The Return of Tropical Optimism
We’ve Been Living Through an Era of Beige
Greige, greige everywhere. On our TV screens, in movies, in furniture stores, even in fast food joints. Visually sterile. Algorithmically safe. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate a plush white room from time to time, but where did the color go?
Remember those wild 70s environments with the giant supergraphics, bright orange walls, tropical prints, lava lamps, and psychedelic posters? Completely silly but also kind of magical. People expressed themselves through technicolor spaces that felt quirky, personal, optimistic, even a little ridiculous in the best way.
Now everything feels beige enough to erase any trace of ourselves the moment the next tenant moves in.
Maybe that’s why I’m always drawn back to the 70s and 80s. The burnt oranges and chocolate browns of the disco era. The candy-colored palettes of the 80s. Barbie. Jem. Airbrushed fantasy. Rainbow graphics. Scratch-and-sniff stickers. Glossy tropical travel ads promising some glamorous version of paradise just one lotto ticket away.
Those times invited you to romanticize your surroundings. To make life feel playful and dramatic. To embrace beauty and atmosphere with exuberance and longing.
I think people are craving that feeling again.
Paradise as a state of being
In all of this, the islands have a special kind of aura for me. When I think of those bygone days of slow living by the surf, rainbows and golden hours, I get a welcomed familiar feeling. I imagine walking through a wall of tropical foliage only to emerge into some hidden paradise on the other side. The faint sound of percussion somewhere in the distance. Warm air. Soft light. Everything slow and glowing. Like stumbling into a dreamy little pocket of time the modern world forgot. That’s a feeling I chase through my work.
Between Rainbows and Retro Fantasy
Between Rainbows was conceived somewhere inside that feeling. The series was inspired by the optimism of island imagery, retro calendar girls, old travel posters, and the tropical fantasy of those days. Not realism per se. More like emotional memory seen through nostalgia and a little bit of fantasy.
Why I Still Believe in Beauty
It seems these days that to aim for beauty for beauty’s sake is considered banal. But I’d argue the opposite. I believe the pursuit of beauty is a human necessity. Our instinct to seek out color, ornament, and storytelling is built into us for a reason. We aren’t here simply to consume. We’re here to feel wonder. To transcend our surroundings. To create worlds that reflect our dreams, our memories, and our longing.
And maybe that’s why the human touch matters now more than ever. In an era increasingly shaped by sameness and endless digital content, there’s something comforting about art that still feels handmade, emotional, imperfect, and alive.
I think people can feel that difference, even subconsciously. Exaggerated anatomy. A strange color choice. A composition shaped by instinct instead of algorithms. Those little traces of humanity are what give art its soul.
Between Rainbows, Toward a More Beautiful World
Maybe tropical optimism never really disappeared. Maybe it just got buried underneath the influence of minimalism and the pressure to make everything sleek, neutral, and marketable. But lately I’ve started noticing the little weeds breaking through the cracks. More color. More ornament. More personality. More people embracing spaces and aesthetics that actually feel like them.
I think deep down, people want beauty that feels sincere again. They want fantasy. Warmth. Escapism. They want rooms that feel collected and personal instead of staged. They want art that transports them somewhere, even if only for a moment.
That’s ultimately what Between Rainbows is about for me. Not just nostalgia for old Hawaii or vintage tropical imagery, but nostalgia for a feeling. A slower, softer, more romantic way of seeing the world.
I hope to push art in that direction. Toward color. Toward wanderlust. Toward tropical beauty as a state of mind.
