Robert L. Peters

17 May 2014

Nobody would be poor if everyone tried to be poorest.

—Peter Maurin (Easy Essays, 2003, p.37)

Thanks to Aiden Enns for the quotable.


15 May 2014

Unfuck the Future… at OFFF

Unfuck_the_Future_OFFF

Barcelona, Spain

I’m giving my talk at 16:45 today… OFFF Barcelona 2014.


14 May 2014

Art is not the reflection of reality, it is the reality of a reflection.

Jean-Luc Godard 


13 May 2014

Occidental Habitué

Robert_L_Peters-China_Silk_square

Occidental_Habitue_02

Occidental_Habitue_08

Occidental_Habitue_07

Occidental_Habitue_05

Occidental_Habitue_06

Occidental_Habitue_03

Shenzhen, China

I’m happy to be participating in The Look of Silk, (The First Session of Cross Strait Silk Culture and Creativity Forum and International Silk Creative Design Expo) sponsored by China Tong Yuan Co., Ltd., Shenzhen China Silk Park, and the Taiwan Cultural and Creative Industry Association.

The Look of Silk plans to “keep alive the spirit of traditional Chinese culture and the international role played by silk in the past, while creating a brand image and market orientation for Chinese silk” by means of innovative creative activities.

As one of “eight internationally renowned designers” I was invited to design a pattern for silk scarves, participate in the 5-day event in Shenzhen, and to give a keynote address earlier today. The title of my silk pattern design (135mm x 135mm) is Occidental Habitué. A design team from Taiwan has developed 80 different silk products using our designs, “creating a systematically multicultural design integrating multiple aspects.”

My design is shown above (click here for a larger view)…

Occidental Habitué

Thousands of icons, images, and visual impressions cross our consciousness daily, weaving rich cultural narratives and imbuing meaningful memories. As travellers, émigrés, and nomads in a shrinking world we wrap ourselves in layers of sensuous, intertwined experience.

My concept involves the creation of an intentionally layered, quirky, and semi-random collage, providing unexpected juxtapositions that draw in the viewer and then reward curiosity with serendipitous surprises of simultaneity. Ancient meets modern, complex collides with simple, small bests large.

Luminous color acts as a background for layered, multidirectional, copyright-free imagery from earlier eras — visual ephemera, linear diagrams, Victorian etchings, old prints, ornaments, printers’ spot illustrations, ad cuts, and clip art — from ancient cave paintings to art deco elements, from flora and fauna to whimsical human inventions.

As if floating above this nuanced visual composition, a repeating directional diamond pattern of contemporary symbols and info-graphic icons (from The Noun Project, an online “visual language” resource of icons created by a global community) lends added dimension, with icons varying in color in a top-to-bottom gradation, complementary to the hue of the background.

A symbol of the globe glows in the fabric’s center.

© 2014 Robert L. Peters


11 May 2014

Here in Barcelona, it’s the architects who built the buildings that made the city iconic who are the objects of admiration, not a bunch of half-witted monarchs.

Julie Burchill


9 May 2014

A true master reveals it in his (or her) every action.

—Samurai Maxim


6 May 2014

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975)


4 May 2014

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Maya Angelou


3 May 2014

If you don’t become the ocean, you’ll be seasick every day.

—Leonard Cohen (thanks to Linda Bloomfield for the quotable)


2 May 2014

Children not looking at modern art…

children-not-looking-at-modern-art

At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art… (source)


« Previous PageNext Page »

© 2002-