Look Again
Alvar Aalto Savoy Vase ‘Ah, Mephistopheles …’ Dear old Faust, temptation is everywhere – but so is inspiration, and it doesn’t cost a penny. I’m feeling a bit detached from all the financial doom and gloom – what about you? As the pilot wisely pointed out the other day, if you are suddenly sacked from a fat cat City job, finding a way to live nouveau poor in style is something of a challenge. Writers, artists and parents have always done this – situation normal? Candlelight and real fires are much more romantic don’t you agree?
Do you have wish lists? Scrapbooks you use as reference for your work? Pinboards or mood boards where you work? I am a big ‘ripper’ of papers and magazines – it probably drives the pilot mad though he is too kind to complain. I love ephemera – studied Surrealism, loved their magpie approach to culture. Funnily enough, a lot of my ‘scrap/dream book’ pictures have come true. The beautiful Alvar Aalto vase pictured sits on my desk. I’d seen an example in the old MOMA design section, and loved it. One summer I was helping Dad out on a building site during a university vacation earning some cash towards the student loans, and suddenly spotted this vase tucked in a corner of this eccentric kennel owner’s kitchen. I am not a kleptomaniac, but I wanted to hold it … touch it (is that greed or desire?) Have you ever seen ‘The Object of Beauty’ a John Malkovich film where a mute chambermaid steals a Henry Moore maquette because she loves it? That’s how I felt. I complimented the woman on her amazing taste. ‘What that? Hideous thing. I keep junk in it.’ She tossed it over and sure enough it was full of old rubber bands, washers, bits of string. It was filthy and coated in dog hair, but my heart was racing. Turned out she had been given it for judging some dog show in Sweden in the fifties. ‘Tell you what,’ she said. ‘Get me a copy of Kipling’s ‘Just So’ and it’s yours.’ Twenty years later it makes me smile every time I see it.
Inspiration costs nothing. Keep all your senses open - really look at the world around you, and absorb beautiful shapes, fragments of conversations or melody. These are a couple of other objects of desire which if you look at them have been inspired by natural organic form:
Elsa Peretti Bone Cuff for Tiffany 
Jacobsen Egg Chair One of my favourite books is ‘You can find inspiration in everything (and if you can’t, look again)’. I bought it when I was setting up the art business, and got so much out of it. I love Sir Paul Smith’s work – always have. His design sense is brilliant – eclectic, adventurous, humorous – tradition with a twist. And guess what – yes, a perfect example of the humility of genius: ‘I love life,’ he wrote. ‘I feel very privileged. I sometimes think I’m going to step into the street and get hit by a bus because I’ve had so many brilliant days for so long. I think: ‘Why have I been so lucky?’ I never assume anything. I never assume that I’m always going to be healthy, or happy, or that business is always going to be successful. Those things and Pauline (his wife), keep me grounded.’ Recently they released a beautiful perfume, dedicated to his wife’s love of roses – just me, or is that the most romantic thing ever? Interestingly for those of us juggling like crazy, Sir Paul compares his job to the guys that ‘spin plates on poles. Keeping them all spinning is difficult.’ More so when you have 19 collections, 250 shops and 450 staff. There’s a big lesson there – never assume anything. Never assume anyone is interested in your work, or you. What can you give? What will make people want what you create?
I remember seeing the effect of designer goods infiltrating Moscow in the late 80s. We had spent a fantastic summer – beautiful spirit-filling polychromatic Byzantine churches, bathing in the rivers with little old babuschkas in wellies, blinis and bears in Gum, queuing for art books in Dom Knigi, impromptu opera in tower blocks, the Siberian Express and unforgettably skinny dipping in the phosphorescent Bay of Finland. Back in the city, suddenly there was Estee Lauder – the Russians weren’t allowed to go in, and to us it was nothing new. Now I understand Moscow and Leningrad are blingtastic. Maybe greed – the desire for things comes to us all. As I said in the very first post, these days I’m aiming for the inscription I saw at Rioanji – ‘I learn only to be contented.’ It would be nice to be contented sitting in a Balzac chair with a Paul Smith rug in front of the fire though. Ah, Mephistopheles…
TODAY’S PROMPT: Do you care about material things? Does charity begin at home? Perhaps charity is an attitude more than what you can give in material terms – maybe even if you’re tightening belts like the rest of us, just thinking in every situation and meeting ‘what can I give’ or ‘how can I help’ is the key. Is a little greed good motivation – wanting something better for you, yours and the world around you? Maybe you use reward charts for your children – stars or smarties for using the potty/good behaviour? Why not think about rewarding yourself in a similar way? The NaNoWriMo box set famously has a star chart to reward great word counts. Doesn’t quite do it for me. What rewards motivate you? Have you ever made a mind map of your future, put together images and words of how you would like things to turn out - why not do it with the kids, take a big sheet of paper, magazines and catalogues and make your dreams visible and real.
