5 Beautiful Things

Wear in the World

For this week’s Five Beautiful Things I wanted to incorporate the element of travel, given Brent’s and Josh’s involvement in The Amazing Race. Hopefully everyone tuned in to the season premier to see them repel from a 300-foot bridge in California, play ping-pong with a Chinese junior champion in Shanghai and scarf down heaps of frog fallopian tubes – part of an Asian dessert called Hasma. Our intrepid young goat farmers placed seventh in the first round and will continue on to the second leg of the race. Watch Sunday’s episode to find out where in the world they go next!

My search for lovely travel imagery was all pretty pedestrian (palm trees, sunsets, beaches and mountains) until I started thinking about how we find these places in the first place: maps! Artist Elisabeth Lecourt is a French artist who lives and works in London. Her series “Les Robes Géographiques” (Map Dresses) really intrigued me. How many of us really look at the artistry involved in map illustration? Certainly, the level of detail and imagination has declined over the centuries; maps today are pale comparisons to their early predecessors, which were replete with graphic renderings of forests and cities, including illustrations of the beasts and beauties that inhabited them. Still, there isn’t a map out there that does not provide at least a modicum of interest for the curious eye.

Elisabeth Lecourt’s carefully folded and arranged map dresses imply the memories of places and spaces we have seen or long to see, carried with us in hope and memory. Click here to see more of her work.

 

All artwork by Elisabeth Lecourt

 

 

Andrew Ritchie is the creator of Martha Moments, a blog devoted to Martha-Stewart related content and her community of supporters. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada, and has been a longtime friend of Brent & Josh, Beekman 1802 and Sharon Springs. Each week he’ll scour the world (wide web) to find the 5 most beautiful things to inspire you. Follow Andrew on Pinterest.