Reflections on October....

October, beautifully colorful as it is in these parts, is often a challenging month for me. Although the temperatures are often still quite warm, I can't pretend that it is still summer  the way I can in September. October is a usually a month of introspection and adjustment for me as I gear up for the long winter and I willfully redirect myself back into a creative mindset. That is a good thing, much as I love summer, I tend to be a bit lazier with my creative energy.

Last night Luke and I went to see "The Fountainhead" which made me think on some of Ayn Rand's themes, particularly as regards to the importance of not allowing the reactions of others to negatively impact my creative process. While I work with my client's to accomplish their dream environment, and I do "compromise" with THEM on how to implement that environment, I don't think at all about what people outside that client relationship might think of my work, and that has worked well for me for years. I please my clients, but in a perhaps more important sense, I please myself with the end result. It seems to me to be a wonderfully positive symbiotic relationship. As I try to convey to my clients at the outset of our relationships, ultimately, they are a creating an environment in which THEY are happy with the results; if others don't like it or appreciate it, why care?

The film, made in 1949, was shot in black and white to both stress the architectural elements of the story line as well as to draw a sharp contrast between the heroic individualist vision of the architect character Howard Roark and the pedestrian lowest common denominator negativism of the architectural critic Ellsworth Toohey (perfectly portrayed in the film as a pasty miserable fatuous  naysayer).

As we left the theatre after the film,  I saw the full moon rising over the railroad tracks and power lines near the theatre. It was an amazing sight, and a perfect reflection of my thoughts on October...a little Noir, am afraid, just as the movie

A Bientot,

Francine

Color inspirations

Summer is a slow time in New York, which leaves me a little freedom to work on our fall new designs, materials, colors, etc....  I just recently had dinner with a Benjamin Moore creative executive, and with wine helping us, we had so many laughs and at the end of dinner we realized that we actually sat 3 hours at the table! A good thing I  train it into town.

We talked about life, travel, opera, wine food and colors. It is so interesting to compare how one operates from a corporate environment compared to my approach of operating purely on my gut and fancy.

Days later, as I was going through powder coated finishes that we presented to a client, my eyes stopped on one color... I knew it! This is it! I became totally absorbed by this color, ran around the showroom in search of similar tones, found the perfect shag carpet sample from our Limited Edition Collection and the ultimate complimentary color in a pair of scissors. Inspiration cannot be planned, learned, scheduled or even called up on demand, it has more the character of a leap of faith.

I carry usually an Iphone or a small camera and just take snapshots of anything that speaks to me, especially colors. When traveling, my eyes are constantly roaming and scanning the scene.

I gravitate towards natural tones, greys, dark browns, soothing non aggressive colors which are reflected in my recent design works. It only took a dark, cold, brutal winter and a winter escape to the warm seas, et voila!

Will unveil my fall color story soon..

A bientot, Francine