What inspires our journey together? The intrepid, relentless and willing pursuit of inspired design. Recently, this pursuit moved me to discover design in some of life’s simple luxuries, uncomplicated by time or temperature (it’s hot at home in New York).
So I went west to vacation with my son and loved-one, searching for inspiring spirits – the great Oglala Sioux Crazy Horse and Chief Red Cloud. I found them and ‘the people’ in the mountains and on the prairies of what is now Montana and the Dakotas (but was always for them Lakota).
Crazy Horse is still there. Bareback, galloping on a defiant stallion, arm-stretched toward a vision. His image is being carved out of a granite mountain in the Black Hills. The massive monument is as much a passionate pursuit by one man and his family (not a public project) as it is a moving memorial to ‘the people who lay buried’ throughout the west, and an inspiration for every visitor who shares his respect for the native people’s spirit. (http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org)
The Sioux’s nomadic mobility, changing with the seasons as they graced the earth, made me wonder if an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan was really my place in the world. Then I was reminded that dreaming is an essential recreation while on vacation, isn’t it?
Others went there long before I did (perhaps you did, too). Lewis and Clark explored the rich land, Edward Curtis photographed the people and places, Remington, Russell and others sculpted and painted. I wanted to see what they saw, even though the real art was in the way these people lived so well (a familiar theme for readers of this blog).
You’ll notice I found my way in to some residences that embraced feng shui long before cable TV did. These elegant clients infused their décor with inspiring icons of their past, revered symbols of life’s abundance and doubtless a few influences from Europeans. World of Interiors has nothing on us.
Treasures surrounded us. Some of the most remote resources revealed some of the funkiest finds! Antiques and fabric found nowhere else in the world – except from this vintage assortment – might push your next decorative scheme to rusty romanticism. I’ll let you know where to find them if you ask.
While on this epic adventure, under the ever-enlarging sky and enormous horizon, I was inspired to imagine beyond my own self-imposed fence lines. The dark clouds we sometimes see on the horizon need not be perilous. Rather, they could be (as the Sioux believe) sources of nourishment for the mind, body and spirit.
Where did you go for inspiration this summer? Share your adventures!
Steve Nobel
Founder and principal of NOBELINKS, a consulting practice specializing in the luxury markets for home furnishings and interior design, worldwide.
