Hotel Des Arts in San Francisco is a MUST See

If I had started a blog prior to completing the Sugarluxe Room (504) for the Hotel Des Arts…I can only imagine what I might have written during the process.  It was exhilarating, grueling, exhausting, freezing. And toward the end of the project, it was sort of a blur. 

On the second to last day, I do remember calling Patty Williams, my lifesaver holding down the fort (studio) back home. I was teary-eyed, tired and sore. Patty is not only incredibly smart and sweet, she happens to have a Masters Degree in Social Work, which comes in handy when you’re feeling blue.  How lucky am I that this is the second time I’d hired Patty.  First in my former life at a corporation and then later into my own company.  Patty is amazing and I love her.

And even when I was 1,000 miles away, she was and is always there for me. It was one of the coldest winters in San Francisco. More importantly, I received a phone call from my folks in the middle of the project to tell me that my dear 20 year old cousin, Elliot Arnold, passed away in his sleep - no one knew why.  I was beyond devastated and during the last days of painting, I was in a daze from the unbelievable news. I could barely hold my paintbrush…my hand would shake and my fingers were numb. It was not an easy time to be filled with creative energy. But like everything I cherish in life, I realized that the things which require the most work, can end up being the most rewarding. 

The Hotel Des Arts is like that for me.

And the Sugarluxe Room is dedicated to Elliot.  So, obviously, it’s important to me on many levels.

To some, it might just seem like a good place to show off your art if given the great opportunity.  It is.  The hotel features the work of some of the most prominent, cutting-edge artists alive today.   

To others, it may seem that the art is disjointed and doesn’t look upscale enough to compete with the W Hotel down the street.  It can’t.  It won’t.  Thank God!

Which is why I love this place so much.

 

You can connect to the heart (emphasis on the art) and soul that is core to this boutique hotel.  It is alive with ideas, passion and purpose created BY people FOR people who appreciate the independent spirit that fills every inch of this place.  It is not ultra-fancy, but there is nothing else like it.  And that’s why every time I head back to San Francisco, this is EXACTLY where I want to stay.

The recent NEW ART ’08 SHOW presented by START SOMA afforded me an excellent opportunity (excuse) to go back (as I do several times a year) but this particular show fell on the date of my 5 year wedding anniversary…and because we hadn’t had a vacation since our honeymoon (thanks to our never ending work schedules)…my wonderful guy and I contemplated getting away to a place where we could get some much needed R&R.

As we considered all of our options, the zillions of places we could go, we still chose to visit all of our friends, artists and the cool people at the Hotel Des Arts.  I guess we could’ve gone to SFO and stayed somewhere else in town…maybe a romantic little B&B.  But we didn’t want to.  Why?  Read more