minimalist fine art prints
Fine art is one of my first loves, but I’ve always wanted a way to bring my most beautiful pieces to your space. The mistral spirit shop offers: minimalist fine art prints and practical journal downloads. And it has three very simple missions.
- Help you create a beautiful, inspiring and motivating office space and bullet journal/planner (yes, ones that you can photograph).
- Pieces and products with meaning. The fine art prints are not just pretty – they’re made with a purpose. When you own a piece, you’ll own a story too. Similarly, the journal downloads will always be well-researched, functional and perfected.
- Quality. I want to bring these beautiful products to as many of you as possible but will never sacrifice quality.
sui generis
This piece is made up entirely of the phrase “Sui Generis” repeated over and over again. It is Latin for “of its own kind”, and shows up in biology, law, philosophy and politics, to refer to things that are completely unique. The artwork is a reminder that there is room for every individual’s unique beauty. No two people in the world will ever have the same stories to tell, the same arrangement of facial features, set of personal values, talents or abilities. We are all irreplaceable.
One of my favourite books expresses this idea perfectly:
“When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for its existence and its continuation to appear in all its magnitude.”
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
sui generis – also available as a spiral-bound notebook
kingston city hall
Kingston City Hall is a central historic building in Kingston, Ontario – the home of Queen’s University. Completed in 1844 after a fire burned down much of downtown area, the building was to represent Kingston’s position as the capital of the new Province of Canada. Although Ottawa is now Canada’s capital city, Kingston City Hall’s Neoclassical tholobate and dome hints at a previous life of grandeur.
My personal story with the town begins in July 2016, on my first trip to see the university that would begin to represent a small piece of my own history two years later. While staying at a local inn, I woke up early one Wednesday morning to sketch a building I was seeing for the first time but definitely not the last. After four or five half-hour gongs of its bell spent sketching, Kingston City Hall and I had finally gotten acquainted. This is my depiction of a building rich with history and meaning for Canada and myself.
skeleton pastel painting
Meet Alex the Skeleton. I chose to render his plastic white torso in blue and white, with tinges of pink chalk pastel. His painting is a study of the human skeleton – our foundational makeup. At first look, a skeleton seems delicate, fragile. But spend hours painting one, and you’ll start to notice its intricacies. That perfect natural arrangement is capable of motion and work, life and death, stress and happiness. Most of all, it rises to the potential you permit it to enjoy. I see this piece as a reminder to make the most of that potential for strength and peace – before it’s too late.
venus fashion sketch
From November 2017 to April 2018, the Royal Ontario Museum hosted #ROMdior, an exhibit of the textiles and fashions which the House of Dior created in the post-war 1940s and 50s. The dramatic, curvy dresses were a popular contrast to the masculine outfits worn by women leading up to the Second World War. “Venus” is the name I gave to one of my favourite designs from the exhibit.
Following our sketching at the ROM, my friend and I enjoyed one of our many days out in downtown Toronto: shopping for jeans, dining out at a fancy restaurant, an outdoor photoshoot in the cold. We wrapped it all up with a trip to the luxury Four Seasons Hotel to finish up our sketches in the lounge. To our surprise, we were brought a snack of olives and nuts that we couldn’t refuse and in signature twelfth-grade adventure style, we then ended the night by making a sheepish escape from the lounge – and waiter.
Please share any photos of the products, their new home, or a creative use with me via Instagram (@mistralspiritshop) or email (mistralspiritblog@gmail.com). I would love to re-post your photos to the shop’s Instagram community!
Thank you for supporting my channel, blog and creative work. <3 Lots of love.
– ioana