A few slices of my Life

I seriously am not going to name each of my posts "ode to" something. People don't even use that word anymore.

So I've been thinking about a few different things I could blog about. And I was thinking how I sort of have an icon for each area of my life that I love. First music,

Sarah Groves for sure. And Keith Green, even though they're several decades apart. But who says it better than the two of them? If one of them doesn't say it, the other does. And both in their own unique way. And Sara just isn't my hero in music. She's my hero in justice. Check out what she supports with her tours and you'll see what I mean.

And Sara has a blog! I just checked it out and it's pretty cool, with a post about Azizi and beautiful artisans from Kenya. 

http://saragrovesofficial.blogspot.com/

Next: girl stuff. Such as beauty.

http://soniakashuk.com/

Nuf said.

Color and style. Hats off to Emily Henderson. And what is it with the color taupe?? Look at that first room. It's AMAZING...Has taupe always been well known to be amazing? Or is it in style now like bright orange was in style in the 70's?

http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/2010/10/6/hollywood-glam.html#comments

It's in the pillows by the way. A lovely accent color. 

So I'm boring today. But I'm loving life whether you can tell or not. And my job. That's not bad either. I'll let you know about it some other time.

Ode to Purple and Silver

Lately I've been playing with greys and purples. Silvers and taupes. That kind of thing. Tauped (a beautiful earthy purple nail color by Sonia Kashuk) was named one of the must have colors for Fall 2010. I was smiling cause I had just bought it. Sonia Kashuk nail colors saved me a lot of money. I was contemplating getting a manicure when I tried her nail polish instead. I expected it to chip off like everything else. A week later it was still as good as new. Who needs acrylics?

I got this amazing dolphin grey gypsy shirt at Kohl's for about $4 (I love the 70% clearance racks) that I LOVE. And I love to pair it with either my taupe nails or my sparkly silver ones. 

With all the silvers and taupes dancing around in my head, I logged on to facebook to see a picture of my nephew and his first homecoming. (What happened to him? How did he turn 16 already?)

I guess this is turning into a color blog. I like color and color combinations. 

Ode to Minimalism

Because today I picked some apples and am going to make an apple pie out of them. And it was simple, and a simple approach to life, and a simple way to enjoy a day and the company of good friends.

Today I picked some apples...That's all. So I think it's a good day to celebrate minimalism, which I am always celebrating, possibly because it's calmness and pristine-ness is something I don't really achieve in real life. Or in art really. So here are the pieces that have always inspired and drew me by my two favorite minimalist artists, Judd and Stella.

I have to admit I prefer Judd's sculptures over Stella's paintings.  Donald Judd captures everything that minimalism is to me, and does to me, and makes me feel. Something about Judd's sculptures can, at the right moments, make me feel quite teary. In a good way.

Judd.

Stella.

Grounded. Uncluttered. Beautiful. Calm. Meditative. Clean. And many things I cannot think of words for. Design should be like this. I hope I will create work that is. 

Ode to Purple

The following is an email I sent to my very good friend Sarah White. I am in the midst of finding....drum roll....eyeshadow colors. I know, exciting, huh? Anything to do with color gets me involved I guess. And it's more all about the color purple than anything. So....


"I exchanged the brown for purple and tada! It's perfect. I always am drawn towards desaturated cooler colors but I'm "supposed" to wear browns and neutrals because I have "warm medium skin" and "blue eyes". So I choose wrong colors. I don't get that rule at all though. If someone has brown skin, they should wear brown makeup? It won't exactly show up. and if someone has white skin, should they wear white? The only reason the purple even shows up on my skin is because it is not any shade of tan or cream or beige. And once it's on my skin, it actually looks a lot less purple, because the warm undertones in my skin neutralize it some more. Also, I've noticed I seem to really like grey lately. Coal greys and dolphin greys as well. Next color: grey. Probably will look very warm by the time it gets on my eye lids.

Sigh. Why can't someone show me this stuff?

I think I'm going to do a whole post on the color purple because it's so beautiful. In art class, we read one of the famous artists who said, "There is absolutely no use at all for the color purple." (There is no use for the note B flat). And one of my graphic design professor really couldn't stand the color and almost wouldn't let us use it. I think I'll go for a grey and purple wardrobe, with taupes thrown in."


Below: tan eye and then purple-taupe eyes

Sarah, can I add your reply to this?


Other taupe and grey things - (as you can see, I am wearing a grey shirt in celebration of finding the perfect eyeshadow color. So I wanted to throw in a collection of taupe and grey fashion inspiration. The two shirts are from J Crew - my new fashion inspiration. Mind you I could never actually buy anything from J Crew - but I can get ideas and shop thrift stores and ebay! :)

Bronze and Grey

I'm a graphic designer and this is my design blog. It will be a scrapbook of stuff that inspires me and stuff that I make. I never thought a graphic designer should gather inspiration only from printed or web media - it's all around us. In college, my biggest inspirations were painters and minimalist sculptures. I had some inspiration from graphic design, too, but spaces really open up the wide open spaces in my heart, and painters know color. So here are two spaces I love. The first one I call "all design should feel this way." By that I mean open, airy, and breathable as well as organic, exquisite, and quietly luxurious. I love this space.

And yes, somehow that computer message got on there. It was a flash player and I couldn't download the image, so I had to screen print it. 

The second one is a  magazine scan. I apologize for the streaks. I'm sure there would be a way to remove them, but like the tear down the middle, I kind of like the way it speaks to the fact that it was ripped out of a magazine. I get my images and inspiration everywhere.

It's so masculine and grounded and strong. I love the square dark leather furniture - have always wanted some like this. I also absolutely love the square wooden shelf and coffee table. Being a lover of Geometry, two shapes I can't live without are squares and circles. I don't know which is better. Both are so clean, so perfect, so mathematical. Being a girl, I didn't know I liked masculine design as much as I did, but this I love. And the fact that it has those lovely feminine touches (like the throw pillows) helps a lot. Sometime someone with no design will decorate a room and it will be dark and depressing and very brown and they will call it masculine. This room is anything but depressing. It's very alive.