Inspiration log: The Ones We Love, Vivaldi recomposed, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
Inspiration Log is my weekly collection of 5 things that's touched me creatively
1) The Ones We Love - exploring human connection and interaction
Be Still, My Heart - Marta Giaccone
Hill Street Chronicles - Karen Ward
Primal Planet - Ke Peng
The Ones We Love is an online/print photography journal "committed to featuring premier photography that explores human connection and interaction." I was drawn to the way these images feel so incredibly intimate and fragile, each image like a poem, or a moment suspended in time. It feels human and real in that un-staged, incredibly beautiful way.
2) The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (prose poetry, 1923)
On what it means to work with love
On joy and sorrow:
The Prophet is a book of prose poetry published in 1923 by the Lebanese artist, Kahil Gibran. I was in the middle of purging my book collection - from over 150 books to 26 books - when I decided that this book had to stay in my permanent collection.
Its effect on me is similar to The Little Prince, or verses of Hafiz and Rumi: incredibly grounding. There are so many things - all the important things, I might argue - better expressed through poetry than through long explanations and arguments.
3) The Writer's Room - writers in their spaces (NYT)
The Writer's Room is a column published in the T magazine featuring interviews with writers, and photographs of their work spaces. Mostly, I look at the pictures. These are some of my favorites. How idyllic, luxurious, dreamy, and ordinary! I'm always obsessed with this sort of thing - I think because creative work is so internal and in-your-head; it's grounding to see where it physically happens.
4) The typography on this signage [visual]
One Friday, we took a long walk from upper tip of Manhattan (near where I live) down 80 blocks. I saw this art-deco-y style lettering and really loved it, especially the curvature of the S, and of the numbers. It reminds me of something very classy. (The New Yorker? The Great Gatsby?)
3) Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi's Four Seasons
I listened to this entire album this past Sunday with a pair of noise-cancelling earphones (while it was raining outside), and I felt instantly tranquil and calm. What can I say... it felt like taking a bath in cucumber water. Very cleansing (Vivaldi always is), but with a Richter twist. If I were to create a Sunday creative cleansing routine, this would go on it.