Saxon Henry's Blog, page 16

Impressions of Venice by Sophia Khan

“These words ignited a curiosity,

a sense of being reconnected to Venice,

and a sense of adventure in me…” –Sophia Khan

“Mystery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice”; © Sophia Khan.

Several months ago, Sophia Khan engaged me on Twitter and I decided to visit her site to understand her point of view. I must say I was stunned by the whispery delicacy and magical powers of her paintings, a paradoxical mélange of attributes that is rare to find within the same oeuvre. I asked her if she would tell me a...

A Book of Light: Meet Lumio

To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit:

it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate,

to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade,

and perhaps even to amuse.

To design is to transform prose into poetry. —Paul Rand

Lumio, a book of light designed by Max Gunawan.

I’m absolutely giddy to share this post about Lumio, which is essentially a book that opens into a light fixture: talk about a product that exemplifies literary design! Thou...

Snow White Meets Settenani

A beguiling Snow White in the forest-glen.

“Oh, mirror, mirror on the wall, am I most beautiful of all?” Snow White’s mother, the envious Queen, would ask her looking glass each evening, soothed by the oracle’s assurances until the night it copped to the fact there was no way she could outshine her daughter’s loveliness. Into the woods went pretty Snow White, escorted there and abandoned at the biding of her powerful and demented mom.

When you take away the singsong rhythm and whimsical illustr...

Michele De Lucchi: A Conversation of Soul

Michele De Lucchi speaking at an iSaloni press conference.

The Greek philosopher Plato likened thought to “a conversation of the soul with itself—a philosophical communication.” It isn’t unusual for me to attend thought-provoking events but the Salone del Mobile press conference on January 15th brought me a deeper experience than I would have expected thanks to the presentation Milanese architect Michele De Lucchi gave regarding La Passeggiata, his project at iSaloni to be installed at Workpla...

Harlow Spotted at Bergdorfs!

The Harlow chandelier in a Bergdorf’s holiday window display.

I stood for a while admiring the chandelier in the window at Bergdorf Goodman. There was something about its icy lozenges of light telescoping out from a brass center spindle like planets around an axis that caught and held my eye even before I learned it was called the Harlow. The tony window-dressing surrounding it illustrated an imaginative ensemble a young male archaeologist might wear, at least in the movies, I thought to mysel...

The Age of Genius and Architecture

Bruno Schulz self portrait, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

“Ordinary facts are arranged within time, strung along its length as on a thread,” writes Bruno Schulz in his short story The Age of Genius. “There they have their antecedents and their consequences, which crowd tightly together and press hard one upon the other without any pause. This has its importance for any narrative, of which continuity and successiveness are the soul.”

I learned of Schultz’s booksSanatorium Under the Sign of the Hou...

Dream of Venice: Reverence and Resonance

When JoAnn Locktov asked me to contribute a poem to the book she was planning to publish in collaboration with photographer Charles Christopher, I didn’t hesitate. When she gave me access to the photography so I could choose an image to use as my inspiration for the piece, which would be paired with the photo in the book, I knew this was going to be a remarkable experience and a beautiful product. Fast-forward in time and Dream of Venice, the book, was and is just that. Not only is it an artf...

Ally Coulter and the Opulent Salon

Ally Coulter’s sumptuous space at the Holiday House NY 2014.

Ally Coulter’s grand salon on the first floor of the Holiday House NYC took my breath away the minute I entered the room. It was as if I’d stepped into a Romanesque nod to modernismthat intermingles a smooth mix of time-honored and modern elements—Otto Naumann art and Newel antiques hold court alongside Fendi Casa furniture and contemporary accessories, each brushstroke of design prowess painting a lush composition of what it means t...

Rooms of Their Own

A private place in which to write…

As someone whose life is spent working with wordsfor at least a part of every day, I find myself obsessively scouring the biographies I read for mentions of the rooms in which lauded writers made their magic. Descriptions of them exist more often than visuals do so I find myself having to resort to imagining these rooms in which my literary heroes chose to spend their most important hours.

I recently came across a number of visuals that stopped me in my tracks...

The Barrymore Avignon Chair – A Love Story

Barrymore’s Avignon Chairs, French classicism with a strong voice.

Oh, fateful town in France! While communing in your Sainte-Claire d’Avignon, I saw her. Laura. The name that would haunt me for the rest of my days; the visage I would spend every waking hour longing to glimpse once more, knowing I was doomed to never look upon that face again. See me here; hear me loud and clear—I, Petrarch, bow down to her beauty, dreaming I might manage even a moment with the limbs flowing from that glorious...