Kahn

Today's inspiration = Kahn.
heavy lightness.
stubborn form.
deep in shadow.
cool in touch.
sleeping giants.

oh la la!

apologies for the lengthy hiatus from blogging - I have been doing exciting things like being in paris, making exciting career moves and being busy! speaking of paris - this is so cute! I will post some paris snaps and other bits and pieces in the coming weeks - along with some work updates too hopefully! xxx

Louis Vuitton presents "Small is Beautiful!" from Louis Vuitton on Vimeo.

making a home

I love megan morton's minimal and textural styling. Lately my life situation has meant that I have again, excitedly and surprisingly, started thinking about making a home - full of love and light! What a joy.

life is fun with work, work is fun with life

I simply cannot wait to watch this documentary.  For a number of years the Eames have served as a great inspiration to me and my architecture and design career as a whole.  I know Ice Cube is also a fan!

life is a beautiful thing

 

you and me versus the world

I have lots of exciting news. 

take that james bond!

I really like this table, the 'Kai' table, designed by Hirakoso and Kitahra.  The table is made almost entirely of secret compartments! Sliding drawers, hinged cupboards and shifting panels - like a giant wooden puzzle! My only fear is that I would lose things forever inside of it! (via architizer)

the edge

Last night I went with a very lovely person to the opening of the Campbelltown art centre's 'Edge of Elsewhere' exhibition. Going out on the journey west after work was a first for me, all that traffic and the longest tunnel in Australia?! (or maybe the driver driver was pulling my leg...) It was interesting to see a side of Sydney relatively so close to home that I am so removed from culturally and physically! Suitably, the exhibition focused on community projects by artists working on the periphery or 'edge'. The exhibition as a whole is part of a three year project engaging with the diverse cultural mix that is Western Sydney.

I didn't take any photos last night, and I can't find any on the internet at the moment, but if you are a sydney-sider I definitely recommend going along to check it out. taking a bit of a road trip. Enjoy the beautiful coin opperated dancers, studio ghibli-esq animation shots telling the story of an aboriginal boy and robotic cow! All glimpses and takes at what it might mean for us to be Australians in this moment.

Artists :Brook Andrew, Arahmaiani, Richard Bell, Dacchi Dang, Newell Harry, FX Harsono, Shigeyuki Kihara, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Lisa Reihana, Khaled Sabsabi, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Michel Tuffery and YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES

2012!!!

After an incredible trip away with great friends I have returned to life, and am in better shape than ever!
2012 will bring bright and wonderful things, I can just tell.  At the request of some, I will endeavour to update le blog more frequently, and will try and get an ever-expanding backlog of my own work up, from time to time.
Love and Light!
Melissa
x

My heart is ready for the sun

Rain art installation by Stacee Kalmanovsky. Hand-crafted drops are strung together by hundreds of strings is the inherent interactivity of such an isolation – it invites people to move through it, brushing the motionless rain into new and unplanned directions.
Despite the complexity of experience the materials are simple: fishing lines, plastic beads and a good deal of time were the core elements it took to create this. In her words: “Stacee Kalmanovsky’s work is rooted in the uncanny, suggestive, and picturesque. Her urge to invent and exaggerate is tempered by a deep dedication to the medium at hand. She believes in the conceptual process itself, from gathering information and sorting through, manipulating, and qualifying the image, to the indisposable skill to achieve the end result. Like in the alchemic process, the raw matter (sulfur = visual information) is transformed, refined, and persuaded into its purest form (gold = art).”

bookends and bright stars

TO EARTHWARD 

 Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air

That crossed me from sweet things,
The flow of--was it musk
From hidden grapevine springs
Downhill at dusk?

I had the swirl and ache
From sprays of honeysuckle
That when they're gathered shake
Dew on the knuckle.

I craved strong sweets, but those
Seemed strong when I was young;
The petal of the rose
It was that stung.

Now no joy but lacks salt,
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault;
I crave the stain

Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost too much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove.

When stiff and sore and scarred
I take away my hand
From leaning on it hard
In grass and sand,

The hurt is not enough:
I long for weight and strength
To feel the earth as rough
To all my length. 

-Robert Frost 

 

Nebulae :: IC423 - Tear Drop Nebula   

Mark Mawson

peonies!!!

Alan Jaras

These are incredible analog images formed directly on to film without the use of a camera lens (in the same way as a photogram), of the refraction patterns of light passing through formed and shaped plastics.
So beautiful and inspiring!

train tunnel

with a genetic disposition to all things train related, I was enchanted by this train tunnel from Kleven in the  Ukraine. The Ukraine was not previously on my list of desired travel destinations, until now.

vintage vogue

I have found a literal treasure trove in 'youthquakers' blog.  Full of issues of the vogue spanning the past decades I could get lost for hours on this site.
I have copied a couple of favourites from early 70s editions of US and French Vogue below...

From 15th April 1972 - US Vogue  with  Sofia Loren on the cover, an interior moment 'The new Roman way'. Loving the earth tone colour wheel in motion!

March 1971 - Paris Vogue has a sparkle-eyed Audrey Hepburn on the cover, with some black and white gems of Viviane and Margrit Ramme by Helmut Newton.

 as well as a shoot of audrey at home!

It is amazing to consider how far fashion has come in the last 30-40 years, how style has changed and morphed through time and context, and yet how things that are truly beautiful can be maintained as inspiration through the ages.

isabel lucus for vogue australia

this shoot is one of the first in a while that has inspired and shot me with pangs of fashion and travel envy! Photographed by Max Doyle.