you have been here sometime

Y H B H S (card catalog) selection 42....

David John, designer, author of YHBHS, los angeles....

Life today is the P R E S E N T, if you can begin to take it."

Louise Bourgeois, June 23, 1975



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To choose one book that has inspired you is not an easy task. Shelves of design books, art monographs, and vintage furniture catalogs galore, and I can only choose one! Ugh. My mind has gone around, around and around in circles. I finally decide to go with my gut instinct. The artist & book that gave me the courage to seek my own path,












Louise Bourgeois
Destruction of the Father, Reconstruction of the Father
Writings and Interviews 1923 - 1997


Louise Bourgeois' writings and interviews have given me more insight than perhaps any other designer/artist. On my down days, I can open the yellowed pages and sink into her explanations and defenses of why she created work for 70 plus years . Every time, I'm instantly grounded.

Not understanding why you make work can be a CREATIVE DEATH. Buckle up, young travelers. She's gonna take us along for the ride! Bourgeois survived, and thrived, and this book gives you the insight as to how and why she made the work she did.

"Through self-knowledge we recognize and understand the mechanisms of our fears. We cease being dependent on the unknown and the acting out stops.
The goal is to become active, and to take control.
Until the past is negated by the present, we do not live."
-Louise Bourgeois

To quote this book is almost impossible, because there is far too much to quote. This is not a coffee table book full of gorgeous full page spreads. In fact, the images contained are scarce and small. This book is a fuck off to the art world, her family, and others that have stood in her way to find her own VISION / PATH. It's packed with self doubts and determination, and an unrelenting desire to be understood and liked. Don't we all just want to be loved and adore?

Je t'aime, 1977, red ink on grid paper

"Beauty? It seems to me that beauty is an example of what the philosopher's call reification, to regard the abstraction as a thing. Beauty is a series of experiences. It is not a noun. People have experiences. If they feel an intense aesthetic pleasure, they take that experience and project it into the object. They experience the idea of beauty, but beauty in and of itself does not exist."


-Louise Bourgeois from a conversation with Bill Beckley, 1997





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Last year, early summer, Louise Bourgeois passed away due to a heart attack at the age of 98. I wish I had been able to tell her thank you, but it's never too late, right?

January 12, 2011

Dear Louise,

Thank you for sharing your beauty. Thank you for inspiring me to search for beauty where I least expected to. A certain beauty is all around us, constantly shifting, though some will never see it. I've come to realize as you have, that beauty is a series of experiences. Objects are not beautiful in themselves, they need us, and our input. Objects will never become beautiful, unless we are able to connect the stories, the histories, and share our thoughts. Then, they will become beautiful. And so, I search for the people, and the stories, further. Day in, and day out.

You opened my eyes, but more importantly my heart.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

X
David John




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I began You Have Been Here Sometime in November 2008. Desiring a change in my career path, I started a blog to document art/design I admired from afar. I had absolutely no idea the amount of creative, dedicated friends & colleagues I would meet. The site has pushed and pulled me in the most fantastic directions.

I am in the process of completing a Master of Interior Architecture at UCLA, and working at a residential design firm in Hollywood, CA, and working on my own projects. A sincere thank you to all the people that contributed to the YHBHS Card Catalog. I was truly overwhelmed with the response I received from this project. Perhaps next time, we take on a design object or art piece? Happy 2011.



want to email me? please do so!
mrechopark at yahoo dot com

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