Happy New Year from Venezia!

As I wrote about in the midweek Creative Nudge, I've been dreaming about this trip since I was 12 years old, and after watching Katherine Hepburn in "Summertime" (set in Venice) for the umpteenth time, I decided to tack on a 3 day visit to this beautiful city while picking up Mason from his semester abroad in Florence. After director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) made Summertime, he had fallen in love with the city, and bought a home here. In an interview recently aired on PBS, he said the movie was a chronicle of him falling in love with Venice.

Speaking of seeing the Real Thing, you know there are many cities around the world with canals, that refer to themselves as the Venice of the West, the Venice of Texas, the Venice of China, etc., but wow there is just nothing like visiting the real city from which all this inspiration has sprung.

You may already know that Venice has always been a favorite hangout for expat artists and poets, including Claude Monet, Whistler, Goethe, Charles Dickens, William Turner, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Diaghilev, Percy Shelley and Robert Browning… and Shakespeare wrote two plays that were set here. (Merchant of Venice, and Othello) I've spent many hours in museums, gazing dreamily at the misty pastel-hued paintings of this magical island and its atmospheric skies above…and imagining seeing it in person. Have you seen Midnight in Paris? I dream of visiting Venice in the 20's…

Thursday night when we arrived it was dark and rainy, and Friday morning when we started our tour of the city, it was cloudy and chilly; but by that afternoon the sun started to peek through, and by sunset we had such an incredibly awesome display of misty colors over the bay, that felt like we'd traveled back in time with the Impressionist painters!

I've been taking lots of photos, with lots of creative inspiration to share with you: the expansive Byzantine gold mosaic ceilings and inlaid marble floors of St Mark's, the chalky pink and lilac colors of the sunset sky, the terracotta colors of the buildings reflected on the teal canal waters, and the vivid rainbow of Rialto Market. I'll be editing and posting photos this coming week when I return to the US, sharing lots of art, color and design inspiration with all of you!

I am traveling to Bangkok to speak at the Color Marketing Group Asian conference in February, then Melbourne Australia for the Australasian Quilt Fest in April, and of course my tour of Ireland in June. If you share my passion for travel, color and creative inspiration, perhaps you can join me in Ireland, or meet me in Australia!