS WITH BIRGIT BLUE
Our Birgit Blue rolling tray is a shade of cyan inspired by the Austrian photographer and painter, Birgit Jürgenssen. The artist makes her haunting cyanotypes by exposing photographic paper to the sun through the filter of her negatives. Iron salts on the paper capture the light to produce a stunningly luminous blue version of the image on the film.
LIKE ALL GREAT ART, BIRGIT’S BEAUTIFUL IMAGES ALSO REVEAL DEEPER TRUTHS
Birgit’s works, which were often self-portraits, focus on the feminine form. As beautiful as they are, they convey a deeper meaning. The artist explained, “the identity of the woman has been made to disappear.” By revealing the daily truth of women’s lives, the artist strove to make a better future for all of us. Even though she was born in 1949, Birgit rejected the repressive constraints of her time about what a woman could do or be. Every time we roll a joint with her namesake tray, we love her for that!
See more of Birgit’s cyanotypes at Galerie Hubert Winter.
BOLD, BLACK INSPIRATION FROM LOUISE BOURGEOIS
Despite a palette of possibilities, we can never say no to black. Our Bourgeois Black Soho Cigarette Holder is a tribute to the timeless sophistication and depth of substance embodied by the iconic artist Louise Bourgeois. Just as her work seamlessly blends raw emotion with refined artistry, our Bourgeois Black tastefully highlights how chic black can be.
EMBRACING THE DARK SIDE
Louise tackled difficult subjects through her paintings and sculptures. Her artistry often represented the nuances of feminism, sexuality, family, and trauma. One recurring theme in her work is the presence of an often enormous black spider. While many of us might assume it’s a sinister symbol, its significance is actually much more nuanced. To elicit the complex relationship Louise had with her parents, she used the spider to represent her mother as in her giant sculpture entitled, Maman. Like a spider, Louise’s mother was a weaver. Her mother was also clever, protective, and selfless in the way that spiders are. So, while her body of work embraces some of the darker corners of the human experience, it also exposes their beauty and potential. Like this formidable artist, we thrive on confronting taboos through the power of art.
