MONDAY 14 FEBRUARY: At my desk again, listening to beautiful music from a playlist Sally made and staring at my potplant Alfie. (Skipped 3 weeks again!! Omg, I guess better sometimes than never. My birthday weekend, picking zinneas on the Merri and uni orientation all conspired to see me not find time to sit here, in this pocket of the internet..)
SPACE-MAKING
Between Chantelle moving in, catalysing us setting up various rooms of the house, and establishing my Creative Classroom!! In our 10x10m garage, I have been space making a lot. Nice to be setting up rooms and making them beautiful. I remember Melina recounting her Chilean interior designer mother’s advice of always making areas in a room functional as well as stylish. I really think about that when I see rooms or sections of rooms in people’s houses which never get used. Even though they might look beautiful. There’s something about the arrangement that isn’t inviting. Could even be something small, like a great armchair that doesn’t have anywhere to put down your cup of coffee. Having a mini bookshelf next to it with some welcoming tomes, a folded blanket in case you get cold and nice lighting would all help to make the nook pop. Actually just so fun, in a way it’s like experience design.
CONTAGIOUS MOTIVATION
I’ve been hanging out with a lot of people lately who are incredibly charismatic and motivated and it really catches on. Damien is my new boss, for one of my jobs, and he said he wants to meet everyone in Melbourne. Simply just to smile at them, I think. Pretty beautiful. Coffee making is just pouring people black water that tastes nice, he says, delicious. But really the job is all about laughing, having a good time with everyone and leaving them walking away with a grin. We seemed to do that a lot, and I too walked away with a grin, just after being a barista for the morning. Pretty nice.
INHALE EXHALE
I learnt that inspiration comes from in+spirare, the Latin word ‘to breathe,’ so ‘to breathe in,’ which really connects with my thought about inhaling and exhaling, that we ‘inhale’ as we go about our day, taking in all this input. And that creativity is one way to ‘exhale,’ to interpret or move through all of that stuff that we’ve discovered while we’ve been being.
INSPIRED BY THE TAP
Speaking of inspiration, I have been really intrigued by the reflection of myself in the tap lately, when I’ve been in the shower. I find I always have lots of ideas in the shower, I wonder if it’s the sense of taking a moment for myself and not doing anything else. Or is it something about the water? Or perhaps it’s the time of day (first thing in the morning) when I’m in the shower. Anyway, the tap is itself a cool shape, kind of like a teardrop upside down. And then in the reflection, I have gigantic legs and a tiny head. And because it’s a reflection on curved metal, it kind of all has that hazy, streaky quality to it. I really want to paint it. So i will... I mean, why not !