Other times, it's the way that one designer takes every f***ing idea, flips it upside down, slices it in half, and is all "this is good art." And then guess what?
It's really f***ing good art.
The first I heard of Kelly Wearstler, was from a design student I was mentoring, she said:
"Kelly Wearstler is like a celebrity or something... or maybe her husband is. And they're like married and beautiful and she just like designs everything and is sort of her own brand and has shops and stuff. She basically does whatever she wants. I don't even know if she's an interior designer... uh, no. Wait, yeah she is. Sometimes. Whatever, she's supercool."
And I was all: "Oh how nice, I'll have to look her up sometime."
And inside my head I was all {robot voice}: "MUST LIVE THIS LIFE, MUST BECOME SUPERCOOL."
So I did a little fact checking on Wikipedia:
- She is sort of a celebrity, or celebrity designer anyway, and is really well known in the design community, stemming from her Bravo show "Top Design"
- Her husband is not a celebrity, but is one of those people who evidently goes to events with paparazzi and is not unattractive and so maybe people sometimes say "Did I see him in an ad for Humira?"
- They're like, totally married, and and she is even more not-unattractive than he is.
- She's definitely an interior designer. But she does do a lot of other things too.
I'll admit, when I first looked through Kelly's work it sort of felt like she was just, trying too hard to be different. Because her work really is, so different from what most designers are doing today. But the more I looked, the more I understood the beauty of it all. This woman takes any material, or any shape, calls it furniture, (or design of some sort) or whatever it is she decides it is, and IT'S ALL WORKING.
As a designer, one of the most difficult things is bringing a unique idea to life (and getting someone to trust you enough to let you do it). Like, if I came into your home and said "Hey Karen, instead of painting your bathroom a soft blue, I think we should put black quartz on the walls and then hang a pendant that looks like a spider." You'd be like, "Oh look at the time!... P.S. you're fired."
And what's more, is you wouldn't be wrong. Because it's not only the idea, and the OK from the client, it's that reveal moment .... Because unless you've put 110% of your blood, sweat, tears, and pure-creative-genius into this; then you will wind up with a nightmare, spider bathroom.
What Kelly is doing, is the definition of a true artist. She expresses herself through design, because it is in her, and it has to come out. Clearly she does not give a s*** about your opinion, or mine and she certainly does not sit around going "is this too much blue?" No. She just does it, because she knows what's good in her mind and she trusts in her talent.
You simply cannot make uncommon, let alone successful, art, unless your whole heart is in it.
And while it may be argued that this mad talent is backed by some very full pocketbooks... I guarantee you that if she only had $10 to her name, she'd be spending it on impractical paint colors.
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