No matter how long it’s been since we were out of school, the beginning of the fall always carries that back-to-school feeling of anticipation and excitement. While it’s hard to say goodbye to the warmth and (hopefully) slowed-down pace of summer, we always find ourselves itching for what’s just around the corner—the next season of fashion weeks, fresh perspectives from gallery exhibitions, and even the hurried feeling of a good, old-fashioned fair week. Which it seems like we’re almost back to.
We do return to all these things with an appreciation for normalcy, but really it’s been about finding the balance in our new normal. It can be a challenge to achieve, but the past two years have taught us a lot, and we’re not looking to forget it anytime soon (well, some of it perhaps we should). That perspective shift, whether it be reexamining one’s purpose, practice, or the past, can be found throughout these pages. In speaking with artists, makers, designers, and creatives of all kinds, there’s a clear pursuit of finding what brings a greater sense of ease, purpose, and even justice.
This is where the title for this fall, the “Harmony Issue,” comes in, thanks to a beautiful partnership with La Prairie. The Swiss luxury skincare brand looked back into the history of design, specifically the Bauhaus, to reinvestigate and shed deserved light on the contributions of women creatives to the movement—using their story as inspiration to the next generation of female artists in what they call the Women Bauhaus Collective. Can you hear us snapping along to this mission?
That pursuit of harmony—in beauty, design, and art history—emanates from the interviews you’ll find here. Cover artist Derrick Adams talks with us about creating a space in Baltimore for artists to find peace within, with The Last Resort Artist Retreat. The artist Mary Weatherford, also on our cover, returns to a work by Titian, a piece that haunted her for nearly a decade, striking a balance between horror and beauty. The filmmaker Isaac Julien, on our cover, revisited a now-iconic work of his own, Looking for Langston, in his newest commission, to create a spellbinding visual and sonic investigation of poetic restitution.
Then there are the paintings of Eamon Ore-Giron, at once terrestrial and celestial, dancing with geometrical symmetry, reckoning with past, present, and future. Faye Toogood continues her commitment to tapping into the essence of creativity, staying true to the first instinct of an idea, creating forms that feel like monoliths, letting the objects in the material reveal themselves.
It may not be the new year, but the fall does give us a chance to check back in with ourselves after summer vacation (whether you took one or not!). We hope in this Harmony Issue you’ll find something you may need in this moment. As we like to say, in times of unease, we look to the artists to help guide us through. You can download the full fall issue now, HERE.
– Katy Donoghue, EDITOR IN CHIEF
