Current Inspiration: Hula Seventy and Mati Rose

I'm usually pretty unconscious when I'm collecting things that are currently inspiring me.  It's not until I have stacks of new prints around, really not until it's all up and rearranged on the walls that I even notice themes or patterns emerging.

I rotate what's hanging in our home and in the studio.  I want to see things that feel fresh, true to the present moment, but things that are also calling me forward into a coming future.  If you were in my apartment today (which is getting a lot of attention as I move into a new season) it wouldn't take long to realize that my main sources of visual inspiration these days are the work of these two artists: Andrea Corona Jenkins, aka Hula Seventy, and Mati Rose McDonough.

Here's the trio I see when I'm working at my desk and looking out the window: two of Hula's new polaroids (You Are Beautiful and Love Always Wins) and my beloved Bicycles Are Nice.

 

A set of polaroid prints shine in my twinkle-lit dining room, including the popular Vintage Brooches.  This series is a perfect example of the way Hula recognizes the beauty in things that most people's eyes pass over.  Where some see the ordinary, she sees whimsy, and not just behind the camera.  It's in every nook and cranny of her treasure-filled home, in every gesture of love and color that make up her family's festive and tender moments.

Look and See is the first thing we all see when we walk into the kitchen, and this sweet inscription makes me smile. Every time.

Mati's work makes up the heart of this inspiration wall in the studio: Speaking 1,000 Languages and Flower Power in Rose.  Something about Mati has always felt kindred to me.  Her optimism is not the stuff of cotton candy and denial spun around a stick.  It's the strength of a woman who is intimately acquainted with the dark and still finds her way back to the light.

Dreams of Venice is in the kitchen--it's what I look at when I'm chopping vegetables and making meals.  It is a really important image to me right now, something about sailing into the dark and still singing.  Quiet Treasure is next to my kitchen window, above the coffee maker and next to the sink where I spend a good amount of time doing dishes every day.  This is my first Mati Rose original, and I love how it reminds me that there are treasures waiting in quiet, gentle spaces.  (Like this winter, especially.)

I ordered Show the World Your Magic for my girls, specifically for their reading corner in our living room.  It's hung low, at their eye level when they are sitting in a cozy spot and reading, and where grown-ups on the sofa can be reminded of their own magic, too.

Meet Hula and Mati and soak in their magic for yourself--you can find them both at Joy: A Be Present Retreat in March.