I ♥ Europe: Italy

I was able to put together more Diptych selects from the Italy trip, but I have to say they don't necessarily sum up this country. I don't think I've ever had such a mixture of emotions to a place: positive and negative all hitting me at the same time in this weird wave that could only be described as reacting.

In the cities I generally became highly agitated by the layers and people that each place revealed. I've never been a very publicly aggressive person, but I discovered very quickly I needed to take control of myself and do a complete reversal on my normal habits in order to survive. I think the most difficult part for me was the lack of order, specifically when it came to standing in lines. I had this innocent notion that people just automatically stay in their spot when in a line, and that social etiquette would frown upon cutting in front of someone else. Ah, how innocence is so quickly slapped in the face with the sulfur scent of Italian reality.



I was strangely depressed by the Colosseum. I was in love with what the Galleria Borghese offered and gave me (I wanted to touch the Bernini sculptures so bad). Standing on top Duomo in Milan was an experience that would be hard to top. Pisa was, in all honesty, a joke to me. The Vatican was bigger and more grand than I could have imagined. This mingled with the feeling that these famous sites so many people flocked to, were a strange kitsch-version of themselves—their purpose, to provide a trophy to hang on one's wall with a plaque reading, "I was there."

Pulling from the past

I love old photographs, especially family photographs. There is just something more innocent and comforting about peering into a world that is some how linked to your life now. I enjoy how this forces you to question about the content and the connection.

My mother's side of the family was vastly different from what I am. She grew up in, what I believe was, a two bedroom house with her parents, and two of her four siblings, without an indoor toilet until she was almost out of high school. They heated their house with a wood stove. My grandmother made mom's dresses for her out of empty flour sacks. They used to milk their own cows and sell the cream every week. They killed chickens, ate fresh eggs and had more of a connection to the land that I will probably ever know, and they did this all because they had to.

That sort of living, in all reality does not exist anymore in the same form in this country. I'd be lucky if the chicken who laid the "organic" eggs I ate yesterday have ever even seen more than artificial lighting, a wall and thousands of her counterparts. Only if I made the obvious effort to march myself down to the farmers market would I hope to see something even remotely close. I think I read that only 1 to 2% of our population are farmers... there are more people unemployed and in prison. I don't think I've ever wished so much that I could grasp onto this something, this unfamiliar life slipping away.

 

I ♥ Europe: Switzerland

Diptych selects that pretty much sum up the Switzerland trip. Enjoy.

Why I heart scandinavian / nordic everything

Came across Kim Holtermand and Ditte Isager awhile ago in a sea of amazing talent from this area of the globe. I love the stark simplicity and eeriness to Holtermand's work, while Isager's compositions are just absolutely intriguing and unpretentious to look at. I adore how pretty much anything I've seen from this region; design to photography has this same sort of quality to it.

 

Why I absolutely heart the Selby

Well its snowing ❄ ❄ ❄. I was secretly (well maybe not so secretly) hoping for a snow day ... but alas.

All is well however, because I got a lovely little email from the Selby.

I love, love, love the Selby as a constant source of inspiration. Many of these homes are so eclectic and so interesting, but so personable I find my inner dialog shouting, "I can totally do that!".

This morning they posted new photos of Andy Spade, Creative Director and the design Kate Spade in their New York home.  I am completely in love with all their random little collections, and the sheer volume of stuff they have, and how they somehow make it all work harmoniously together in a very classy sort of way.

Why I heart an ode to vintage sci-fi.

I've always always had a soft spot for science-fiction. Its probably because as a kid I used to always cuddle up next to my dad on the couch, Friday nights at 8 pm to watch Star Trek (I remember vaguely the original) and then more specifically Star Trek: The Next Generation. So when I came across the series that Kahn & Selesnick created I was ecstatic. Much of it has obviously been digitally photoshopped, but still well done.

Along that same vein, these photos also reminded me of a short film I saw awhile back called Connected. The synopsis describes it as set in the distant future, Connected is a story about survival and greed with a post apocalyptic wasteland as its backdrop. Survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape, as it quickly becomes clear that not everybody has the strength to survive.
 

I heart Nick Cave

Working on creative concepts for work I stumbled across some lovely juxtapositions of Nick Cave's Sound suits and fashion, title Creature Couture . This mixture strangely checked off all the boxes of multiple likes. And mean come on, its Nick Cave. No do not respond with "from the Bad Seeds?" otherwise I may need to lay the smack down ... if you still don't know what I'm talking about ... google and the entry "Nick Cave Soundsuits" is your friend. If you want to see all this lovely stuff in the flesh, SAM is doing an exhibition in March of next year, so keep your calendars open.

Photography by Ted Sabarese, found via Behance.

I ♥ Europe: Spain

I just got back from a lovely vacation in Europe for two weeks (my first time ever, teehee!).

Did you miss me?

I missed you ... beautiful Seattle.

While gone we specifically hit Barcelona, Spain, various cities in Switzerland and Italy. It was fabulous to get a sense of the food, the smells, the sounds, the history, the fashion, design and the art.

First things first. Can I just say with all honesty that I ♥'d Barcelona's Metro?

The Metro is an extensive network of electrified railways that run underground in central Barcelona and above ground into the city's suburbs. I was so incredibly impressed by the ease of use as well as the information graphics.

Don't speak Spanish (or Catalayn in this case)? Not a problem. I known maybe a handful of Spanish phrases and had absolutely no problem navigating my way through it ... not to mention that the metro's graphics (and much of the design I saw related to it) was just really really easy on the eyes.

Why I love Fridays

Well, its Friday and my last day of work before we start off into the great unknown that is our vacation. I'm excited (thrilled even), but nervous.

Number one there are protests going on in France.

I won't bore you with details, but basically the large unknown of what we'll be walking into when we arrive there and fact that we were going to dependent on a car (rented) to get us to the multiple locations and countries we'll be visiting while on our trip. I'm all for fighting for your rights as citizen, and I think that its totally rad that there is such a civil unrest about raising the retirement age by only two years. Damn...retirement at 62 here would be fabulous ... I'm sure most of us in the states can agree that retirement even at 65 is highly improbable because of most of our retirement security-net being gutted over the years and being forced to be on the graces of the commercial stock market to gain our freedom from a long life of work and toil. But I digress.

Number two, I hate flying (as in, I probably certifiably have a medical reason to need to take medication to combat my anxiety), and we have a good day ahead of us just in flights.

But ... I'm going to attempt to not focus on that, and instead share some lovely work I've been drooling over for awhile.

I've been oogling over Studio on Fire for awhile now. I would give my right arm for a lovely little table top letterpress and their ideas are just so pretty I could look at them all day.