Falling in Love with Marie Galante 戀上瑪麗加蘭

A bakery with colorful interior, Grand-Bourg.

An outdoor painting that depicts Caribbean living.

The local farmers still use oxen to plough a field.

The rhum processing factory ruin in Habitation Murat.

An open fish market where people shop for freshly-caught fish, Grand-Bourg.

The colorful chat (cat in French) has a delicious, delicate flavor. Yum...

Lunch at the fine beach in Folle Anse.

The local fruits always taste better...

Tropical flowers in the medical garden at Habitation Murat.

Falling in love with a place, seems to be largely a question of timing. In this scenario, I was extremely lucky to have the chance to discover the unpretentious simplicity of Marie Galante, during my first sailing trip to the French Caribbeans.

As soon as I set foot in Marie Galante, I was enveloped by the fragrance of coconut and rhum. And its timeless-quality of idyllic scenery made my heart singing Zouk–––the sweet, West-African-influenced, electronicised music of the Antilles (Guadeloupe in French.)

Listen to this.

戀上一個地方, 時間絕對是個主要因素。因此, 第一次出航法屬加勒比海便能及時體驗出瑪麗加蘭小島的純樸簡潔, 讓我覺得幸運無比。

一踏進這個小島, 椰子和萊姆的清香立即撲鼻而來。永永遠遠的田園風光讓我心頭低聲吟唱著容克–––這個受到西非音樂影響的甜美法屬瓜露普電子音樂。

聽聽這個吧。

The Cabin Woven by Hand, with Heart 用心編織的小木屋

The cabin, was woven simply by craftsmen, stick by stick like the rhythm of a heartbeat. As a designer, I understand that it's impossible to replicate the special quality that comes from something made by hand, with heart.

We spent a great deal of time walking around admiring this woven cabin in Habitation Murat, the largest sugar cane plantation in Guadeloupe in 1839 and now an eco-museum of arts and traditions in Marie Galante.

The Blessing 祝福

剛從歐洲抵達大雪茫茫的紐約，便隨即登門造訪位在中國城的推拿師父。師父喜氣洋洋地和我道聲“恭禧發財”，我才恍然大悟原來中國新年也已來訪。

中文的讀者們，在此獻上我的“祝福”。

Right after arriving in the snow-blanked New York city from Europe, I went to see my Chinese Tui Na therapist in Chinatown. Only after she cheerfully opened the door to greet me "Gong Xi Fa Cai", I realized that Chinese Lunar New Year is here TOO ...

A sincere blessing (祝福) from me for the Chinese readers.

Dream to be a Skipper

Due to my having two left hands with mechanics, I was assigned to be in charge of cooking and cleaning, the easiest and least challenging duty on boat. But when our boat was anchored and had no moored boats near us, I liked to "play" with the locked steering wheel imaging myself as the French sailing legend, Eric Tabarly, sailing through the big blue ocean.

I don't take life too seriously and I sometimes behave childishly and goofily...

My Luck of Being Seasick

While sailing from Les Saintes to Antiqua, I was feeling nauseous with the violent waves pounding the boat, some slamming up against the side and over and into the cockpit. To reduce the chances of succumbing to seasickness, I followed our skipper's tips–––drank a lot of water, avoided empty stomach, and lay down on deck.

It was a long trip, and I needed to find some fun to keep busy instead of lying immobile and feeling sick and useless. I started to take random pictures, from an unusual angle, to the beautiful sky, the drifting clouds, the birds flying by, the busy crew members, etc.

Some of the photos turned out to be unexpected and interesting. And I was extremely happy to catch the moment while our reliable skipper was checking the sails. This photo was surely my luck of being seasick.

Inspired by The Sea Urchin

One day we anchored in Nonsuch Bay to the South-West of Green Island, an uninhabited island just off the east coast of Antigua. We drove our dinghy over to this beautiful island to explore. I was all over the moon as soon as I set foot in it, and discovered piles of sea urchin shells (tests) lying on the pristine white sand secluded beaches.

The sea urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, so odd and interesting, serves as an explicit message of paradox and surprise.

As a designer, I admire its alluring form presenting aspects of sharp and smooth for tactile and aesthetic experiences. Many of my designer fellows have came up with witty design objects inspired by the sea urchin such as the interior accessories, jewelry, perfume bottles, etc.

As a food lover, I love the sea urchin's buttery texture, rich and briny with a sweet, mildly fruity finish, and I like to eat it raw with lemon, or soy sauce and wasabi. In the hot summer time in New York, I often treat myself a cool, delicious Uni Soba (sea urchin buckwheat noodles in Japanese) at Soba-Ya.

Just before leaving Green Island, I bent down and picked up a few sea urchin shells, which I can display on the bookshelf of my home to remind myself of the sensation of the Caribbeans.

Celebrate the Sunset with Rhum

Ti'Punch, mixed with Rhum, can sugar, and lime juice, may be the most well-known drink in the French-speaking Caribbean states.

After an exhausting yet enthralling sailing day, we often celebrated the sunset with a few glasses of Ti'Punch on our boat. All crew members agreed that, substituting passion fruit juice for lime juice, emphasizes more the exotic, tropical flavor of Rhum, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by products such as molasses and sugarcane juice.

In perfumery, Rhum can be explored to interpret the festive mood and the influence of masculine. To name a few of fragrances with rhum in: Guerlain Homme, Locoste Pour Homme, Lolita Lempicka Au Musculin, Hugo Man, and Lubin Indole Du Lubin.

I have no preference for the fragrances, but I'm in favor of the packaging design of Hugo Man: crisp clean and undeniable masculine, just like a slick and beautiful Monohull sailboat.

The Island of Calm in the Caribbeans

As the year of 2010 was approaching to its end, I decided to take a truly luxurious break---be mysterious, unavailable, and unapproachable to the world for a while. Therefore, I joined my sail-loving friends and rented a monohull sailboat in Guadeloupe, the first overseas region of France. Sailing from here to its sisters Les Saintes, and Marie Galante, and then to the English-speaking country Antiqua, we bathed under the Caribbean sun and breathed in the smells of big blue ocean.

Imagined the sailboat Moonlight as my own island of calm, I indulged my senses, and experienced the wonder of the Caribbean islands. And of course, I also managed to preserve a healthy tan to get through the snowy winter in New York and Europe.

In the next few days, please expect to read the articles about my travel highlights in the Caribbeans.

Good-Bye to My Summer Provence (III)

Mons, Provence

Fayence, Provence

Fayence, Provence

Sketch for typical Provencal chimneys

Sketch for typical Provencal roofs

French Provencal Architecture

In Provence I liked to go outside and walk a bit, long enough to forget my worries in New York, long enough to exercise my eyes and mind as I explored in the French Provencal villages, fascinated by the old buildings with their tranquility and sense of timelessness.

To retain the best of the old French Provencal country lifestyle, Architect de France imposes an architectural guideline for rehabilitation and new construction in these historic villages like Flayosc, Tourtour, Mons, etc. The shape, color, height, width, materials and location of the architectural elements, such as chimneys, roofs, columns, windows, and doors, are intended to create a vibrant homogeneous Provencal village, with enough variation to allow individuality and expression of personal taste.

While the number of Beijing hutongs (北京胡同) has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings, I feel blessed to be able to enjoy the best-kept Provencal surroundings––the land painted by Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh.

Good-bye to My Summer Provence (II)

The Sun-kissed clothes
In Provence, any small village like Mouans-Sartoux, clothes hanging is a work of art. With the colorful walls as background, it can be associated with the vivid mobile art by the American artist Alexander Calder.
Clothes hanging takes on a life on its own. Towels flap and snap. Pants dance. Shirts shudder. And under the bright and cheerful sun, it is filled with the relaxing scent of slow and eco-friendly lifestyle.

Good-Bye to My Summer Provence 跟夏日的普羅旺斯說一聲再見

My summer memories of Provence (普羅旺斯), like the falling leave in the autumn air, flutter to my mind. I come to realize that a fallen leaf is nothing more than a summer waves good-bye.

I still remember––the sun-kissed Côte d'Azur (蔚藍海岸), the warm color palette of architecture, the fig trees, the Pastis and Rosé wine, the herbs, the scent of lavender in the air, the olive tree groves, the wine-fuelled meals, the pine-scented sun, and the occasional naps after reading few pages of a fat book by José Saragamo in a shady balcony...

My friends, please stay tuned for the episodes of my summer Provence.

Singing the Blue Under the Mediterranean Sun 在地中海陽光底下吟唱藍調

In this day and age, blue has been one of the most popular colors 

in design. So I'm not surprised when I read the article from Osmoz.com, a fragrance education website by the perfume house Firmenich, suggesting that blue again is the main color for fragrance bottles in fall-winter 2010.  

As blue is often considered pleasant and can suggest cleanliness, it is widely used by many designers, such as yours truly, for the design of fashion, beauty, industry and brand identity. Although blue is not as obtrusive as colors like red, it is an ideal color for me to interpret the breathtaking beauty of nature, and the attitude to life, culture, art, and spirituality.

There are various shades of blue in my color palette, and my most favorite one is azur (蔚藍). Azur, a bright hue sits between blue and cyan, is an enchanting and soothing color. It often brings back my last memories of brightly shinning summer days at Provence Côte d'Azur (普羅旺斯的蔚藍海岸), which is bathed in azure––the blue color of sky and sea under the Mediterranean Sun.

Elegant Things 優雅情事

Translucent purple petals lit from the late afternoon light.

The unique patterns and textures on quail eggs.

The elongated sculptures by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966).

The sound of corks popping out from bottles of Burgundy wine.

An encounter with long-lost friends at museums.

An old grandma's innocent smile of tranquillity and happiness.

A pretty fragrance lingering in the fall evening air.

Like the Mischievous Smile of Stan March 像Stan March的頑皮笑容

It was around 2:30 am.

My hurrying footsteps were echoing around the empty platform, as I was making my way out of the subway station at SoHo stop. The air smelled like the breath of a drunkard–––sour, humid, and bitter. The unpleasant odor alerted me, and all of sudden I felt a bit uneasy. After all, the New York City subway is often naked in its danger, bewilderment, agitation.

The sound of my soles was absorbed by my increasing fear until I climbed up the stairs and saw the green subway lamp on Prince Street. Like Stan March in the cartoon South Park, it gave me a bright mischievous smile, and made me surprise into laugher. 

At the instant moment, the fear was gone with the fresh, cool autumn breeze...

Things That Arouse a Fond Memory of the Past 喚起我美好回憶的事物

The fragrant blotter cards.
My old Moleskine sketchbooks.
The moon in a clear night.
The tofu cuisine in Kyoto.
The yellow ginko leave that have been pressed in the pages of a book.
The photo of a little red farm storage shed in Norwegian Lapland.

The Raindrops 雨滴

Rain poured down on the entire day, only in the late afternoon it decided to take a break. I left my Mac and books behind a closed door and went for a walk to the garden in the East Village.

I remember my last visit here when the late spring sun bore through the gorgeous clouds. The pink sakura petals were falling...And now all the colors were being carried away by the fall wind.

On the bamboo fences and criss-cross hedges I saw tatters of spider webs; and where the threads were broken the raindrops hung on them like strings of white pearls. I was also delighted by watching the raindrops rolling down of their own accord from the plants where they had lain so heavily. 

There was something so enchanting in the sound and smell of the raindrops–––an invisible beauty with the lingering scent of true nature. What most impressed me was that they were not at all impressed.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

My Mac tells me that it'll be sunny tomorrow, and I tell my Mac that I'm going to make the best out of it.

I'll whistle the song Always look on the bright side of life by Monty Python, while smelling the sunlight from leafy vegetables and plants in the Union Square farmer's market.

The Kaleidoscopic Smell on Number Six Train 六號地下鐵的氣味萬花筒

The late morning ride, on number Six train in Manhattan, is often in silence; except for the occasional chatter amongst a few riders. In a rainy day, when the air smells of wet, I like grouping passengers into olfactory categories; there are the incense, the floral, the citrus, the vanilla, the patchouli, the sandalwood, the aqua, and occasionally, the homeless.

Smelling Khublai Khan in New York 聞出忽必烈, 在紐約。

Portrait of Khublai 忽必烈 by Chinese court artist Liu Guandao(刘贯道), c. 1280

Painting of Kublai Khan on a hunting expedition, by Chinese court artist Liu Guandao(刘贯道)
The hunter in red hat and white fur robe on a black horse is Kublai Khan

I wondered for a while in the night, without knowing where I was. I listened to the wind, and felt the grass on my feet. Here and there, I smelled of a herbaceous scent, and realized that I was on a green prairie.

Suddenly I heard a thundering sound. The area I stood was swirling in wind so intense that it hid the stars from view. Before me it was a Mongolian horseman, with a peregrine falcon perched on his left shoulder, sitting astride an enormous black horse.

He wore a white fur robe and his familiar round face exuded a powerful yet friendly manner. His smile, glittered in the soft light of the stars, mingled with the scent of prairie... And all of sudden I recognized him––Khublai, the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (1260-1294) and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...

Of course my sensory encounter with Khublai is just a dream. It reflects my personal experiences of the images, sounds, scents, and emotion from my visit to The World of Khublai Khan忽必烈的時代 at Metropolitan Museum of Art last night. If you happen to be in New York, don't miss out the opportunity to create your own sensory experience with the art during the great time of Khublai Khan.

KyotEau: Bottled Memories by Mix Magazine

"...Would the fragrance smell the same if it wasn't for the narrative?" –– Mix Magazine

It's nice to see KyotEau: Bottled Memories got a great coverage by Mix Magazine, a tasteful British publication about color, trend, and design.

I hope you enjoy reading it.