Family Christmas

I am so happy spending time with my family at the ranch in Santo! Alec, Mike, John, Daddy, 6 dogs and 2 cats!  I got some rest, watched movies, played 42, and spent quality time. I am so blessed and grateful for time with family!  Merry Christmas! 

New Music System

Listening to Christmas music on our new wireless system. It replaces our Bose that stopped working for the 30th time.  It is so cool!  We can listen via WIFI to music on our computer, Pandora, our cells & tablets.  Amazing! Great sound!  It's our gift to each other this year. 

Great Day

I had a hugely productive day today and it ended on great notes.  I administered a final at TCU, drove to Dallas and found great materials for an interiors project.  OMC, Of Many Colors, is a jazzy vocal and instrumental group, performed at and is a spinoff from our church, University Christian Church.  My husband is part of this ensemble. Their performance this evening was uplifting, joyful, inspiring - I was so moved and enthused!  We all met at a terrific bistro afterward. The people were every bit as enjoyable as the concert. So amazingly talented. 

Light Studies: Light Filtering Screens

Here are some of my 2nd year interior design students work.  The assignment was to utilize architectural precedent and a natural alive or once-living object for creating a light filtering pattern.  Students could use all sorts of design operations; folding, shifting, layering, bending, folding. repetition, rotation, gradation, etc......

Good job TCU 2nd year interior design students!

Bath Remodel

Someday, hopefully before I'm too old to enjoy it, I want to remodel my bathroom.  It is yellow tile from the 60's.  I saw this stand lavatory today that would be just about the ticket. Not so crazy about the faucet, but I like the rest.

Yard Celebration

My dear, dear friend loves to make holiday decorations for Halloween, Christmas, etc. Here are a couple of shots of her front yard. You should see the back!

New Clients

I have appointments this afternoon with 2 new clients, one in Old Ridglea and another in Colleyville!  I taught this morning and had 2 meetings at TCU, also. Whew!  The granite above is going in a kitchen in Westover Hills.  So glad the economy has improved!

Master Bath Finishes

Take a gander at the preliminary finishes for our project in Overton Park! So many great products out there from which to choose!

Promotion

I received great news today. My department sent my recommendation to the next level up supporting my promotion to Associate Professor in Interior Design at TCU!  Very exciting.

Having so much fun working on some terrific projects.  Can't wait to see them completed.  Was in the new Holly Hunt showroom again recently. It is so inspiring!

Elegant and modern.

Urban Sketching

Participating in the local Urban Sketchers activities is so invigorating and fulfilling.  While my sketching ability has deterioriated without my continued practice,  every time I attend I become inspired to spend more time in this important activity.  Learning to draw is really about learning to see more thoroughly and spending quality time with the subject matter.  This past Saturday, a group of about 12 braved the cool, cloudy weather and ventured downtown to Sundance Square.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was able to visit with several designer-types!  I met architect Bob Smith, and it was delightful to see TCU student Christina Catterson and fellow TCU teacher Doug Vail participating.  I want to do more of this.

Local Vendors

A local source for interior products is a huge time saver. I came across a great source for stone, porcelain, granite, Vetrazzo, ceramic and a host of great flooring and wall products. I hope their service lives up to the lovely products. I'm working on 5 projects that need similar products. This was a great find!  Check out the mosaic of soft aqua, white, and an apple green marble. It will look amazing in one of my projects. 

Installed Small Project Today - In Progress

Snapshot of a project.  Waiting on draperies still. It will be really smart when finished!

Website Update

A brand new look!  Check out our updated website at: www.insideinc.net

Summer is at an End

Wow, what an amazing and eventful summer!
Alec graduated from high school.
I traveled to Colorado, Wyoming, Belize, Hondurus, Cozumel, and of course DENTON.
Last Thursday I received an amazing and prestigious National ASID Chapter Educator Medalist award at the Legacy  of Design awards in Dallas.
Alec left Sunday morning for UNT. School starts Monday for both of us.
I finished all of my required CEUs in health, safety, and welfare in order to maintain my RID with a couple of extra to spare while at MetroCon, in Dallas last week.

I've been forcibly slowed by a 9 mm kidney stone that was blasted by sound waves (lithotripsy) very early this morning. I'm glad to have that behind me, whew!  I look forward to feeling better.

I am so hopeful about a positive year teaching at TCU since we have new leadership in the department and the resignation of a negative influence.  I also have a workable teaching schedule, finishing at 11 am everyday.  I still need to complete my teaching & creative portfolios by mid-September - doable!  Some very good things on the horizon for the Shannons and Inside Inc.  Some really outstanding projects on the boards and on a waiting list.

Here's to looking forward.

Presentation of work at Harvard University

I received amazing news this week.  While at the Green Mountain Ranch Fellowship, I gave a presentation on a universally designed project that my firm Inside Inc. completed.  I was assisted in the creation of this lecture by Amy Roehl, Associate Professor at TCU and a valued colleague.  Amy was the videographer.  Cynthia Leibrock, the fellowship leader and respected researcher, practitioner, and author in the field, has asked to utilize the presentation in a course that she teaches at Harvard next week!

I can't think of many things that would excite me more ..... except  that she has invited me to be a guest lecturer in the Harvard course next year. 

Movie Binge

I have binged on movies this weekend. Parenthood, To Have and Have Not, a documentary on Tesla, From Time to Time, Pearl Harbor, Jane Eyre 1939, Mr. Nobody, World War Z -a variety of genres. I worked so hard this week, I didn't have much gumption this weekend.  Back at it tomorrow!

Work In Progress

Exciting work is underway for our Omni Residences project.  At our last consultation with our client we reviewed initial schematic options for the color and fabric palette.  Depending on the calibration of your computer monitor, the colors include greys, soft green-greys, acid yellow-green, charcoal, and char-browns.  We are beginning the next phase now of refining the selections and choosing furnishings and interior materials for a cohesive design.  It is going to be stunning!  My design team has helped so much in pulling products and creating digital drawings.  My appreciation goes to the following designers/architect:  Jo Bryan, RID, Mary Cole, Andrea Becerra and Mike Shannon, RA - kudos to you all!

Digital Edition of 360 West now online

www.360westmagazine.com

Take a look at our recent project: Urban Renewal

360 West Feature Coming in July

Make sure to check out the upcoming July issue of 360 West. Our recent urban urban living project will be featured.  I had a boatload of help setting up for the photography!  Many thanks to Jo Bryan, Mary Cole, Andrea Becerra, Mike Shannon, Alec Shannon, John Jett, and Sean. It couldn't have happened without all your hard work. 

View from the balcony at Omni Residence

Isn't this view amazing?!  We are continuing to develop the design for our client's interiors.  This incredible view will be present everyday alongside our interior design.  We are working to make the interiors just as stunning as the exterior view - we have quite a challenge ahead!!

Mirror Lake Wyoming

In summer, the lake displays a reverse image of the mountains beyond. The fellowship members traveled on a sight seeing tour north of Laramie. Such beauty and and sternness!

Liebrock Fellowship

What a beautiful view up at the the top of the world yesterday. The fellowship is wondrous and I have new and fabulous interior design educator friends!

TCU Interior Design Semester Completed

Check out 3rd year student Rachel Frazier's project completed as a learning exercise in Photoshop & InDesign.  The interior renderings and the floor plan and furniture arrangement were completed in another class last semester.  This semester the students rendered the plan and elevations with materials using Photoshop, and composed the board using InDesign.  Great job.  Rachel!

Fellowship at Green Mountain Ranch

More wonderfully exciting news. I will be attending a terrific Universal Design education symposium this summer. I will follow up later on with my learning experience. 

Exciting New Project

We are thrilled to have been engaged to design a residence in the Omni Residences in downtown Fort Worth. We have been tasked with creating a warm contemporary space combining two units into one. Check back for updates as the design progresses. 

Updates to Academic & Professional Website

Look in the navigation panes for updates to several pages:

Professional Experience
Interior Design - Publications
About

http://www.gaylajettshannon.com/

TCU Interior Design Senior Show

Installation Day

Hot off the Press

TCU Interior Design Senior Show

The show will be up Monday at the Brown Lupton University Union (BLUU) on the TCU campus!

Check it out.

TCU Interior Design Senior Show

Continuing Education for Interior Design

Interior designers that are registered in the state of Texas, or licensed, are required to attend 12 hours per year of continuing education.  I attended a seminar today that was fascinating and amazing about how the iPad is being implemented by interior designers.

I learned about so many new techniques of categorizing, saving, transmitting, organizing all sorts of data - whether images, quotations, invoices, fabric images and the like.  It may take me weeks to integrate all of this into my practice.  I also got to see some great products in the design showroom that hosted the event!  Take a look at the amazing chandelier represented by the showroom - a show stopper!

Relationships are about long term trust - not short term success.

The statement above has a powerful message.  This is what I believe and how I try to conduct myself in all areas of life; personal, professional, educational.  It seems to lie closely to the idea that people are more important than things.

I care about the long-term success of my students - to help them develop habits and resources that will serve them in their future.

I care about the long-term outcome of my clients' projects - that the design, materials, and selections are still beautiful and functional years later.

I care about the relationships in my life; with friends, colleagues, and family.  Really, what could be more important?  I continue in friendships and associations with people I have known for as long as forty years, and family I've known all my life - and they are special, priceless, immeasurable in importance to me.  And, I am grateful for their presence over the long-term in my life.

Let your faith be greater than your doubt!

When you fear, trust. Let your faith be greater than your doubt.  Be a courageous lion.  A pair of these lions stand outside the Museum of the Art Institute in Chicago.  I love predatory cats; jaguars, pumas, leopards, panthers, bobcats, ocelots!  They all fascinate me.  Particulary their eyes; their alertness and intensity - their singularity of purpose when they are on the hunt.   From the book Art & Fear by Bayles and Orland: 

"We're all subject to a familiar and universal progression of human troubles - troubles we routinely survive, but which are (oddly enough) routinely fatal to the art-making process.  To survive as an artist requires confronting these troubles.  Basically, those who continue to make art are those who have learned how to continue - or more precisely, have learned how to not quit."    

Those who know me, know how tenacious I am in almost all aspects of life.  One of my best qualities, but it can also be one of my worst - sometimes I don't know when to give up and let go.  So, when I don't feel confident, or I am unsure of the path set before me, I picture a guileful cat in pursuit of its desires.   Some things  won't get caught, but perhaps they are still worth pursuing!  And, perhaps I will achieve my goal next time.

Art Festival

Main Street Arts Festival

The time I spent today downtown was loads of fun. I picked up a necklace from a vendor I met last summer in LA at DWELL.  I ordered a custom colored stainless and resin necklace in Pantone blues. I love it - very groovy indeed!  Check out Stubborn Stiles and Stubborn Works - great jewelry and sculpture on their website. Melissa is an architect and brought her wares to Main Street. 

Oriental Rug Article Features Inside Inc Project

For the complete article follow the link below and navigate to p. 62 of the digital issue of Indulge Magazine April 2014

http://www.star-telegram.com/indulge/

National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

I am really looking forward to attending this conference this week.  I also enjoy Chicago.  When I last attended a couple of years ago, it was held at Penn State. Their architecture school facilities where amazing, and I heard and gathered great ideas and innovations in teaching design!

I've really been enjoying my new car.  It is perfect for being an interior designer.  The back is absolutely huge - it will hold lots of samples and objet d'art  It's even fun to drive, but not as much as my Audi I sold.

Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell

Mike and I really enjoyed ourselves last Friday afternoon by visiting the Renzo Piano Kimbell and the Samurai exhibit.  The horse armor was amazing and I loved the textiles!  Gorgeous.  The Piano is a fitting complement to Kahn's masterpiece.  I think all of Fort Worth is glad of the outcome.

New Website: www.gaylajettshannon.com

Educator | Interior Designer | Scholar | Artist

I'm developing a new website that features my academic activities along with my interior design work.  It is a work in progress, so check back often for updates.

www.gaylajettshannon.com