Feb 11

Valentine Expressions

By pattisays In art and interior design, art as gift ideas, artistic expression, beauty behold it, colors, decorative arts, design, design tips, DIY design, handcraft, handmade, hearts and design, inspiration, joy, love, red, Valentine's /   5 Comments

You know…we designers design for our clients and ourselves around themes, we design around events, we design around seasons and of course we design around the trends…it all keeps the commerce of products and materials in motion.  And at this time of year, we see focus on wine clubs, pajama grams, stuffed teddy bears in enormous sizes, hearts, hearts, hearts…and roses natural red or gilded, it’s Valentine’s Day!!!

But it’s fair to note that all seasons have valid design consideration. Setting the scene, enhancing the moment – either for you, your family or a romantic encounter, the holidays and especially this one, evoke a desire to create a scene that conveys love and romance.

To that end , my blog is brief. Enjoy that which brings you joy. Revel in the happiness that presents itself. Create beauty where you can. And as we are want to say….art and good design can almost always bring a better scene to anyone’s place on this precious planet.

So be it a candy heart with a common message of joy, a product acquired to create a scene, a piece of jewelry to promise, a token to send love, a greeting of friendship, a message to offer support, it is all about connecting.

I decided to paint a bowl for my sweetheart. Yes, I had passed this guy’s booth, encouraged others to partake, had appreciated his talent, but never ventured forth. This year, I enjoyed sitting alongside Victor in the shade, with the waves lapping the beach, and soft music wafting through the  air…allowing a moment of focus on an artistic expression, a blank canvas (my bowl) to say Happy Valentine’s Day to MY Valentine.

Here is the finished result.

Connecting. We at PATRICIAN DESIGN support local artists and hope that the next time that you need a gift, want to send a message, or desire a creative addition to your personal space, that you will consider local talent to fulfill that need. OR do it yourself DIY!!!

Wear ART – Shop Local – Support LOCAL artists –  Need we say more?

Ok…we provide the greatest FREE gift wrap to get you on your way!!!

XXX000 Happy Valentine’s Day – (it’s Tuesday – better get prepared!!!)

PATRICIAN DESIGN

Read More
Jan 29

Hearts Are At The Heart Of It All

By pattisays In art and interior design, art as gift ideas, artistic expression, artists, children, decorative arts, design, design tips, handcraft, handmade, hearts and design, inspiration, interior design, lifestyle, love, Mexico, painters, personal expression, Uncategorized, Valentine's /  

Su mundo es corazones. Artist Paola Alonso Rangel is at the heart of Vallarta and literally that is the name of her shop, Corazon Vallarta, where she thrives amidst the bustling activity in the old town, on a busy street corner, with much traffic flowing by both in vehicles and on foot.

p1120692

A man carrying a frightening large pane of glass about 6 feet long by 3 feet wide effortlessly and without intimidation marches down the street with taxis and buses bouncing by him. I cringe at the site and the young shop attendant, Nidia, shrugs with a smile and says “It’s Mexico.”

With Valentine’s Day nearing, this exciting little shop offers a wealth of opportunities to find just the right gift to say “be mine!”

Paola’s little Chihuahua, Pecas (Freckles), suns on the front step seemingly oblivious to all the activity swirling by. She is front and center of all that is happening in Corazon Vallarta.

A designer and hands-on artist of nearly everything she sells in her shop, Alonso Rangel is a model of organization and time utilization. She has her machine fine-tuned and knows just what it takes to create, prepare, produce and market her work.

20170128_115901

In the well-lit back room of her little tienda, she has all of her art supplies neatly organized on sturdy shelving sparing not one square inch of available space. Her computer plays soft Spanish songs that, with the fan blowing gently, creates a pleasing atmosphere where she designs and paints with a couple of assistants to assemble and package her work to sell.

As is true of most urban storefronts, the fine grit that is continuously accumulating from the dusty streets and vehicles in passing contributes to the concerns of successful retail presentation. Hers and others in this type of scene perhaps suffer more due to the cobblestones which collect and distribute ongoing layers of the sooty, dusty, fines.  So everything is kept painstakingly clean and wrapped in cellophane  – just another stage of the process that makes her conscientious practices so impressive.

From colorful wooden puzzles, picture frames, key hangers, boxes and magnets, the expansive home decor and gift collection, on which she collaborates with her brother in Guadalajara, is a treasure of her designs and creativity. All manner of colorful animals with whimsical expressions are the subjects of her puzzles with a bit of flowers and fruit in the mix for a generous variety of choices. Alonso Rangel designs all of the pieces while her brother and his crew with a manufacturing studio in Guadalajara do all the mill-work, brilliantly colorful painting and glossy lacquer finish.

20170129_100543

Other of her work is comprised of original one-of-a-kind creations on canvas and wood, heart-themed all in keeping with her heart-felt passion for  corazones.

She efficiently sets-up her own assembly line of stages of production, with Pecas supervising closely, so that her by-hand (hecho a mano) originals are always filling the walls and shelves and being lovingly selected by customers to take home.

Steel heart sculptures, wooden cut-outs, carvings, and more are the multi-media of her continually, seemingly endless creative concepts and body of work!

20160205_155241-copy

Thank you Paola for all of your inspiration – by design!

p1120692-copy

 

Read More
Jan 21

Nature’s Valentine’s Greeting!!!

By pattisays In Abstract Art, artistic expression, beach, beauty behold it, calligraphy, coastal, design, designs in nature, handcraft, handmade, inspiration, inspiration from nature, joy, love, mosaic, natural designs, natural integrity of the materials, naturalist, nature, personal expression, practical design, primitive design, re-purpose, stone, Valentine's /   3 Comments

So when you least expect it…nature speaks. On a silent coastline on a great lake in the wilds of Wisconsin the stones on the beach offered a hidden alphabet of opportunity. Upon making this discovery, I searched for and collected just the right pieces and sent a love note to my sweetheart. Wishing he were there to share in the wonderful adventure that was hiking through the enchanted woods to this lakeside hideaway, I did the next best thing and found an expression of LOVE , took a photo and messaged off to him…technology and instant gratification – well, across the miles…

20160809_182944-copy

The lovely white stones were amazing…I don’t know the geology…could probably Google it, but suffice it to say they were white and soft, angular but smooth, bleached and clean – massed in a thick bed for miles along the shoreline. I wish I could have taken buckets of them to do something…fill a large snifter, layer in the sink for the water to spill over and remind me of this scene, touch and fondle – they were so special, so uniform in size – such a natural phenomenon of raw beauty.

Paired with the rough, elegant, weathered, driftwood that was scattered along the rubble and upon which I carefully placed the stones, the composition was truly a work of art – inspired by  nature and assembled by my eager fascination with the media.

20160809_182212-copy

Take away…love is all around – OH! has that been said before? Well…love IS all around us and to find an actual, natural formation of alphabet letters that allowed the simplest expression of literal words, to be transported across the miles,  was magic.

Art…design…nature…find it!!! Happy almost Valentine’s Day!!!!

Read More
Jan 17

Would A Love Letter Be The Same Without Handwriting?

By pattisays In art and interior design, artistic expression, artists, calligraphy, Contemporary Art, cursive, Discovering Art, education, expressionism, Gershwin, graphic arts, handwriting, hearts and design, inspiration, Leon de la Vega, love, Mexico, Mind Your Handwriting by Leon de la Vega, Modern Art, music scores, neurology, painters, personal expression, signature, teaching, Valentine's, writing /  1 2 Comments

After having seen Federico Leon de la Vega’s presentation at TEDX Talks in September and after having seen some of the work in progress over the past couple of years, it was a treat last week to be in his studio to see the collection exhibited up close and in person!

Presented on fabulously enormous canvases and a few smaller studies, these bold graphic statements compile a contemporary collection that is quite astounding. The premise is quite provocative.

The idea that handwriting is a basic human means of communication having evolved into the very personal flowing script of cursive that each individual can call their own – in their own style – it’s almost as personal as a fingerprint. It is an extraordinary human function that should be protected, revered and certainly not lost to the fast-paced technology of the digital age!

Making one’s mark on a surface…a piece of paper…to convey a thought, idea, instruction, story, a doodle on a paper towel – a love letter.

20170117_120810

With Valentine’s Day approaching, it brings to mind the idea of love letters. We read them throughout literature and listen to them in songs. We hear of them being saved over time by recipients in treasured boxes tied with ribbon to be read over and over or merely saved for others to find long after…

These magnificent oil paintings convey the art of handwriting. They celebrate the simplest marks of hand to canvas with brush and paint looping in circles and jutting in spikes – the primary strokes of handwriting. These primary strokes are the foundation of mastering the control needed to make the continuous flow of letters that become each person’s personal interpretation of the alphabet in cursive style and an exclusive means of communication.

Style – handwriting conveys personal style. Look at yours. Is it always the same or do you mix it up? Do you stay consistent or do you express different styles of your own handwriting for different purposes?  Look at your friend’s handwriting – would you recognize it anywhere?

federico-signature

It is thrilling to walk among these great canvases with their color and  bold strokes. It is arresting to realize that they are so simple yet so complex in what they are saying. We must recognize the value of handwriting. We must not let it be dropped from our schools’ curriculum. We must continue to see the importance of the pure, mind to hand, raw emotion.

Powerful spikes require starting and stopping – control.

Loose loops also require control to maintain uniformity.

20170113_194255

After control is learned, expression can take over resulting in that personal style that becomes each individual’s identifying handwriting.

20170113_194522

Federico reminds us in his talk, about how we might have attempted to write a love letter for the first time and how many times it was crumpled because it wasn’t quite right. The failed attempts of recording our feelings as we strive to say the right thing, to express our deepest emotions. Yet once accomplished, those words hand-written mean so much more than the same words conveyed by type or digital communications.

“From my heart to my mind, from my mind to my hand, from my hand to the paper I place in your hand,  so you may fold it and keep it near to your heart. No delete!”

The digital world is all around us. We cannot escape it, nor should we. However, the human evolution and the brain’s development that mastered the art of handwriting is a place that could be diminished and lost if we do not continue the art and practice of personal expression through this extraordinary medium.

All we need is love – sent via a personalized handwritten letter from the heart. Here’s to a Happy Valentine’s Day !!!

Read More
Feb 20

Red – A GIFT of LOVE and the Little Bug Behind the Magic

By pattisays In A Red Like No Other, Amy Butler Greenfield, art and interior design, artists, Aztec, beauty behold it, civilization, cochineal, color and temperature re: interior design, context of interior design, decorative arts, design, environmental, fashion and design, folkart, historical interior design, history, inspiration from nature, Jared Hess, love, Mexico, movies, multi-media design, Museum of International Folk Art, Nacho Libre, nature, painters, primitive design, Santa Fe, New Mexico, theatrical design, Valentine's /  

A little bug selectively bred on a cactus in Mexico way back in the 1500s, for its use as a magnificently unique red dye, soon became recognized, by European traders who discovered it while bartering  in the Aztecan markets, as the most dazzling rich red on the planet. The result was the realization that this red bug juice was a rare trading commodity that rivaled even gold!  Yes, a squished bug that oozed a red color that was so extraordinary that it was nearly valued above all. This indigenous American discovery spread worldwide and altered the course of history for art (obviously), cultural  influences, certainly its trading value and even science.

Before I continue with this brief summary of this extraordinary discovery and my personal  comments on the subject, try this little experiment.  Think of all the things that you associate with red. Think of all the things that are special and standout because they are red. Do this yourself – make a list or maybe make it a game of it at a party – have everyone make their own list and then share the lists – see how many make the same observations and how many identify different items.  More on this later…

This story behind  today’s blog is derived from a book by Amy Butler Greenfield, A Perfect Red Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire which influenced a collective of international experts, in a variety of fields of expertise, to produce an incomparable exhibit  at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe that astonished the world.  The book that compiles photographs of worldly treasures and narrative describing the making of and content of this extraordinary exhibit is A Red Like No Other – How Cochineal Colored the World. It was my Valentine’s gift and it truly is a treasure – a gift of love. A red likeno other - book

Cocheneal, this little bug and its unexpected authority and influence, is the center of this universal love affair. A love affair with a color so seductive and so powerful that it evokes passion and emotion with everything that bears its true hue. The forward of this book by co-editor Carmella Padilla states that “everyone has a visceral knowledge of red. Therein lies its power. ” Red is imperative. And if you didn’t realize the depth of this statement, you will be amused, challenged,  amazed and intrigued beyond belief to read about the history and processes behind this exhibit .

Carmine  – this regal bug juice, so purely red, the prized pigment – is something all artists revere. They know the importance of this hue as they strive to create their projects. The quest for the perfect colors and the balance of colors in painting and in other art forms is an ongoing progressive journey. I feel remiss to not have known about this earlier. How can you take art history for semesters on end and not be introduced to this? It’s been an exciting discovery for me to learn of this viscose bug extract, carmine, and this recent journey I have taken to read of its history has been truly thrilling.

As I write this, by stark contrast to the wonderfully cerebral documentation and observations in this book, I find myself watching the endearingly inane movie Nacho Libre out of the corner of my eye.  And  what surprises me all of a sudden is that the color red is so effectively inserted into the scenes. nacholibre

The director, Jared Hess,  knowingly or not recognized the value of the color pop and punctuated many artful scenes that would have lacked depth and interest had he not had the eye to do so. My heightened awareness amuses me – especially in the context of this crazy, silly movie. The creatively artful incorporation and placement of red is so apparent in this nutty, fun film.  Ana de la Reguera lips Nacho LibreHer lips, his costume, the children’s masks, a sunspot on a bus, the fighting ring ropes, structural elements in the arena are all so subliminal yet so vivid. Consistent and repeated use of the contrast with the bold red color in combination with turquoise is also a key element in this film.Nacho Libre masks

So back to the party where everyone is listing things they associate with red. If you can get a copy of this book and whip it out after everyone has read the lists, I promise everyone will find it captivating on so many levels and subjects – great lively conversation, fun, fascination and amazement will ensue!!

 

 

 

 

Read More