To Decide. To Light.

it is my belief that we each have a purpose. to decide what that would be is our ongoing choice.

our lifespan, each.

to weave and to sway. decide and again, decide. 

to light the fires, the stars gave to us. to light each other and the days to come. 

it is my constant rumination as to what meaning my purpose. what reason, what why. 

to do and continue. to do, decide.

to walk the path the sun has shown us. to light the path the night left us. 

i believe. but perhaps i am wrong. 

to decide. and again, decide. 

to light.

Nurturing Ourselves

“Our need to take care of each other continues to be our constant, especially in times of difficulty.”

Untitled Painting | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

It is said that our innate emotions of love and affection is what has allowed our species to thrive and progress forward. Our need to take care of each other continues to be our constant, especially in times of difficulty. This is what defines and unites us in the circle of life and nature, why our homes are so much a part of who we are, our traditions and hopes for the future. 

“We build homes, shrines to all that we deem beautiful, especially those we share our spaces with.”

As sentient beings we have the capacity towards romance, not only for others but how we see the world and the way we live. We have a favorite place to sit, a special loved one, and often the two combine. We build homes, shrines to all that we deem beautiful, especially those we share our spaces with. This is how we expand our affections, surrounding ourselves with what and who we love. 

NYC Artist John Sheppard

“This is how life moves, threaded, to everyone and everything.”

 

NYC Artist Peter Lane

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but too in the hand of the possessor: the nurturer and nurtured. How we care for ourselves, those within our circle of affections, the earth we inhabit, and even those we do not know, dents the hurling future and the moments that pass. This is how life moves, threaded, to everyone and everything. 

“We are nurtured by what we find to be personally beautiful, transfixed and transported by a rounded stone as we are by the carved and ornate.”

Surrounding ourselves with beauty is a mirror to who we are and what we believe to be possible, or at least hopeful. We are nurtured by what we find to be personally beautiful, transfixed and transported by a rounded stone as we are by the carved and ornate. This speaks to our need to wonder, possess and even coddle, echoing back to our ancestry of hunt and gather, traditions of romance, shelter and sheltering. How we live is how we see beauty, grateful to receive as we are to give. 

“Thrive” Painting | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

A Sense Of Hope

I’m inspired by the possibilities of the future, by those who create, those whose voices float high, sparkling and fire hot as the family of stars they came from.

Today feels heavy, but hopeful as the blue skies I see outside my shelter windows.

A sense of hope with the prevailing thought of reality, flips, turns and folds.

I spent the night listening to too much Michael Stipe, now echoing in my body: everybody hurts. 

The Future. A Stone. A thought To Throw.

“To force the pendulum’s swing is to interrupt its natural flow, rather than move to its rhythm and know what’s in our control.”

Untitled (Then/This) | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

It matters most how we think, as thought predicts our actions, life is predicated on behavior, on how we react to situations before us. To force the pendulum’s swing is to interrupt its natural flow, rather than move to its rhythm and know what’s in our control. We are aware of what’s before us, what we’ve left and what we now have. Within this time line are our reactions, how we buffer, pivot and proceed: navigating as life as we know it, unfolds. 

“We cannot control what does not exist, only what we have in the hand and in the mind.”

Untitled (Crux) | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The future is made from possibilities, exists as a bubble of thought and the unknown: theories, emotions and hope. We cannot control what does not exist, only what we have in the hand and in the mind. Worry, as I have found, over inflates the bubble, bursting from too much thought. Worry is an action, similar to a physical push. To think or to say push, one feels push, and then a tendency to proceed further. This has a forward affect, what we say now, echoes to the ballooning future. 

“A ripple starts with a stones throw, from a hand, a thought to throw.” 

Mariana Abramovic and ULAY | Rest Energy

I think often on how we live, how our collective lives affect the hurling future and the way we live now. We each have a place within the building of tomorrow, every negative and every positive has a hand, every push and tenuous pull. There is no isolated action, no odd man out, everything and everyone has its place. A ripple starts with a stones throw, from a hand, a thought to throw. 

NEW YORK CITY BALLET

How We Live

“This is a time where our inner voice is calling to be heard, we know we know, now is the time to actually listen.”

Riverside NYC Project | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

The way we live in this world has shifted, moved to a simpler and more intimate place, our homes and even to our deeper selves. We are in a time of forced contemplation, a time to reflect on who we are and where it is we need to go. This is a time where our inner voice is calling to be heard, we know we know, now is the time to actually listen. 

Central Park West Project | Carl Barnett Design/Studio

“How we live in our homes, is how we live in our hearts and minds, how we calm the inner rattle by way of touch and visual splendor.”

As humans, we are gatherers, we collect for our homes, our bodies, and those within our circles we cherish, all to appease our emotions of love, gratitude and the wonder that life brings. This settles our minds and eases our bodies as we traverse forward, attempting to make sense of this new terrain. How we live in our homes, is how we live in our hearts and minds, how we calm the inner rattle by way of touch and visual splendor. It is by way of the hand created that we find solace and inspiration, where we connect not only with our innate emotions but those of others. It is through the evidence of the hand that we find truer meaning: our stories told and stories held sacred. 

Ceramic Wall Hanging | Michele Quan

“Beauty in all its complexities, is our way of seeing and expressing, holding life where we need it, by way of hand, heart and eye.” 

We all have memories attached to all we hold dear, they act as journals, books that tell stories of history and the present: sonnets of love and hope. Again, this is why we collect, why we bother to design our homes and lives, to ground and to hold us, give weight to our feelings of levity in times of uncertainty, fears and doubt. Beauty in all its complexities, is our way of seeing and expressing, holding life where we need it, by way of hand, heart and eye. 

Architect and Designer Pierre Yovanovitch