View From Above

Space is the breath of art.
– Frank Lloyd Wright

The spaces we inhabit reveal more about us than the literal structure. With my recent foray into the world of real estate, as liaison and muse, I contemplate the work of the two maverick Franks – Lloyd Wright and Gehry and find inspiration in their concepts and execution. A brilliant architectural design may bring the outside in, and the inside out. An expansive view can transform by creating an illusion of space.

One could chose to dwell in a loft, a castle, or a French Chateaux, a beach cottage, barn conversion, or 60’s bungalow. One might gravitate towards a Georgian, a Victorian, a brownstone, a colonial, a Spanish hacienda, as easily as a cave, a houseboat, a double wide, or a hut made of thatch. What about a tree house, church, log cabin, factory, rectory, or perhaps a hillside wood and glass contemporary? The real living occurs in the space created by the architecture, not in the framework or the external. 

Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.
– Frank Lloyd Wright

Every art form bears a relationship to other arts, and to our lives. As artists and writers we need to determine what to include, what to leave out – where to shine the spotlight, where to let the shadows speak. Writers often experience a frenzy to acquire a form. Many want to select an architectural plan for their yet-to-be created work assuming they can then simply drop in the text. They would like to adopt a particular configuration for their piece, as if selecting from an array of model homes. You could chose floor plan A or B or C. The flaw with this approach lies in its mechanical nature. If you write and allow your story to develop, the structure will reveal itself. This freaks out the hardcore left-brain thinker and fuels skepticism in the uninitiated. Yes, you could argue that architects work from blueprints. But in the creation of these drawings, usually the same principle of organic process occurs. Let it evolve.

If I knew where I was going, I wouldn’t do it. When I can predict or plan it, I don’t do it.
– Frank Gehry

The scenes of your piece, or life, may play out like a tangled ball of yarn, or form a winding spiral, they could overlap, flash backward or forward, assume parallel threads or follow a chronology of pivotal events, weave multiple time zones, fall into a stream of consciousness, or fit neatly between bookends. The vision emerges as ideas expand and crystallize. Inevitably there will be a beginning, a middle and an end, even though it may start at the end and end at the beginning. But in the end, as in the final analysis, the structure should mirror the content.

We may be seduced by the design of the façade and marvel at the form. But in art, architecture and life, it’s what happens in the spaces, where the scenes unfold, where we live and love, lose and gain, where we can touch a soul…where we breathe.

Oh…and never overlook that expansive view!