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8 letter editor HUNT SLONEM W elcome, 2018! Come on in. I'm enamored with the still life at the moment, as you can see from our cover. Creative director Michelle Aviña is genius at assembling bits and bobs to make amazing assemblages. We can all create little dioramas of joy in our lives — from a lemon, a spice, and fresh herbs in the kitchen to a mantel or desktop. I also love the words: Still. Life. The dot does wonders. Slow. Down. Create. Once you have your home peppered with tableaux, what about all the stuff bouncing around in your head? Picture each to-do, thought, and conundrum as an interesting and beautiful object, and group into arrangements. It's better already. The definition of an art assemblage is a grouping of found and unrelated objects of varying texture. The very ingredients of a good cocktail party. Speaking of … If you aren't content to stay home and create tableaux, the Spring Social Calendar is on pages 64 through 79 — hundreds of worthwhile events. In other art and design news, Catherine D. Anspon reports on the Peggy and David Rockefeller estate that goes on the block this spring (dates to be announced) at Christie's Rockefeller Center auction house, with 1,600 pieces. It's expected to be the most valuable collection ever auctioned, with proceeds conservatively estimated between $650 to $700 million, which all goes to charity. Designers, architects, and most people with design sense know the name Visual Comfort, the world's largest decora- tive lighting company. What most people don't know is that the behemoth was founded by Andy Singer — and is based in Houston. Rebecca Sherman asks Singer how he went from selling lamps from his garage to revenues estimated to be more than $200 million annually. Happy New Year! May we all go from working out of our garages to millions in net worth … and give it all to charity! Holly Moore Editor in Chief holly@papercitymag.com