Disney is EVERYWHERE. Certainly my market must be one of the last frontiers for them, no?
My friend and client, Rebecca was BORN with mouse ears on her head. She harasses me (lovingly) all the time because as a fundamental contrarian, I refuse to visit Disneyworld. She won’t admit it, but I just know she considers it child abuse. She sent me an email yesterday, with just a picture of a beautiful room to tease me. Guess what? The room is from The Walt Disney Signature Collection from Drexel Heritage and the stuff is gorgeous!
Drexel Heritage is an upscale manufacturer of fine furniture. They paired with Disney to bring this “non-character, adult high end line…of over fifty pieces”. The fabrics are styled after Walt’s personal clothing. The collection has been described as relaxed glamour or casual elegance, which apparently WAS the signature style of Walt himself.
This line is meant get grab those couple of stragglers (like me) who try to avoid worshiping the Princess Goddesses and Animated Angels with my cash. Pam Lifford, from Disney Home, admits this in the promotional video, “It is a chance for us to create an everyday approach to home décor and it allows a family to experience it in a way in which they would not have experienced the Walt Disney Company.”
IT IS WORKING. Check out these pictures:
Park Occasional Chair $949
Legacy Hall Chest $1,799
Holmby Chair $1275
Walt’s Signature Desk $3,449
I am reading Kim Parker Home, just published this month from Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
Kim Parker’s flowered paintings are better know than she, and I imagine she hopes this book will change that. Target and World Market sold her prints for a few years now, and you have probably seen them, but didn’t know who the artist was.
Kim Parker Home contains pages and pages of her beautiful paintings–riots of bright hues of semi-abstract gardens. At combining pure tones, she is a master. Her paintings are simple but not primitive, and though she uses mostly clear tones, her designs somehow remain unchildish. Leafing through the book is a exhilarating for anyone with passion for color.
The text is another matter entirely. The book must be read a page at a time to avoid nausea. Her tone is annoying, and she sounds like a indulgent teenager complaining about being misunderstood.
“No matter how brutal things became during by fashion studio years, I was always grateful to be holding a paintbrush in my hand and to have a paycheck to take home. I knew what it meant to live in a great city like New York and be able to support myself as an artist, even if my self-expression was being severely squelched.”
Gag.
I created this mirror with glass tiles chosen in the same proportion of color as one of her posters a few years ago.
Inspiration can come from anywhere.
When starting a project, big or small, inspiration is the launchpad to the plan. But inspiration is fickle. The formation of an idea can be difficult when it seems to have nowhere to come from but thin air. Here are some ways to grab at the wind and capture a Muse.
Start with the basics: What motivated the change at the very beginning? Was it the prospect of moving? A life change? Or was it simpler? Did your favorite chair finally give way to bare springs? Perhaps a movie or television show inspired you. Or an article from a magazine or blog. Are there elements in the planned change that can be incorporated or copied?
Find something–anything– that appeals to you DEEPLY. This can be a tiny, rather mundane object, like a stone or a leaf. It may also be a work of art. In either case, breathe deeply, and try to listen to what it is about the object that speaks to you. It may be the color, or perhaps the texture. It may be the memory associated with it. Begin to associate these feelings with words.
Look for other rooms that reflect the feelings/words associated with the object. Keep your eyes open. Scrutinize public, private and printed spaces. This will be difficult at first. Eventually, however, the vision will become clearer and it will become easy to recognize what is “just right.”