Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - unnamed
I have a friend named Rob. I don’t see him very often, but when I do it is always a real pleasure.

He is a very upbeat person with a seemingly insatiable curiosity for delight in many of its guises – flavorful cheeses, distinctive food preparations, beverages of all sorts to accompany food, or to drink alone; especially wine.  And it doesn’t stop there – he has accumulated many treasures over an extended period of time: paintings, drawings, prints, maps, photographs, furniture, books, objects – and the list goes on.

Rob and his remarkable wife Shelley have had a rich life raising their four daughters in a grand-scaled Queen Anne home (including  a carriage house) in an early Boston suburb, while leading rich professional careers.

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - RF - 41 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - RF - 31

While the children (and now grandchildren) live on their own, Rob and Shelley’s ‘nest’ is hardly empty.

Rob has an intellectual, historical or aesthetic connection – and is passionate about – nearly every ‘thing’ in his home.  He is a cultural adventurer; some time ago we enjoyed an afternoon looking at antique furniture, paintings and decorative arts in a museum, followed by an exhibition of adventuresome new art,  we had a lovely meal with a great accompanying beverage, and went to a enormous outlet bookstore.

And what’s particularly refreshing about Rob is that unlike so many men, he speaks of his professional life only when prodded – there is too much still to see, do, experience, taste, share, etc. to converse about work!

Now you’re wondering what Rob has to do with Pinterest?

It took quite a while for Pinterest to have an appeal for me, but in thinking about how Rob and I (and many others) take great delight in a vast array of sensory stimulation, I discovered that this platform is a fantastic place to indulge my curiosity. You may be saying yourself “Do I really need to have another social media platform?”

I can totally relate to this notion, however, I would offer that you might think of it more in terms of – I GET to have Pinterest!

As a highly visual person, I read, skim, look at, cast a glance toward, and peruse dozens of magazines each moth. I read the New York Times everyday, and sometimes I supplement this news feed with the Wall Street Journal Weekend. I take deliver of a few books every week, and yet I am always seeking more visual and mental stimulation.

I am sure there are many ways to use Pinterest, I have found one for myself that is a relaxing yet stimulating visual adventure that uses the repository of the platform to catalogue inspiring images in categories.

My boards represent categories of my personal interests; once I reach a critical mass of images in a category, I can look objectively and see what it is that I like. It isn’t as much a revelation as it is an emergence of trends that reveal themselves.  They become aesthetic self-portraits.

Here some images from a few of my boards.

MODERN-ism

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Modernism - 11 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Modernism - 31 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Modernism - 21 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Modernism - 41.

STAIRS

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Stairs - 21 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Stair - 51 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Stairs - 41 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Stairs - 11.

FIREPLACES

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - fp-1 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - fp2 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - fp3 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - fp4.

OFF-the-WALL

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - OTW - 31 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - OTW - 41 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - OTW - 11 Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - OTW - 21

Curious to see more of what I find visually exciting?  Follow me on Pinterest!