Inspired

“Just as one cannot deny the impact politics has on life, one cannot deny the inspiration design has either.”

It is difficult for me to separate politics from what I create, as design is about life, and politics the same. Just as one cannot deny the impact politics has on life, one cannot deny the inspiration design has either.

To live an inspired life is to embrace all its facets, the good, the bad and the necessity of beauty. 

Carl Barnett Design/Studio - Oculus

I’m inspired by my surroundings, by all that brings me wonder and joy. The things that nourish my body and stretch my mind, leave me awestruck and determined to find a better way.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio - Central Park West

Carl Barnett Design/Studio - Untitled (Then/This)

It is not enough for me to follow the usual path, though overwhelm sometimes has its way with me, leaving me wondering if what I seek is truly accessible. 

Carl Barnett Design/Studio - Museum of Jewish Heritage

“This may come across as a bit naive, but science has proven the facts: what we think about we bring about, what we design, designs us.” 

I believe in what the creative mind can do, despite this era of challenge. It is a mindset I choose and a way of life that feels most affective. This may come across as a bit naive, but science has proven the facts: what we think about we bring about, what we design, designs us. 

James Turrell

Pendulum

Often I think on hope and love, and where action lies within these. Hope and love are intangible emotions, and action gives them bones and flesh.

In this era of challenge, yet another by history standards, hope and love have made their mark, though continues to be daunted. But hope always has the constant push, and love the impossible pull. 

Action is where these find their weight, in our everyday. It is this that marks the coming future: pushing the pendulum further.

Resonate

“The elements of design are tools of the trade, the legs upon which a bigger picture sits.”

There is a human connection that is central to interior design. It is not in and of itself. The elements of design are tools of the trade, the legs upon which a bigger picture sits. It is the nuances that resonate deepest, the scents, textures, patinas, and the hand created. All this culminates into mood, enveloping the body, piercing emotion and the mind. 

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The spaces in which we live are not merely a layering of things, they are vessels of time, emotion and memories. They help us celebrate, allow us to relax, assist in the building of our futures. They too are machines, created to multitask, to hold our keys, our secrets and hopes, ease our way into slumber.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

“What I remember most about my parents’ home are the scents, rituals and the collections my mother coveted.”

Creating our living spaces surpass color and pattern, as the bells and whistles have a tendency to fade. What creates the longest and deepest affect can be detected by hand and emotion, elements that affect the body as a whole. What I remember most about my parents’ home are the scents, rituals and the collections my mother coveted. This is how my home is, how I prefer it to feel, simplistic and calm, deep in memory and emotion. 

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Kathryn Robinson-Millen

Preserve and Act

“To move forward we must preserve what we have, while destroying what no longer serves us.”

How we live in this era and move forward, is a new conversation, one that involves an activist’s spirit and the mindset of a preservationist. To move forward we must preserve what we have, while destroying what no longer serves us.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

“There are many ways to approach life today, but all roads lead to the future.”

Living now, should be viewed from a different perspective, not because of a new generation’s trend, but for the preservation of generations to come. Resolve is the dominate thought here, as is inspiration and action. There are many ways to approach life today, but all roads lead to the future.

To live an inspired life, is to see its intricate texture: politics, love, empathy and even hate. In reality, beauty has its ugly side, a rose’s thorns are defiant. But look with a bigger vision, and one finds perspective, meaning and purpose.

Inhabitat

“To build a bridge forward, is to understand our linked humanity, our needs and wants.”

As humans we are beautiful, flawed, petty and kind. We are as complex as our built environment, yet simplistic in our shared need for love. This is our commonality, we all want our basic needs met. To build a bridge forward, is to understand our linked humanity, our needs and wants. This perhaps is easier said than done with growing evil at the helms, but the future relies on the push and the pull, realism and hope, the lover and the fighter.

The path forward will not be easy, the reality is what’s being shown us. To live life is to realize its difficulties, its beauties, limits and possibilities. To give not because we have been given, but to act because it is our human need.

Ever Present

Hope is a word that describes a future forward emotion, an inner feeling we carry, as  tucked away wish.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

There is so much to be learned from this word, from those who know it best: those who have a story that exemplifies.

Kathryn Robinson-Millen

I am often inspired by many: the hopeful, the willful , and the doers. 

Carl Dellatore

The future owes much to will and doing, to the silent and ever-present, hope.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Beauty is the physical example for hope: standing in when words and emotion fall short.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio