Addicted To Love...

February 5th 2012
I think it’s safe to say that I am currently obsessed with Instagram. YES, I know it’s stupid or whatever, but I love that it’s like Twitter for picture lovers. Being that I had Twitter before anyone I knew did, I quickly became bored of it. Saying a bunch of random things that no one really cared about was not the idea I had in mind when I opened up my account originally. So when my bestie suggested Instagram to me, I fell in love, since pictures have always been a big part of my life.

As a lover of all things artistic: painting, writing, drawing, fashion design, theater, interior design, music, dance, etc - photography has been the one that stands out throughout my life. My mother always had a camera on her while we were growing up. Birthdays, special events, school plays, choir, mini vacations; the camera was always there to capture the moment. When I was 14, my brother got this amazing Canon (which I later inherited) and I will, at one point or another, but a really professional camera and take some clases (just for fun). I've always loved the idea of enjoying things visually first and then taking a picture. It’s always about the mental picture 1st and, if you have a chance, capturing it to always look back and remember.

This past weekend I got the chance to finally attend a Renaissance Fair. (Many of you are not really familiar with my obsession with this era along with anything medieval and pirates). So I thought it would be mighty nice of me to share some lovely pictures I took with my iPhone Camera using the Instagram app. Enjoy:

And we are here!

Faeries Galore

Is it so terrible that I want one of these in my home?

Serenated

Yay intruders beware...



Where to go? Hmm...

Imagine that...

We can only hope...

I love the vendor. Almost as if he were posing.

Wouldn't this be so fancy?

If you have Instagram, don't forget to follow me: @chacce (Krla R.). If you don't, what are you waiting for?


Until Then...

FrEe As A BiRd...

February 23rd, 2012

How hard is it to live in this world? You'd think that it is hard. In fact, I bet you would say it's damn near impossible at times. That there is nothing left for us to do but to live in it. And yes, these may all be true from time to time, BUT I see it a different way.

When I was 14 years old I lost one of the most important people in my life. He was my cousin, my confidant and my friend. He was the only person I knew who treated me like an adult (even though I was still a child) and I always respected him for it. We had an amazing mutual connection that the rest of our family never saw. I mean, they knew we were close, but they didn't understand why. It was a little known secret that now, as an adult, it makes perfect sense - we were both free spirits.

Today I found this on Carolina Elecric and it could not be further from the truth. Read up! We might just be kindred spirits. Enjoy:

RoLlInG In ThE DeEp...

February 23rd, 2012

Today, as I was browsing my usual interior design blogs (don't hate), I stumbled upon this really interesting site for the Bruce Mau Design Studio. As my curiosity got bigger, I went deeper and deeper, until I read something I thought I should share. So here it is:

"Incomplete Manifesto For Growth:

1. Allow events to change you.
   You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
2. Forget about good.
   Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.
3. Process is more important than outcome.
   When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
5. Go deep.
   The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
6. Capture accidents.
   The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
7. Study.
   A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
8. Drift.
   Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
9. Begin anywhere.
   John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
10. Everyone is a leader.
    Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
11. Harvest ideas.
    Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.
12. Keep moving.
    The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.
13. Slow down.
    Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
14. Don’t be cool.
    Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.
15. Ask stupid questions.
    Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
16. Collaborate.
    The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
17. ____________________.
    Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.
18. Stay up late.
    Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.
19. Work the metaphor.
    Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.
20. Be careful to take risks.
    Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.
21. Repeat yourself.
    If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.
22. Make your own tools.
    Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.
23. Stand on someone’s shoulders.
    You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.
24. Avoid software.
    The problem with software is that everyone has it.
25. Don’t clean your desk.
    You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.
26. Don’t enter awards competitions.
    Just don’t. It’s not good for you.
27. Read only left-hand pages.
    Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."
28. Make new words.
    Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.
29. Think with your mind.
    Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.
30. Organization = Liberty.
    Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a ‘charming artifact of the past.’
31. Don’t borrow money.
    Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.
32. Listen carefully.
    Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.
33. Take field trips.
    The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.
34. Make mistakes faster.
    This isn’t my idea — I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.
35. Imitate.
    Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You’ll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.
36. Scat.
    When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else … but not words.
37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
    
38. Explore the other edge.
    Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.
39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
    Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.
40. Avoid fields.
    Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.
41. Laugh.
    People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I’ve become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.
42. Remember.
    Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.
43. Power to the people.
    Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free."

If Not Now, When?...

February 9th, 2012

I was in the middle of a project of writing a book (see excerpt) and guess what happened...Ok, I know you won't so I will tell you either way: my computer's motherboard died! YES! You herd it correctly, it dies. Therefore the project is currently in a halt until further notice. Believe me, no one is more upset about this than mua, however I will look at the situation as my brain telling me I might be due for a writing break.  I was truly attempting to finish it by this month, but it looks like I have many months to go. I will post mor excerpts as they come along. I need to buy a new laptop 1st...


Until Then...

My Own Worst Enemy...

February 6th, 2012

Have you ever laid in bed with your phone in your hand texting and all of a sudden it falls out of your hand and hits you square in the face? Holy crap that hurts...