life&design&value

An analog girl adapting to a world of technology & social media

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

Here's to the soulful Leonard Cohen and his zen proclivity.  Today as the trees weep after hours of rain, I attempt to not reach sickness for the sea.

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

An impromptu mountain hike in November with mom, deer, horse, lichen, and galax- her favorite mountain green.

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

Amazing Realism painter, Ben Long completed his first portrait of me in March of this year.  It's mind blowing to have a timeless portrait of myself, made by a Master.

http://benlongfineart.com/

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

Getting back to the printing press. My first etching will be produced within the next few weeks.

The left image is my dry point with sepia ink from circa 2006.  The right is an etching by the talented John Dempsey.

http://johndempseyfineart.com/

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

Cornel West is my new hero.

“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” 

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

"Time is like a river of fleeting events and its current is strong"

Marcus Aurelius 

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

Pailon del Diablo

  Yesterday, in Banos we went to Rio Verde and hiked down to see a massive waterfall that flows to the Pastaza River, which is part of Cotopaxi National Park.  The vegetation along the way was so lush and like my new friend Kristi said, "It feels like we're in a fairy land!".  The walk to the waterfall included slippery, steep steps and crouching low under gigantic rocks through tunnels. The Pailon del Diablo (Cauldron of the Devil) was the most amazing force of nature I have experienced in my life.  The water fell at a breakneck velocity, and into a bowl formed by the walls of the mountain that held extremely deep water.  Needless to say, when the water hit, it sprayed all the way up the side of the bowl, at least fifty feet.  The churning water in the bowl looked like a gigantic and piping hot cauldron.  I could have watched for hours as the water came down in different amounts every second, causing an ever-changing awesome eruption.

  After exerting myself climbing back up the hill, there was a man squeezing fresh oranges for juice- it was the best thing I've ever tasted.  There is something different about the oranges here.  They are more tart, and green on the outside.

 Finally our day ended with a walk along the river, bird watching, upside down rides at the fair, and then home cooked dinner at Chris and Kristi's house of local steak, broccoli, potatoes and avocado salad.  

I think I might stay awhile.

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

"To be able to grasp something of value, sometimes you have to perform seemingly inefficient acts. But even activities that seem fruitless don't necessarily end up so. That's the feeling I have, as someone who's felt this, who's experienced it."

Haruki Murakami's Memoir- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

Ecuador

  The plane ride from Miami to Guayaquil was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had.  As the sun was setting and the sky turned pink and orange at a rate impossible to be measured, I realized that this is the kind of scene where inspiration is born. With my oversized head phones on, playing Little Dragon's "Feather" and watching the sky slowly alchemize, I cried.  There were kilometers of clouds- the puffy white kind that might be named cumulous.  And then a horizon of large ones, that looked like characters out of a Dali painting.  And beyond that, the sky looked like a sea of lava with some other kind of wispy cloud painted in- but only with watercolor, because of the transparency.  I thought "this is real", "this is our planet" and then I wondered if anyone else felt what I was feeling looking out that airplane window.  That's the moment I knew that going to South America was the right decision.

[dominionmodern]

sk4 record player (snow white’s coffin), dieter rams and hans gugelot, braun ag, west germany, 1956

Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design makes a product understandable. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is honest. Good design is long-lasting. Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.

 Dieter Rams

http://designmuseum.org/design/dieter-rams

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

[lifedesignvalue-blog]

questions of value.

Is it from a realm of diluted values, or selfishness, or instant gratification, and pure pleasure that come our addictions to design?  These awe striking jewels, these forms and patterns of delights we transfix upon; are they merely shallow diversions?  At a time when the Earth is running out of resources and a billion people are living within the confines of having little, and some nothing- even to sustain their bodies, are we cruel?  Or are some designers and critics of design truly thinking, writing, and creating to better our world- our planet as it is today?