New Developments

I hate to make excuses for my absence of late but I have a few and they are pretty good!

So there are some changes going on here at Inspired.Paint.Repeat.  All good but all change.  For once in a long time I am completely swamped with work all summer!  This is good thing however it gets so hot here that it gets hard to focus on anything other than when and where you can locate your next snowball!  Lots of furniture, gilding, a mural for the City of Gretna, a few painted floors, lots of fun things to keep my mind and hands busy for a while!

Secondly, I am expecting my first baby in November!  Thrilled but overwhelmed with many emotions.  Now that the fuzzy tired feeling has left I am starting to feel like myself again.  It is not a myth, morning sickness feels like a really bad hangover and that inability to focus...that is real too!

Last but not least, I am working on something new.  Something not really related to painting per se but most definitely related to design.  I got a call from a designer, client and friend who gave me the most random job request(challenge) I have ever received.  I honestly love these moments, since more often than not, the greatest challenges spawn the greatest reward!

My sister is a graphic designer and she often sends me some great posts and newsletters on design.  These are by Paul Rand is a legendary design icon, he is also well assosciated with the modernist movement in all forms.  I find these quotes relevant because when I get swamped with work and life I find it easy to lose sight of why I do what I do.  I have mentioned this before but as a painter/artist we all have the same skills or can arrive at them with practice but at the end of the day our discerning eyes and skills are what brings value to a project.  Enjoy!

Paul Rand on good design:

Even if it is true that the average man seems most comfortable with the commonplace and familiar, it is equally true that catering to bad taste, which we so readily attribute to the average reader, merely perpetuates the mediocrity and denies the reader one of the most easily accessible means for aesthetic development and eventual enjoyment.  


from Thoughts on Design


Good design adds value of some kind, gives meaning, not incidentally, can be sheer pleasure to behold; it respects the viewer's sensibilities and rewards the entrepreneur.


from Design Form and Chaos