Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Embracing Creativity: Lessons from Frank Gehry

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Embracing Creativity: Lessons from Frank Gehry · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:03
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, thanks for listening. This is Home in Progress
0:05
Speaker 1: sponsored by Repkolite Paints and Benjamin Moore, and today's show
0:09
Speaker 1: is going to be a little bit different, a little
0:11
Speaker 1: bit different than usual, not that different, but a little
0:14
Speaker 1: bit different. See On December five, the world lost one
0:18
Speaker 1: of its most creative minds, Frank Gary, the architect behind
0:21
Speaker 1: the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney
0:24
Speaker 1: Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He passed away at his
0:27
Speaker 1: home in Santa Monica at the age of ninety six.
0:30
Speaker 1: And maybe that's something you noticed in the news. Maybe
0:33
Speaker 1: it wasn't. Maybe you saw the name but really didn't
0:36
Speaker 1: think that much about it. I mean, ninety six years old.
0:39
Speaker 1: You know, the guy had a pretty good run. Probably
0:41
Speaker 1: didn't jump out at you unless you knew of him
0:44
Speaker 1: and knew his name. But it hit me, you know
0:47
Speaker 1: a little bit. You know. I wasn't torn up. You know,
0:50
Speaker 1: I don't need you descend condolence cards or anything like
0:53
Speaker 1: that unless you want to. And if you do, you know,
0:56
Speaker 1: nothing makes me feel better than a crisp twenty dollars bill,
0:59
Speaker 1: or except maybe a fifty dollar bill, So slide those
1:02
Speaker 1: most no I can't ask for that on the radio.
1:04
Speaker 1: I'm not asking for that seriously. But still, Frank Gary's
1:08
Speaker 1: death hit me a little bit. Why, I guess I
1:13
Speaker 1: got to explain some of that. The main reason is that,
1:16
Speaker 1: you know, previously, you know, up to about three years
1:18
Speaker 1: ago or so, he didn't mean really a whole lot
1:20
Speaker 1: to me. But then three years ago or so, we
1:22
Speaker 1: ran this color and design event. I think we called
1:25
Speaker 1: it Down the rabbit Hole or something like that. We
1:28
Speaker 1: ran an event for our contractors, our designers, the architects
1:31
Speaker 1: that work with Rop Goolite. And in that event we
1:35
Speaker 1: focused on Frank Gary's work and some other people. But
1:38
Speaker 1: for me, the big focus was Frank Gary's work, but
1:40
Speaker 1: even more so, we focused on what he did, you know,
1:45
Speaker 1: professionally personally to tap into what seemed like nearly limitless creativity.
1:51
Speaker 1: And that whole idea, tapping into our creativity that is
1:54
Speaker 1: so important to me. I love this topic because being
1:57
Speaker 1: creative is literally hardwire into us, you know, and we're
2:02
Speaker 1: created that way, and yet many of us, tons of
2:05
Speaker 1: us say we just can't do it right, that we're
2:07
Speaker 1: just not creative people. I'm sure you've heard people say it.
2:11
Speaker 1: Maybe you've said it yourself. I've said it in regards
2:14
Speaker 1: to certain things. But here's the hard reality. If you've
2:17
Speaker 1: ever said that that you're not creative, you're wrong. You're
2:22
Speaker 1: just wrong. There's no easy way to explain that or
2:25
Speaker 1: drop that on you. You're wrong. You are, by your
2:28
Speaker 1: very nature creative. It's just that you sometimes struggle to
2:31
Speaker 1: tap into it. You know. I sometimes struggle to tap
2:34
Speaker 1: into it. And being able to tap into that creativity
2:37
Speaker 1: is critical. It's almost life giving when you can do that,
2:41
Speaker 1: you know, And it's so much bigger than just being
2:44
Speaker 1: able to be artsy and craftsy. You know, I'm not
2:46
Speaker 1: just talking artsy and crafts see artsy and crafty. It's
2:50
Speaker 1: not just being crafty. Let's just say that. It's not
2:52
Speaker 1: just about gluing popsicle sticks together, or gluing cotton balls
2:57
Speaker 1: on a toilet paper roll core and making a sheep
3:00
Speaker 1: for Christmas. You know, that's not exactly what I'm talking about.
3:04
Speaker 1: It's way bigger than that. It's bigger than being able
3:07
Speaker 1: to design a cool space for your home. It's bigger
3:10
Speaker 1: than choosing great colors. You know, comfortably and confidently. Creativity
3:15
Speaker 1: is literally the thing that solves pretty much every single
3:18
Speaker 1: problem or obstacle that we face as people. You know,
3:21
Speaker 1: creativity is what gets us over those hurdles. Business problems,
3:25
Speaker 1: home problems, relationship problems, you name it, Creativity solves them.
3:30
Speaker 1: Creativity is what makes fortunes for people. Creativity is what
3:35
Speaker 1: makes our homes great places to be, and the time
3:37
Speaker 1: spent with our family fulfilling and crazy memorable. You know,
3:41
Speaker 1: creativity at its core brings a ton of joy into
3:43
Speaker 1: our lives because, as I said earlier, we're hardwired for it.
3:47
Speaker 1: We're created as creative beings and when we tap into that,
3:50
Speaker 1: we're tapping into who we are at our very core.
3:54
Speaker 1: So further developing our creativity breeds new life into every
3:58
Speaker 1: single thing that we do. And that's what makes us
4:00
Speaker 1: so exciting. And that's why you know, we talked about
4:03
Speaker 1: Frank Geary at that Color and Design event so long ago,
4:06
Speaker 1: and that's why I'm going to talk about it now
4:09
Speaker 1: on the show for today. So let's get going. Why
4:13
Speaker 1: Frank Gary Well, for me, I really resonated with his
4:16
Speaker 1: approach to creativity. You know, his willingness to play, to experiment,
4:20
Speaker 1: to embrace the unknown. You know, that's something every single
4:23
Speaker 1: one of us can learn from whether you're choosing a
4:25
Speaker 1: paint color, remodeling a kitchen, rearranging furniture, you know, trying
4:29
Speaker 1: to work out a business plan for twenty twenty six,
4:31
Speaker 1: or pretty much any endeavor. You know. How he approached
4:34
Speaker 1: creativity and how he tapped into it is something we
4:36
Speaker 1: can all learn from. So in light of his passing,
4:39
Speaker 1: I thought we'd celebrate Frank Gary a little bit by
4:41
Speaker 1: digging into some of these ideas about creativity, about curiosity
4:45
Speaker 1: and all of that. And I promise, you know, if
4:47
Speaker 1: you're tempted to walk away because you're not hearing about
4:51
Speaker 1: how to you know, flush a hot water heater or something,
4:53
Speaker 1: I promise even if architecture is not your thing, there's
4:56
Speaker 1: still something here for you, all right. Who was Frank Gary.
5:00
Speaker 1: Let me start with a bit of background, because his
5:02
Speaker 1: story is pretty remarkable. He was born Frank Owen Goldberg
5:05
Speaker 1: on February twenty eight, nineteen twenty nine, in Toronto, Canada.
5:09
Speaker 1: Don't worry about the dates. I'm just throwing them out there.
5:13
Speaker 1: So you've got a little bit of a framework, you know,
5:16
Speaker 1: to understand this and process this. Not going to ask
5:18
Speaker 1: you questions later, and there's no bonus points if you
5:22
Speaker 1: get it right. So nineteen twenty ninety is born. His
5:25
Speaker 1: parents were Jewish immigrants, his mother from Poland, his father's
5:29
Speaker 1: family from Russia. They raised him in a small mining
5:31
Speaker 1: town in eastern Ontario called Timmins. Now here's something that
5:35
Speaker 1: I really love. Frank's grandpa. He had a hardware store, Okay,
5:39
Speaker 1: and when Frank was little, his grandma would take wood
5:42
Speaker 1: scraps home from the store, and then on Friday nights,
5:45
Speaker 1: when little Frank would stop by for a little old visit,
5:49
Speaker 1: they'd sit on the living room floor building imaginary cities
5:52
Speaker 1: together with all those little wood scraps. You know, that's
5:54
Speaker 1: all they had. It's not all they had. I'm not
5:57
Speaker 1: saying that. You know, Frank's only toy in life was
6:00
Speaker 1: anka would That's not what I'm saying. But that's what
6:03
Speaker 1: they did with the wood scraps, sat on the floor,
6:05
Speaker 1: you know, nothing fancy. They didn't have the cool stuff,
6:08
Speaker 1: just hunks of wood and made little city scapes and
6:10
Speaker 1: in so doing a creative mind was starting to form.
6:15
Speaker 1: All right, another detail from his childhood that really shaped
6:18
Speaker 1: his work. And it's going to sound crazy, but when
6:21
Speaker 1: you look at his work and I really encourage you
6:24
Speaker 1: go out there. Google it, Frank, Gary. If you don't
6:27
Speaker 1: know what the buildings look like, do it. And your
6:30
Speaker 1: first reaction is probably going to be to recoil because
6:33
Speaker 1: they're so strange. But listen to what I'm saying about
6:37
Speaker 1: what he's doing and why he's doing it, and I
6:39
Speaker 1: think you're going to see them with you in a
6:42
Speaker 1: new light when you google them. But anyway, here's something
6:45
Speaker 1: from his childhood that shaped his work, and when you
6:48
Speaker 1: google the work, you're going to see this, and it's very,
6:51
Speaker 1: very interesting. See every Thursday, young Frank, little Frank would
6:54
Speaker 1: go to visit his grandparents again, and his grandma would
6:57
Speaker 1: take him to the market every Thursday and they'd buy
6:59
Speaker 1: a lie carp, you know, a big old fish, and
7:02
Speaker 1: they'd bring it home in a bag of water, sloshing
7:06
Speaker 1: around there it is. They'd bring it into the house
7:08
Speaker 1: and they'd toss it in the bath well. They'd set
7:10
Speaker 1: it gently in the bathtub, you know, fill the bathtub
7:13
Speaker 1: up with water and the carp would swim around and
7:16
Speaker 1: it sounds really really you know, idyllic and sweet and
7:20
Speaker 1: nature loving. But that carp was short for this world,
7:23
Speaker 1: you know, So don't get too attached to that carp.
7:25
Speaker 1: So Frank would watch it swimming all over the place,
7:27
Speaker 1: and then the next day the fish would be gone.
7:30
Speaker 1: It'd be turned into their Sabbath dinner. But I love
7:33
Speaker 1: that story because those fish that carp swimming around stayed
7:38
Speaker 1: with him his whole life. Fish became a recurring motif
7:43
Speaker 1: in the work that he did. And if you look
7:45
Speaker 1: at his buildings, the curves, the movement, the way they
7:47
Speaker 1: seem to swim through space. That sounds crazy, but look
7:51
Speaker 1: at the pictures and think about that fish, and you're
7:54
Speaker 1: gonna instantly see what I'm talking about. You're gonna see
7:57
Speaker 1: those fish from his grandmother's bathtub. So that's really cool
8:01
Speaker 1: stuff from the past. Moving on. In nineteen forty seven,
8:04
Speaker 1: when Frank was about seventeen, his family moved to la
8:07
Speaker 1: He worked as a truck driver while taking night classes,
8:10
Speaker 1: and he eventually got his architectural degree from the University
8:13
Speaker 1: of Southern California in nineteen fifty four. He even spent
8:17
Speaker 1: some time at Harvard studying urban planning before he dropped out.
8:21
Speaker 1: After working for several architecture firms and spending a year
8:24
Speaker 1: in Paris, he opened up his own firm in Los
8:27
Speaker 1: Angeles in nineteen sixty two. And there's a ton more
8:30
Speaker 1: that I could say, a ton of great stories, you know,
8:33
Speaker 1: great anecdotes from these formative years, but you know, I'm
8:36
Speaker 1: trying to just skim through some of the basics, all right.
8:39
Speaker 1: So he opens his own firm in nineteen sixty two,
8:42
Speaker 1: and for the first fifteen years or so of his
8:44
Speaker 1: practice there, Frank Geary's pretty much designing conventional buildings. You know,
8:49
Speaker 1: same o, same old kind of thing. You know, they
8:51
Speaker 1: were nice buildings, Sure, you know that's a nice building, Frank.
8:55
Speaker 1: They were well planned, they were acceptable to people's esthetic palettes.
9:01
Speaker 1: They could accept what Frank was building. But they were
9:04
Speaker 1: nothing really that you'd stop and stare at for more
9:06
Speaker 1: than just a few seconds. They're just your average run
9:09
Speaker 1: of the mill buildings, all right. The turning point for
9:12
Speaker 1: Frank Gary came in nineteen seventy eight. He and his
9:14
Speaker 1: wife had bought a small bungalow in Santa Monica for
9:18
Speaker 1: about fifty thousand dollars, all right, and instead of renovating
9:22
Speaker 1: it in a traditional manner, he did something absolutely nuts,
9:27
Speaker 1: really really nuts. He built a new structure around the
9:31
Speaker 1: existing house using materials that nobody in their right minds
9:35
Speaker 1: associate with fine architecture. He used corrugated metal, chain link fence,
9:41
Speaker 1: unpainted plywood, raw timber, and on and on and on
9:44
Speaker 1: and on. The neighbors hated it. One of them even
9:47
Speaker 1: sued him. You know, you're stealing my joy of life,
9:50
Speaker 1: my joy de vive. I could have said that with
9:53
Speaker 1: a French accent, but it would have been ridiculous. You're
9:56
Speaker 1: stealing my joy of life because you built this, this
9:59
Speaker 1: eye sore, you know, right out my window. So the
10:03
Speaker 1: people around him weren't big fans. And when you look
10:06
Speaker 1: at pictures of it, you know, google Frank Gary, Santa
10:08
Speaker 1: Monica Home. If you look at pictures of it, it's
10:12
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan, you know. I'll be honest, straight up,
10:15
Speaker 1: I don't really care for it. I can see why
10:18
Speaker 1: people didn't like it, and it's really easy. It was
10:21
Speaker 1: really tempting for me in the beginning when I started this,
10:24
Speaker 1: you know, years back, when we picked Frank Gary for
10:26
Speaker 1: our event, I started looking at some of these things
10:29
Speaker 1: and I instantly wanted to run away because this seemed like,
10:33
Speaker 1: you know, the bridge too far. These things were too weird.
10:36
Speaker 1: So it was easy for me to blow it off. Well,
10:38
Speaker 1: before you do that, before you blow it off, before
10:41
Speaker 1: you shrug it off and just act like this is silliness.
10:45
Speaker 1: Before you do that, realize that this house, this experiment
10:48
Speaker 1: with chainlink and corrugated metal. This was the moment that
10:51
Speaker 1: Frank Gary found his voice. And we're gonna like what
10:54
Speaker 1: he has to say later, or at least a lot
10:55
Speaker 1: of us do. But this was that moment, and this
10:58
Speaker 1: is really important, you know, this house to the architecture world.
11:01
Speaker 1: Here's somebody who's not afraid to ask some really crazy
11:06
Speaker 1: radical questions. You know, here's somebody who's willing to use
11:10
Speaker 1: humble materials in completely unexpected ways. Here's somebody who sees
11:14
Speaker 1: possibilities where other people see limitations. And that's what caught
11:19
Speaker 1: people's attention, you know, other architects, other designers, other artists.
11:22
Speaker 1: They started watching what Frank Gary was going to do next,
11:26
Speaker 1: and he started getting commissions for buildings that let him
11:29
Speaker 1: push even further, and each project became more and more experimental,
11:34
Speaker 1: more sculptural, more daring. He developed relationships with cutting edge
11:38
Speaker 1: fabricators and engineers who could help him with all of
11:43
Speaker 1: these increasingly complex visions. He even began using computer software,
11:48
Speaker 1: which is funny when you hear him talk about it.
11:50
Speaker 1: You know, he struggles to wrap his brain around it.
11:52
Speaker 1: He has other people do a lot of it for him,
11:54
Speaker 1: but he knows it's necessary. He's using this stuff that
11:58
Speaker 1: I think was originally designed for bowe jets, and he's
12:01
Speaker 1: using it or having other people use it around him
12:04
Speaker 1: to help him figure out, you know, how to turn
12:06
Speaker 1: his curved fluid sketches, you know, like I mentioned the
12:10
Speaker 1: fish in the bathtub, you know, those curved fluid sketches,
12:13
Speaker 1: turn them into actual building structures. So he's using everything
12:17
Speaker 1: that he can to push and push and push. Now,
12:19
Speaker 1: he wasn't overnight successful. It was almost twenty years of
12:23
Speaker 1: building on that initial breakthrough before he really made it big.
12:27
Speaker 1: But that Santa Monica House was the foundation. It was
12:30
Speaker 1: where he proved to himself and to the world that
12:32
Speaker 1: he could break the rules and create something genuinely new.
12:36
Speaker 1: And that's really, really, really exciting when you find that
12:40
Speaker 1: you can create something genuinely new in a field that's
12:43
Speaker 1: been around for ages. And that journey, you know, everything
12:47
Speaker 1: that he did that led him to that point, led
12:49
Speaker 1: him to Spain and in nineteen ninety seven, the Guggenheim
12:52
Speaker 1: Museum in Bilbao opened with it swooping, you know, titanium
12:57
Speaker 1: curves that look a lot like they're about ready to flight.
13:00
Speaker 1: I mean it looks like flags are like fabric blowing
13:04
Speaker 1: in the wind. It is absolutely mind blowing. Look at
13:08
Speaker 1: that picture, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Bilbao. That building
13:14
Speaker 1: changed architecture forever. Philip Johnson, he's kind of the godfather
13:18
Speaker 1: of American modern architecture. He stood in the atrium and
13:21
Speaker 1: was moved to tears. He called Gary the greatest architect
13:25
Speaker 1: that we have today. Now. That museum was so successful
13:28
Speaker 1: at transforming Bilbao from a struggling industrial city into a
13:32
Speaker 1: tourist destination that they coined a term for it, the
13:35
Speaker 1: Bilbao Effect. You know, cities around the world started commissioning
13:39
Speaker 1: famous architects, hoping to create their own cultural landmarks that
13:42
Speaker 1: would attract visitors and investment. So what was Gary's secret?
13:47
Speaker 1: You know, how did he create buildings that look like
13:49
Speaker 1: nothing anyone had ever made before. Well we're going to
13:52
Speaker 1: get into that right after this Homan Progress is brought
13:55
Speaker 1: to you by Repcole Like paints and Benjamin Moore. You know,
13:58
Speaker 1: people often think of paint as just another line item
14:01
Speaker 1: on the project's supply list. But here's the thing. Everything
14:04
Speaker 1: you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of the brush,
14:07
Speaker 1: all comes down to the quality of the paint. The
14:09
Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure it's the best. And
14:13
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of a tribute to architect Frank Gary,
14:15
Speaker 1: who passed away on December fifth, and we ended last
14:19
Speaker 1: segment talking about, or asking, i should say, asking a
14:22
Speaker 1: simple question. What was Frank Gary's secret, you know, the
14:25
Speaker 1: secret to unleashing his creativity and finding so much success.
14:29
Speaker 1: How did he create buildings that looked unlike anything else
14:33
Speaker 1: anybody had ever seen before. Well, it all comes down
14:36
Speaker 1: to something Frank Gary referenced often in interviews that he gave.
14:40
Speaker 1: It's a quote from the composer John Cage. And it
14:43
Speaker 1: doesn't matter one little bit if you have no idea
14:45
Speaker 1: who John Cage is, because you're gonna have no idea
14:48
Speaker 1: what he's saying in this quote. Anyway, we're gonna have
14:50
Speaker 1: to explain it because it's convoluted and complicated. Anyway, the
14:55
Speaker 1: quote is this quote. Not knowing cheers, the knowing cheers
15:00
Speaker 1: cheers not knowing cheers the knowing. Like I said, you're
15:04
Speaker 1: probably scratching your head wondering what in the world that
15:07
Speaker 1: even means. And I'm right there with you. You know,
15:10
Speaker 1: the first few times that I heard it, I was
15:12
Speaker 1: completely lost. But here's the idea. Not knowing everything when
15:16
Speaker 1: you're doing something creative isn't a hindrance. It's actually helpful.
15:20
Speaker 1: Now let's be clear, I'm not saying that you should
15:22
Speaker 1: rip out a toilet without knowing what you're doing. In
15:25
Speaker 1: that instance, not knowing will not cheer the knowing. It's
15:29
Speaker 1: not going to make the process happier. It's not going
15:31
Speaker 1: to help you accomplish greater things. Most likely, you know,
15:36
Speaker 1: there are certain skilled trades where you're absolutely going to
15:38
Speaker 1: need to know what you're doing before you start plumbing, electrical,
15:42
Speaker 1: structural work. All of those require knowledge and expertise. Not
15:46
Speaker 1: knowing will not cheer the knowing in those situations. But
15:49
Speaker 1: when it comes to creative decisions, you know, designing the space,
15:53
Speaker 1: choosing colors, arranging furniture, solving problems in new ways, not
15:57
Speaker 1: having all the answers is exactly where you want to
16:00
Speaker 1: be in those situations. And here's why this matters, know
16:04
Speaker 1: it all's struggle to be creative. And you know here
16:07
Speaker 1: what I'm saying here, I mean people who've convinced themselves
16:10
Speaker 1: that they already got all the answers. Just think about that.
16:13
Speaker 1: If you think you've got all the answers, you think
16:15
Speaker 1: you know everything, then the only solutions you're ever gonna
16:19
Speaker 1: find are the ones that fit what you already believe.
16:22
Speaker 1: You know, you're not thinking outside the box at that
16:24
Speaker 1: point because you're convinced all the answers are already inside
16:27
Speaker 1: your box. You know that's huge. That point every single
16:31
Speaker 1: time rattles me when I think about it. You know,
16:33
Speaker 1: we've all met people who think they've got all the
16:35
Speaker 1: answers about everything, and it's easy to feel intimidated by them,
16:39
Speaker 1: or even envious of their confidence and their perceived knowledge.
16:42
Speaker 1: But keep in mind that tendency that they have or
16:46
Speaker 1: we have, because sometimes the know it all is us,
16:49
Speaker 1: let's be honest, sometimes we're that person. But that tendency
16:54
Speaker 1: actually is hampering the ability to be truly creative, to
16:57
Speaker 1: truly tap into your creativity. You miss out on a
17:00
Speaker 1: lot when you start from the point of view of
17:02
Speaker 1: having all the answers on the flip side. If you
17:05
Speaker 1: don't feel knowledgeable or comfortable about design choices or whatever,
17:08
Speaker 1: that's actually not a bad place to be. A lot
17:11
Speaker 1: of people hold themselves back from making creative decisions in
17:14
Speaker 1: their homes because they think, I'm not a designer. You know,
17:17
Speaker 1: I'm not creative. I don't know what I'm doing. But
17:19
Speaker 1: that lack of certainty, that's not your weakness, that's your opening.
17:23
Speaker 1: That's where creativity lies. Now. When you think you know
17:26
Speaker 1: exactly what you're supposed to do, white trim, let's say,
17:29
Speaker 1: neutral walls, furniture against the walls. When you think you
17:33
Speaker 1: know exactly what's supposed to be done, your ego gets involved.
17:36
Speaker 1: And by that I mean you become self conscious. You know,
17:39
Speaker 1: you start worrying about whether or not you're doing it right,
17:42
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe your brain doesn't go in that direction.
17:44
Speaker 1: But still, if you're firmly entrenched in the idea that
17:47
Speaker 1: you know all the options, all the things that you
17:49
Speaker 1: can do, you're going to be really really limited in
17:52
Speaker 1: where you can move with this. But when you embrace
17:54
Speaker 1: not knowing, when you say, I'm not sure what's going
17:57
Speaker 1: to happen if I paint the ceiling Navy blue. But
17:59
Speaker 1: let's find out. If you do that, you've got to
18:01
Speaker 1: humble yourself. You've got to be open, you've got to experiment,
18:05
Speaker 1: and that creates space for play, for discovery, and for
18:08
Speaker 1: something genuinely new to emerge. And I'm not saying that
18:12
Speaker 1: you necessarily experiment in that situation by putting navy blue
18:16
Speaker 1: onto your ceiling to find out if you like it.
18:18
Speaker 1: There are other ways other than just rolling paint up
18:21
Speaker 1: there to check it out ahead of time. You know,
18:23
Speaker 1: software programs and things like that where you can look
18:25
Speaker 1: at blues on a ceiling. You can even upload your
18:28
Speaker 1: own space and put a Navy blue on the ceiling.
18:30
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying experiment to that level, but just
18:33
Speaker 1: ask the question, what if you know? That's the big takeaway,
18:37
Speaker 1: Ask what if you know? Embrace the unknown. Stop thinking
18:40
Speaker 1: that you need to have all the answers. Stop thinking
18:42
Speaker 1: that you know all the answers before you start, and
18:45
Speaker 1: you're going to have way more options and it's going
18:47
Speaker 1: to be way easier to lean into your creativity. All right,
18:51
Speaker 1: Embracing the unknown. It's an easy thing to say, but
18:54
Speaker 1: how do you do that? You know? How do you
18:55
Speaker 1: go from I don't know to let's find out. Well,
18:58
Speaker 1: we're going to get to that right after. This home
19:01
Speaker 1: in progress is brought to you by Repcolite Paints and
19:03
Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore. Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sandy, taping,
19:07
Speaker 1: and then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away
19:10
Speaker 1: with an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply.
19:13
Speaker 1: The paint is the project. Make sure it's the best.
19:16
Speaker 1: We're looking at the life and work of architect Frank
19:19
Speaker 1: Gary and how his philosophy can help all of us,
19:22
Speaker 1: you know, be more creative with anything that we tackle. Okay,
19:26
Speaker 1: last segment we ended by saying that we needed to
19:29
Speaker 1: embrace the unknown, to stop knowing everything and just embrace
19:32
Speaker 1: the unknown. And that sounds a little bit weird. What
19:36
Speaker 1: am I exactly getting at? Basically, I'm talking about curiosity.
19:40
Speaker 1: You know, we've got to have a sense of curiosity.
19:43
Speaker 1: Frank Gary spent a lifetime being curious, asking questions that
19:47
Speaker 1: seemed impossible. I love the questions that he asked. He
19:51
Speaker 1: was asking things like, how do we add motion to
19:54
Speaker 1: brick and glass? You know, how do we infuse feeling
19:57
Speaker 1: and emotion into steel and spent? How do we make
20:00
Speaker 1: buildings that don't just sit there but kind of dance.
20:04
Speaker 1: Those questions drove every single thing that he did, every
20:07
Speaker 1: design that he came up with. The accepted understanding is
20:11
Speaker 1: that buildings don't have motion. You know, glass does not
20:14
Speaker 1: good motion. You know, they're not supposed to have motion.
20:17
Speaker 1: Glass doesn't move, you know, that's the idea. That's what
20:20
Speaker 1: we all accept as you know, a known quantity. But
20:24
Speaker 1: he wasn't willing to accept those established answers. He was
20:27
Speaker 1: asking what if, like we talked about earlier, what if
20:30
Speaker 1: it could move? What if we tried this? What happens
20:33
Speaker 1: when we do that? And here's the key. Asking those
20:37
Speaker 1: impossible questions opens up possibilities that realistic questions can't even touch,
20:43
Speaker 1: you know, not even close. With realistic reality based questioning,
20:47
Speaker 1: you're always hemmed in. You know, this is so similar
20:50
Speaker 1: to what we were just talking about. But when you
20:52
Speaker 1: open your questions up to the world that seems impossible. Really,
20:55
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, now you've hit this point where
20:57
Speaker 1: the sky is the limit. Frank did that, and he
21:01
Speaker 1: asked those questions. He asked the impossible questions, and he
21:04
Speaker 1: did find a way to make buildings in glass move
21:08
Speaker 1: or at least feel like they're moving. But it never
21:10
Speaker 1: would have happened without asking those impossible questions first. Now
21:14
Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking. I don't know what you're thinking.
21:16
Speaker 1: I suppose I know what you're thinking. That's great for
21:19
Speaker 1: Frank Gary and his multimillion dollar buildings, but what does
21:22
Speaker 1: that mean for me and my living room? Well, everything, everything,
21:27
Speaker 1: you know, So let's bring this home literally, you know,
21:29
Speaker 1: into our own homes. Because that same principle that we
21:32
Speaker 1: just covered, everything we've talked about so far applies to
21:37
Speaker 1: us on a singular level. You know, each one of
21:39
Speaker 1: us personally, and it applies to you whether you're designing
21:42
Speaker 1: a museum you know, which I'm sure lots of us are,
21:45
Speaker 1: or designing, you know, a shed for the backyard or
21:48
Speaker 1: a garden, or you know, maybe we're just picking a
21:51
Speaker 1: color for the living room, whatever. We're doing a business
21:53
Speaker 1: plan like I mentioned, you know, for twenty twenty six
21:56
Speaker 1: for our business. You know, it doesn't have to be
21:58
Speaker 1: design related necessarily, but if we're working on something in
22:01
Speaker 1: a creative manner, this is going to apply to us,
22:03
Speaker 1: this principle, and it all starts with asking questions and
22:07
Speaker 1: challenging your own assumptions. You know, when you're stuck with anything,
22:10
Speaker 1: step back and ask what if? So let me give
22:13
Speaker 1: you some examples to make this concrete. Let's say you've
22:15
Speaker 1: got a small bedroom. Maybe it's your kids room, maybe
22:18
Speaker 1: it's a guest room, and you look at it and
22:20
Speaker 1: you think it's too small for anything but a bed.
22:23
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of frustrating. You know, there's no
22:25
Speaker 1: way I can expand the space. Thought about that, but
22:28
Speaker 1: you know, this is what we've got. There's no room
22:29
Speaker 1: for a desk, no room for a sitting area, just
22:32
Speaker 1: a tiny little bedroom. That's the reality of it. But
22:35
Speaker 1: is it the reality of it? You know, if you
22:37
Speaker 1: challenge the assumption, what happens? You know what if you
22:40
Speaker 1: ask if there are other options you're not even remotely considering.
22:43
Speaker 1: What if you raise the bed up? You know what
22:46
Speaker 1: if you built a loft bed, Suddenly you've got all
22:48
Speaker 1: that space underneath for a desk, you know, for a
22:50
Speaker 1: reading nook, for storage. I did this with my daughter's room.
22:54
Speaker 1: We spent a year with this tiny little room being
22:56
Speaker 1: frustrated because there was no real way for her to
23:00
Speaker 1: kick back and turn it into the room that she wanted.
23:02
Speaker 1: Because it was small, and the bed took up so
23:05
Speaker 1: much space, and we had small ideas where we thought
23:08
Speaker 1: about getting a smaller bed, but we were kind of
23:11
Speaker 1: at that point already. We were at a twin bed.
23:14
Speaker 1: How much smaller can it get? A prison cot? You know,
23:17
Speaker 1: we didn't want to go to that level, so we
23:19
Speaker 1: kind of just lived with it, and then we challenged
23:22
Speaker 1: our assumptions. We kind of washed the board clean and
23:25
Speaker 1: started over and said, wait a minute, what about going
23:27
Speaker 1: upwards with the bed? What about a loft bed? So
23:30
Speaker 1: we did that and the space completely transformed. You know,
23:33
Speaker 1: that impossible room that was way too small suddenly became
23:36
Speaker 1: functional and cool. You know, here's another one. You're staring
23:39
Speaker 1: at your living room and you're thinking the room is
23:41
Speaker 1: just boring, right dead boring. The only wall colors that
23:45
Speaker 1: work in this space, with my furniture and all of
23:48
Speaker 1: those things, all of those colors, they're just the same
23:51
Speaker 1: old thing that I've used forever. You know, I've already
23:54
Speaker 1: tried all the options that I that I can use
23:56
Speaker 1: in this space. I just need to have these neutrals.
23:58
Speaker 1: That's all I've got. So it's boring, you know, you
24:00
Speaker 1: resign yourself to beige or gray again and again and
24:03
Speaker 1: again and again. But hold on, ask the question is
24:06
Speaker 1: that really true? Are you really right about that? You know,
24:10
Speaker 1: and it's such a simple question to ask, but it
24:13
Speaker 1: is kind of, you know, shattering in a sense because
24:17
Speaker 1: we don't live in that zone. We just assume we've
24:20
Speaker 1: explored everything. Maybe we tried some other colors and they
24:23
Speaker 1: didn't work, and we've landed on this conclusion that no
24:26
Speaker 1: other colors will work. Challenge that, are there other colors
24:30
Speaker 1: that you haven't tried that could work? And even if
24:33
Speaker 1: there aren't, even if it turns out that nope, you're right,
24:36
Speaker 1: you're kind of stuck with these neutrals on the walls.
24:38
Speaker 1: You know, maybe your furniture really does limit those wall
24:41
Speaker 1: color options. Well, what about the trim color? You know,
24:44
Speaker 1: everybody says trim has to be white or an off
24:46
Speaker 1: white or something like that. But we all know, you know,
24:48
Speaker 1: if you follow design at all, you know that that's
24:51
Speaker 1: being challenged. You know, we're seeing more and more color
24:55
Speaker 1: showing up on trim. What if you painted your trim
24:57
Speaker 1: a deep charcoal color or a rich navy or even
24:59
Speaker 1: a black, Suddenly the boring beige walls or the gray
25:02
Speaker 1: walls or whatever become interesting again, you know, because of
25:06
Speaker 1: the trim color. What about the ceiling. You know, we
25:08
Speaker 1: talked about it at the end of the last segment.
25:10
Speaker 1: You know, we call it the fifth wall for a reason.
25:13
Speaker 1: You know, we almost always paint the ceilings flat white.
25:15
Speaker 1: But what if you didn't, Like I said, We covered
25:17
Speaker 1: that already, But that's another one to question. Maybe you're
25:20
Speaker 1: arranging furniture, this is a big one, you know, and
25:23
Speaker 1: you've always got the couch put against the wall. You've
25:25
Speaker 1: got chairs here or whatever, and you're just kind of
25:29
Speaker 1: stuck with that. You feel like that's the only way
25:32
Speaker 1: these pieces of furniture in that space are going to
25:34
Speaker 1: shake out and work, you know, and you just live
25:37
Speaker 1: with it and you feel bored with it. Sometimes, Well,
25:39
Speaker 1: what if you pulled the couch off the wall a
25:41
Speaker 1: little bit? Would that work? What if you took that
25:44
Speaker 1: set of matching chairs and split it up, you know,
25:47
Speaker 1: send one of those chairs to another room in the
25:49
Speaker 1: house and bring a coordinating chair, you know, something that
25:51
Speaker 1: will work in the color scheme, but a different chair,
25:54
Speaker 1: a different style in to replace it. You know, that
25:57
Speaker 1: will completely shake up that room. And it's something that
26:00
Speaker 1: a lot of us don't even think to question or
26:02
Speaker 1: think to try. You know, in fact, a lot of designers,
26:04
Speaker 1: if they buy sets or have sets of chairs, they'll
26:07
Speaker 1: split them up right away. They'll break the sets in
26:09
Speaker 1: order to get visual interest and stuff going on into space.
26:12
Speaker 1: A lot of us don't think to go that way.
26:15
Speaker 1: I've got these two chairs, that's what I've got to
26:16
Speaker 1: work with. I got to keep them together because they're
26:18
Speaker 1: a set. Challenge that assumption break it up. Here's one
26:21
Speaker 1: more kitchen cabinets. You know, the standard has previously for
26:25
Speaker 1: years and years and years been white or wood stain.
26:28
Speaker 1: Right now we've seen more color come into the kitchen,
26:31
Speaker 1: you know, grays and brighter colors if you're feeling adventurous.
26:35
Speaker 1: But a lot of us live in that zone where
26:38
Speaker 1: we're just not willing to stretch out into that. We're
26:40
Speaker 1: afraid of it, or we don't even think about it
26:42
Speaker 1: when it comes to our own design. But remember, designers
26:45
Speaker 1: are challenging that all the time, that it has to
26:48
Speaker 1: be white or gray or wood stained or something like that.
26:51
Speaker 1: We're seeing all kinds of stuff show up, deep greens,
26:53
Speaker 1: moody blues, you know, darker lower cabinets with lighter uppers.
26:57
Speaker 1: There's a whole world beyond the standard options that you
27:00
Speaker 1: may have locked yourself into. But in order to find those,
27:03
Speaker 1: you have to ask, what if I went in a
27:05
Speaker 1: different direction, What if there was another direction to go?
27:08
Speaker 1: You know, if even one of those ideas hit you
27:10
Speaker 1: and you found yourself thinking, oh, yeah, I never ever
27:13
Speaker 1: thought of that, that's the point, you know, That's what
27:16
Speaker 1: I'm getting at. So here's your challenge. Ask those questions,
27:19
Speaker 1: Challenge your assumptions, challenge your premises, and if you still
27:22
Speaker 1: find yourself unwilling to jump in, ask another question. You know,
27:25
Speaker 1: what's actually holding me back from trying something different? Is
27:29
Speaker 1: it a real constraint, like a lease that won't let
27:32
Speaker 1: you paint, or is it a budget that's truly maxed out?
27:35
Speaker 1: You know, those are real constraints. I get that. If
27:37
Speaker 1: it's just fear though, fear that it won't work, that
27:40
Speaker 1: people might think it's weird that you're going to regret it, well,
27:43
Speaker 1: then you know challenge that as well, you know, because
27:47
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Paint is reversible. Furniture can be rearranged,
27:50
Speaker 1: you know, just pulling it off the wall or moving
27:52
Speaker 1: chairs around. Yes, it's not terribly fun to move chairs
27:56
Speaker 1: throughout a home. But man, when the payoff can be
27:59
Speaker 1: so big, it's worth the risk. You know, even that
28:01
Speaker 1: loft bed that we built that can be taken down
28:04
Speaker 1: if it doesn't work. Yeah, it costs money. I get that,
28:07
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, the stakes are
28:09
Speaker 1: actually pretty low compared to the potential payoff. You know,
28:13
Speaker 1: making a space that really feels like yours, that solves
28:16
Speaker 1: a problem that you're dealing with, that makes you happy
28:19
Speaker 1: every time you walk in, you know, that's huge. That's
28:21
Speaker 1: a big payoff, and it's worth the risk. All right,
28:24
Speaker 1: here's what I want you to take away from all
28:26
Speaker 1: of this. You know, not that you need to hear
28:27
Speaker 1: it from me, because really, who am I. That's so
28:30
Speaker 1: crazy that I'm giving permission to people. But here, hear this.
28:34
Speaker 1: Hear what I'm saying. You've got permission to experiment. You know,
28:37
Speaker 1: some people really do need to hear that it's okay
28:39
Speaker 1: to do this, that they need permission. I certainly don't
28:42
Speaker 1: have grandiose ideas about who I am. I'm just saying,
28:46
Speaker 1: go ahead and experiment. You know, be curious, ask what
28:49
Speaker 1: if you know it could be big like Frank Gary's buildings,
28:54
Speaker 1: it could be small, like playing with the decor on
28:56
Speaker 1: the mantle. You know, the principle is always the same.
28:59
Speaker 1: But when you do that, here's the hard truth. Asking
29:01
Speaker 1: impossible questions and searching for the answers means you need
29:04
Speaker 1: to be willing to create garbage, all right, to fail,
29:08
Speaker 1: to make mistakes, to produce things that don't work, because
29:11
Speaker 1: not every single experiment or trial is going to produce
29:15
Speaker 1: sheer gold, right, You got to keep that in mind.
29:18
Speaker 1: Don't be disheartened. Frank Geary knew this one hundred percent.
29:21
Speaker 1: You know, he was completely willing to fail that house
29:24
Speaker 1: in Santa Monica that we talked about at the beginning,
29:26
Speaker 1: you know, using corrugated metal, chain link and all of that.
29:30
Speaker 1: Some people think it's brilliant. Some people, you know, I
29:34
Speaker 1: don't think they've got the best eye sight, But some
29:37
Speaker 1: people think it's brilliant. And maybe brilliant and beautiful are
29:40
Speaker 1: completely different things. They are completely different things. So some
29:43
Speaker 1: people think it's brilliant, some people think it's an eye sore.
29:46
Speaker 1: But it was necessary. It was that experimentation on that
29:50
Speaker 1: house that made the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbo possible. Later.
29:56
Speaker 1: You know, Gary would create hundreds of models for a
29:58
Speaker 1: single building, constant adjusting, constantly experimenting, and we can all
30:03
Speaker 1: do that same thing on a smaller scale. You know,
30:05
Speaker 1: sample paint colors, Paint big swatches right on the wall,
30:08
Speaker 1: and live with them for a few days. You know,
30:10
Speaker 1: try it out that way, move furniture around, you know,
30:13
Speaker 1: be willing to give that a try. You know, you're
30:14
Speaker 1: never gonna know unless you give it a try. Buy
30:17
Speaker 1: one piece of different hardware. You know, maybe you want
30:19
Speaker 1: to mix metals, or you're curious about that, or what
30:22
Speaker 1: new hardware would look like in your kitchen. You know,
30:24
Speaker 1: buy one piece. You don't have to go all in.
30:26
Speaker 1: Just give yourself permission to experiment, to play and try.
30:30
Speaker 1: Don't feel like every single decision that you make has
30:33
Speaker 1: to be perfect and permanent. Some of it's gonna be garbage,
30:36
Speaker 1: and that's okay, because you don't get to the really
30:38
Speaker 1: good stuff, the gold, without making and walking through some
30:41
Speaker 1: of that garbage. Just be aware because walking through the
30:43
Speaker 1: garbage isn't always a lot of fun, and we can
30:45
Speaker 1: get disheartened. Don't be disheartened. There's gold ahead. You gotta
30:50
Speaker 1: just keep walking, all right. We're gonna take a break
30:52
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna wrap all of this up. Right
30:54
Speaker 1: after this, you're listening to Home in Progress, where the
30:57
Speaker 1: projects are real, the mistakes educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational.
31:04
Speaker 1: And the only thing more stubborn than that old wallpaper
31:07
Speaker 1: on your bathroom wall is your determination to get it fixed.
31:11
Speaker 1: Proudly sponsored by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore Paint with
31:14
Speaker 1: a purpose, people who care, and everything you need to
31:17
Speaker 1: get the job done right. As we get to the
31:20
Speaker 1: end of this, let's talk about some of the elephants
31:22
Speaker 1: in the room. You know, things you're going to encounter
31:25
Speaker 1: if you really start to do some of these things.
31:28
Speaker 1: And we've already hinted at it a little bit. But
31:30
Speaker 1: being curious and being experimental, of course, means dealing with fear.
31:34
Speaker 1: You know, it means risking that you're going to make
31:36
Speaker 1: something that doesn't work. Earlier, I called it garbage. You're
31:41
Speaker 1: gonna make garbage in order to get to the gold.
31:44
Speaker 1: Garbage is an incredibly harsh term. I should have used
31:47
Speaker 1: something more gentle, but I was trying to just whip
31:50
Speaker 1: everybody into shape. But you're going to make stuff that
31:53
Speaker 1: maybe isn't perfect. It's not amazing. Every single time, and
31:57
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to just plow through with that, deal
32:00
Speaker 1: with that. It also means, you know, if you're experimenting,
32:03
Speaker 1: it means you're going to potentially be dealing with criticism.
32:06
Speaker 1: You know. Frank Gary certainly dealt with a lot of criticism,
32:09
Speaker 1: you know, for his wild designs, a lot of criticisms,
32:13
Speaker 1: you know, and he knows, he knew. I'm sure that
32:18
Speaker 1: he only heard just a fraction of the criticisms that
32:21
Speaker 1: were leveled his way. You know, I personally have leveled
32:25
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism directly at Frank Gary. He just
32:28
Speaker 1: never knew about it. I'm sure lots of us, you know,
32:31
Speaker 1: lots of you out there listening, have leveled criticism at
32:34
Speaker 1: the man. So he dealt with a ton of criticism,
32:37
Speaker 1: and he knew it was out there. You know, he
32:38
Speaker 1: wasn't immune to doubt, you know, self doubt. He wasn't
32:41
Speaker 1: this supremely confident guy that just plowed through no matter
32:45
Speaker 1: what he struggled. But he learned to use that insecurity
32:49
Speaker 1: that he felt that struggle that he was going through,
32:51
Speaker 1: he used that as fuel rather than letting it stop him.
32:55
Speaker 1: So for us in our homes, you know, the stakes
32:57
Speaker 1: they're way lower. You know, if you paint a room
32:59
Speaker 1: a bu color and you hate it, you can repaint it.
33:03
Speaker 1: You know, the whole world isn't going to know about
33:04
Speaker 1: it unless you blog about it. And even then blog
33:07
Speaker 1: about it, I'm so stuck in the past. If you
33:10
Speaker 1: instagram about it, or you TikTok about it or whatever
33:13
Speaker 1: the kids do, whatever anybody who's successful at social media does.
33:17
Speaker 1: If you do that and you've got a large following,
33:19
Speaker 1: even then the whole world doesn't know about it, just
33:22
Speaker 1: the portion of the world that you impact. Frank Gary
33:25
Speaker 1: built something pretty much the whole world knew about it,
33:29
Speaker 1: and if they hated it, well, yeah, there was a
33:31
Speaker 1: lot of criticism coming his way. We don't have to
33:34
Speaker 1: deal with that kind of thing, you know, we don't
33:35
Speaker 1: have to have that kind of stress. So don't put
33:38
Speaker 1: that kind of stress on yourself. Don't feel that fear,
33:41
Speaker 1: and don't let it stop you. You know, if you
33:42
Speaker 1: try something with your decor and it doesn't work, just
33:45
Speaker 1: change it. You know. The beauty of working in your
33:47
Speaker 1: own home is that you get to define success. You
33:50
Speaker 1: get to decide what works. Frank Geary talked to his students.
33:53
Speaker 1: I thought this was really great. It's a really great point.
33:57
Speaker 1: As we get to the end of this, he talked
33:58
Speaker 1: to the students about finding their creative signature. You know,
34:01
Speaker 1: he'd say, when you write your signature, you know, and
34:04
Speaker 1: your colleague writes their signature, you can each recognize your own.
34:08
Speaker 1: You know, there's a you that's different from everybody else. Well,
34:11
Speaker 1: the same is true, or should be true for your home.
34:13
Speaker 1: Your home should reflect you. You know, your signature, your personality,
34:17
Speaker 1: your interest, your story. Not what's trending on Pinterest, not
34:21
Speaker 1: what the design shows say you should do. Your home
34:24
Speaker 1: should reflect you. Maybe you love color and everybody's telling
34:28
Speaker 1: you neutrals are the thing. Well, be curious about what
34:31
Speaker 1: happens if you trust your instinct. You know, maybe you
34:33
Speaker 1: love mixing old and newve intogen modern, and everybody's telling
34:37
Speaker 1: you to just pick a lane. Experiment, you know, see
34:39
Speaker 1: what happens when you bring those elements together. Maybe you're
34:42
Speaker 1: drawn to bold patterns or unexpected materials or quirky details.
34:46
Speaker 1: Don't apologize for that. That's your signature emerging. Let me
34:50
Speaker 1: tell you to make this point about my living room.
34:53
Speaker 1: It's a very very very strange room. You know, Guests
34:55
Speaker 1: who see it usually have something to say about it,
34:58
Speaker 1: you know, they don't just remain quiet. And the thing
35:01
Speaker 1: that makes it a little bit weird is our entertainment center.
35:04
Speaker 1: You know, one of those old nineties things where people
35:07
Speaker 1: hide a little TV inside this little cabinet thing. You know,
35:11
Speaker 1: maybe Lucy and the Peevence's or the Pevensey's are going
35:13
Speaker 1: to escape into Narnia through the kind of thing. Well, anyway,
35:16
Speaker 1: we've got one of those in the living room. Ours
35:19
Speaker 1: doesn't go to Narnia spoiler alert, but it's got a
35:23
Speaker 1: TV in it, and the top of that piece of
35:25
Speaker 1: furniture is graced with this huge bust of Cleopatra. All right,
35:30
Speaker 1: let that sink in a minute. A huge bust of
35:33
Speaker 1: Cleopatra in my living room on top of the entertainment center.
35:37
Speaker 1: You know. I bought her years back for one of
35:39
Speaker 1: Repcolite's design events, you know, a different one from the
35:43
Speaker 1: Frank Gary one that we're talking about here. But I
35:45
Speaker 1: bought her for that event, and she was just too
35:48
Speaker 1: weird to get rid of, you know when the event
35:51
Speaker 1: was over, so I put her on top of the
35:53
Speaker 1: entertainment center and I spent the next three years, for
35:56
Speaker 1: some unknown reason to my brain. But the next three
36:00
Speaker 1: years accumulating brass candlesticks of every height, you know, and
36:04
Speaker 1: I started surrounding Cleo with them. And now there's got
36:07
Speaker 1: to be like thirty candlesticks or more up there, you know,
36:10
Speaker 1: no candles, just the candlesticks. I have no idea, Like
36:13
Speaker 1: I said, why I did this. People who walk in
36:16
Speaker 1: think it looks really weird, and they usually make jokes
36:19
Speaker 1: about it. But you know what, I love it. I
36:21
Speaker 1: absolutely love it. I love the story that I think
36:24
Speaker 1: of when I see Cleopatra up there. You know how
36:26
Speaker 1: I bargained for her and I got the person in
36:29
Speaker 1: the store to come down on price. You know, that's
36:31
Speaker 1: something I never do. I am the person you want
36:35
Speaker 1: to buy whatever you're selling, because I will come and
36:38
Speaker 1: give you exactly what you're asking for or more, because
36:41
Speaker 1: I don't ever want you to think that what you
36:44
Speaker 1: have isn't valuable, right, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.
36:47
Speaker 1: I will just shell out the money whatever you're asking.
36:50
Speaker 1: With Cleopatra, it was the first time ever that I
36:53
Speaker 1: actually talked somebody down and was successful at it, you know,
36:57
Speaker 1: So every time I see her, I remember that story.
36:59
Speaker 1: You know, remember all the fun trips to accumulate and
37:01
Speaker 1: acquire these candlesticks, and I like how it looks, you know,
37:05
Speaker 1: I like that. I've never seen another house with a
37:07
Speaker 1: Cleopatra bust sitting on an entertainment center surrounded by candlesticks.
37:12
Speaker 1: It's weird, it's unique, it's unusual, it's me So do
37:17
Speaker 1: that for you. Find your own signature, Experiment, ask questions,
37:21
Speaker 1: try that thing that makes you a little bit nervous.
37:23
Speaker 1: Because Frank Gary said, at best quote, your best work
37:27
Speaker 1: is your expression of yourself. You may not be the
37:29
Speaker 1: greatest at it, but when you do it, you're the
37:31
Speaker 1: only expert end quote. All Right, Before I wrap up,
37:34
Speaker 1: I want to touch on something else about Frank Gary's
37:36
Speaker 1: work that I find really inspiring. You know, his buildings
37:39
Speaker 1: weren't just about esthetics. They were about community and about
37:42
Speaker 1: transformation and about improving people's lives. The Guggenheim in Bilbo,
37:47
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a museum. It was about revitalizing a
37:50
Speaker 1: dying city, you know, giving it new life, new purpose,
37:54
Speaker 1: new identity. The Walt Disney Concert Hall it wasn't just
37:57
Speaker 1: a concert venue. It was about career, a space where
38:00
Speaker 1: people could experience music in a profound way where the
38:03
Speaker 1: orchestra and the audience would feel connected to each other.
38:07
Speaker 1: Frank Gary said, quote, Architecture is a small piece of
38:10
Speaker 1: this whole human equation, but for those of us who
38:12
Speaker 1: practice it, we believe in its potential to make a difference,
38:15
Speaker 1: to enlighten and to enrich the human experience, to provide
38:18
Speaker 1: a beautiful context for life's drama. Well, the same is
38:22
Speaker 1: true for our homes. They're not just shelters, you know,
38:24
Speaker 1: not just four walls in a roof. They're the backdrops
38:27
Speaker 1: for our lives. You know. They're where we raise our families,
38:29
Speaker 1: where we celebrate, where we mourn, where we rest, where
38:33
Speaker 1: we create, you know, where we become ourselves. And when
38:36
Speaker 1: we approach our homes with curiosity, with creativity, you know,
38:40
Speaker 1: when we make them truly ours, we're creating that beautiful
38:43
Speaker 1: context for our own life drama. You know. Frank Gary
38:45
Speaker 1: lived ninety six full years, worked almost till the very end,
38:49
Speaker 1: you know, did a ton of things. His buildings dot
38:52
Speaker 1: skylines around the world. But what I think I can
38:54
Speaker 1: learn most from him isn't about the iconic buildings. It's
38:57
Speaker 1: approaching the world with curiosity, asking questions, being willing to experiment,
39:02
Speaker 1: to play, to create some garbage and on the way
39:05
Speaker 1: create something good. All right, that's all the time we've
39:08
Speaker 1: got for this. I'm gonna wrap it up. Thank you
39:10
Speaker 1: so much for listening to the show, Thanks for being
39:13
Speaker 1: a part of it. If you want to catch it again,
39:14
Speaker 1: you can find it online at repco light dot com.
39:17
Speaker 1: You can also find it as a podcast and subscribe
39:20
Speaker 1: and you'll never miss an episode. All Right, whatever you
39:22
Speaker 1: do today, make sure paints a part of it. Make
39:24
Speaker 1: sure you're asking questions, pushing boundaries, you know, challenging premises.
39:29
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend, everybody, and I'll see you next
39:31
Speaker 1: week for Home in Progress. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.