Design Elements

It had a heart and a soul, and eyes to see with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benedictions.  We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out in eloquent welcome—and we could not enter it unmoved.

—Mark Twain, His Victorian Gothic Home in Connecticut, 1874

Light, Color, Space, Form and Shape, Area/Plane, Line, Texture, Ornament and Pattern.

The fundamental building blocks of a design. All must be inclusive of any creation. How we implement these Elements is perspective. Each Element of Design makes me swoon. Choosing the implementation of each is visceral, each one dependent of the other.

This is how we build our lives. The direction of life adds to the art and science of making practical application; also called praxis. The praxis of design I know to be Spiritual.

I delight in the words of Mark Twain about his Victorian Gothic home. His words elicit that visceral response pertaining to all the Elements he included in his Connecticut dwelling in 1874. One reason why his description moves me so is because I have an actual ‘6 degrees of separation’ from Samual Langhorne Clemens albeit over a few generations. This separation spans the direction of my life from Hannibal, Missouri, to Elmira, New York.

Beauty and Order have been my intent and purpose in life for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I would enter a beautiful space and be consumed with a deep, abiding response to it all. My initial connectivity to architectural design of historic homes began when I was just five years old when my Grandpa Nelson acquired a Victorian Era Queen Anne home on Pearl Avenue in Joplin, Missouri, and the first time I walked in, I was awe-struck. Every time I visited, I would walk from room to room to room and memorize every characteristic of that dwelling. His Queen Anne was one of the more unique of this genre; it was a one-story cross gable, quite uncommon.

He purchased the home fully furnished at auction. The owner had passed in old age and her nephew who lived in another state had inherited the Grand Dame. The nephew was not interested in inhabiting this gem; what a boon on my behalf! His aunt had an interior decorator specify the interior furnishings and treatments, and the home had been impeccably maintained.

My Grandpa was always impeccably groomed and his homes were always orderly and clean to a fault. Even though he was not wealthy money-wise, he was conscious of putting his best foot forward though not in a pretentious manner.

Across the street was a modern architectural design that encroached on a lot that probably at one time contained another Victorian era design. I seem to recall that the houses once located there had burned sometime in the 1950s. In its place a family built a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home. The family owned a large lumber enterprise and were a part of the Joplin Country Club set. I befriended their daughters and came to be a guest in and out of this beautiful home many time over three decades.

These were just two of my many early influences into a future foray of design, which ultimately led to my teaching design at a college in Ohio.

Way Leads to Way, and I followed a myriad of clues that life presented to be where I am today. I’m certainly not implying that everything turned out magically delicious—far from it! Sometimes I opted for a clue that was not an optimal path. Some choices were what I thought to be the best options at the time. I discovered that when I misappropriated my intent and purpose of Beauty and Order, I suffered.

Ultimately, we each create our own reality whether we want to own it or not. We project and reflect our life.

The larger aspect of this understanding I owe to Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way. Every designer, artist, creative should explore her book for added clarity. Even today I continue to utilize the tools in her book. One of her key tools, Morning Pages. My memoir of the past decade of my life comes from my Morning Pages that have poured forth since 2006.

What I have learned? From Doing what you love, Flow is created. Magic happens. And one of my favorite discoveries that I ignored much of my life? Synchronicities and the meanings thereof.

Follow your heart and your passion. Find it first. Never play the victim should Flow not follow. Be still. Drop down into your heart. Conceptualize. Ask yourself what truly makes your heart soar. Then, move toward it. Otherwise, inertia is our greatest enemy.

Remember the movie, The Natural? When Iris says to Roy,

I believe we have two lives. The life we learn with, and the life we live after that.

—From The Natural, based on a 1952 Novel by Bernard Malamud

That is one of my favorite quotes. And yet, I know we have two lives. The life we build with Spirit-given fundamentals, and the life we choose to preserve or destroy after that.

This memoir that I am seeking to publish is a story of my love of design. It is also a memoir of deception and a return to love, a return to Beauty and Order.

And when Mark Twain speaks of the heart and soul and the Grace and peace of his home, his adoration represents a praxis of my love and reverence for design and life.

Good Design is the Art of Living. Kimberly B. Gray, Santa Fe, NM. All materials on this website are Copyrighted, unless it is that owned by way of the links provided.