The Future. A Stone. A thought To Throw.

“To force the pendulum’s swing is to interrupt its natural flow, rather than move to its rhythm and know what’s in our control.”

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

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

It matters most how we think, as thought predicts our actions, life is predicated on behavior, on how we react to situations before us. To force the pendulum’s swing is to interrupt its natural flow, rather than move to its rhythm and know what’s in our control. We are aware of what’s before us, what we’ve left and what we now have. Within this time line are our reactions, how we buffer, pivot and proceed: navigating as life as we know it, unfolds. 

“We cannot control what does not exist, only what we have in the hand and in the mind.”

Untitled (Crux) | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Untitled (Crux) | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The future is made from possibilities, exists as a bubble of thought and the unknown: theories, emotions and hope. We cannot control what does not exist, only what we have in the hand and in the mind. Worry, as I have found, over inflates the bubble, bursting from too much thought. Worry is an action, similar to a physical push. To think or to say push, one feels push, and then a tendency to proceed further. This has a forward affect, what we say now, echoes to the ballooning future. 

“A ripple starts with a stones throw, from a hand, a thought to throw.” 

I think often on how we live, how our collective lives affect the hurling future and the way we live now. We each have a place within the building of tomorrow, every negative and every positive has a hand, every push and tenuous pull. There is no isolated action, no odd man out, everything and everyone has its place. A ripple starts with a stones throw, from a hand, a thought to throw. 

How We Live

“This is a time where our inner voice is calling to be heard, we know we know, now is the time to actually listen.”

Riverside NYC Project | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Riverside NYC Project | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The way we live in this world has shifted, moved to a simpler and more intimate place, our homes and even to our deeper selves. We are in a time of forced contemplation, a time to reflect on who we are and where it is we need to go. This is a time where our inner voice is calling to be heard, we know we know, now is the time to actually listen. 

Central Park West Project | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Central Park West Project | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

“How we live in our homes, is how we live in our hearts and minds, how we calm the inner rattle by way of touch and visual splendor.”

As humans, we are gatherers, we collect for our homes, our bodies, and those within our circles we cherish, all to appease our emotions of love, gratitude and the wonder that life brings. This settles our minds and eases our bodies as we traverse forward, attempting to make sense of this new terrain. How we live in our homes, is how we live in our hearts and minds, how we calm the inner rattle by way of touch and visual splendor. It is by way of the hand created that we find solace and inspiration, where we connect not only with our innate emotions but those of others. It is through the evidence of the hand that we find truer meaning: our stories told and stories held sacred. 

Ceramic Wall Hanging | Michele Quan

Ceramic Wall Hanging | Michele Quan

“Beauty in all its complexities, is our way of seeing and expressing, holding life where we need it, by way of hand, heart and eye.” 

We all have memories attached to all we hold dear, they act as journals, books that tell stories of history and the present: sonnets of love and hope. Again, this is why we collect, why we bother to design our homes and lives, to ground and to hold us, give weight to our feelings of levity in times of uncertainty, fears and doubt. Beauty in all its complexities, is our way of seeing and expressing, holding life where we need it, by way of hand, heart and eye. 

Architect and Designer Pierre Yovanovitch

Paradox And Beauty

“We chase beauty, chase love, a hug from someone near, if lucky, if lucky indeed.”

Beauty in a time of the paradoxical. Beauty as distraction: buoy. We are constantly reminded of contradictions, these days overwhelmed, godsmacked. 

To find oneself distracted is a welcomed experience, lost in a pile of books, cloudy blue skies. We chase beauty, chase love, a hug from someone near, if lucky, if lucky indeed. Beauty is a salve, always has been, now even more. It’s not that we bury our heads in denial, we need to survive, emotionally, be the builders of the future, the ones depended, and silently, dependent: a paradox of living, as always, even more. 

“We know that tomorrow will come, that it will be different, always will be, even more, now.”

To write of beauty seems empty, but here a quick grasp at something known, physical, for the body and the mind, survival mode in an era of paradox: beauty and sorrow. We know that tomorrow will come, that it will be different, always will be, even more, now. Here I won’t speak of flowers, nor sonnets of love, I’ll let the beauty be yours, for the seeing and holding: the weight, and the pause. 

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The Infinity Of Silence

“I crave silence, it can feel physical, weighted just enough to create an ease of comfort, a solitude of security.”

In the middle of this era of paradox, I find solace in the simplest of things, most importantly, silence. This seems to be my most needed element and the thing that fuels me best. Mornings are always the most inspiring as the sun rises, moving shadows throughout the silent shell of my apartment. I crave silence, it can feel physical, weighted just enough to create an ease of comfort, a solitude of security. It is during this time of silence that wonder comes clearest, when I see the world best in my minds eye, where I am, my city and state, the world spinning amongst the stars. Here is when I best feel our collective humanity, sense that somewhere someone is thinking and feeling the same. 

I am at this point infatuated with dead silence, the heavier the better and the skylight the deeper, deepest it can be. In a time of social distancing I am at the extreme, as I focus more on the meaning I’ve been desperately trying to find. Silence and meaning seem to go in stride, both have the same comforting heaviness I nuzzle up to, while embodying the properties of clarity, and the infinity of faith. This is where this era has lead me, or I have lead myself. 

“ It feels as though silence has the answers, though I am internally too loud to hear.”

I always seem to come back to silence and stillness in everything I create, a circular path that feels like a lesson I’ve yet to fully learn. It feels as though silence has the answers, though I am internally too loud to hear. In this era I am especially dependent upon silence, where everything feels as if its hurling about, desperately trying to be like gravity and the infinity of silence. 

"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."

Mary Oliver

Here Is A Time To See

“This is a time to see who we are, to look deeper, dissect and remove the indifference that continues to lead us astray, pulling us under the smoke this fire heaves.” 

This is not just another day, business as usual.

This is a time to see who we are, to look deeper, dissect and remove the indifference that continues to lead us astray, pulling us under the smoke this fire heaves. 

It is an era of lessons, weighing heavy on the scales of justice and the hearts of many. Here is a time to see, to look at who we’ve become: profit over people, entertainment over wisdom. 

As long as we have breath, we have hope. As long as we have will, we have a future. 

This is not just another day. Business, as usual.