Comfort

January 1, 2019 Carl Barnett

It is not luxury that I find to be of longevity and benefit, but comfort, this seems to me to be the most needed, what traverses the body and sits deeper in the belly and mind. This is what counters the contemporary grit, softens even the hardest edges of doubt and worry.

Comfort, at the risk of being dismissed as a romantic, is the longest and deepest embrace. The thread that binds the senses, ties the mind to deeper meaning and calms the inner rattle. Here within comfort, within the embrace is where possibility is inspired.

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(Comfort Me)

Comfort me from wherever you are—

alone, we are quickly worn out;

if I place my head on the road,

let it seem softened by you.

Could it be that even from afar

we offer each other a gentle breath,

and that pure regret of absence

covers these stones with down?

~Rainer Maria Rilke

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Comfort is not dismissed as trend but welcomed and held forever in the body. It is memory based, fueled by the tactile and woven by the story teller mind. It is book of pages, words of meaning, watercolor images that float in the imagination. It is all this and more, layered by the individual beneficiary.

History is attached to the realm of comfort since day one of birth as we are swaddled, nestled in the bosom and cradled in comforting arms. This is what spurs the ideal, coded genetics and written memory, the routines of time and attachment. Rituals of daily life passing.

Comfort is what we make it, what words we choose to describe. It is not merely in the eye of the beholder, but in the hand of the user.

Resolve

December 31, 2018 Carl Barnett

Time and life seem to move at their own whim and pace, gently nudging us forward or tossing as a speck of sand in tumbling deep waters.

How we live can be the balance necessary, the resolve to the random and chaotic. Mental muse to the whirling dervish of contemporary life.

We have the means to buffer, to inspire our own doing and to create the change we wish to see. This is within our mindset and our living. Beauty as match, life as kindling.

Time and life are aggressive ring masters, worthy opponents.

Memory

December 28, 2018 Carl Barnett

Whitney Museum rooftop -image Adriane Miller

Memory of place in time is greatly attached to emotion and people, though sometimes fleeting moments they are sticky in how they can last a lifetime, entangling themselves within our minds and bodies, unearthing physical sensations.

Images of physical space, nuances and long embraces, move and float within our physical making, passing through pores, lose hair and clipped nails.

We are not our past in total, but we are the memories we choose to keep, looping them, pulling them, forward. Some experiences entrench themselves, moving through the mind’s sifter becoming blood memory, others exit the body through dreams, passing as ethereal clouds.

It is memory that helps to build our future, acting as guidepost, perimeters to what we wish to repeat and expand upon. Maps of past and present. Chalk on board. Raised hairs.

Process

December 26, 2018 Carl Barnett

Simplicity holds its place in life as contrast to the chaotic. Not as balance but intentional resolve, a place for respite, where the eye can rest and the mind can find clarity and question, deconstruct and strategize, listen for guidance from the gut.

It is the silence within the space of simplicity that coats experience, encapsulating the deepest effect. Where echoes of mind and body can best be heard, Morse code of the inner landscape. The unifying of silence and simplicity pierces the chaotic, pummels till order finds its footing. Funneling the process of change and resolve.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio - Untitled (10/03/16)

Within simplicity and the shell of silence we can better navigate our current challenges, find the meaning and focus our purpose, until chaos cracks the shell and process begins again. This is the push and the pull, the malleability of life creating, life destroying. The metaphorical vortex.

To challenge the chaotic is to create its opposing opposite, a space of windows, walls and oscillating doors. Mind, body and the physical world.

Layering

December 22, 2018 Carl Barnett

The layering of art, design and words are for me a mode of inspiration, smoothing the edges of our challenging era. A means to bolster, uplift and vacillate the coming future. This is what inspires me of others, of what my intention is focused upon, the built environment as tool for change.

My bias lies squarely within the creative arenas, they are I believe, relatable in their intuitive storytelling, fine-tuned to speak to the inner dialogue of fear and hope while dislodging the dogmatic. These are tools of the creative mind, backbone to meaning and purpose, resolve to the complications of contemporary life.

To better move forward one needs to understand this fundamental ideology of mind and body in time, to devour the creative spirit as means to an end. Nourishment for the long run.