Perpetual Art Student
03.03.2015 § Leave a comment
The Studio Collection acts as a reminder that there is a host of great art where we can experience the sublime beauties created by many different souls. To go into the deep hearts of those who felt compelled to communicate with their colors, shapes and spaces.
As we age, our perception of visual phenomena changes, actually rather I should say it broadens. When I was young, I could not understand Van Gogh; his swirling texture and thick paints used to scare me. Now he makes many of his contemporaries look pale and unworthy, especially Gauguin.
It’s this broad experience that Brentano’s designers and I used to shape our spring, artist-inspired collection. Some patterns were created for sentimental reasons. Like Moonrise, which I based on a motif created by my best friend in Chicago. She gave up her art career a few years ago to become a Buddhist nun. We can no longer talk intimately because 350 monastic precepts separate her life from mine. To have a reminder of her work in my portfolio comforts me.
Moonrise Inspiration
Moonrise Fabric
Cheval draws from San Yu’s horses. Here’s an artist that made me say, “Where have you been all my life? How come I only learned about you now?”
San Yu’s Horses
Because I am a painter, I admire sculptors more. Their hard, physical work alone is worthy of my respect. Akari (below) is a pattern inspired by Isamu Noguchi and his teacher Constantin Brâncuși.
Akari Fabric
Sculptors’ paintings usually amaze me; I am in awe when I see Brâncuși’s paintings. Here’s a sculptor who hardly uses color in his work yet has such a great color sense.
Portrait of a Woman
by Constantin Brâncuși
Study of Mlle Pogany
by Constantin Brâncuși
Although I do not directly attribute my inspiration for any of the patterns in this collection or in the Gallery collection to Brâncuși, his simple, strong yet elegant forms are forever my pursuit in my endeavors to create art. In fact, I should stop talking or writing because I feel the same way he did:
To tell you what I wanted to express with one of my works would be more difficult than the endeavor itself.
My country, my family is the Earth that turns. The wind that blows, the clouds that are passing, the water that flows, the green grass, the hay, the snow ball …
Woven-Words 
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