DIMENSION RETURNS TO THE WOODS - HOORAY!!!!!!

Important notice: Dimension is returning to the woods. It happens in NC in September every year, and is one of my favorite times. After enduring the heat of August, and the flat landscape of everything green, dimension begins to appear. How does it happen? Take a look outside, and view it as a canvas: one tree begins to turn, and all of a sudden, everything is no longer flat.

Then as leaves slowly begin to drop, deeper areas of the woods come into view. Even if it’s still mostly green, you can see into the woods, and the shadows give depth to your canvas.

Try it. In this photo from Blowing Rock, the shadows around the tree trunks add the dimension. If you put your fingers over the green and dark tree trunk area at the left, and imagine that section of the photo to be orange, like the rest of the picture, you find that the dimension on that side of the photo goes flat.

You can see it also in marshy areas, where the water plants grow in clumps around each other. What was a solid sheet of green in August begins to have layers of brown and varying shades of fall, which add depth to the view. All of a sudden there is perspective in your picture, which was missing in August. This photo is from Moses Cone Park near Blowing Rock, but there is an even better example of layering of color right here in Cary at Crabtree Park. The section of Aviation Parkway that crosses Crabtree Lake is one of my FAVORITE places to view the changing seasons. Unfortunately, it is not an easy place to take a photo, because of the heavy traffic and lack of road shoulder. But next time you head to the airport, keep your eyes open as you cross the lake, and see what the season is doing.

What does this have to do with Interior Design? It’s an interesting thing to contemplate. In the case of the woods: by REMOVING something, you create dimension. In your spaces, where you may have a solid sheet of “things” too crowded to enjoy, a careful editing can reveal a balance and beauty of form that is nurturing and inspiring. In the cases of Moses Cone Park and Crabtree Lake: proper contrast and color balance add a perspective that makes a space seem bigger.

Dimension is an important quality of Life. It adds spontaneity to our spirit, and joy to our days! It keeps us fresh and ready for the next unfoldment of beauty, whether it be in our children’s artwork, our parents’ wisdom, our own sense of service, or our physical surroundings. All that perfection and beauty comes from the same Place, and is Life’s gift to us!

NEW YORK! NEW YORK!!!

WHAT A WONDERFUL TOWN!!!

I attended an ASID CEU last spring by Liesbet Trappenburg, entitled "You Are Not Your Job". An outstanding speaker, she counselled us "artists" to do something that replenishes your "creative well". So when the opportunity came up for me to spend a few days in NYC while my son was there on business, I grabbed it!!

I have always loved NY. I actually lived there from the age of 1-6 months, but of course I don't remember anything. We lived not far from Central Park, when my dad was studying voice. He had a Pavorotti style voice, and his lessons were in Carnegie Hall. Before I was born, he and my mom travelled all over the US doing a road show for the musical "Allegro." But he decided that NYC was no place to raise a family, so we moved to Dallas when I was an infant, and then later we moved back to Louisiana to be near all our wonderful Cajun family. That's where we opened our family store, Pieces of Eight. (see August 09 post)

So back to NY: My first visit was when I was 15 years old, to attend the opening of a Broadway play that my parents had invested in. (My dad had a successful producer friend from his NY musical days.) Being raised in Louisiana (I actually lived on a bayou!), I was in awe when I hit the streets of NYC. Such creativity everywhere you looked! We were staying in the St. Regis Hotel, and I met my first artist in the elevator. A thin man with a moustache and an ocelot on a leash entered the elevator, and the attendant addressed him as "El Capitan." I learned afterward that his name was Salvador Dali, and he lived in the hotel. It wasn't until I went to college and became a member of the Art Institute in Chicago, that I began to fully comprehend the place that Dali holds in modern art.

When I was 18, I visited again for another play opening. This time it was Eugene O'Neill's "More Stately Mansions", and starred Ingrid Bergman in her comeback role in the US. Again I was smitten with the creativity of NYC. I was into my first year of Northwestern University's Interior Architecture and Design curriculum, and my eyes had been opened to the wonders of my field. And NYC is a magnet for creativity.

I didn't get back to NY for many years after that, but in the 1990s we took our children up to see "Annie Get Your Gun," with Bernadette Peters. Then in the late 1990s, I went twice with my mom. We visited her old friends, who took us to dinner at Windows on the World (at the top of the WTC, destroyed in 9/11), and also to Tavern on the Green, a restaurant located in Central Park. We visited the Metropolitan Museum, and the Cloisters Museum; she had a portrait done of me by a street artist in Central Park. That was an artsy visit!

So I jumped at the chance to go back this August, and spend some time museum-hopping and visiting with my son! And it was perfect from start to finish....

Monday I spent the afternoon at MoMA. There is a spectacular exhibit of works of Ron Arad through Oct 19. See it now before it moves to Paris! If you can't get to NY, check it out on line at http://www.moma.org/ And here are my favorites from his work:

This wonderful thing is a model for the Zion Square outdoor sculpture that Ron Arad designed in 2006 in Jerusalem. It is a study in light and shadow, and the exhibit features a light arm travelling across the piece from side to side, showing the different patterns that the sunlight produces as it crosses the sky from morning to night. I am a huge fan of sunlight patterns in interior design. I will do another blog on that later, with some examples from my work, and other places. Use nature whenever you can!!

This is one of Ron's unique lighting designs. There were several in the exhibit, but I especially loved the simplicity and contrast of this one. It hangs about 8' long.

After viewing the Arad exhibit, I showed my son the painting and sculpture galleries of the permanent collection, with all my favorites, including Pollack, Picasso, Mondrian, Klimt, Rauschenberg, Matisse, Monet, Stella, Brancusi, Kline, DeKooning, Rothko - too many to count!! It was overwhelming and wonderful!! You can view much of the permanent collection on line also, if you can't get to NY.

I had recently watched a netflix movie - "The Impressionists", a BBC production about the lives of all those courageous artists that broke from tradition and set the stage for the acceptance of modern art. This really enriched my experience at the museums here in NY. I recommend the movie to anyone looking for a deeper historical view.

We also visited the Architecture and Design floor at MoMA. It was especially meaningful to me to find in the "What Was Good Design?" exhibit, objects that I had purchased in the 70s to sell at Pieces of Eight. Here are a few of them:

PLIA FOLDING CHAIR

AND PLATONE FOLDING

DESK (Castelli-Italy)

WASSILY CHAIR -

Classic mid-century modern

by Marcel Breuer

CLASSIC VIGNELLI DESIGN 1964 - STACKING MELAMINE DINNERWARE by Heller, now available again for purchase in the MoMA gift store.

DEDALO UMBRELLA STAND

And finally, with only a few minutes before closing, we dashed into the Architecture Room, with breathtaking models of contemporary architectural masterpieces, including FLW's "Falling Water." I have always been drawn to models. Perhaps it's from my childhood days as a doll house designer!!

That's Day 1 of my trip to New York!

Check back later for posts on Day 2 and Day 3!