Tuesday, November 16, 2010

tranquility & triumph

jessica snow, louis the third


morris louis, point of tranquility

i'm loving the most recent installment from the folks at 20x200, this beautiful print from jessica snow's painting louis the third, a rethinking of morris louis's point of tranquility. snow's colors feel so bright and triumphant. i love how she achieves playful spontaneity with what is really a carefully thought out and precise composition and color pairing. lovely.

also, speaking of triumph, i successfully defended my thesis proposal yesterday! and to top that little victory off, i also received a ton of great feedback and encouragement. after a long drought in the positivity department over the last few months, it was so refreshing. hurrah!

so thats that. i hope you're all having little triumphs, too.
no matter how big or small, they're all important, right?

Monday, November 15, 2010

this weekend





lots of work
lots of rest too
best pork chops ever at mamma zu's
delicious homemade scones*
beautiful weather

i made final revisions to my proposal over the weekend and am defending (again) tomorrow.
so nervous, but so ready to move on.
wish me luck!
xo
L

* we followed the joy of cooking's basic recipe and then added blueberries and chocolate chips for sweet scones, and bacon, cheese, and sage for some amazing savory scones. so good and so easy!



Friday, November 12, 2010

i love fall because


sometimes on my walk to campus i hold a competition
to crown the most beautiful leaf on my street
queen of all the fall leaves
for the day.
it's a pretty fun game.
sometimes i appoint a duke and duchess too.
(because there are just so many lovely leaves,
and i hate to leave such impressive contenders out.)

happy friday, loves. hope you enjoy some lovely fall weather this weekend!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

in honor of a tree


i woke up to the sounds of chainsaws and heavy machinery tearing out a tree on the corner of albemarle and laurel today. the city is removing it, probably because it has some sickness that i can't see. regardless, it makes me sad.

i grew up in a quirky house on stilts that my dad built in the country. we were surrounded by acres of woods that my sister and i explored, played in, and ruled. i did not know that much of that land was actually owned by a paper company, until one day we came home to find it was being clear cut. i will never forget that trauma of seeing my forests, my trees being torn from the earth and discarded like weeds. i was shocked and astounded. it took a lot of explaining from my parents to help us understand why this had happened. the clear cutting took all summer and my sister and i would ride our bikes to the end of our dirt road to heckle the men doing the job. we'd yell, "trees have feelings too!" but much to our chargrin, they could rarely hear us over the roar of their machinery, and when they could, they'd laugh at the little hippie girls trying to save the trees. eventually they were done. the loaded up all the logs and drove away and left a desolate and empty mess behind that felt like a battlefield to me.
anyhow, that experience stayed with me, and it always breaks my heart just a little bit when a tree must be cut down.

so in honor of the tree on the corner, i'm posting this polaroid i took of it several summers ago. it was a lovely tree.


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

brainy


loving this photo of brainy marilyn.

Monday, November 8, 2010

humbled


we watched the sun set and then a little sliver crescent moon rise over the blue ridge last night.
it was one of the most gorgeous skies i've ever seen.

Friday, November 5, 2010

time to go adventuring


i had a super lovely day taking time off from school work to cleaning house and do yard work today. the weather cleared up and the sun peeked out just as i was raking up leaves and watering the plants. we ate at edos squid for dinner (ah-may-zing, as always) and then then wondered through the bustling shows at first fridays gallery openings this evening, while sipping hot chocolate. fall is pretty great, in my opinion.

tomorrow we're off to the capitol city for a little adventure, to see the fine folks in the video above, to take in some art, and eat lots of yummy foods, of course. woohoo, i love weekend adventures! hope you're having some too, friends.

xo
L

Thursday, November 4, 2010

a beautiful mural on a rainy day


its a grey, rainy day here in richmond, and i am supposed to be reading about the pros and cons of integrated art education.
you see, everyday i read, or write, or talk about how to teach people about art. and i love it. (also, i cant wait until i'm doing more teaching and less reading/ writing/ talking about it, but thats another story.)
i'm rambling, but what i mean to say is that i've been distracted today by this lovely video of two talented artists, supakitch and koralie, creating this stunning mural at the museum of world culture in gothenburg, sweden.
its quite beautiful. i love their colors, their lines, their individual styles. and it makes me wonder about those artist's inspirations and their learning experiences as students. and also how things like this video could be used as educational tools.

and it lead me to wonder about the museum of world culture. which lead to me to be even more distracted, and to spending too much time exploring their website and to two conclusions: 1) it looks awesome, and 2) yet another reason i've got to go to sweden.

happy thursday, friends.
xo
L

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

just some thoughts


my oh my, how absent i've been. my apologies, little blog. i ran away for a while, but i've returned. really, i just took a little leave of absence. i wasn't actually off on a run-away adventure, as you probably know, but was just living in a cloud called grad school. and sure, i could blog through all of that, but in short, i wasn't feeling very inspired recently.

and inspiration, for me, is what this little place is for. this blog has been in the back of my mind during the last few weeks that i've been quiet though. i've been thinking of its purpose, what i want it to be. you see, when i first started it, this was just my place to write about things i found inspiring. i was scared of it being personal, scared that a personal blog about my life meant i was self-absorbed or self-obsessed. but slowly i found a lot of happiness in recording memories here, and the positive sides of sharing personal thoughts. and i realized that it could be both, about inspiration and my life, and that was more about connecting with this big beautiful world, than about focusing on myself.

also, i've been thinking a lot recently about how little i know about my mother. I was so young when we lost her, and i have so few memories of her tucked away in my collection that it sometimes makes my boots so heavy. i wish so much that i had a journal hers where i could read about her memories, her jokes, her thoughts, her struggles, her inspirations, because then i think i would feel so much more of a connection to her. that way i could know her. anyhow, i have no idea what my future holds, whether i'll have kids, or grow to be an old lady, but i want to save some piece of my life like that, so even if i'm the only person to ever read it, i can look back and know myself better.

so theres that. thanks for reading, if you do.
all my love,
L