In this Paris
--our city of light, history, literature, and amazing architecture with classic, stunning monuments that are known clear around the world--some of the modern design one finds on the streets, in small boutiques or big department stores is...well, silly to say the least. I am going to use the word "naïve" in this case, and I don't mean naïve in an artistic sense as in "outsider art." I mean as in the French don't have a sophisticated sense of pop culture.
As a little aside but as a good example: In a commercial in the United States of America, we might see a young, sexy couple (as absurdly over the top as we are on young and sexy) or middle-aged stars in a big budget comedy go to a store to try out new mattresses. In a commercial before a movie in Paris, an animated couple who have the heads of dogs and bodies of humans go to the store and lie down together. And this is supposed to be...yuck, yuck, yuck...cool. Our senses of humor are so vastly different.
So during the sales, the Lone Wolf and I were shopping. I was at my favorite BHV again. And the design I found was in the vein of super heroes. I love super heroes! Don't we all? Don't we all want super powers (if you could have only one, what would it be?)?! But super heroes as design is another story. Even if it's Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman (Photo by Beth Arnold)
Wonder Woman 2 (Photo by Beth Arnold)
Ladies, as far as I'm concerned, we're all Wonder Women, whether we came from the Amazonian tribe or not. And as far as that goes, we must have come from those fabulously powerful warrior roots somehow, if we go back far enough. But I don't want to look at or sit on a Louis XIVth-(or XVIth or whatever it is) style chair with Wonder Woman's face plastered across it in my golden wavy salon.
Wonder Woman 3 (Photo by Beth Arnold)
A pillow might be okay...though not really...unless you were a super heroes cartoonist--or unless you were an actual super hero.
I have a wonderful super hero idea for a graphic novel and movie if I can only find the time to write it. And fyi, it's a good one. Any producers interested?
To freshen your Wonder Woman memory:
But ladies, don't think for a minute that we Wonder Women don't have a Superman.
Superman (Photo by Beth Arnold)
No need to fight over him. For a small price, we can each have our own.
---Beth Arnold in Paris
