Marc Englander

I do not feel fully capable of answering, “who am I and what are my passions?” The two main reasons for this are, that in the short time I have been alive I have never truly lost something important to me, and the second reason is my passions change biannually. This is why I will not be answering this question. Rather, I will try to explain what life has been like under these circumstances, and what I have been interested in over the past 18 years.
First, my family and I are very close. My father, a man of finance since birth, has a simple, clean and orderly aesthetic. Over the past 36 years he has developed a style all to his own: a detailed assortment of blue and grey suits, matching - or slightly discolored - blue or grey ties and white shirts. Beyond his sense of fashion, every piece of lint on his desk is there for a reason. Outside of his domain, he loves art. Specifically, I believe that his favorite modern artists are: Brancusi, Mondrian, and Kelly in addition to some exceptions and extensions to more classical and impressionist pieces. In my own eyes, but probably out of envy, I share similarities to my father’s simple, clean and orderly aesthetic as well as his appreciation of painting and sculpture. Furthermore, my mother is a professional photographer, who shares the same appreciation for the “greats” of modern and contemporary art. Her personal work is so varied - in printing materials and processing - that I have no idea what her general aesthetic preference looks like. The information above is supposed to give you a general background of what I have been exposed because of the context I have been brought up in
My passions over the past 18 years have crossed the spectrum from samurai sword fighting and Japan to snowboarding, furniture design and fashion. My passion for Japan, is best explained with the following anecdote. When I was 10 years old, I had the opportunity to transform my room into a quasi-dojo space. Since then, my room has only been a desk, a chair, tatame mats and a futon, which is rolled away during the day. The tatame mats have a black border so the floor becomes a series of intersecting black lines — this is the essence of what I like about the Japanese aesthetic: simplicity of form and function. In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki discusses the importance of darkness in creating a living space without clutter, and, though my living space does so my passions are quite scattered.

I love this video of a fashion designer combining his work with an old passion of his.  thank a look.

http://www.vimeo.com/1654340