life&design&value

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.

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

http://benlongfineart.com/

http://johndempseyfineart.com/

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

Marcus Aurelius 

I think I might stay awhile.

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

  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.

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?