The same stellar art teacher who let me be a hermit in the corner of the art classroom with a stack of old National Geographics also let me be a hermit with a book called Underground Interiors: Decorating for Alternative Life Styles. Published in 1972, it’s chockfull of photos and words about fascinating people and their fascinating homes. Just look at these scans!

The colors! The furnishings! The general feeling of being on a spaceship designed by the Lucky Charms leprechaun! It just really makes you wonder about the people who live in these spaces. Like, who IS this person who felt they needed large plastic broccolis sticking up from their floor? Imagine the outstanding way the owner of that rainbow-ceilinged room must have stroked their outstanding beard when they decided they needed an outstanding rainbow ceiling! Et cetera.

I spent most of class looking at Interiors and not making any actual art, but I think it was good research and brain food and life inspiration. At the end of the year, upon his retirement, my teacher let me keep the book, and I like looking at it now to fondly remember how lazy I was as a student but how I got a pretty good idea of who I wanted to be: someone who wouldn’t actually ever have the dedication to commit to such wonderful design schemes but who would definitely think of themselves as sort of interesting enough to maybe do so one day. Which makes me less Actual Interesting Person and more Jeff Goldblum at Creepy Paul Simon’s house in Annie Hall, but I’m totally OK with that too.

THE POINT OF ALL THIS: colors are pretty and I like them. ♦