The Mystic Cottage

My mother has a ranch outside of the city which I often go to when I want to get away from my daily routine. The ranch is quite big with a small 4-wall cottage about 100 meters from the main house. This cottage is my favorite, and it’s the one I stay in whenever I come home to visit. I wanted to fix it up a bit to make the atmosphere feel more happy and peaceful. I thought putting in more color would do it but I didn’t just want to paint the wall. The roof actually had a glass window which was water-stained and looked more white than crystal clear. I thought “what if I replaced it for some colorful stained glass?”

It was a genius idea. I didn’t want any design that was already too common. I began thinking, “what kind of

art has affinity with the types of activity I like to do in the room?” I always do relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation in the room, and it is also where I like to practice being in silence but content within. That’s it! Something mystic looking would really give the place a more peaceful looking feel. Yogis and other spirituality practitioners tend to think that geometric shapes and the colors of the rainbow have an energetic effect on an individual. So I drew a sketch of spiral-like shapes with my favorite colors; blue, purple, green, orange and yellow. Once I gave it to experts, they created a masterpiece of stained glass (see picture below).

In addition to the stained glass, I also removed most of the furniture to provide more space to do the relaxation exercise. I bought a futon instead so that when no one is staying in the cottage it can be used as a space where guests can hang out and have a cup of tea. But most of time, I am the only one who uses the cottage. I feel like a kid again when I have a space where that is big and I can run around without shoes in it.