About Me
So, I’m Lana, and this is my blog.
I grew up in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey with my Mom, Dad, 3 sisters, 1 brother, and about 8 million pets. I have since become more of an urbanite, but I deeply love nature, and perpetually long for the next time I go camping. I’m pretty crazy about architecture as well as a whole slew of other things. You can look at my resume if you want technical information about me. If you’d like to know about me as a thinking breathing living person, here is some stuff you won’t find on my resume.
As far as architecture goes I like to play the dueling banjoes. One part of me is extremely serious about design and believes in projecting the hidden beauties in the world. (This part of me is absolutely obsessed with the work of Todd Williams Billie Tsien, as well as Tadao Ando, and Louis Kahn.) This part of me has a deep passion for tactile materials, and the way light effects our environments and ourselves. The other part of me says fuck it, this whole world is absolutely ridiculous and I just want to make fun of it, people should realize how absurd this is. (That part of me is less interested in famous architects and finds more interest in seeing what would happen if I were to stare at a random person in an elevator.) I suppose it depends on the project which route I choose to take. Usually though, I find my projects making some sort of commentary, whether it be sarcastic, satirical, beautiful, or abhorrently tacky, most of the time I try to induce some type of eye opening experience. I try and get to the root of the project’s subject matter, the ultimate concept, what it’s all about, and do my best to make it blatantly clear and understandable what I think about it. I believe design as well as art should be subjective, and personal, there is nothing in the world everyone will love or agree with, so I only design for myself, and anyone directly involved.
Personality wise I am very similar, I am a deep thinker, but never take myself (or anything else for that matter) too seriously. I enjoy laughing as my number one pastime, but I kill for the chance at a really enthralling conversation. I am generally the type of person with a few very close friends, rather than a lot of acquaintances. Occasionally I am overly blunt, but I’m just being honest and it usually works out for the best. I don’t believe lying gets anyone anywhere and in fact it probably slows down the rate of progress in the world quite a bit.
Most of my free time is spent designing. I enjoy designing anything; architecture, furniture, lighting, fashion accessories (my apartment is a mess with crazy furniture, and half finished projects). But if I’m not in the mood to design something real, I get a lot of joy from painting, drawing, writing, and especially cooking. (I also really enjoy watching Seinfeld reruns with my husband)
I am married to an amazing man named Jeff who fills my life with joy and happiness. We got married on the summer solstice in Iceland (24 hour daylight!) just the two of us on a little island in the Reykjavík harbor. We share an almost identical personality though I’m not sure if that’s the way it’s always been, or if we just spend too much time around each other. I am a little more extroverted and he is, and he is a little more of a judger than I am (Lana = ENTP, Jeff = INTJ), we are both a little quirky, and together we’re a pretty weird combination of computer/art nerd. But it’s the way it is and so far it’s been a lot of fun. Most the time we just do our own thing next to each other, I sit at my computer or art table designing things, and he sits at his computer designing software, it’s cute in a, no one is talking but everyone is having fun kind of way. Outside of our cave though we enjoy traveling, theorizing about the world’s problems, and getting stuck in awkward situations.
So far life has been good to me, and I hope it stays that way.
