Mirror on the Wall

Take a step back. Look at yourself. You are human. You are beautiful. you are so beautiful. And you can be anything. You can be everything. Do not hate because someone broke your heart, or because your parents split up or your best friend betrayed you. Do not concern yourself with things you cannot control. Cry when you need to, then let go when it’s time. Don’t hang on to painful memories just because you’re afraid to forget. Let go of things that are in the past. Forget things that aren’t worth remembering. Stop taking things for granted. Stop taking life for granted. Live for something. Live for yourself. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Do this over and over until you know what it really is to love someone. Question things. Tell people how you really feel. Sleep under the stars. Create. Imagine. Inspire. Share something wonderful. Make something beautiful and then destroy it. Meet new people. Make someone’s day. Follow your dreams. Live your life to its full potential. Just live. Let go of all the horrible things in your life and just live. And one day, when you’re old, look back with no regrets.

Work Wisdom

“I always thought about, in early life, our objective, certainly people in the design profession, is to look professional, and to feel professional…. and you wanted to have that veneer and that sense of authority… and it was all we really wanted to do – you come out of school and you want your work to look like these marvellously slick, professional things that were in the world…”

“And then at a certain point, you reach professional level, and your work looks like that, and you realize its not enough.  That merely, getting to a point where your work looks good enough to be called professional is just the starting point.”

“…as a metaphor… when you start to learn how to draw… you are so overwhelmed with the difficulty with making things look like what they are… and you almost die trying to control your nerve endings so that the object looks like its supposed to, and you spend years doing that. And then finally you get to the point when you finally draw something that looks like what they are.”

“And then you discover, that’s not the point.  That being able to draw something that looks like something, is nothing.  That that is only the starting point.  Now you have to ask yourself, how do I make a good drawing, or an expressive drawing, or a drawing that means something.  Because the ability to only make it accurate, is actually a low-level ability.  Even though its taken you years to get to that point, its not very relevant.  But there’s no other way to get there.

“The same thing is true of your work. You sort of strive to make it look good, and make it look as good as your peers, and make it looks as good as the other stuff in the “Art Directors Annual”, and so on.  And then at a certain point if you continue and persevere, you realize that’s not good enough.  You have to go beyond that level, in order to engage that other thing, which is true expressive content, true meaning.”

-Milton Glaser, Design Matters

A metaphor that, I think, applies to all aspects of work, and anyone who wants to be truly great at what they do.

Loves comes and goes...

A lot of us have built dreams with people we hoped would be with us forever only to wake up to reality that nothing is permanent in this world. Love comes and goes. People stay and leave. Life is a constant cycle of finding and losing; of making and breaking; of dying and living again. That is why we should love them right for we may never tell. We might wake up one day realizing that we already lost the people we ought to protect and love.

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Famous LOVE Artwork

“I'm guilty of giving people more chances than they deserve but when I'm done, I'm done.”

The concept of LOVE has been explored by many artists throughout history.

Love is a very strong emotion, and is probably as difficult to define as art itself. There are several kinds of love – maternal, patriotism, brotherly, romantic love, etc.

                                                            Famous LOVE Artwork

                                                 

Robert Indiana, Love, 1971

Love (above) is a famous sculpture by American Pop artist Robert Indiana. There are several versions, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the one above located in New York City, USA.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

The Kiss (1907-1908) is a much loved painting by Gustav Klimt, an Austrian painter.

The painting displays an embracing couple, surrounded by patterns in the robes. The style was influenced by the arts and crafts movement and Art Nouveau. The mediums are oil and gold leaf on canvas.

In The Garden - Pierre Auguste Renoir

Renoir painted this painting in 1885, and it is now displayed at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

A couple is seen relaxing and surrounded by the beauty of the garden. The man gazes at the lady, seemingly eager to capture her attention. A bouquet of flowers lay on the table.  He holds one hand and wraps the other around her waist, while she gazes at the viewer.

The love of the young man seems to be unrequited.

The Kiss - Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch (better known for his painting The Scream) captured the passion of love in this powerful expressionist painting The Kiss (1897).

The faces are indistinguishable and locked together in a kiss. The image is dramatic and moody. The figures are melded together in an embrace, oblivious of anything else but each other.

The Kiss – Auguste Rodin

This marble sculpture was created by Rodin in 1889. The concept for the sculpture originated from a relief in Rodin’s The Gates of Hell. The sculpture stirred controversy because of the erotic imagery, and first wasn’t considered appropriate for public viewing. 

The Lovers - Rene Magritte

The Lovers is a painting by French surrealist Rene Magritte, created in 1928.

The painting depicts a veiled couple embracing and kissing. Obviously symbolic, many have speculated about why the couple is veiled. Many have also interpreted the painting in different ways – the common interpretation being “Love is blind”.

The Voice/Summer Night

                                          Munch, The Voice/Summer Night, 1896

According to Munch, this painting refers to his memory of first love. (Contrary to the calm serenity of the painting, it was a tumultuous affair with a married woman, Milly Thaulow.)

"I stood before the Mystery of Woman - I looked into an undreamt-of World..." (Munch's manuscripts)