Love is the only gold, eh.

If love is the only gold, then Alfred Lord Tennyson was really missing out. 

After a visit to the New York Public Library and exploring some of the worlds most ancientornatelystupendousmostfabulousoutofthisworld illuminated manuscripts—
my gold leaf craze? Simply justified. Traditionally known for its use as a gilding
material for decorating art, many (if not all) of the highly skilled/intricate manuscripts
on view at the Three Faiths Scriptorium exhibit were in some way governed by gold
(along with religion, detail, tediousness and a damn good piece of mind). It's
possibly one of the most beautiful methods of embellishment thus far.

So Saturday night.

Besides that golden glitter on our eyes (singing along to Kesha, and your point?)
I found some really unexpected golden treasure at a hotel party midtown this
weekend. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn't nearly as interesting as the wall, but
I was amused nonetheless. See that photo? There's Benny. He's one of my
best friends. We share similar interests in music, old people and floral tablecloths
from our Nonna's cabinets. Ben is accompanied by one of the most beautifully
ornate floral patterned walls (created via gold leaf method) that I've ever seen.
Imagine a large surface area of wall space covered head to toe, in this infinitely
lovely pattern. You can feel the slightly raised surface of the gold sheets when
tracing your fingertips along the stems. For the record, I am not being biased—
even if that wall happens to be orange.

So what I'm not doing is venn-diagramming a wall to an illuminated manuscript,
but what I am doing is showing you what worked then, still works now (aesthetically).
Yes, there are days when I'm extremely into minimalism but at this very moment
I think minimalists are lazy. Yes, you really are. In these works you find systems,
structure and precision along with an elaborate look/feel all at the same time.
It's brilliant. It's fabulous. It's pattern. It's gold.

A presto!