Our first book pick is a read that truly changed the way I look at my surroundings and my own business. Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee
was given to me as a gift from my dear friend, Nikki, for opening the gallery. Nikki has always been a thoughtful gift-giver and once seeing the premise of a book that touches on “the surprising power of ordinary things to create extraordinary happiness” she knew I needed to read it.
From the first day of starting my business seven years ago, I have been an evangelist for the transformative properties of art. I believe that art has the ability to bring joy and help people fall in love with their spaces. It’s the reason why I still insist on doing the art installation myself. Could someone else hang art, freeing up my time for other things? Of course, but then I wouldn’t be able to see how happy our clients are when they have the perfect piece placed in their home. All of this to say, Lee was basically preaching to the choir with her book.
From the introduction, Lee had me in the palm of her hand. She speaks of a city, Tirana, Albania, who’s mayor restored the capital city by painting the Communist-built gray cement buildings, wonderful colors. These murals created a sense of pride, ownership, and joy throughout the city. This passage got to the heart of my love of public art, “People stopped littering in the streets. They started to pay their taxes. Shopkeepers removed the metal grates from their windows. They claimed the streets felt safer, even though there were no more police than before. People began to gather in cafes again and talk of raising their children in a new kind of a city.”
Lee identifies ten aesthetics of joy, each of which connects the feeling of joy with the tangible world: energy, abundance, freedom, harmony, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, celebration, and renewal. One of the questions I have always asked clients during our initial consultations is “How do you want to feel when you are in the space?” The answers are as varied and different as our clients. And although I didn’t have hard statistics and facts, I had the anecdotal evidence that art and great interior design can make a person happy, calm, energetic, etc. The sheer amount of times I have been told, “My walls are blank and it bums me out” is truly great evidence in and of itself.
This book has helped me look at the work I do, my own home, and the way I dress, all in new lights. I think the “why” of a business is so important and I now think of it like this--we don’t just sell art, we help create joy.
So due to all of this, I was pretty excited to chat with Ingrid on the phone and to share a bit of our conversation.
L:
A friend of mine gave me your book when I opened the gallery and I loved your book so much we decided to create a bookclub on our blog. And I’m just going to dive right in. I’ve found myself thinking more about making my clothing and surroundings more joyful, not only for myself but for others—How do you incorporate the Joyful ideology into your everyday life?
I:
In so many ways. I think the first thing is, there is a simple mindset shift where you go from thinking “how does this look?” to “how does this make me feel?” It really shifts when I am getting dressed in the morning. I think about how I want to feel today. I am going to be out and about so I wear something bright for people to respond to my outfit, where I can uplift someone else. Am I going to be home by myself but I am feeling down? So I choose something that is going to lift my spirit. What am I craving?
The same idea goes for when I am picking things for the home. Of course, I want it to look nice but I am much more focused on how we are going to use the space and what is going to feel good and joyful.
L:
Right, because I so often talk about how putting art on your walls makes you feel good. It can make you fall in love with your space.
I:
I think about the art in our house and we have a lot travel posters and colorful art that makes us feel like we are on vacation because that is the mindset that we want to cultivate. I increasingly feel about the art that I want to live with on a daily basis, I want it to make me feel joyful.
L:
For so long, I have asked clients “How do you want to feel in your space?” when trying to help them find artwork and you gave so many examples in your book with how your surroundings can affect your mindset.
L:
Your book has made me want to travel to so many of the places you mentioned. Do you have a joyful bucket list of places you want to go still?
I:
I do have a “Joy List” of things I want to do each season that bring me joy. For example, go to the farmers market and get a really great tomato or I want to make sure we get out on the water and go paddling a few times or see an exhibit before it leaves the museum. Sometimes there is travel involved or a field trip to different places if I am going to be in the area.
L:
I am certainly creating my own similar list now for days where I need me a pick-me-up. What are some of your favorite ways that readers have used your Joyful Toolkit?
I:
People do share things that they are doing and creating. The place I see it the most on Instagram and people tag me in their projects. Just today, I saw a nightstand that they found on the side of the road and redid in really joyful nature patterns. People tag me in things that they have done in school and their classrooms. It’s always exciting for me to see the types of joyful things people do when they take these ideas and put them into conscious practice.
L:
As an author, it has to be such a gift to see people engaging with your ideas and making changes in their life due to the work you have done.
I:
It’s wild. It’s beyond my wildest dreams. My hope was that we would create a new conversation about the relationship between our space and our emotion. I wanted people who have been drawn to color their whole life to not feel like they are childish or crazy. I want people to know if they go to a certain space and feel anxious, it’s not all just in their head. I want to have this conversation about how we decorate our own homes but also our public spaces.
L: What would you love to see more of in the world?
I:
We would see more color in public space. We would definitely see less of these concrete spaces that have no integration with nature. We would see more interweaving with nature and manmade spaces. We wouldn’t see a hospital without plants. We wouldn’t see housing projects that have no nature or color. I think there is a philosophical thing where we see these certain things as decorative, and therefore extraneous. So when we are creating environments like housing projects or homeless shelters we tend to make them just functional but not beautiful. There is a real political side of this, where people that are in these situations just deserve the bare minimum and necessities. When we separate this out it’s actually quite dehumanizing, like they don’t deserve this essential part of their humanity. So to me, we would start to see these joyful qualities not just in hotels and resorts but also in the spaces where there are underserved populations.
L: What’s next for you in your joyful exploration?
I:
Yes! One thing I am very passionate about right now is starting to look at a way to take these ideas deeper through an online course and how to apply it into their everyday life. I’ve talked about this everywhere from a Healthcare conference to a tourism conference about travel and making that experience more joyful. I want to help people take these ideas forward in an interesting way. I am really enjoying being an enabler.
*This interview was shortened for the blogpost and for clarity.
Thank you so much to Ingrid for her time, and her passion for creating a more joyful world. Her book truly effect how I examine my business and my environment.
If you read this book--and I highly recommend that you do--ask yourselves some of these questions:
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