Mondrian Madness!

I was so excited to see these examples of other people who love Mondrian's art as much as I do, that I have to share!  I guess we'll call it collective consciousness that everyone is mad about Mondrian these days.  I was actually reading an article about the SF Moma's Blue Coffee Company Cafe in the SF Gate with pastry chef and photographer, Caitlin Williams Freeman.  She literallly draws her inspiration from art (in a sketchbook) to create incredible desserts that pay homage to various artists featured at the museum.

Mondrian has been providing inspiration for years.  Remember the 1965 Yves Saint Laurent Mondrian dress and all the copycats that have evolved over the years?

My son's room was completely inspired by Mondrian's use of bold primaries and offset with lots of white and strong black outlines.  I decided to do this before I even knew whether I was having a boy or girl.  Art can be a non-gender specific source of inspiration for color and theme in many ways.

If you're in Portland, stop in at Portland Modern for a dose of Northwestern Mondrian, too.  It's the bold colors that set these walls apart.

Try these accents if you want to invite Piet Mondrian into your home, too.  Click on each image for a link to buy it.

Mondrian vase

 

Mondrian Pendant

 

Even Mondrian Espresso

I'm fascinated by the fact that Piet Mondrian started out as a more traditional painter and moved into the modern/abstract arena later in his career.  Essentiallly, he started squinting at things.  Literally.  As he would squint at vistas, he could easily group together color families and geometric shapes and let the details fade to the background.  This led him to his work with strong geometric shapes that is so iconic today. 

In my video interview with Essie Weingarten she mentions a similar technique of "squinting" for color that you can do at home.  Turn a magazine so the edges of the page are facing you & quickly flip through the pages like a deck of cards.  Usually, you'll see colors from the pages blend together to give you the overall color story of that particular publication and it can be a great source of color inspiration when you need it.  Give it a shot and see what colors and inspiration jump out at you!