Growing up in a small town in Oklahoma, nearly all of my childhood trips involved a long road trip. Sandwiched between my two siblings, fighting, eating junk + taking turns napping in the long seat of the family minivan. Other times in my grandparents rv - trekking to Yellowstone and back, seeing all the sights and KOA pools along the way.
These trips were fun, nostalgic, some of my best memories and photos captured when our family of five was away from home, outside of our norm, able to really be present and together.
Later, as I began to travel more regularly for work and vacation, travel became something different. Still full of adventure, connection and memory-making - but also inspirational and aspirational. A way to step outside of my daily life and routine, to be open to new thoughts, connections and shifts.
Professionally, I was lucky to travel often to cities to visit the retail stores our company owned and ran, to work on photoshoots for our advertising campaigns, to scout for trends and visit museum and shops to gather inspiration to bring back for our in-house design teams. New York, LA, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong were regular haunts - and so different from my Dallas life.
Giant cities full of their own culture, foods, personality, sights, smells - and me, a curious sponge, ready to soak in all the inspiration and connection that comes from being a stranger and an observer in a place away from home.
At the start of the year, I wrote about my favorite reminders from travel after an art retreat to Portugal. And again, recently home from a trip to Paris with my daughter (her first!) I was strongly aware of the gifts and lessons that come from any time spent away from home, from routine, from your norm.
This trip, especially, was such a poignant reminder of the power of being in community.
At a time when HOME is increasingly fragmented in its views, hostile in our approach to our own citizens, sadly alienating and attacking the rest of the world - it can be easy to default to isolation. To staying cozy and quiet within our bubbles, our circles, our homes, our most trusted people.
In our time away, every single experience or transaction we had - required human contact. Even with our limited language skills, I found such compassion, connection and joy from simple acts of ordering a coffee, buying fruit at the market, being in community with our chef and co-students as we learned the art of baguette making, riding silently on the Metro, or wandering the busy streets taking in all the beauty of Paris in the spring.
Paris felt joyful. Hopeful. Optimistic. The energy of the city and its people - out socially for Sunday shopping, on the streets sharing an in-person coffee, wandering the park for a friend catch-up - was vibrant, lovely, safe.
Seeing this reminded me, strongly, of how meant to be in relation, in community, in communion to one another we are. That by building connection - in person, over a shared-lived experience, as simple as ordering a croissant - also builds trust and bonds us to each other. Reminding us of our humanity - boosting compassion and empathy, reducing otherness and alienation. It’s hard to dislike someone you’ve baked bread, shared a glance, sampled a strawberry with.
These random connections are something I’ve missed since we’ve returned to our car-driven life here in Austin. I’m hoping to celebrate more reasons to venture out for connection, even with passing strangers, this spring. As we pivot to shopping smaller, and more in person - I find myself looking forward to interacting with actual humans in shops, readers in book shops, farmers at the local market, artists at gallery shows.
The default in the US, especially post-pandemic, is to take advantage of the convenience of our modern era. We live in a time where we can exist, almost entirely, with no face-to-face human interaction (outside of our families or roommates) by ordering most anything we desire to be door dropped at a moments notice. We’ve become used to connecting with co-workers, doctors, friends, therapists, teachers online.
Is it enough? For me, I’m not so sure.
Things that are inspiring me these days :
I’m working on a refresh for a client’s living room, and dying over this sophisticated and subtle color palette we’ve landed on. Those textured neutrals and rich blush tones are starting to pop up in my studio practice, I can’t wait to see how they evolve.
PSSST. Have you used palette cam for all your color matching dreams? It’s my most loved phone app these days. It matches the little squares (image above) to each place you select in a photo AND gives you the HEX and RGB codes to use in all your design projects. It’s a designer / artist / color lovers dream.
I recently picked up a vintage painting by Italian artist STM at Round Top. We’ve hung it, and I’m now seriously obsessed with his work. Cubist + Picasso-like, in colors that simply stun.
I’ve been reading more physical books and less news lately, and am especially excited about this recent add to my library. Writer Aimee McNee has long been inspiring me on Instagram with her quippy quotes + handwritten signs inspiring us to all bring our best (and messy and learning and trying always) creative selves to the world. Her recent launch of We Need Your Art : Stop Messing Around and Make Something, feels especially relevant given last week’s newsletter topic.
What’s inspiring / bringing you joy / connecting you to your people these days my friends?
Love the images from Paris- such a treasure trove city for inspiration! And grateful for the intro to Amie McNee. So excited to listen to the book! ♥️ We need art and creativity more than ever. Even if just to keep ourselves sane.