Creativity and will

How we live is both mirror and window, reassurance and nourishment. It tells us who we are and sheds light onto where we wish to go. Story teller and flashlight. 

This I believe is why we bond to the physical object. Our need for assurance, a grounding in our uncertain and fleeting life. The tactile physicality that says yes, I concur and validates. Manifested from the emotional and mental, connecting inside with outside. An equilibrium that grounds our footing, ankers as boat at sea.

It is creativity that will save us, the visual arenas as well as the spoken and written word. If we are to build a better future and world and I believe we can as we have built what we currently see, it is these arenas that we are dependent upon. It is creativity that taps into and tugs at our inner selves, the selves we cannot or more truthfully wish not to see. It fulfills desire and inspires change. Pushes, pulls and prods.

In contrast, it is technology that we need to pay closer attention to in how we live. Though technology is bringing in positive advancement, its down side is that we are losing personal connection to each other, affecting our physical and mental well being. Our black screens act as windows to the world but too are barriers to the very world we seek to explore. Both tunnel and wall, it is counter intuitive, limiting emotion and physicality. Our very essence.

To move forward through this troubling era we need to look backward and inward to who we are. Who we are to ourselves and to others. To our faults, hopes and even better, our will. It is through creative will that change comes. Through built environment and extended hand. Past the I, to the we. Through creative action and will as noun.

CB 09/14/18

A Tool. A Bridge. A Spring Board.

It is I believe the intention of interior design to inspire better living, this is not a revolutionary thought, it is however one that does not get fully discussed in the context of our current world and troubled era of politics. 

From my perception interior design is a catalyst tool, one that is an intricate part in the built environment. It is tool, bridge and spring board that is both utilitarian and emotionally inspiring. 

I no longer have the patience to defend my belief system. I believe strongly in what I do. The why before the what is my stedfast manifesto. We do not have the luxury of time to discuss the relevancy of design, architecture or art. We are at a point of do or do not. Make a difference, create change or hope for the best. Hope and change is a noble thought, but actions speak loudest. No matter the scale, it is intention that speaks.

All creativity has the inherent power to affect change, even in the slightest. A step forward is a step forward. But it is the acknowledgment of this power that propels it upward as fireworks and voices in the dark. 

We are, all of us within this circle of influence. A circle of affect and effected. The built environment is created by the act of doing, the process of manifesting an idea. The hammer to the nail. 

This is not only a matter of speaking to it, but getting to it. Time and change. 

CB 08/10/18

Beauty (,)

There is much to the discussion of beauty. It's a complex subject that reflects the individual, shedding light beyond thorn and rose into YIng and Yang and the beautiful ugly.

Beauty has a provocative side that delves within our engagement to reality, asks us to question what we know of it and our perception of life. It's a complexity much like our view to the universe, unfolding and exposing us to our own personal truths of birth and decay. Purpose and meaning.

This is an expansive subject. Not beauty (.), but beauty (,). How beauty inspires beyond itself, eliciting wonder and emotion. Past the history of us and the making of its name. Beauty elevates and mimics life, celebrats and acts as memento mori. A book of words, book of pages. 

~~~

Beauty, I stand before you.

Humbled.

I ask to unravel the complexities.

Troubled.

Life as I know it seems ugly.

Insight.

Allow me to see you deeper.

Tech and Touch

The psychology of design and the relationship of tech with how we live is a growing interest. How these two arenas can better our lives, both physically and mentally. 

Interior design in the future will be an increasingly intricate part of our living. An added sheath of skin that will relate even more to our specific needs. A layer that supports our physical desires of touch as well as our psychological habits and moods. 

It is paramount that our living environments and even our work spaces relate highly to touch. This is the needed thread that binds tech with design, which is now being approached by layering textiles to gadgets, interlacing mind, touch and vision. Our senses go deep into who we are, we are first and foremost visual beings. How we see texture, form and color is how we assess our immediate surroundings. Our senses speak to fight or flight and determine how we relate to where we are and how we benefit. Do we stay, fidget or run? Even in this period of time, this is how our mind still works.

Tech control is the perfect layering. A way to immediately activate lighting, air, music and perhaps projected films and images that enhance or change our mood. This is now advancing with phone technology and soon may be activated as we approach an entrance. Tech should be a specialized option residing in the background as not to lesson physicality. The opening of a door for example is an intimate act that should always be addressed. Designer Vicente Wolf uses oval shaped door knobs for this reason. 

It is our physical needs that enhance our lives. The touch of wood brings us closer to nature and to ourselves. This is the tuning into who we are as human beings, our desires. Tech can easily be a layer to this, even in our need for slow living. 

We are in an era of questioning within and beyond politics, into our humanity. Our relationship to the whole picture, reality. The future is tech and green, though both are fraught with challenges each clearly benefit our ways of living. They move side by side into the future, it is just a matter of how we responsibly approach them. And in reference to our natural environment, how we approach it, now. 

My minds eye can see an interior that is minimal but meaningful, layered with natural materials both old and new with textures and the hand created that bring in so much. A modern wabi-sabi. An enriching environment that speaks to history as it celebrates the new by way of tech and the modern. A space that works for us on many levels, inspiring as it nourishes. 

This is the future and our present. What will propel us and save us. It is technological formula as it is old world wonder. Exciting endeavor, built on bedrock. 

CB 07/21/18

Vision and Support

To build a fortress or to build a bridge. To tether oneself tightly to the ground or let the winds move us freely about. This is what our currant climate demands. What our collective mindset vacillates through. It is the eye of the storm and the unsettling calm. The knowing and the wait for what's next as we continue this marathon. Life as we know it. 

It is in these times that celebrating life demands our focus, as this is the counter force to our current ills. No matter what ill one chooses to view at any given moment. It is the strengthening and support of our collective values that builds a stronger structure. That weaves a stronger web. By uplifting the efforts of others and how we live day to day slowly creates a movement, a positive force that is fed upon. 

There is a bigger picture that needs not to be missed, the creative forces that are moving us forward. The future positive is being built as I write this, if not faster. It is a matter of what we choose to see, the growing garden or the weed. These are not the worst of times, innovation is proving that despite our failing government, which admittedly has us bound by emotion and uncertainty. This is a need for multitasking, of vision and action.  

This all comes down to the umbrella of support. A reaching out and gathering. To build a home, one needs the makers and to build better health one needs the growers. This is applied directly to the future. What is supported now, supports what's to come. And what is built up, assists in dismantling. 

The future cannot be predicted, it can only be built through pace and will. We know this as fact. We also know the dance of push and shove. The dialogue of opinion. This is what acts as brick and mortar, what paves the way and creates the fortress.

CB 07/20/18