Design Inspiration

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since my last post! It seems like just yesterday. Everyday I ask myself when will life be settling down into a comfortable rhythm and everyday our lives seem to crazier and crazier. I live a good life surrounded by good friends, loving family, great clients I can’t complain. For the most part I bring the craziness on myself by trying to cram as much into one day as I possibly can. It doesn’t always work out so well, apparently I am not super human after all and it really is hard to juggle being a mom, wife, friend, daughter and business owner. I had good intentions to write this sooner, clean out my closet sooner, change the oil in my car sooner, go to bed sooner, lose weight sooner…the list goes on. In the end I get the job done.

I am always collecting pictures of random things I find inspirational and once again I’d like to share them with you. There’s quite a few since I’ve been collecting for awhile and I decided to split them up into separate blogs rather than plunk them all here. So this one relates to artists that inspire me and the next will be furniture that inspires me.

The first is a an artist that is inspired by topography. Matthew Cusick creates incredible works of art from Mapquest by reconfiguring roads, rivers and municipal transit systems to create intricate images that look like paintings and drawings, if looked at from distance.

"mapquest" mixed media by Matthew Cusick

Mixed media Matthew Cusick

I love the use of recycled material and these next few artists have done things I wish I thought of!

I was recently in London and discovered Ryan McElhinney who creates made to order one of kind lamps using recycled toys from his London studio. They are bonded together and coated in a high gloss lacquer. I can see this in a traditional or modern setting. I love them!

Gold Toy Lamp

Toy Lamp

Anna-Wili Highfield is a Sydney based artist that makes sculptures of animals created from archival cotton paper, that is torn, painted, then sewn together, to create the figure of an animal.

French artist Anastassia Elias is on a roll with her Roleaux paper tube art. I think they would look awesome on shelf with the light filtering behind them. A collection would be great but they are pricy little things at 400€- 900€ per roll!

In The Park by Anastassia Elias

Tango by Anastassia Elias

Painters by Anastassia Elias

Always good to have a sense of humour with art. How did artist Vlad Artazov look at nails and see ballet dancers, a sore loser or surgeons? He creates simple yet brilliant vignettes using nails and screws which he then photographs. I love these!

Sore Loser by Vlad Artazov. You can just imagine this nail storming off in a huff!

Nail Surgeons by Vlad Artazov

Nail Ballet by Vlad Artazov

Sand Tree Trunks

I seem to blather on about where I find inspiration and much to my children’s chagrin alot of it comes from the nature we are surrounded by. Ever since my kids were small I would point out the beautiful or unusually coloured hides on cows or horses as we drove by. A stunning field of sunflowers, cloud formations, hawks or a wheat blowing in a gentle breeze creating a wave of energy over the field. Now that they are 20 and 18 I still can’t prevent myself from pointing things out, they are not amused when I shriek while they are driving about the amazing field of poppies I just saw. Having said that, I do catch them every now and then telling me what the shapes of clouds remind them of or did I see that fabulous harvest moon?

Continuing that train of thought on where I find inspiration I recently came across a couple of artist who remind me of each other and have taken art from nature to a whole other level that is truly inspirational.

The first artist is British naturalist Andy Goldsworthy. Alot of his art is temporary and created outdoors if the wind blows it away, he starts over again. Because of the mortality of his art he uses photography as a form of documentation to capture the essence of his work. Talk about an “art attack”! He works with leaves, rocks, seasons, cycles, snow, ice, sticks, and organic materials. “Looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins.” Andy Goldsworthy.

Autumn Leaves by Andy Goldsworthy

Stones by Andy Goldsworthy

Snow Circles

The second artist I am already dreaming about being able to commission. His work is so organic and begs to be touched.

Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira was a student in São Paulo,when the plywood fence outside his window began to peel and fade into different layers and colors. When the fence was dismantled, he collected the remains which has now propelled and inspired him into his new dynamic and undulating creations.

I may just have to include a trip to Brazil to see these fabulous creations live!

Henrique Oliveira