Dear Summer, You far-flung this dreamer from the familial white sands on a beach where I took my first steps as a toddler, to awe under a vast starry sky in a shared hammock in the city and to primal earthiness before bonfires in the country. In the span from summer’s wettest fruits to fall’s gleaming berries…my travels this past season have been way deeper and quenched my thirst for very “afar.”

The truth is, that my personal Sex & The City story this summer was mostly about this New York City girl’s ecstatic, private rituals in my new art studio. You’ll have to believe me it was much more Emily-Dickinson ecstasy affirming than Carrie’s global romps. From the closest points to further afield, and always communing with the power and beauty what nature is saying,…my work, my vision and my loves took me THERE these past Spring into Summer months.

Moral? All directions point to the deepest “afar” inside.

They say the word NEWS is a shortened version of N-orth. E-ast. W-est and S-outh. While traveling afar is a sign of sophistication, we are just a hair-more evolved as a species for all our globe-trotting and connectivity. I believe our next frontier is to travel deeper within our own being, (meditate, people!) our own skin, (enjoy the flesh!) and our own home (groove with the earth!) This really where “IT’s” at. When I thought about it, my travels/thoughts expanded like tree rings or waves outward. Here’s how staying mostly in one place this season, actually led me around the world in 90 days. Come with.

Points NORTH

CARNEGIE HILL, WELL, HELLO!

Like the instant smile with the first step into the hot buzzing air on finally arriving at one’s first summer vacation spot, when I walk a few blocks north and west to Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill neighborhood, my vibration aligns immediately. The landmark buildings are old New York, the landscaping rips off couture runway color combos and the shops and restaurants are fine, fine,fine. Named for the Carnegie Mansion that now houses the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, the neighborhood mixes Spanish Harlem and Upper East Side folks and everyday life in a confluence of color, time, and design that to me is SO NY. Just a peek at the gardens will give you a taste of the visual pleasures singing here.

Moral? With this much plushness like this just around the corner…who needs a plane ticket?

 

CLOISTERS, COURTS, HAREMS AND SACRED SPACES.

A little further north is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to Medieval art, called The Cloisters. We called car service and packed four pals in for the trek, Sandra Zwollo of Marrakech’s Harem Resort, Maria McElroy of AromaM perfumes, Shelley Lewis of Sacred Space NY, and little medieval me. What I loved most about The Cloisters are it’s two square inner courtyards, both magical, sacred spaces, one filled with flowers and fountain and the other, medicinal and culinary herbs, and even espaliered pear trees.

Captivated I was by the Lady’s Mantle, not only the plant which channels water distinctly to its Lady Parts, but also the very idea of Ladylike enclosures existing in all of Time. I thought about Marrakech’s riads with center courtyards, Sandra’s Harem retreats for women, I thought of Shelley’s new sacred space meditation pod on 57th Street, between Chanel and Prada (those ladies!) and I thought of my own new studio as such a sacred space.

How much do we desire and require these actual, living, breathing, pollinating, herbal oases in all our LIVES?

We ascend to the inner realms.

Maria consults her honing device.

The unicorn rests in its pen. This tapestry is actually there at The Cloisters.

Here we have the Lady and legendary creatures in more enclosed lush garden spaces. Throughout history, mythical creatures were known for guarding priceless treasures, such as griffins, while unicorns symbolizing purity and grace, also show up as treasures. These cloistered spaces is where the world puts beautiful things it wants to control, including maidens, fertility and money. Monks, nuns, herbal apothecaries, alchemy, and the womanly arts – all sequestered away.

Moral? How has this guarded, inner Garden of Eden cultural concept formed our own ideas of where preciousness in ourselves exists and how to access it?

Sandra and Maria ponder preciousness in the walled garden…and further north, next:

BEYOND THIS WORLD! BEYOND GRISWOLD!

Got a surprise on my visit this summer to the Dressler Family picnic. On the very White Sands Beach in Old Lyme Connecticut, where the Dresslers have lived and where I’ve padded about in toddler days, it took my photographer cousin to point to the other side of the hedge where a vast Nature Conservancy Preserve stretched beyond. Griswold Point…there all the while…and I never knew it! On top of it all, my bird-nerd self was over the moon to realize that Roger Tory Peterson (The Grand Bird Nerd who invented the Peterson’s Guide books on birds)…well, Roger’s actual house is there!

For me this was akin to living next door to Kimye all your life and not even knowing it!

I’ve loved birdwatching for forever and in fact, it’s actually a growing “sport.” Even tony Departures magazine’s summer issue had birder and esteemed writer, James Wolcott, pen an article on what pulls he and his wife back to a certain bird trail every vacation for an “initiation into a contemplative order.”

Moral? Whole universes travel beside you in ways you never can guess. Always peek behind the nearest hedges! And further too…come, leap over the ocean…

NORDIC TREKKIES, BLANKIES AND FANTASTICAL BEINGS.

Here’s the real Emily Dickenson-ish part. Back home, weekend after weekend in my new studio. First, I painted my studio walls white. Like a vast Antartica. Then I took at blue crayon and spread my arms wide to draw big arcs rolling upon each other, making clouds to hold my visions. I wanted to organize, to cluster into cloud nest eggs, each creative urge. Like playpens, my clouds would each nest a creative idea. I function best as a maestro stirring multiple pots. (clouds) (nests)

That mythic cloud of a blanket above is a catalogue cover of textile illustrator Klaus Haapenemi‘s home goods. Klaus has been discovered by Europe and Japan for a long while, and it took my creative friend, John Favreau on his business trip to Finland to bring Klaus on home to the best stores in the US.  It also took a Nanook of the North type of exploration, a head-to-toe fur outfitting for a dog sled trek across the frozen steppes (I don’t know if that’s the term, but it sounds good.)

Moral? Snow drifts, blankets, and clouds are good cloisters for holding fantastical dreams.

Heads up. This may be the oddest segue ever…but blankets and wool beasties in the summer could only mean the annual trek to the Goshen Country Fair, with John via his white Mercedes convertible (cloud/clouds) to see all the animal creatures, cowboy folks, cock and hen judging, country rap music line dances, horse pulling and my favorite, alpacas.

Don’t they look really mythical?

What’s the segue? A little eastward now and a fantastical leap from three alpacas to three design-lovers at a NYC gala…

Points EAST

GALAS, MORE GRIFFINS, GRACIE MANSION and NESTING IN BROOKLYN.

Back in spring, my work with the New York School of Interior Design had me working the room for the Spring gala (see here for the before picture.) Party-dandy photographer, Rio Hamilton snapped me with Elaine Griffin, author and cast member of NBC’s newest primetime design reality show, American Dream Builders, hosted by Nate Berkus, and herewith, our man-in-the-middle, Newell Turner, editor-in-chief at Hearst design mags. While Rio’s angle, my vast circle skirt (see the before picture linked above, there are spring bunnies and flowers inside that skirt) and my mini Cinderella feet do make me look tiny next to these two BIG LION personalities, remember that good things come in small packages multiplied. (precious) (nests)

So then, were we surprised when we pitched our interior design client Scott Sanders for Elle Decor‘s Truth in Decorating and editor Orli Ben-Dor paired Scott with Elaine for a story on wee little nesting tables? No, it was the Griffin at work again. The photo shoot itself was like a game show, Orly orchestrated about 10 pairs of nesting tables in a Brooklyn studio, due West where Scott and Elaine poked, prodded and perused the lot of them. What a lesson in space-saving, multi-use and how two designers can riff off each other and have a wonderful time.

Just around the corner from my own home, new nesters appeared this summer, the crowned NYC mayor Bill and his deBlasio family clan now living in the mayor’s manse, Gracie Mansion.  Along with them, astonishingly, came packs of teenage paparazzi, peering and camped outside the gates, hoping for a sight of the now-famous family. While much more concerned with the impact of the West Elm furniture the family ordered, invading Jamie Drake’s brilliance, I too found myself craning neck for a spy of the Mayoral son’s famed ‘fro.

Moral? Grand entrances and making nests are smart ideas for people, places and things.

OH MY, HMI! HAMPTONS’ HELPING HANDS.

Making a Grand Entrance is key. Winding a driveway about 3 times the size you see pictured here, surrounded by elephantine hydrangeas in full bloom, well I profess, this is the grandest Hamptons entry to a home I’ve ever seen! In June, Scott Sanders and his partner Peter Wilson hosted their 11th and final benefit for the Hentrick-Martins Institute (HMI) this summer, called Schools Out.

HMI is the nation’s oldest and largest LGBTQ youth service organization. The generous and lively crowd helped raise funds for HMI programs and services to help youths reach their full potential through community and support. Fleets of Mini Coopers brought people to the winding driveway to explore the home’s grounds, pool and spacious places to frolic. Talk about giving sacred space to creativity.

Fleets of Stars supporting included Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live host and honorary chair, Andy Cohen; the Oscar PR girl; Andrew Nodell of Life And Style Weekly, (voted ‘most-elusive-editor-EVER-especially-in-a-sea-of-similarly-attired-men,’ by moi and my colleague, publicist Lalitha Sarma); and (voted ‘most-be-still-my-beating-heart,’) Kelly Rutherford of Gossip Girl. The event was as co-chaired by HMI board member & donor and advertising director of InStyle magazine Bobby Graham, HMI donor Brendan Monaghan, HMI board member and donor, Executive Vice President and Chief Retail Creative Officer for Ralph Lauren, Alfredo Paredes, and Creative Director at Momentum Worldwide, Ward Williams.

Also among the throngs were Dr. Christopher Bartley, DJ Jonjon Battles (aka Unicorn,) Katie Lee, Joey Gonzalez and HMI Chief Operating Officer Darra Gordon. Here’s a link for a well-done video by Daniel Garofali for Huff Post‘s Gay Voices, Avenue, Hamptons, magazines and curbed.com also chronicled.

The Peter Wilson, Andy Cohen and Scott Sanders. Images by the swell Billy Farrell, himself.

The Jade Dressler, Bailey the Dog, Scott Sanders, philanthropist and interior designer. Also supporting the event was Berlin’s uber-chic sunglass company, IC Berlin. I was tickled and inspired with their specs and their catalog.  The videos are beyond and a Super example of why ART sells brands, heals, humors and connects. Here’s a link to one, a kind of pre-Chanel Supermarket runway show.

Photographed in the moment by Esra Rotthoff, with no specific plan, the ad campaign photo shoot began as a twilight rooftop dinner with amazing people and friends and “it happened, just spontaneously.”

Moral? On summers (and spontaneous fun) like this one, Elle‘s Editor in Chief, Michael Boodro said it best, “…if sunny days and soft, lingering twilights seem more rare than ever, then we need to treasure them all the more when they do come along.”

MAKING OUT IN AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, GERMANY, LUXEMBOURG, SWITZERLAND, SPAIN.

From being deliciously hooked on 40! fluffy, funny and intriguing episodes of Gran Hotel, Spain’s “Downton-Abbey-on-Crack” telenovela (Vamos!) to watching David LaChappelle‘s Youtube 4-score and seven years ago speech for his spectacular Once in The Garden exhibition opening in Vienna (My ancestral home!) during the “magical” Life Ball…all of Europe’s best flickered blue in the after-hours for me this summer. Watch David LaChapelle’s talk on his exhibition here: an exploration which led us deeper. Beyond excited that this image was all over Viennese bus stops:

To top it all off, more flickering blue TV…my August was all about co-producing six episodes for Berlin-based CNN-affiliate network, n-tv‘s show Premiere Lounge, which will film in September starring our client and friend, dance-pop Billboard artist, Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin as she explores global luxury in NYC.  The program will air in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.  Stay tuned for more on this one!

Moral? Further “afield” into this concept of Garden of Eden will always take us deeper and closer to its personal archetypical meaning.

MAIDS IN MARRAKECH MEET GEISHA GIRLS.

Marrakech met Geisha this summer. Sandra Zwollo, the creator of Harem-Escape, an all women’s retreat in Marrakech on a vast estate belonging to sculptor, Jean-François Fourtou, and I have been conversing and deeply connecting for over a year now. The latest aspect of our ongoing conversations is the planned sharing of this universal concept through our Slow Luxury e-commerce platform. (OMG! Even Net-a-Porter is on to Harem!)  We are hot on re-Vamping this ancient idea of what it means to be an alluring, powerful group of women, t’is a growing phenom.

Therefore it was amazing to introduce our friend, indie-perfumer Maria McElroy of Aromam to Sandra. I’ve been so taken with Maria’s deep passion and wealth of knowledge and inspiration from geishas to Japanese ceremony, I had no doubts there would be instant communion with Sandra.  When they discovered that over 15 years earlier Sandra hosted Maria’s brother for dinner one night when he traveled there, this just another amazing moment of synchronicity.

Moral? Rituals. Offerings. Veneration are Timeless. When one thinks about this approach, any given, SIMPLE moment can be seen in that way.

In fact, a SIMPLE summer plate of the juiciest fruits and berries reminded me of my meeting this summer with Diane von Furstenberg and her favorite hot pink color. “Pink” is second-in-line famous after “black” for quotables from the fashion world. Think of the span from Diana Vreeland to Victoria Secret for starters. Add to this is Diane’s smart update on “The pink formerly known as Schiaparelli pink,” now, as Diane re-names it,”I call it Berry.” (hmm, for hubby Barry Diller perhaps?)

Points WEST

That says scribble says: “To Jade.”
“Jade is the name of my god-daughter,” La DVF told me while signing my book and beaming her green eyes into mine. I almost fainted.
That is she, The Goddess, waving to us.

THE DROOL + DESIRE BUILDING: AKA THE D+D BUILDING.

Although I’ve seen her runway shows and admired her brand, before she signed my book, I had not ever wrapped with Diane von Furstenburg.  However this summer, her launch of home furnishings fabrics with Kravet was a must. Getting to know the Kravets has been thoroughly delightful. They are a fourth generation, (93-years-old!) family-owned business selling fabrics to the trade in the D+D building. (One building with oodles of Design + Decor to drool over)

Very notably, Diane said she valued the very long time it took to develop her collection with Kravet, and in hindsight this was valuable “time to develop a valued relationship” with the family and the company. Important point. Diane is seen here with David Sprouls, president of the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) and Ellen Kravet, executive vice president and co-owner of Kravet Inc., and a board member of the college.

This summer has been a bittersweet berry as I “wrap up” my sojourn working with David and NYSID, who is most inspiring as a leader, and the many other excellent and dedicated people aligned with the college. With its own 100-anniversary approaching in 2016, I saw how the history and the future of the field of interior design are vitally nourished there, from the library’s precious archives to the new certificate programs online, and to the sustainable design courses. Impressive.

Moral? The fruits of long labor eventually and always bear fruit.

And, just a little more West, one may find some actual sacred space between thoughts, between berries and cantaloups, between designers Chanel and Prada…on 57th street.

SACRED SPACE IN NYC? SACRED SPACE IN NYC.

While Elsa Schiaparelli met Miuccia Prada in a fantasy conversation at the Met’s Costume Institute exhibition several years ago, I often wondered what a conversation between the spiritual, steadfastly independent Coco Chanel and the art collector, architecture-lover, gallerist and designer Ms. Prada might engender.  They might have birthed a cultural seed pod of sorts between them.

Wonder of wonders! There is now actually just such a seed pod, an amazing Point of Light, exactly meditating between Prada and Chanel on NYC’s posh 57th Street.  Yes, Virginia, there is Sacred Space in New York City.

Brainchild of spiritual entrepreneur, Shelley Lewis, (above) a pristine, carefully lit and scented oblong POD sits like a Buddha. Once inside the “berry” Schiaparelli pink and hot orange of Yelo spa, one must be in the know to ask to visit the pure white of Sacred Space NY, tucked just inside.

Sacred Space NY is a lifestyle brand helping clients find their inner calm. Promoting health, healing and beauty from within. This is so true to our concept of Slow Luxury, a brand focused on the experience.

The Healing Pod is quiet, soothing. This is a respite of peace offering “the ultimate in luxe healing with one-on-one personalized meditation, yoga and massage sessions,” (which means the best practitioners and healers are aligned and available for appointments.) It’s clear our urban spaces now must be integrated with refuge from the constant influx of noise on the senses with oases like this.

Moral? It’s another kind of “Nature Conservancy” to un-digitalize and go completely wireless for more than five minutes.

Another “sacred space” in NYC is a Cave of Fromage…

THE SACRED ARTISANAL WORSHIP OF CHEESE.

I love me a good, simple French bistro.  Give me a dark bar, high banquets, white cloths, classic French fare plus a Sacred Cheese cave housing over 100 cheeses to be paired with wine and freshly baked bread? Enthralled.

When Artisanal Bistro first opened in the early 2000’s, I remember going with my lawyer and feeling like I was dining in a library devoted to the sacred arts of French food. It felt unlike any other restaurant in NYC. Smart. Authoritative. Familiar. Sexy.

One day this August, one hand was writing an email to Adam Tihany, the famed hospitality designer, and my other hand was holding my mobile, suddenly buzzing with a friend texting me to inquire if I knew anyone who did restaurant publicity, and by the way it was for Artisanal, which was Adam Tihany’s first project. That, that’s what we call synchronicity.

Meetings with the award-winning chef, Terrance McKenna, the new owners, cheese experts and staff followed, so watch for more about New York’s first temple to artisanal food. Better yet, make a reservation!

Moral? Eat well and walk it off, heading more West. High Line anyone?

JUST A LIL CHELSEA PENTHOUSE.

My sister used to think Miami Beach was “My Ami Beach” and that everyone had one. It was sad when we had to tell her there was only one and it was a shared thing.

Not the Everyday to have a personal penthouse. On my first visit to my client Scott Sanders’ “personal penthouse” I literally bumped into David Byrne getting out of the elevator. He must have one too.

NY Cottages & Gardens magazine got one too as they did a spread on Scott Sanders “personal penthouse” for their September issue.  Editor, Kendell Cronstrom‘s choice peeks at astonishments include views of the High Line and gems such as this Hans Vollmer chair re-finished in a soft baby blue leather. Everyone has a “My Vollmer Chair” too, right?

Moral: Good lines in a good cloth doth make style.

 

Points SOUTH

GOT A HAPPY GUT?

Go south young man. Buddha found enlightenment by contemplating his navel. We looked southward and marveled not just at our own navel, but also the new downtown offices at Harper Collins when we accompanied our client, Dr. Vincent Pedre to meet with the inspiring Lisa Sharkey and the smart marketing team for “Happy Gut,” his book, launching spring 2015.

While the lobby was impressive, the glass walled HC offices were ringed around an open area with cozy couch oases and a kitchen, places where creative conversations and “working together” presented an antidote to partitions. With stylish Conde Nast also relocating downtown, be prepared for designers mad-rushing southern spots with more ground-breaking ways to interpret working creatively.

For More Southern Glittering Palaces, here’s the Lord Baltimore Hotel we placed on the cover story of Interiors & Sources magazine, with editor Erika Templeton for Scott Sanders and his client, owner and art world notable, Mera Rubell. And the new book on the project, just south, here, is now out from Pointed Leaf Press.

And here is the precious glittering cover featuring the original Baccarat chandelier on the coffered ceiling.

Moral 1? Ain’t nothing like a gold coffered ceiling to make us FEEL sacred space above, in our breath, and solid in the ground beneath our feet.

Moral 2? A sun-kissed playground also has the same effect.

THE SUN ALWAYS RISES WHERE YOU ARE.

A solar-radiant project came our way this summer from long-time client, Tracy Stern and her new T & Co.ice tea collection. We produced a slide show video with music to give the tale of three cities which inspired the Tea-Mistress: New York, Paris and Palm Beach. How much fun to illustrate in short “movie” form how I feel about these spots? Here is the Tracy Stern T & Co. Ice Tea Video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOso4bQpjGM

In case you can’t get to NY, Paris or Palm Beach, absorbing a piece of sun glint anywhere is a primal lure, giving Vitamin D, vital energy  and probably much more than we can ever guess. I once read the line, ” You cannot imagine the energy and forces behind the sun.”  A bit New-Agey, but damn, how intriguing!

This picture below is the sunset doing a Stonehenge thing, peeking through the trees and the lush purple Joe Pye weed. Joe Pye gets its name from the Indian name for it “Jopi.”

Medicinal, yes. Ice tea, no. For ice tea, get thee to the Sumacs.

Contemplating navels and points further south led to this drama…

THE AUSTRALIA ALSO SLOWLY RISES.

Got an “out-of-the-blue” call from the land down-under this summer.  An editor there asked a writer to research our consultancy business, Slow Luxury, and its impact on the luxury industry for an article in Luxury magazine – a quarterly publication inserted into The Australian Financial Review newspaper. The article entitled, “Patient and Particular in Provenance,” ran September 12 and its quite insightful, click here to read it.  

In describing Slow Luxury, I was quoted, “It’s really about all the things that Slow Food is similarly about – taking care of community, making sure people’s families are taken care of, so that it’s a ­360-degree consideration in making a product.” My Slow Luxury partner, Fiona Fraser and I are so thrilled to add to the global conversation to shift how humans create their world. Especially originating in the Land of Dreamtime. Such a coffered ceiling.

Dreamtime Sisters by Colleen Wallace Nungari

In terms of sacred shared space, like planets, Dreamtime or even summers, our consciousness is slowly rising to understand and embody that deeper, expanded Place. Such a rock.

(Yes, in homage to Ayer’s Rock, actually Sade’s Lover’s Rock is playing so synchronistically right now!)

“You are in the wilderness, I am in the music.”

And, segue, is everyone noticing how instant synchronicities are everywhere these days? A song, a person, a scene in a movie…it happens instantly. Are we slowing down to observe more or is the universe just speeding up?

Wait! That’s a moral. We are slowing down and the universe is speeding up.

Speaking of Slow Luxury, the location of an episode we produced and styled this September for n-tv’s Premiere Lounge, was the exquisite furnishings showroom, Demiurge New York, which added the next layer to this whole “Artisanal” or “Maker’s Movement” happening globally. My urge to go deeper with the word “demiurge” led to Wikipedia. It’s an English word from a Latinized form of the Greek δημιουργός, dēmiourgos, literally “public worker,”originally a common noun meaning “craftsman” or “artisan”,  gradually it came to mean “producer” and eventually “creator.” I simply love this word to describe all my indescribable urges!

See below here this magnificent image of Demiurge New York’s creator, owner, designer Rachel Schorr and her very fluffy, beautiful Pomeranian who is always by her side. This is a segue, now, so pay attention.

My all time favorite movie about a land “down under” is The Gods Must Be Crazy, where a coke bottle falls unbroken from an airplane unto the desert where it changes a tribe’s life. I was sitting with Rachel at her desk, doggie sleeping “down under,” when the brush I was holding fell clattering to the ground. The sleeping peacefully Pom-dog leaped straight up into the air, fur flying, and made a mad dash for my hand, while 3 workers ran in saying,” Oh! he hates when things drop! Especially in the afternoon!”

All was fine, no bites, dog pacified, movie recalled, synchronicity again.

Moral? UFO’s, ideas, and things clattering from “beyond” wake us up.

The n-tv Premiere Lounge segment we were filming illustrates a “fantastic chair” designed by Rachel which lives a double life, in the summer, it’s woven jute seat is sturdy and cool and for the winter, custom fur covers completely change the look. This is very Slow Luxury, double duty extends the life of the chair, while being original with seeds to becoming a family heirloom.

For more fur and feathers flying, keep moving, move more and head even more south! This fancy dancer is all a flutter to some Brazilian salsa tunes…

DRINKING FROM THE WORLD CUP OF BRAZIL.

A summer neighborhood Connecticut party with a Brazilian band and dancer is just what any Northerner needs to liven up the scene. Bringing the South to Northerners is instructive. Yes, this is in a parking lot and the party is to raise funds for a local arts group. Summer is for line dances with Bluebloods led by a bird with Blue feathers.

We actually brought Brazil’s hemisphere home when we won a Merit Award in the Codaworx Awards, an international competition for design projects that demonstrate the most successful integration of commissioned art into an interior or architectural space. Our Green Provocateur blog linked here tells the whole story.

Awarded during the World Cup 2014, the green and art worlds had their own finalist in Brazil with our team’s first goal as a Top 100 Finalist and then as a Merit Award in the Landscape category in the CODAAwards. The awards, presented by a jury of art and design notables, “honor the individuals and the teams whose collective imaginations create the public and private spaces that inspire…”

We introduced Manu Rengade, the owner of Fazenda Catucaba resort, a 450-hectare coffee farm in a coastal mountain range, bordering a Unesco natural reserve to artist Pasha Radetski, who did a residency on the land and built “Portal do Sul,” an installation of 10 gates aka “goalposts” for the sun. Portal do Sul’s recognition in the CODAawards finalist selection was covered in an article by the international trend platform, PSFK.com.  The project has also appeared in Vogue, Architectural Digest, Madame Figaro, Forbes, Departures magazines and many more.

Moral? The sun is also rising on landscape art everywhere. Along with land preservation, thankfully, land veneration is on the rise. 

WHERE THE BON POINT IS.

As fall’s breezes wind through Manhattan, to bring this Around The World in 90 days on home, we loved the back to school window of the “always wonderful” Carnegie Hill Bonpoint shop, the French children’s clothing store. (yes, note the dogs and falling items theme here too.)

And below, a recently resurfaced photo of my sister and I modeling for our family’s children’s wear shop, named in very 1970’s hip vernacular, “The Youth Center.” (yes, note navel-gazing reference) (bon point)

As I wrote on Facebook: “Egads, it’s true I was caught modeling in a poly-leisure suit in 1972 pre- Labor Day weekend. #ThrowbackThursday to when my sister and I were free models for our family’s clothing store. I think I look like a 30-year old swinging bachelor, not sure that was the intent of the art-director (my father, proprietor) #WhyImadefashionmycareer”

That’s 360 degrees people! I leave you with Humans of New York site in which one human photographs random beautiful humans and experiences on the streets of New York City. Truly this will inspire any of us to see the magical in every moment. (moment) (photo) (circle) (cloud) (breath) (cloister) (studio) (Netflix screen) (soul) (cell) (planet) (universe) (ok, I’m done with my Henry Miller riffing…)

ISN’T IT MARVELOUS? RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE? SAY YES.

 Lived, written by and most photos by Jade Dressler, happy to credit those photos filched online.