JWM - Volume 4, Issue 1 - (Page 92)

MY PASSION Michael Aram IN INDIA, DESIGNER MICHAEL ARAM FINDS INSPIRATION EVERYWHERE HE LOOKS. M ichael Aram has a passion for design, and not just his own. Anything with a story, or even a vibration, resonates with him. "I really do believe that objects have vibrations," he notes. And nowhere are they more intense than in India, where he lives and works much of the year. The American-born Aram ﬁrst found creative motivation on a trip to Delhi back in 1988. He saw artisans sitting on the side of the road, hammering metal into shovels and buckets. Unlike their mass-produced counterparts, the humble objects were special. "They had a soulfulness to them," he recalls. He designed and created his ﬁrst line of "twig cutlery" there, based on the branches surrounding him. An avid ﬂea market and antique shopper, he has ﬁlled his Delhi home chockablock with the paintings, sculptures, furniture and carpets he's found on his travels throughout the country. "Delhi is this crazy inspirational hotbed, so the house is full of big antiques and lots of color-it's a visual resource for me. I love beautiful craftsmanship. I love patina, of course metal, and I love funny antique Indian pieces." That reminds him of the time he found a set of gorgeous old bronze pots. He brought them home, cleaned and polished them, and used them to serve food at a dinner party. "The guests all just looked at me-they were bedpans!" he says, laughing. "These are the kinds of cultural gaffes that you could totally understand making if you didn't know what a 200-year-old bedpan looked like. It was hysterical. I love those cultural disconnects." His own designs often have a storytelling quality of their own, like his whimsical cheese knife with a mouse for a handle. "Or they evoke the feeling of something prehistoric, like a beaten bowl with gold on the inside and black on the outside, so it looks like it might have been dug up somewhere," says Aram. The results are warm and vibrant, with an emphasis on the natural world, much like the country itself. "Even though I very rarely reference India, I feel intrinsically there's a connection." - LISA ROSEN "I love beautiful craftsmanship. I love patina." J WM MAGAZINE 92 J W M A R R I O T T. C O M http://www.JWMARRIOTT.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JWM - Volume 4, Issue 1

Jwm - Winter 2014
Contents
JW Experts
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
Distinctive Products, People, Ideas & Style
Songs for Travel
Well-Being
Food + Drink
Arts
The Portal
Going Global
White Out
Kissaten and Tell
Redefining Green
JW Experience
My Passion

JWM - Volume 4, Issue 1