Style is the first thing that comes to mind when you meet Al and Sue Ravitz. They exude that casual coolness that everyone strives for, without even trying. But they have been trying. They’re in constant motion. “We derive inordinate pleasure from fixing up places,“ Sue says. “This place was 75% furnished when we moved in, but that doesn’t stop us from adding, subtracting, and rearranging almost every week. We both subscribe to the philosophy that change is good.”
Sue and Al met at a disco in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Sue had a job serving meals at the hospital that Al was doing his rotations at during medical school. They moved in together about a week after they met and have been living together ever since.
Walking into their house in Wilton is like a designer’s dream. The kitchen is a bright red, and the walls and floors are covered in pieces of Sue’s own design- electric colored woven wall hangings and carpets that Sue will update with new threads and colors on a regular basis to keep things interesting. “We create comfort by making sure that things never get boring.”
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“We’re just not all that interested in new stuff. We like old stuff. If you look at the stuff on our walls, it’s from the 60s and 70s, from artists who are sort of unrecognized or under recognized. We’re really interested in the way that objects evoke feelings by inhabiting space in particular ways.” |
While Sue’s work as a gallerist and creator gave her access to up-and-coming artists, Al works a bit harder to discover and track artists (Al’s a psychiatrist). He has a list of 400 artists he and Sue like, and sees what, if anything, is available for auction from them. Daily. They also buy a lot of pieces for their home on eBay.
“Comfort means living with things that are familiar but not that familiar. Comfort is a state of mind evoked by a number of different things, including the arrangement of physical things within a space”
