Inspiration

I constantly find new inspiration every where I look on a daily basis. Sometimes when I simply look up and admire the clouds and the sky I find inspiration. Sometimes just looking out the window on a rainy day can bring me motivation. Most of all I find my most meaningful inspiration through museums and almost all kinds of designers. One of the most amazing exhibits I have ever seen was the Andy Warhol exhibit at the deYoung Museum. Warhol is an artist who literally blows me away with his innovation at such a time when no one was breaking the rules like he was. I am always drawn to color and as you start to follow my designs you will see this is pretty obvious in all of my work. A lot of designers and artists are afraid of color, but I on the other hand want to embrace it in all of my work as much as possible. Warhol was an avid user of bright vivid colors which I adore. Whenever I start to feel my mind go blank, I can look at one of his pieces and get that little push I need to get my mind spinning.
The most crucial place I always find inspiration is in fashion magazines. My favorites being the most obvious:
1. Vogue
2. InStyle
3. Vanity Fair
4. Harpers Bazaar
Since I was a little girl I have always admired everything about magazines. I couldn't read when I was 3, but I would pick up my mom's Vogue and gaze at all of the images of decadent gowns and gorgeous designs. It was when I came into my pre-teens and I started becoming more obsessed and cutting all of my favorite images and pasting them into constant collages, that I knew this hobby had become my passion. I always find myself amazed at the design of the layouts in my most favorite magazine and think in wonder and awe of the process the team goes through to develop these masterpieces. Everything from the themes, the photographs, the way in which they are juxtaposed on a page, it all blows my mind and I love that feeling. In this day in age people are becoming more prone to just searching the web and looking at these magazines webpages rather than spending the five or six dollars. I am an avid supporter of finding a way of replacing this notion with one of authenticity and tradition by trying to inspire people to continue purchasing this classic and one of a kind pieces of art. Whenever I see a Vogue from the 1950's I lose it. I want people to understand that these are heirlooms of a generation that is rapidly changing and the investment is worth the splurge for later years to come when you still have that magazine and your daughter gawks at the images and the design of your time.
Another little treasure where I always find inspiration is in anything vintage bohemian chic as I would say. This can range from your local thrift store to that secret hidden one no one knows about to a beautiful garden blooming in a courtyard. Anything dainty and feminine. I love looking daily at designsponge.com because they constantly show designers ranging from interiors to graphics and breath taking interior layouts. The website is designed in a way that really trends my own design aesthetic and what I strive to achieve in my own work. Watching old movies, flipping through vintage books, listening to vinyl records, researching the sixties pop culture and absorbing every little piece of hippe chic I possibly can stuff into my brain, these are all places I find inspiration.
Last but certainly not least, is my love of Art Nouveau. When I had my first art class in high school I realized how I really felt the most in-tune with all of the work produced during this time. I loved the whimsical lines, the reminiscence of nature, the feminine styles, the subdued color, pastels, the shape, the forms, the effect of lighting, I love it all. I keep books around my house about the movement and the artists who took part. Alphonse Mucha naturally being a favorite of all time for me but Gustave Klimt not far behind as well as Victor Horta. Art Nouveau is a movement that I think is very much still alive among artists today and is constantly revived and re-visited in different time era's like the 1960's. I will always continue to find inspiration in the movement and cherish it till I no longer have anything else to learn.