It’s rare that someone so visual is so profoundly articulate. I found the legendary designer John Saladino to be this exception to the rule. For forty years he has created sensual interiors from a passion and intellect for all things beautiful. He was one of the first designers to mix period furnishings with modern architecture and design. To say he is an innovator and a trend setter is an understatement. His three part philosophy on design speaks volumes to his confidence and respect for his craft ~ manipulation of scale, nuanced and elusive color, and layered lighting. These three key ingredients transform his interiors into serene and sensual environments meant to unfold and develop over time. I’m in love with two video interviews, one from 2008 for House and Garden and the other from 1981 for the Parsons School of Design. I’ve extracted my favorite quotes from these two interviews to share with you. For me, his words are of great comfort. An affirmation of how important our interior world is, for our well being and emotional serenity. May you find inspiration from his words and from his artful interiors.
“Ultimately, I seek to create environments of an alternate reality, with compelling emotional force.” ~ John Saladino
“Any room that you can immediately understand, to me, is a failure…I think a room has to be like a friendship, it has to grow and it has to be understood slowly over a long period of time” ~ from a 2008 video interview with House and Garden (on a photo shoot of his Santa Barbara garden)
The following quotes are from a 1981 interview with Barbaralee Diamonstein for Interior Design, The New Freedom at the Parsons School of Design, The New School for Social Research
“I don’t regard interior design as an applied art but as a fine art and in that respect we look upon the interior as participating in art, it is art that you sit in rather than art that you look at…”
“I feel strongly that what I learned as a painter certainly contributed to the way I approach the designing of a space…the color is absolutely important…I don’t think you can ever put too much effort into orchestrating the color…you have to concern yourself with not only the color you choose but the implication of the color as it changes through daylight, through nightime with incandescent light…serenity has alot to do with color but it also has alot to do with not over designing, with holding back, with leaving those empty spaces…”
“A room is not just a receptacle that you stuff with furnishings or with people…it’s like a marriage, there has to be the seeking of an equilibrium between what goes into the space and the container itself…”
“Speaking about his collection of ancient Korean bowls, “I regard the bowls as sensual, they are corroded, the shapes are classic, these were in existence about the time that Christ walked the earth, they are archaeological, I like these not only because of their simple shapes, but also because of the corrosion and the patina that’s occurred from being buried hundreds of years in a tomb…so my feeling about these is that because they are corroded, they are even more sensual and I like the juxtaposition of them against a modern surface…”
“My concern is that there be in every environment the opportunity to satisfy every emotion…the womb is the space that you go to on cold afternoons when you want to curl up and feel protected from nature…the white cathedral is where you go on a beautiful May morning when you wish you really weren’t indoors…”
photos from John Saladino
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo da Vinci
Danielle,
You are magnificently articulate. This is just one of the similarities between you and Mr. Saladino. Thank you for this beautiful look into his world. How wonderful !