Where does inspiration come from?
When I started my business in 1988, I had about 3 years of experience behind me at an interiorscape company in Houston, Texas. I absorbed a lot of information before moving to a new city and going out on my own. But, I wanted to change it up. I'm a design junkie. Always looking for innovative ways to achieve a "look". I spent hours and a few paychecks at newsstands, buying subscriptions to magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Architectural Digest, Fine Gardening, Southern Living and House Beautiful.
I can remember searching on my ancient desktop computer, stringing words together like tall+plant+stripedpot+footcandles…my, oh my how times have changed.
Behold the 21st century “search engine” and platforms like Houzz, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and more. The search is lighting fast, with a dizzy, distracting, barrage of visuals on anything you might need, or want to know pertaining to plants.
We dissect, embellish, and put our own creative touches in place.
Sometimes we just duplicate what we see if we can, because it has an effective visual.
I created a niche using color, texture and natural elements in my interior arrangement of plants.
Never just one plant, in a container, in a lonesome corner. There were just to many color and texture options for that.
This expanded into my exterior container plantings and landscape beds as well.
For many of my clients who own the building they office or live in, this aesthetic is essential.
When I was commissioned to do three large preserved moss wall panels for a corporate lobby, my inspiration came from an area not far from where they were being installed.
Austin Texas, has some amazing greenbelt trails, where large limestone rock formations ooze water from internal aquifers. Small pools lead to crevices that are covered with live moss, lichen and maiden hair fern, spreading in interesting patterns.
Visiting these areas, I studied the colors, textures, smells, and the way the light, or breeze changed their shadows. This helped stimulate, connect and formulate the biophilic foundation for this particular interior project.
The final products were well received and have continue to have lasting and rewarding effects.
Where does your inspiration come from?
I encourage you to utilize all the aforementioned platforms, but I also encourage you to get outside. Nature is one of our most economical and beneficial instruments, when it comes to inspiration. Spend some time on a hiking trail, visit a botanical garden, sit a spell on a bench, or lay on a blanket in the park.
When weather doesn’t permit, visit an art gallery or a library for descriptive naturalist books. These are great sources.
This passage from "Reflections on Moving Water and River Walking"
by Kathleen Dean Moore, speaks volumes.
“I wish to speak a word for the art of poking around. Although the art can be practiced in libraries and antique stores and peoples’ psyches, the kind of poking around I am interested in advocating must be done outdoors. It is a matter of going into the land to pay close attention, to pry at things with the toe of a boot, to turn over rocks at the edge of a stream and lift boards to look for snakes or the nests of silky deer mice, to kneel close to search out the tiny bones mixed with fur in an animal’s scat. People who poke around have seeds in their socks and rocks in their pockets. They measure things with the span of their hands. They look into the sun when the see a shadow pass across a field. They spit in rivers to make fish rise".
Take a timeout. Unplug and go poke around.
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