Having the ability to see your inspirations become reality, while being able to be hands on tirelessly working behind the scenes following the conceptual process of an idea..a pile of folded fabric to an image on a website that is able to be viewed worldwide, is completely glamorous to me. Yes there are many many toiling hours of behind the scenes work, but isn’t that what it is all about. Living through all the emotions of the process, making the reality of the dream the quintessential point of happiness. Taking the heat, because there is no getting out of the kitchen. Like the heat, live the heat, love the heat. It’s what bakes the batter. Then after letting the substance of your product cool, comes the process of making the icing on the cake.

The bones of a winter garden are a very funny thing. After the lush foliage and dew laden flowers have passed, and what remains of the garden with its brown and gray woody stems, greenery, and softly laid snow, is a playing field for the imagination. The rise and fall of light and shadow gives way to the provoking of thought while the vibrant beauty of deciduousness sleeps. Just as one watches a sleeping babe, in the same way mother nature looks after her offspring. In the stillness you can hear its breath. Dancing upon what seems to be a skeleton of a once beautiful living and breathing being with life and depth, making the mystery of the gray and white shades create a fantastical winter wonderland of play. The beauty of my rose by the name of Cuisse de Nymphe category Alba, with all of her fleshly pink dewy beauty is still there hidden in the woody stems that I patiently await each March to begin to show their swelling buds. She is there…I know that she is. Until that day, I see the image of her in my mind and begin to build an under planting to best showcase her beauty. I flip though my endless collection of books and catalogs. Searching through the web I begin my work to add to the beauty of the antique rose. Endless notes with jots and tiddles fill my desktop and peek out of my books. My foot begins to anxious tap the ground as I await the dawning of spring. Until then the beauty of the rose rests in my imagination.

Alexis C.

As a child, whenever I was asked the question,” What would you like to be when you grow up?”, besides a ballerina, I would always answer, “An artist”. Releasing my emotions through creative outlets since as early of an age as I can remember, I now realize that I have been expressing myself though art all of my life, craving a release for artistic expression with a furious passion. Unfulfilled, I can become much to the dismay of my loved ones, a slight bit anxious to say the least. Have I mentioned that I am a cancer and love to get lost in the creative cocoon of my shell for hours? With this being said, I would like to approach the subject from where my inspirations come. I am not positive if this is the correct way to design, but who is to say which is the right way to do something if the thesis of the creation is completed, and all steps in the process fulfilled.

Textiles, more specifically, from natural fibers are where my designs are derived, whether it is rich and beautiful wools, an exquisite and delicate shell button, the diaphanous fluidity of silk chiffon, the smooth strong contradiction of a horn button, this is what inspires me. Designs will flood my head as I touch, and see the textures and textiles. Sketching is not only the next step in the journey, but another form of art that brings to me great pleasure. After the design is envisioned, capturing the creation before it is lost is imperative. The less amount of time spent sketching usually renders a more satisfactory result for me. So sometimes I just draw on whatever I have at hand.

On my inspiration boards, there are usually tear outs of food editorials. Yes I am inspired by the texture and the color combinations of food dishes. Actually, creativeness flows through my veins from just about everything in life, combined with taking great pleasure in the joy of cultured living and nature. But the love of texture is my lifeline, while staying monogamous to my passionate love love affair with natural fibers. I have not been able to find any joy in things that are faux. Saving for awhile renders much greater satisfaction of the acquisition of the real mc coy. It is the way the textures not only feel to the touch, but the play of light and shadow that feed passion and creativity through my being.

I have come to accept that I approach things with two equal parts of a juxtaposition pursuing balance within a design. When I was a child I loved good drama and creating the scene. Now as an adult I still love good drama, and creating pieces of art that cause you to get entwined into their plot. Inspired by a sense of timelessness. I like to provoke a sense of history to the pieces that I create. On the topic of technique, I love the traditional process of skilled craftsmanship, and the many hours of painstaking detail that is put into a well crafted work. This brings life to an inanimate object, and makes it a treasure to be enjoyed for a long time~my pursuit of happiness.

Alexis C.