Eye Candy

Pinterest board: Decreptitude

Isn't it so interesting how, at the height of our technological prowess, we as a society seem to be reaching towards the past for inspiration? And not just the past per se, but the poor, falling down, ready to return to nature past. The appreciation for 'Shabby Chic' focuses on not only old worn design elements, but on pants that simply must hang down to the lowest common denominator (born out of hand me downs from elder siblings), depression era oversized dresses (remember the dress clips we wore in the 90's? Just like they did in the dust bowl depression?), peeling paint, broken statuary, abandoned estates... the list could go on and on. 

It seems we love the aesthetic (me included!), but romantically delete from our frames of reference the actual living conditions and day to day hardships that people from the chosen era had to endure. Would reenactors really like to fight in a civil war battle if they had to rely on 19th century medical practices? Would we find ancient Roman and Greek sculpture so elegant if it were painted with the lifelike (perhaps garish) colors scientists have found evidence of? These thoughts are what drive my personal design ethic. They are what compel me to pick up bits and pieces of flotsom and jetsom, to use found objects in my work, and to decorate my home with architectural salvage and hundred year old family photos.

How do you feel about looking to the past as a way to inform the present?