Since moving from Africa to North America a number of years ago, I learned to really appreciate September. When I lived on the prairies, the turn of the page on the calendar heralded cooler temperatures–and no mosquitoes–along with the most beautiful colours in nature I had never seen before. September made you forget that you were heading into a cold harsh winter where no amount of uttering “hot tomato soup, hot tomato soup” could warm you up when the temperatures dipped to -40 degrees. It also meant the beginning of a new school year and a great excuse to go shopping for the latest fashions in school supplies and what one would wear from head to toe on the first day back. And of course the magazines are resuscitated from their paltry summer bikini size to the hearty 600-paged editions of Vogue and the likes.
Fall has also been another chance for reflection for me in the same way the New Year is for others. For some reason the change in season and the unveiling of new ideas in fashion and interior design seem to get me thinking about my own creativity and ideas. It usually starts with wanting to redo parts of my home by moving around furniture and trying to create another feeling with accessories and colours. (Right now I really want to move to another space but that’s a whole other story.) This led me to pull out a book from one of my favourite designers today, Vicente Wolfe. The book is called “Learning to See: Bringing the World Around You Into Your Home“. It is a fascinating look at how an interior designer takes his own personal beliefs and way of seeing the world and translates it into something physical and visual.
Vicente Wolf was born in Cuba and moved to New York with his parents when he was 15 years old. His story of how and why he became an interior designer explains much of his design approach and his final creations. As he was growing up, no-one realized he was dyslexic but as a result, he developed his other senses especially his vision. He wandered through the Museum of Modern Art in Havana and drank in all that he saw. He poured over National Geographic magazines and dreamed about places he hoped he would one day visit. Because of his learning disability, he created a world of his own and developed a wonderful imagination. Unable to read with ease, “the knowledge and opinions of ‘authorities’ was often beyond (his) reach” and so he turned to his visual skills and imagination when he entered the working design world in New York city. I think this resulted in a very intuitive style (and I really mean voice here) that is so recognizable as a “Vicente Wolf” room. In this book he writes:
“I believe you can find your own style by simply becoming conscious of the things that bring you pleasure. The path to wisdom, it has been said, is self-knowledge. You can cultivate your own likes and experiences–the colors in a favorite painting, the textures of shells discovered on a beach–and translate these pleasures into the design of your own home. I am encouraging not imitation, but independence…how you can empower yourself and develop the confidence of your own eye…My thoughts are meant to be an example of finding your inner self–getting in touch not so much with my creativity, but with your own.“
When we talk about what are our influences, I want to draw from other forms of art and to even dip into design as I’ve always enjoyed it. There are creative arts that I can look at other than photography and learn to be a better artist. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that Vicente Wolf is also a photographer. Remember that boy who loved to look at National Geographic magazines? He now uses his photographs from places like Thailand, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Syria as a spring board to create distinctive interiors for his clients. His second book is called “Crossing Boundaries: A Global Vision of Design“–also a favourite of mine any time of the year. Many people throw around the words “inspiration” and “influence” and in my book, these two works by Vicente Wolf do much to define what they actually should mean to us as artists and photographers.
I just love it that you look for inspiration and influences in so many different places and people, but the big thing that stuck out was “wait, I didn’t know she lived in Africa?!?!?”
LOL…hope you were able to get past the first sentence, Brian. Yes, I’ve lived a few lives in this life and am trying to share it all through my photographs–even the ones I make today.
I can certainly appreciate the restlessness to change with the seasons. I think that it goes back anthropologically to the changes we really needed to make when we has more vital things to think about and less esoteric needs; the harvest, bedding, firewood, clothes and food for the winter etc. I really enjoyed how you brought that round to someone who finds inspiration in the world around us. Vision and seeing can, and should, certainly be applied to more areas of our lives than one might think on the face of it.
Ed, if you have a chance, you should pop by his store in New York. I can’t remember exactly where it is and I wasn’t able to find it on my visit there last year. I am sure it will have you seeing in a new way especially if he has some of his photographs up on the wall.
Was I dreaming or was there a different picture here yesterday?
I think you must have been dreaming Ken…I have others from this place but I’ve only posted this one so far.
I love the changing seasons. I am from a bit of Australia where the seasons really don’t have much change – winter there is similar to spring where I am now, or summer in Europe! So watching the lacy fuzz of spring, the glorious leaves of autumn, the bare, skeletal beauty of winter and my absolute favourite of all – SNOW! – and then the lushness of summer is wonderful.
The urge to create when things change is strong I think. New Year (and now I celebrate 2 of them – Western and Chinese) always inspires me. Birthdays are the same.
The major influences for me are often in books – particlarly Asian philosophy books – and in the architecture around me. The beauty of carvings and murals on some of the traditional buildings, the formality of gardens, especially those with water as a central feature… these encourage me to think about form, context and the inner drive we have to create beauty.
Like your image above – the story for me is promises of relaxation, of glorious flowers beautifying our surroundings, and even the bird droppings on the wall add to the feeling of ‘comfort’ and potential for connection.
Changes around us, changes in thingking are wonderful!
I’m going through a seasonal rennaisance right now. Spring is my favourite time of year followed by autumn. It’s all about renewal. Love that you’re looking for inspiration from other creative fields. I’m reading a book about typefaces at the moment which is fun and takes you into a completely different world of creativity.