Making my eyes happy
Lunastrella camera print by John W Golden
I’m always looking for new things to make my eyes happy, and seem to exist in a permanent state of hunger for those new things. And photographs and art and books and films just aren’t enough… I’m hungry for ideas and connections and coincidences and epiphanies too. I’m thinking about subtly changing the direction of this blog, now that the constant ruminations on grief and loss have given way, at last, to creativity and inspirations. And maybe not writing about grief makes this a less interesting blog to read, but as this started out as a personal blog, i guess it can only reflect what’s on my mind. (What’s on my mind right now is: should I invest in a second-hand Hasselblad?)
I’d been flirting with the idea of deleting this blog and just lurking around the blogosphere in an invisible cape… but I can’t seem to bring myself to do it. So as my blogging has been rather half-hearted recently, I think it’s time to make a few changes. Every so often I’d like to share some of the artists, photographers and websites that inspire me. I like the idea of having a place to tie all the strands together (which I’ve started doing here too) – maybe sharing more about what’s around me, rather than what’s inside me, though that will be woven in too, inevitably. There’s been stuff happening this year that i didn’t want to blog about, but that meant I didn’t blog at all, and I missed it – missed the sharing and connecting. So while the offline stuff takes care of itself, I want to get cosy in my online space again…
I like to sit and watch by Brandi Strickland
Voyage by Robin Danely
Honeysuckle Dream part one by Helene Lacelle
Paper airplanes by Betsy Walton
Yeah whatever by Dollface Design
Music to my eyes
I love the internet so much. SO MUCH. I love how it has brought into my life some of the best friends a girl could wish for, and a community of like-minded souls that i cherish; how it leads me to such incredible photographs and inspiration and trails of creative possibility. I love that it has brought people from my past into my present, to heal wounds and have them be released. I love how much smaller the world seems, and how I can find out what is happening anywhere at anytime; how i can discover the temperature in Helsinki and book a flight to Japan. I love that when I missed an episode of Torchwood last week, i found it online days later (these little things matter), and that glimpses of other people’s lives make me chuckle in the morning.
And right now, I am loving that it has brought me this new site, where I can listen to online mix tapes and make one of my own. Music is my constant companion, and one of my favourite things to do is to put together an hour of aural inspiration for a loved one, then send it out with a sweet note and bar of chocolate. So now that i can no longer access Pandora (not available in the UK, even if you enter a US zipcode – dammit!) I have found a way to discover new music i might never have found otherwise. This little thing has just made my morning… oh internet, how i love thee.
(and hey, if you create your own mixtape, could you leave me the link? :-)
Etsy offer… and a giveaway
Spring, 10×8 print now in my Etsy store
It's amazing how some of your best ideas make themselves known when you have to focus your mind on something completely unrelated, as if the only way for them to poke their head above the ground is to be pushing against something. I've been snowed with work the last few weeks, none of it particularly creative or inspiring, but apparently this is the ideal head-space to be in if you want to be inundated with ideas and plans and new projects. I can hear the crackling of my brain synapses firing every time i look away from the computer screen and it's all i can do to keep up with the flow of inspired thinking, scribbling ideas down onto scraps of paper and drawing diagrams in my journal. Perhaps we hear more intently when the white noise of the everyday is at its loudest, if that makes any sense at all. There's so much I want to do with my photography this year… after a few months of hibernation, it feels like i might be catching a lift with the wind again.
In other news, I'm running a wee special in my Etsy store - buy two prints and get a 3rd free – running until the 31st March. I'm gradually adding new prints to the store, so if you fancy one, tell me which is your favourite and on Friday I'll draw a name out the hat and send the winner the print of their choice…. My spring gift to you :-)
Today I want to…
… get on a plane to LA to spend time with these dancing babes
… hold on to the good feeling that is growing inside me, like a seedling reaching up towards the light
… remember to breathe more deeply and often when I feel my chest tightening with stress
… write down a list of my blessings in my journal, to help me remember them
… stay open to all possibilities that come my way
… trust that it’s all unfolding as it should.
How about you?
Three years
The Marriage (II)
I want to speak to you.
To whom else should I speak?
It is you who make
a world to speak of.
In your warmth the
fruits ripen – all the
apples and pears that grow
on the south wall of my
head. If you listen
it rains for them, then
they drink. If you
speak in response
the seeds
jump into the ground.
Speak or be silent: your silence
will speak to me.
~ Denise Levertov, Selected Poems
It is three years ago today that he died. I can hardly believe it. The missing is less; the memories are more.
