Paradox And Beauty

“We chase beauty, chase love, a hug from someone near, if lucky, if lucky indeed.”

Beauty in a time of the paradoxical. Beauty as distraction: buoy. We are constantly reminded of contradictions, these days overwhelmed, godsmacked. 

To find oneself distracted is a welcomed experience, lost in a pile of books, cloudy blue skies. We chase beauty, chase love, a hug from someone near, if lucky, if lucky indeed. Beauty is a salve, always has been, now even more. It’s not that we bury our heads in denial, we need to survive, emotionally, be the builders of the future, the ones depended, and silently, dependent: a paradox of living, as always, even more. 

“We know that tomorrow will come, that it will be different, always will be, even more, now.”

To write of beauty seems empty, but here a quick grasp at something known, physical, for the body and the mind, survival mode in an era of paradox: beauty and sorrow. We know that tomorrow will come, that it will be different, always will be, even more, now. Here I won’t speak of flowers, nor sonnets of love, I’ll let the beauty be yours, for the seeing and holding: the weight, and the pause. 

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The Infinity Of Silence

“I crave silence, it can feel physical, weighted just enough to create an ease of comfort, a solitude of security.”

In the middle of this era of paradox, I find solace in the simplest of things, most importantly, silence. This seems to be my most needed element and the thing that fuels me best. Mornings are always the most inspiring as the sun rises, moving shadows throughout the silent shell of my apartment. I crave silence, it can feel physical, weighted just enough to create an ease of comfort, a solitude of security. It is during this time of silence that wonder comes clearest, when I see the world best in my minds eye, where I am, my city and state, the world spinning amongst the stars. Here is when I best feel our collective humanity, sense that somewhere someone is thinking and feeling the same. 

I am at this point infatuated with dead silence, the heavier the better and the skylight the deeper, deepest it can be. In a time of social distancing I am at the extreme, as I focus more on the meaning I’ve been desperately trying to find. Silence and meaning seem to go in stride, both have the same comforting heaviness I nuzzle up to, while embodying the properties of clarity, and the infinity of faith. This is where this era has lead me, or I have lead myself. 

“ It feels as though silence has the answers, though I am internally too loud to hear.”

I always seem to come back to silence and stillness in everything I create, a circular path that feels like a lesson I’ve yet to fully learn. It feels as though silence has the answers, though I am internally too loud to hear. In this era I am especially dependent upon silence, where everything feels as if its hurling about, desperately trying to be like gravity and the infinity of silence. 

"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."

Mary Oliver

Here Is A Time To See

“This is a time to see who we are, to look deeper, dissect and remove the indifference that continues to lead us astray, pulling us under the smoke this fire heaves.” 

This is not just another day, business as usual.

This is a time to see who we are, to look deeper, dissect and remove the indifference that continues to lead us astray, pulling us under the smoke this fire heaves. 

It is an era of lessons, weighing heavy on the scales of justice and the hearts of many. Here is a time to see, to look at who we’ve become: profit over people, entertainment over wisdom. 

As long as we have breath, we have hope. As long as we have will, we have a future. 

This is not just another day. Business, as usual. 

Communication Of Emotion


”Nothing seems to express my emotion, but emotion.”

I often vacillate between many creative arenas, feeling that each has its own significance in expressing the human condition and inspiration. Increasingly I’ve gravitated to the written word as it seems more innately universal, but now I find even this is failing, falling short in my need to inspire, communicate and share the commonality of emotion. All I seem to have is emotion itself, with nowhere to place it, no vehicle that can now honestly speak. Nothing seems to express my emotion, but emotion. So here I place it, between the lines.

To Inspire. To Be Inspired.

“It is here, within the creative cocoon that we are nourished and inspired, brought to a higher level of strength to uplift ourselves and others, to be the light through this winding path we call life.”

In an era of continual challenge, to surround oneself with beauty is to fortify one’s body and mind: will and hope. This is the strength of the creative mind, what art, design, architecture and language can bring to our everyday lives. It is here, within the creative cocoon that we are nourished and inspired, brought to a higher level of strength to uplift ourselves and others, to be the light through this winding path we call life. Beauty is found within and thus reflected outward, creating who we are, our instinct of being. This is what we know, and what we strive to expand upon, though not easy, necessary as we find our way through and back to who we are, back to the stars, the wonder and magic, the beauty and inspiration of being human.