Saxon Henry's Blog, page 17
November 11, 2014
Ode to The Panther
The entrance to the Buenos Aires Zoo.
During my first trip to Argentina in 2004, my bucket list included visiting the Buenos Aires zoo. This was not a wish born of an enjoyment of zoos. I actually believe they should be outlawed unless their purpose is to breed endangered species and/or to rehabilitate animals. I was bent on going because I wanted to see the black panther in captivity there; to read a Rainer Maria Rilke poem to it in order to feel the essence of one of my literary heroes. I ha...
October 31, 2014
The Valentino Lair à la Bernhardt
Before The Beatles turned teenaged girls into a screaming, weeping throng and George Clooney made even the most reserved woman a bit toasty under the proverbial collar, there was an inimitable heartthrob working his magic on thefemale genderduring the roaring 20s. His name? Rudolph Valentino, an actor notorious for his tango kisses and his sultry stare emanating from almond-shaped eyes.
Two weeks ago today, I happened upon what I believe would be the quintessential Valentino lair. Though the s...
October 15, 2014
The Laws of Harmony and Proportion
A lovely Pat Stewart illustration in “Living a Beautiful Life.”
Love of beauty is taste… the creation of beauty is art. -Emerson
I’ve been a fan of Alexandra Stoddard since I came across the designer’s book Living a Beautiful Life in the mid-1980s. She has since become a prolific author with an insightful list of releases but Living a Beautiful Life remains the book I return to when I need a reminder that comforting rituals have a nurturing impact on our worlds.
“Creating daily rituals—making dail...
September 16, 2014
The Sense of Beauty
Some of my most beautiful clips are from pieces I wrote for Palm Beach Cottages & Gardens magazine.
I am guessing this will not come as much of a surprise to anyone but me. As I was digitizing the majority of my design and architecture clips—all 400 of them—during the past few days it occurred to me that my twenty-year career as a journalist and author has been focused around the subject of beauty. As the images transcended the scanner bed, morphing almost magically onto the monitor, I recogni...
September 10, 2014
The Luxury of Watching Thunderstorms
32. Storm clouds are fringing north along the coastline of Lido Key, imprinting the ocean’s surface with bruise-like echoes. The rain pulls a dull gray curtain across the expanse of blue to hide the horizon line, creating a hazy transition from sky to ocean. The demarcation grows thick and is tinted in tungsten tones, foregoing […]
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August 29, 2014
The Rocky Coastline of Downeast Maine
The Pemaquid Lighthouse on the rocky coastline of Downeast Maine.
I can’t believe summer almost flew by without a trip to the rocky coastline of Downeast Maine! I am missing the beautiful landscape I wasn’t able to enjoy this summer due to a complex project for a client so I am thrilled to be heading there today. In preparation for my reentering the state’s abundant natural beauty, I’d like to share a riff about one of last year’s trips that celebrates an expressive writer and soulful environm...
August 20, 2014
Hurricane Katrina: an Affirmation of Life
31. Friday, August 29th, is the anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina pillaged New Orleans, the approaching date reminding me of an elderly fisherman named Harvey who had tried to outrun the infamous storm in his boat. This made complete sense to the crusty guy who’d spent most of his life on the water. What […]
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August 12, 2014
A Memory of Summer Heat
30. How is it that Queen Anne’s Lace, its frilly blossoms nodding on leggy stems, is classified as a “weed”? The plants are actually relatives of the wild carrot, and storied landscape architects on par with Beatrix Farrand planted them in a number of world-famous gardens. A field of the quaint Victorian-esque blooms stretched out […]
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August 6, 2014
The Jane Austen Era: Silver for Sale
A pair of antique silver neo-classical sauce boats by William Holmes, circa 1781; image courtesy The London Silver Vaults.
by Saxon Henry
If you are a fan of movies inspired by the novels of Jane Austen but you haven’t read her books, you may be surprised to know that the beautiful period backdrops achieved in films like Emma are not the work of the novelist herself. Though highly emotional in a way that brings all of her characters to life, her narratives are quite limited in the concrete deta...
July 23, 2014
A Playful Wind in Late Afternoon
29. I try to stare into an intensely bright sunset as a front moves away but the glare bests my eyes in its potency. The weather system drags with it a week’s worth of humidity, leaving a refreshing breeze to pour forth in its wake. I watch sunlit tendrils of my golden-brown hair dance around […]
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