LIFE STYLED CHIC by Monica Garrett

As a designer I often get asked where do I find inspiration for my work. My answer is always that I find it everywhere and as an artist is goes hand-in-hand. To me, an artist or a designer is inspired by so many things because we can see things differently. When one person walks by a tree they might not think anything of it. When I walk by a tree I see groves, depth and texture in the bark that makes me want to touch it. Seeing things for more than a brief second and taking notice of details is an artist’s eye. I admit, it can be exhausting and I often have to keep my thoughts to myself because it might seem as though I can’t stay focused on anything because I notice so much! Ask Jason, he knows.

I attribute this to my many years of art and design education. Having an art background and training in design helps me create designs for all my stationery and invitation projects. My designs aren’t cookie-cutter and when I see someone selling their designs without formal training, I am not going to lie, it shows and it hurts. I really did learn things in college and having an art background helps me create gorgeous and unique designs.

Although I have always been involved in art and art classes in school and college I remember when I first truly began to SEE. One of the first assignments in an early drawing class was to draw a tricycle–from memory! We had 10 minutes to sketch it out and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what a tricycle looked like. A curve here, a few tires there, um, wait, what is this? Where does the child sit!? As hard of a challenge that it was, it made me realize I need to open my eyes a bit more if I really wanted to be an artist and therefore a skilled designer.

Now, in my daily life, I almost can’t stop taking photos of things that I find magnificent. Like this building I came across yesterday. I am obsessed with patterns and finding amazing patterns in nature or that are man-made couldn’t excite me more. While taking a stroll with Jason we came across this very 1960s inspired apartment building. I couldn’t resist taking a photo and just loved the repetition. Here are some of the photos.

The balconies had this fantastic geometric pattern contrasted with a curvy balcony view.

Ahh. . . look at that light shining down on it!

It was really cute too because Jason was like, “They are going to come out here and think you are weird for taking photos of their building.” I wasn’t worried though, I would just tell them I am an artist. -xx