Cat From The Mat

Consumed With Artful Means

Details

Created on Thursday, 31 May 2012 11:37

Consumed With Artful Means 

I recently watched a documentary film about American designers Charles and Ray Eames.  Over several decades, this dynamic married couple worked in multi-media including architecture, furniture, graphic design, fine art, and film.  They revolutionized furniture design.  The Eames chair is one of their most notable modern pieces of furniture and was ahead of its time. 

When Charles Eames first designed his bent-plywood chair with Eero Saarinen as part of a MOMA competition, the work received notoriety.  But because it could not be easily replicated,  it was considered a "failure".  Charles persevered and later collaborated with his wife Ray to realize the quintessential Eames chair mass produced by Herman Miller, made first of plywood, then molded plastic, followed by leather variations on a theme.

Ray was fine art painter and textile designer, while Charles loved the technique of making furniture and films as well as lecturing on their design approach.  Even though they worked in multiple mediums, this duo shared a common vision as artists, with two main pillars.   First of all, the act of exploring new terrain was considered the creation itself.  "Art resides in the quality of doing," said Charles.   The couple continued to promote the process of production as art.    Whether building a modern house to coalesce with the surrounding environment, editing a film to bridging people of different cultures, or solving the puzzle of creating effective wooden splints for the US Navy,  the Eames' pursued to link things together via a common thread of relationship.

Secondly, The Eames team embraced obstacles as a challenge.  "I have never been forced to accept compromises, but I have willingly accepted constraints,"  stated Charles. Therefore, restrictions lead to the creative path.  They limited their designs to simple, long-lasting, and affordable works of quality, so that their furniture could be mass produced and accessible to all.

Working with welcomed constraints is also the process of yoga.   It's a constant practice of enjoying the limits of embodiment, with awareness of self-design.  The breath is the thread that sews the heart, mind, and body together in an exquisite tapestry of the human physical and energetic body.  Connecting the dots dictates the design, so the details do matter.  The more you can trace the link between the power of the baby toe all the way up to your head, the more you become aware of your innate intelligent blueprint.   The way you stand on your feet can determine the caliber of how you walk through life.   "Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se," said Charles.

Yoga means "engagement."   It's about making those subtle and gross connections of your experience, which can make or break a pose, or even your perspective.  When you are in sync with yourself, you align better to our surroundings...to people, ideas, situations.  And yet, it is an ongoing effort.  The process of becoming more skillful and aware of your tendencies makes those mental muscles stronger.  The details are the intentional confines in which creative expression may flourish.  To quote my philosophy teacher Douglas Brooks,  "Clear boundaries, no limits."

As we jump into the limitless summer, cultivate your consciousness.  Design-build your life so that every interaction you have is economical and artful.  "Choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely and to the best of your ability and that way you might change the world." - Charles Eames

Happy means on the mat,

Cat McCarthy, ERYT-500
NOLA YOGA
June 2012