No capes. Just courage.
Craig and Viv, still full bellied, Canon 300D
Our next door neighbors Craig and Vivienne (also sweet friends of ours) had a beautiful baby girl this week named Valentina. When I got home yesterday I laughed to find they had left a pink nylon bag hanging from the door filled with earplugs.
Sasha, Viola, Andrea Photo by Julian
Feeling nostalgic that for the first time in 6 years, we won’t be going to Burning Man. Many of our friends left today for the desert. It feels strange to be home and to know that my orange tutu and wings are in Black Rock City…
Malcolm, Canon 300D
Our sweet roommate Malcolm is heading back to New York City today… He was here in San Francisco playing bass for Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp’s musical Movin’ Out. It was a treat to have him in our home all summer.
We will miss you M!
Mary, Canon 300D
The photo above is from an evening when I decided to take Danny Gregory to the most California style event I could think of – a chakra healing at Psychic Horizons.
We arrived and immediately looked at each other like, ‘Oh, This is going to be good!’ It was in an old Victorian house where there was a room full of folks waiting to be healed. While we waited our turn in the back garden, Danny drew this statue while I photographed her. She was a beauty.
We’re not sure if we were healed or not. There were a lot of hand motions in the air and talk about grounding cords and the 7th level and cleanses with pink liquid and gold flecks. Very mysterious stuff. I kept waiting for the english translation to begin but it never did…
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The timing of Danny’s visit was interesting. He was doing research for his new book and asked me lots of questions about my creative life. If it’s satisfying, what I love about it, why I do it, etc. When you have your own business you naturally go through cycles where you question everything, you wonder if it’s all worth it, if you’re really made for this, if it will ever get any easier. Sometimes you want to quit entirely.
It was fascinating to have someone come into my life and interview me during one of these cycles. They are questions I ask myself at various times, but saying them out loud gave them an entirely different voice. Sometimes it’s hard to know what the truth is, that voice that says, “This isn’t safe! Get out quick! It’s all caving in behind you!” or the one that says, “It’s all going to be okay. I have no idea how, but it always works out somehow right?”
Sometimes it’s hard to know which self to present, which self to believe, which self to ignore and which self to embrace. Sometimes it’s hard to have faith. Sometimes it’s hard to trust and just keep going. And like our time at Psychic Horizons, sometimes it’s hard to know whether you’ve been healed or not.
Emily Lyles, Canon 300D
I met the adorable, amazing Emily Lyles this weekend. While having iced tea and shortbread at my favorite cafe, I was reminded of the joys of having friends of all different ages. I have made some extraordinary friends who are older than me (perhaps being a little sister this was more natural?) but was so inspired by Emily (brilliant, creative, 18 years old). I don’t think I’ve spoken to someone just out of high school since 1989 when I graduated myself! I loved hearing what she was thinking about and what life is like for her.
Today, I get the pleaure of meeting Danny Gregory for some drawing, dahlia viewing, picture taking and other shenanigans.
New friends abound..
self, photo booth, Santa Cruz, CA
Photo Friday’s theme this week is “Analog.” {the challenge is that we are supposed to post photos taken with film}
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And a story about process:
A friend of mine has a sister who is developmentally disabled and is a very talented artist. He loves photography and gifted her a disposable camera, very excited and curious about what she would capture.
A few weeks later, he returned home for a visit and asked her how she liked the camera. “I loved it!” she said enthusiastically.
“Did you shoot any photos?”
“Yep.”
“Can I see them?”
“What?”
“Can I see the photos you took?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Didn’t you shoot any photos on the camera I gave you?”
“Yep. It was so much fun! Then I threw the camera away.”
dusty peach dahlia, Canon 300D
I just re-read bits of one of my favorite books, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. The first thing I opened to was this:
“Carolyn Myss, the medical intuitive who writes and lectures about why people don’t heal, flew to Russia a few years ago to give some lectures. Everything that could go wrong did-flights were cancelled or overbooked, connections missed, her reserved room at the hotel given to someone else. She kept trying to be a good sport, but finally, two mornings later, on the train to her conference on healing, she began to whine at the man sitting beside her about how infuriating her journey had been thus far.
It turned out that this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said-gently-that they believe when a lot of things are going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.”
pokey flower, Canon 300D
Thank you for the sweet comments on the site! I only wish all of you lived in SF so I could photograph you…
Is anyone still having trouble viewing the ‘fashion’ section in the portfolio? Some of you mentioned this so I changed the size of the window. Hopefully it works for everyone now.
Thank you again for all the support!
* and another musical gem to share called Teitur. {the amazing jb told me about him.}
bananas, Canon 300D
I was waiting for the bus yesterday and an old (possibly crazy) man turned to me and asked, “What’s wrong with your arm? Where’d you get those rashes?”
I looked down at my left arm and replied that we had been having a mosquito problem in our house and the welts were all in various stages of the healing process.
He pressed on. “Why do you have all those mosquitoes in your house?”
“Well,” I began, “it turns out there is a plant in our room with a plastic tray underneath it collecting water. It hadn’t been changed in weeks and a little science project formed. A little pond you might say. It took us WEEKS to figure this out, but we did and now the mosquitoes are gone.”
Man: “You should have a banana split.”
Me: “What?”
Man: “You should treat yourself to a banana split for figuring that out.”
pause.
Man: “We always get down on ourselves and remember all the stupid things we’ve done. Every once in a while we figure something out and do something brilliant but we don’t usually remember it. If you have a banana split you won’t forget.”
Interesting theory…
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