The Luxe Floating Workshop: Photography at 1500 Feet

Selected as "Best Father's Day Gift Trip" by

If your artistic side is in need of nurturing these days, if your digital SLR is gathering dust because you haven't quite tackled the manual yet for this circa 2008 Christmas gift, if you know you need to unwind and forget the woes of the world for just a few days, then this luxurious and substantial workshop is a must for you.

Over San Francisco at Twilight

Your Home for Three Nights

You Will Learn to Create Photographs of this Cypress Forest

Your Launch Site

Your Floating Photography Studio

You will be uplifted (literally), your spirits will soar, your tastebuds will sing, you will sleep like a baby by the sea in the middle of a cypress forest. You will see the world as few others can ever see it. 

You will work hard for three full days, but on a production shot in the forest under the direction of Dirk Karsten, one of the world's most highly acclaimed photographers, and one of the most gifted photography instructors around. You will gain invaluable techniques and methods to create the shot of your dreams as you float effortlessly and silently over the San Francisco Bay area and the Pacific Ocean in one of the few zeppelins in the world. 

You will leave renewed, refreshed and with an arsenal of tools for your photography. Your creativity will reach new heights. 

Who can resist the chance to escape for a few days, defy gravity and come away with some excellent photographic skills?

You Will Be in This Airship!

Workshop Information and Registration

Press

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Kit Golson Design 

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

 Chic Provence Interior Design

Encountering Jacko at Versailles

This week the world buried a beloved icon:  Michael Jackson, 50.  He will never again visit his once-beloved home at Neverland. 

Like everyone else, I know and love his music. But it is impossible to ignore the singularly, flagrantly, creatively, self absorbed visual phenomenon that was also Michael Jackson. He wrote songs and music; he choreographed himself brilliantly. He won over the whole world. 

But that was not enough. He turned his artistic vision literally upon himself and the result was that at 50 he had a face and body that had been artfully re-created to his own will. {What was that rigid and sadly unexpressive mask hiding?}

Michael Jackson and Bubbles at Versailles

Photo by Kit Golson

When I went to visit the Chateau of Versailles last September with friends who live just around the corner from there, it seemed a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the middle of a very busy design trip. 

To my astonishment, the venerable old rooms and halls held installations by American pop-artist Jeff Koons. Along with metal dogs and inflatable lobsters in the ornate palatial apartments I found this poignantly sweet ceramic sculpture of Michael Jackson and his beloved chimp, Bubbles.

It is fitting that this is the closest I ever came to Michael Jackson, and that I found him at the Chateau of Louis XIV. For Michael himself was the King of Pop, and the spooky, lonely and majestic halls of Versailles---the glittering Neverland of its time---suited him perfectly. 

A Gloomy Day at Chateau de Versailles

Photo by Kit Golson

Gate at Chateau of Versailles

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Kit Golson Design 

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

 Chic Provence Interior Design

Safe, and Now Lovely & Green Too: Before & After's of the CORA Project

Welcome to a special tour of a very special home...the CORA safe home I have been remodeling and refurbishing is almost ready to provide refuge for women fleeing abusive partners {see "What is the Color of Safety?"}. My friend, architect Roger Hagman invited me to work with him on this project.

I think you will love the transformation! First, the happy AFTER pictures. You can compare these with the BEFORE at the end of the post.

AFTER

Three Original Paintings for Safe House Living Room

by Kit Golson and Camilla Calder

A Welcoming Mural in Soft Colors in the Hallway

Which is Now a Play Area for Children

The View From the Front Door

A Comfortable "Mother's Chair" Awaits

in One of the Bedrooms

A Completely Remodeled Kitchen with New Appliances,

Cabinets, Bamboo Flooring, Bottlestone Countertop and Backsplash

Additional Storage in the Large Bedroom

A Sunny, Cheerful & Restful Bedroom

A Former Eyesore Center Hall Turned Into

Children's Play Area

A View Towards the Front Door

A Redesigned Dining SpaceIncludes

Sub Zero Refrigerator and Study Area for Teens

A lot of the design plans... transluscent 3-Form cabinet doors on painted green kitchen cabinets, for example, had to be abandoned because of costs. Likewise the art was not donated; an intrepid artist friend visiting from France, Camilla Calder, stepped up to do two of the paintings with me.

I think we've created a lovely, feminine, upbeat and soothing place for these women to call home while they are transforming their own lives. Especially when you consider the BEFORE pictures, below, of the shelter before we began our work.

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BEFORE

A Dreary Dining Area

The View From the Front Door

A Smaller Bedroom...Where's a Mother to Sit and Relax?

A Center Hallway Used for

Closet Storage with Curtain Doors

A Cramped and Dreary Large Bedroom

Storage in the Largest Bedroom

The home is being furnished with donations from kind people in the community, with the help of Agnes Moser, a designer and friend. {If you would like to donate towards nice new furnishings, please do!}

I am very proud of our local community. The amazing bamboo flooring, Neopolitan by Plyboo Strand was donated by Smith & Fong of San Francisco. All the tile and the amazing blue Bottlestone countertops were donated by Fireclay Tile in San Jose. The General Electric kitchen appliances were also donated. These donations were secured by the untiring efforts of great designers and friends, Annie Cronin, Lilley Yee and Peggy Deras.

I like to think this home will uplift the battered spirits of the women and children who will live there. What do you think?

Kit Golson

elegant sustainable pragmatic

Chic Provence Design