2014
Questions & Answers
When you know the answer to a question, it shouldn’t be too difficult to put the answer into action and obtain results for the problem, correct? I wish it were that simple. I feel there is a mental block I have created for myself that has reverted my way of thinking, somewhat, to not being satisfied. To wanting more, to be greedy in a way, an unconventional way at that, but still a greediness that melts away my contentment with what I am doing about what I want in life.
Who do I think I am to know the answers to everything anyways?
I suppose I am in a period of convalescence? Of returning to full contentment and satisfaction with who I am mentally and how I am mentally approaching my life. However, my question is, how did I defer from my contented mindset in the first place? That is the one question I do not know the answer to.
I started to attack the answer before I asked the question; I tried to think backwards. In math class growing up, I was taught to approach certain problems backwards to help find the starting point of a problem- it is sort of a heuristic problem solving strategy that helps find a means to an end. However, recalling information from my studies in psychology, if my own understanding of my issue happens to be faulty, my attempts to resolve it will also be incorrect or flawed. So it is somewhat of a gamble to assess my own mind and my own problems, if in fact I have a problem after all!
“The human mind, once stretched by a new idea, such as, thinking backwards.., will never regain its original dimensions.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
At the current moment, I don’t even remember my original dilemma. Maybe I just needed to explore my brain and get to know the complex routing structure of my brain a little better. I needed to revisit the processes of my own cognitive functions and abilities to become content. Either that is what was causing my discontented feelings or the maze my brain just created and worked its way through caused me to forget any discontented feelings or problems that I had. I very well could have distracted myself from the problem and burrowed myself deeper and further away from actual solution. Hmmmm………
Isn’t that what we do with many problems we face each day? We distract ourselves, consciously or subconsciously, in order to escape the quandaries and conundrums that we in fact do not have the answers to so that we don’t become stuck endlessly searching for an answer that could very well not exist at all. It is the only way we can move forward. We are comfortable with answers and uncomfortable with not knowing- that is probably why horror movies are scary; we never know what is going to happen next. We fear the unknown.
Horror movies are my favorite genre, because I like to get stuck on the unknown. That is possibly also the reason why I am so stuck on my own vague problem. If the problem itself is vague, then the answer must be even more so. Maybe I imagined the whole scenario just to satisfy my innate craving for something unknown.
Question number two: I wonder if I will ever know? It’s an endless cycle.
On twitter the other day, I came across a post from @paule_steele that seems to sum everything up perfectly:
November 13, 2014
‘Avalanche’- Behind The Scenes
My “Avalanche” music video finally came out last week! I am so excited with the way it turned out and could not wait to share it with everybody. Filming “Avalanche” was so much fun and I was really glad that we were able to do it in New York City because we didn’t have to travel anywhere. It made everything so much easier. Clifton Bell and Kareem Johnson directed and produced the video and the team that they assembled for the shoot was amazing. They made everything go smoothly and I am incredibly grateful for the hard work everyone put into this video to make it all happen.
We started in Soho on one of the very first cold mornings of the season and I definitely was not expecting it to be so cold! But then I got to wear this really awesome chunky sweater that was really cozy and made dealing with the elements more tolerable:) The whole first day was crazy because we were shooting on the street and I noticed that the people who were walking and driving by were taking photos and were trying to figure out exactly what it was we were doing. I walk past photo and video shoots all the time in the city and am so used to seeing shoots that I almost don’t even notice things like that anymore; but it was kind of cool (and weird) to be on the other side of that equation.
There are quite a few arguing scenes in the video and becoming upset with someone was hard for me to do! It’s not that I haven’t ever been upset with anyone, I am just generally not great at conveying anger towards anyone when I am upset, so it took a few tries for me to get the hang of arguing and fighting. Clifton was making fun of me during the bathroom scene because he kept saying, “Brielle, you’re angry and upset- look sad,” and a huge smile would come across my face! It was pretty funny, but Davi, who was the male lead, was really good and helped me figure out how to argue. By the second day of filming, we actually were able to make up this whole crazy argument based off of made-up scenarios and it sounded so real! Then I had to keep myself from smiling and laughing all over again because the argument was so good!
We finished up shooting in Dumbo (Brooklyn) at sunset where we walked along the boardwalk by the water and it was so beautiful. It made for a perfect ending to the two days of shooting:)
You can watch Avalanche here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsYfXZo9_2w
Love,
Brielle
My Love of Paleo!
Hey everyone, welcome to my very first blog post! I’ve never really blogged before, so I have done a bit of brainstorming over what kinds of things I’d like to share and I have a ton of different ideas that go in all sorts of directions.
One thing that I absolutely love to do is cook. I make predominantly Paleo meals and I love experimenting with how to turn some of my favorite dishes Paleo.
- For everyone who is unfamiliar with what a Paleo diet is:
It eliminates types of food that we would not have been able to eat way back during hunter-gatherering times and is nicknamed the “caveman” diet because of that. It eliminates all dairy, sugar, grains, legumes, and processed meats. All (unprocessed) meats, fruits, veggies, nuts, and oils make up the entire diet. I feel like it is very easy to follow and I love it!
It is Fall in New York City, my absolute favorite season! The temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing colors, and I am finally able to wear jeans, sweaters, boots, and scarves:) Because of how chilly it was this week, I figured that tonight I’d experiment with making a pumpkin chicken curry. It sounds festive and yummy, but also a little weird. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to turn out and I’m feeling a little adventurous, so here goes nothing.
I found a pretty great recipe on pinterest (I get most my meal ideas off of pinterest) and I didn’t need to make any ingredient substitutions because it already was Paleo (save for the rice), but I used coconut oil instead of olive oil and I added an extra tsp of curry powder, just because: http://www.thewickednoodle.com/pumpkin-coconut-curry-chicken/. My uncle grows habanero peppers and he gave a few of them to me, so I diced a half of one up and threw it in for an extra kick:) I lovvvvveeee spicy- the spicier, the better.
It only took around 40 minutes to make and it made my whole apartment smell amazing! I had it with some asian coleslaw I had made the other day, which I admit isn’t the most complimentary of side choices, but it was still pretty good.
Oh! And the curry was ridiculously good. Like, I was surprised at how awesome pumpkin curry is. It’s definitely a recipe I am saving to make again:)
I am most definitely not a photographer, but pictured below is my Pumpkin Chicken Curry:
Love,
Brielle
April 22, 2014
Connecting forms of art
The creation of the first operas in the early 17th Century marked a groundbreaking artistic and conceptual phenomenon. The goal of writing an opera was to combine every form of art (music, painting, acting, design, sculpture, etc.) into one fantastic spectacle that was to be the most superior form of art possible for man to create. So it is nothing new to say that music and fashion go hand in hand.
A piece of music and a collection both tell a story. They both are a succession of dialogues that provoke feelings and attitudes towards a particular theme or series of events. The rather obvious difference is the providing of those dialogues through auditory sensation versus ocular discovery. In the same way, music can speak what a collection cannot and a collection can bring to life what a piece of music cannot.
alt For my fashion art class at FIT, our first project was to design a swimwear collection based off of a culture of our choice. I chose the viking culture, which I admit was a very odd decision because they definitely were not known for their fashion choices, but for some reason it peaked my interest. In researching the culture, I found a mythological story that basically is the scandinavian version of Mulan. There was a princes names Alfhild who was set to betroth prince Alf, but she wanted to make her own decisions about love. In short, she dressed up as a man and escaped on a boat to fight in a war and was never seen again.
Alfhild Riot
In designing my swimwear collection, I had a “eureka” moment and realized that princess Alfhild’s story and my collection fit perfectly with my song “Ready for War” which has not been released yet. The tag line is, “fighting for love/all for love in the name of love,” which is exactly what Alfhild escaped on a viking ship to go do: fight for her own love. I deemed it fitting to title my collection “Alfhild Riot” and I believe that my swimwear reflects her bold and defiant choice to take her life in her own hands and also marries the delicate aspects of her life as a princess.
The stimulation of multiple senses at once creates a more rounded and complete artistic experience. My combination of music with fashion to create my “Alfhild Riot” collection, Miuccia Prada’s fabulous combination of fashion and art for her SS14 collection, and even Karl Lagerfeld’s vibrant SS14 collection with various art installations framing the runway are a few examples of how combinations of art forms coexist in perfect harmony and belong together in holy matrimony.
Brielle
October 11, 2014
Avalanche
Click here to watch the video on YouTube Now
“Avalanche” represents the point in a failing relationship where both sides recognize that it isn’t going to work out. One person always tries to fight harder for it than the other and I represent the half that is fighting for the relationship to prove to myself that all the emotion, heart, and time that I put into the relationship has been acknowledged and wasn’t completely fought for in vain. The struggle of upholding the threads of the relationship proves not to be worth it and everything does fall apart, but both sides are better off going their separate ways in the end.” – Brielle
March 24, 2014
Here’s To Looking Back
A popular and rather cliché motivational saying that I have heard tossed around quite a bit lately is to “never look back”. But what would happen if we really never looked back? We would never look back to our experiences, to our successes and failures, to our memories, or to our feelings of nostalgia. It is a matter of opinion, but I think reverting one’s thoughts to the past is a very important part of what forms us as a world, a nation, and individuals.
Take the power fashion house Dolce and Gabbana for example. Dolce and Gabbana have built an entire aesthetic around ancient Sicily which becomes increasingly more apparent and brilliant with every successive season. For the Winter 2015 collection, their ingenious rendering of themes from the Romantic Era (the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century) would be nonexistent if it were not for the rich cultural history that has been recorded for us to look back upon and study today.
Romanticism was about creating personal relationships with nature and emphasizing individual artists’ emotional and dispositional experiences contrived from a new world emerging out of traditional religious rigidity. The era possessed a certain enchantment that brought forth and exemplified the exploration of the human soul which is clearly epitomized with one glimpse at the Dolce and Gabbana Winter 2015 collection. Fairies who grant wishes, keys to a secret magical garden, animals who could talk to you if they so choose, whimsical elves who dance and sing in everyone’s dreams. I do not know if it was the Tchaikovsky music, the grand theatrics, or the graceful movement of the entire show, but it reminded me of a ballet: pure beauty.
Look back in order to move forward
And there it is! Looking back on the past becomes a powerful chain reaction. I had strong feelings of nostalgia when I watched the D&G show from the thirteen years that I was a ballerina who danced to Tchaikovsky every year in The Nutcracker. There were Sugar Plum Fairies, a prince who brought Clara on a journey to a magical land, and gingersnaps and candy canes who danced in Clara’s magnificently colorful dreams. Both shows actually seem quite similar to me, in the aspect of enchantment at least. The point is that I could not prevent myself from possessing such feelings of nostalgia and remembering my past.
I learned important lessons from being a ballerina, and the whole world learned important lessons from ancient Sicily. If we did not look back upon what we did or what happened in the past, we might forget and might never be able to move forward. There would be no learning curve to stop the cyclical motions that our lives would become. The past is to be learned from and admired. Maybe the saying should be altered: Always look back, but never stop moving forward.
Love, Brielle
Brielle Edborg, FIT student.
February 17, 2014
Perspective of the Creator
Why is it that the worst and most difficult times of our lives occur either when we are stuck in a rut or when everything we once thought we knew has been changed forever? We question who exactly we thought we were; and then suddenly, the mindset we have become so accustomed to having goes up into theoretical flames. Honestly, it almost seems like the whole universe comes crashing down and we are the primary target. Sound familiar?
Thealt complete whirlwind of the “worst” times of our lives more often than not turn out to be the most important growing and learning stages we encounter. The growing pains are unfortunately imperative to the process, but personally, I almost love the stinging sensation it gives me and I know that I will become incomparably stronger and more wise as a result. I imagine the tiny fibers in my brain wincing in agony as they slowly tear apart to only heal back together more durable than ever. There is an indefinite truth in the saying: “change is good”.
Nothing good can come from doing nothing…
As we mature, we naturally adapt to the temperamental balance between stagnant, almost dependent, living and unstably chaotic cyclical vicissitude. The most temperamental part of every growing pain is good old father time. I guess time management really is everything. The time it takes to heal from a breakup, the time it takes to master a technique, the time it takes to learn that magic fairies will not come and clean your dishes at night for you (you actually have to buy soap and wash them yourself), etcetera. Nothing good can come from doing nothing, but nothing good can come from doing everything either. We are inexperienced acrobats stumbling across a tightrope with no protective cushioning to buffer our fall, and we are praying that we get to the other side alive. This is real life.
Perspective is also a huge factor to our adaptation and growing process. Have you ever been with someone where time seems to literally disappear because you get along with him or her so well that time really has no purpose of existing? They are funny things, our minds. We are able to twist time into a sort of puzzle piece that fits together with our twisted and sometimes mangled puzzles of brains so that we can adapt to situations, or force situations to adapt to us, through which we allow ourselves to keep whatever it is that we consider sanity.
The world around us IS art!
And here is where art comes in. How we perceive situations that arise in our lives completely affects how we perceive the world around us. The world around us IS art! Everything is created in some way, and as artists, we are fortunate enough to contain the ability inside our souls to decide what we want to create, what we want to perceive, and how we want to perceive it. Like snowflakes and fingerprints, every single person on this earth is unique. But we have something in common that snowflakes do not. We all innately desire to maintain that which makes us unique: our own individualities.
Think about this, if every person’s individuality is a result of his own perception, and every person’s perception is his own solution, then could the solution to the most difficult trials of our lives be to morph into ourselves? Into who we are created to be? Into creators? I think so.
Love, Brielle
Brielle Edborg, FIT student.
January 6, 2014
Pieces of cultural, social, and political history
Like a little girl receiving a pony for Christmas with designer ribbons and bows to braid its hair with, I was shocked, and then filled with an overwhelming amount of excitement, when I walked into the fashion warehouse of my dreams: Evolution, a vintage designer clothing and accessories dealer out of Cincinnati, Ohio run by Tony Tiemeyer. Yes, Cincinnati Ohio. I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into: all vintage Alexander McQueen, Hermes, Zac Posen, Christian Dior, Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, and the list goes on.
Fangirling
To backtrackBrielle Fashion Student Columnist FIT a little bit, I was in Cincinnati filming my next music video “Rock The Catwalk”, which will premier in early 2014. In the song, I mention an assortment of designer names such as, Zac Posen, Hermes, and Karl Lagerfeld. My photographer had the idea of going to this fashion warehouse to film me trying on clothes for a fun scene for the video. I thought the idea was brilliant because, well, trying on clothes is the most exciting thing in the world! We arrive at the warehouse, I walk in, my mouth drops, and (because I am a teenage girl completely obsessed with everything fashion) I commence “fangirling” over everything (according to Urban Dictionary, “fangirling is the reaction a fangirl has to any mention or sighting of the object of her ‘affection’. These reactions include shortness of breath, fainting, high-pitched noises, etc.”)!!
Ok, I admit I was able to “keep my cool” a little bit, maybe less than I think, but inside I was screaming at the top of my lungs and jumping up and down.
Alexander McQueen
Whether I actually kept my cool or not, it does not matter. I realized that for the very first time I was completely surrounded with the physical and elemental works of not only my idols, but of individuals who had dedicated their lives to creation, and who have made major impacts on the worldly societies of times past. It was surreal. I literally left my fingerprints on measurable pieces of cultural, social, and even political history. The two Alexander McQueen jackets that I had the honor of wearing were particularly exciting. Alexander McQueen is undeniably unparalleled in his vision and construction. I do recognize that such a statement is a matter of opinion, but it should not be. He was simply the best.
If I were a doctor
I desire to state that every fashion student should be able to delight in wearing vintage pieces! We spend our days studying the techniques, the fabrics, and the people that bring such glories to fruition, so why should we not study the actual pieces? In fact, if I were a doctor, I would prescribe “mandatory dressing up in vintage clothes to release endorphins and feel elation” a minimum of once a month, for everyone in the fashion business, for life! What a high.
Love,
Brielle, Freshman at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, USA
Photo: Brielle in Tony Tiemeyer’s Evolution studio wearing Chanel and Escada channeling Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld simultaneously.
Photo credit: Annette Navarro
Stylist: Kelsey Wing and Tony Tiemeyer
Hair and makeup: Phillip Nathaniel Saunders