Visual Language.

“To have a conversation, we don’t always need a person present nor spoken words, a dialogue can be with an object, a space, an arch above a door.”

Untitled Painting | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

To have a conversation, we don’t always need a person present nor spoken words, a dialogue can be with an object, a space, an arch above a door. It can be a simple viewing of beauty that sparks wonder and magic, a conversation of emotion, thought and touch. It can be as short as a glance or hours long as reading a book, dissecting its words, and consuming its sentences. It can be just that, reading and conversing, consuming the information given: digesting what’s in front of us, or what surrounds.  

Ceramic Vessel | Kathryn Robinson-Millen

How we interact and move in our spaces is telling, what we surround ourselves with and how we engage. Our mindset and mood are either transformed or reaffirmed, depending on what we choose to see or in fact wish to change. We can be pulled deeper or pulled from, which is what beauty and space allows, a guidance of mind and body, reassurance or transformation. It is the nuances of strokes and carvings, as it is shapes, colors and images that spark thought and pull emotion, inspiring our day and even our future. How we live can be a catapult or a moment of ease. 

“An object made in Africa, held in Nebraska, tells of both people and location, an ongoing dialogue, a sharing and reading of stories.” 

The view from our windows are as important as the view to our inner walls and spaces. Views transport, wether it is a framed window or framed art. The objects we collect, handmade or not, tells stories of the world around, both by the maker and the imagery, shapes and materials chosen. Objects are windows, framed by the walls they share, opening the world, our mind and emotions. An object made in Africa, held in Nebraska, tells of both people and location, an ongoing dialogue, a sharing and reading of stories. 

Cantilevered Bench | Phaedo

Each object we use is a storybook of the maker, be it clothes, art or frying pan. They each have had a hand attached, either by the creating, processing, packing or even, selling. This is a conversation, of creativity, touch and seeing. An engagement of words, only in the mind and deep in the body. Objects and how we live, resonates deep into our being, as do words, written and spoken, sifting and passing through the funneling mind. This is how we understand our world and our selves, through objects, spaces, people and words. 

Studio | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Artist | Michele Oka Doner

Not Separate.

“We are of other people, some faraway and unknown.”

Untitled Drawing | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

We are of nature, not separate from. We are of the trees, the dirt, bugs and animals. We are of other people, some faraway and unknown. We have separated ourselves from this Earth, from each other, by self proclaimed hierarchy and self made machine, now run astray. Its not that we don’t know this, we’ve chosen not to see, what we don’t know won’t harm us, but in fact, it is. 

“This is what we know, what we can do. To start the ripple requires the throw.” 

To look away is no longer an option, if one’s concern is bigger than one’s self. To be aware and alter, if only in the micro, assists momentum, gathering energy from the current like minded. This is how movements build, fueled by all thats connected, by empathy, action and knowledge. We have the capabilities for change within us, we have autonomy and intellect, the humanity of emotion to gather the stones and face the future. This is what we know, what we can do. To start the ripple requires the throw. 

Seattle Residence with Bonsai Garden | Stuart Silk Architects

To affect change and the concerning future is to circumvent the government, digging and sifting for information as we build our own paths. It is not that we can’t find our way, there’s a plethora of paths before us, lit by the creative minds of many. We have our options, to see or to look away, to walk a path and be the light, or ignore intuition and let the ulcer grow. Our long ignored intuition has been telling, has tugged at our psyche for decades, now making its way through language and doing. This is what our humanity does, what our connection to all, will do. Whatever perception we take, is an action that affects the future, either negative or positive, for those within our circles, and those within theirs. It is not that we can’t, we’ve done great things in the past, it’s just a switch in mindset, to see who we are, our place within, and move forward with intention to change.

The future is always in the waiting, how we live now moves it just so. To move forward is to think forward, connecting with who we are and the world around. Time stops for no one, it cares less for our things and our ashes. Now has the biggest impact, the seed, the root, the bloom.

Floating Sculptural Tile | Kathryn Robinson-Millen

Path Forward

“It takes time and that time is fleeting.” 

Untitled | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

What does it take to find one’s path forward, to navigate the complexities of our contemporary world. 

I’m told baby steps. 

Told that it takes the bold. 

It takes time and that time is fleeting. 

At this point, I’m going by feel, tethered to a need to inspire. 

Untitled | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

To Pause.

“Rather than reaching out, and pulling in, we should be reaching in, and pushing forward.”

Untitled Painting | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

“After digging deep into ourselves and cracking open the stone that holds identity, the obvious step is to move outward.”

It is not enough that we have paused, it is imperative that we move forward in a different manner, see in a different light, and create with a clearer intention. After digging deep into ourselves and cracking open the stone that holds identity, the obvious step is to move outward. Rather than reaching out, and pulling in, we should be reaching in, and pushing forward. Seeing who we are and offering that as solace and solution. We each have the capacity for change, each has a role in that bigger picture, to cause the affect or merely to feel the effect. Our choice, our doing, each. To pause and reflect has a circular action, from me to you, to we and back: a ripple, sonic sound, voice on the wings of wind.

“There is a connection that has been severed, pulled apart by the machine we’ve created, only to find, the machine is breaking down.”

To pause in silence is the deepest sound that resonates in the body and mind.  Here, we see ourselves in the context of time, place and the bigger picture of alignment, both living and non living: this planet, the stars and the black holes beyond. There is a connection that has been severed, pulled apart by the machine we’ve created, only to find, the machine is breaking down. To pause in place and rethink the direction forward is to fill the cracks with gold, building new from that we’ve learned. This is an alchemy of mind and doing, action and creation. It is not a matter of big steps or small, it is of intention, to create a ripple that creates a wave, a momentum amongst fear and stall. To say change and then make change. To move the mirror, ever so slightly, outward. 

“Shut Up, The Painting” | Jamian Juliano-Villani

“To pause is to find our place, re-coordinate and step out into the great expanse of being human, of being fallible, willful and full of hope.” 

Where we are in place and time, always demands our attention and questioning, whether we listen and see or not, nudges our pliable destiny, building what we desire, or what we fear. This is in our choices, how we pause and pivot or perpetuate the turning wheel. What is in our control is how we react, how we see ourselves in the totality of others, nature and our place within the future. To pause is to find our place, re-coordinate and step out into the great expanse of being human, of being fallible, willful and full of hope. 

Artist | Beatie Wolfe

Tadao Ando | Meditaron Space | Photography | Simone Bossi

Coveting And Giving

“We are makers and dreamers, creating cocoons and objects that reflect our inner mood and our warm bloodedness.”

Untitled Painting | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

We are makers and dreamers, creating cocoons and objects that reflect our inner mood and our warm bloodedness. We read and write books, nestle in chairs of comfort, pull up to tables of wood to eat our nourishing meals. We break bread and extend an olive branch, offer a warm hand shake of physical greetings. All this is second nature, what our bodies and minds crave, since beginnings past. 

There is no surprise that we continue to build our furniture from natural warm woods, as nature and human kind are symbiotic, sharing the same timeline of now and past. This is how we live, how we’ll continue, how the future is secured by our need for warmth and giving. It is the evidence of the hand that draws us to the artisanal, showing who we are and why we create: sharing stories, our need for warmth, nature and the creative intuitive. 

“Each of us have a story to build, a story to tell that inspires our moving forward.”

How we live in these times and forward, is predicated on how we see our true human nature, stepping back and eyeing what truly is significant in how we live our lives. This is based on instinct and emotion, what we surround ourselves with, and whom. Each of us have a story to build, a story to tell that inspires our maliable tomorrows. How our future becomes, is how we live now, what we give ourselves and those around. 

To build a positive future, is to settle in the knowing of who we are and what we offer, then cocooning as we spin and expand our experience of living our lives: our experience of being human, coveting and giving. 

Floating Sculptural Tile | Kathryn Robinson-Millen