on turning

My friend Heather, in her Boston apartment earlier this year.

And Joel Meyorwitz, answering the question: What do you look for in a photograph?

"It's a merger of what's inside your head and what's outside your eyes, and finding a way to synthesize that experience—because what's inside your head isn't something that you have predetermined you want to have. It's a notion of what's satisfying, what fills you up. I think about photographs as being full, or empty. You picture something in a frame and it's got lots of accounting going on in it—stones and buildings and trees and air—but that's not what fills up a frame. You fill up a frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there. It's full because you're there, because you carried a lifetime of impulses with you that direct you toward the clear sky behind you. You don't know why, but you turn to it."

[Honeywell Pentax, 35mm]

inspiring things | 11

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Speaking of book design, I am all about these newly designed covers for five works by Flannery O'Connor, completed by Charlotte Strick and June Glasson. The Paris Review shows the sketch-by-sketch development of the designs and earlier editions' covers, as well. I think Mystery and Manners is my favorite redesign (and, perhaps also my favorite O'Connor book).

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inspiring things | 10

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I am in Washington D.C. for the day, and I made my way to the National Museum of Women in the Arts precisely to see a tiny exhibit on the fifth floor: Vanessa Bell's illustrations for Hogarth Press and Virginia Woolf (Bell's sister). There were probably only 6-8 books exhibited, but I love them all. 

Also, this, from Eric Gill: 

"That if you look after goodness and truth beauty will take care of itself, is true in both worlds. The beauty that industrialism properly produces is the beauty of bones; the beauty that radiates from the work of man is the beauty of holiness."

inspiring things | 9

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Uta Barth, I'm in love.

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inspiring things | 8

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Paul Graham, American Night, 1998-2002.
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inspiring things | 7

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Carrie Schneider, Reading Women: Portraits.
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inspiring things | 6

 

Martina Lopez. Hand-waxed pigment prints. 2012. Titles, top to bottom: "Humility," "Awakening," and "Siblings."

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inspiring things | 5

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Aaron Ruell.
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inspiring things | 4

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Hrabanus Maurus, Liber de Laudibus Sanctae Crucis, mid-ninth century.

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inspiring things | 3

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Georgia O'Keefe's home, Abiquiu, New Mexico. And this portrait too.

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inspiring things | 2

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Rembrandt van Rijn, The Three Crosses, 1653.
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inspiring things | 1

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Today's inspiration: Agnes Martin. Oh gracious. I could stare at these all day. They remind me that sometimes you must create what you think is beautiful, even if it seems to have no purpose. A collection of lines and colors can have more purpose than we think. I think the world needs more abstract expressionists.

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silence

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I honestly have not seen anything as beautiful as these photos in a long time. I just keep staring and staring at them. All from the incredible Anna Aden.
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scrabble in a jar

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Sidetracked note: scrabble pieces in a jar are so aesthetically pleasing. How lovely and practical would a jar of these squares be on a book shelf or on the breakfast table?

[the beautiful image & idea come from amanda jane]
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blizzards in february

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There is a blizzard here and we have the day off from school, so I have blessedly slept in this morning, enjoyed a quiet brunch in my room (tea + cantaloupe + my mother's homemade apple bread), and spent a while catching up on the internet world. I am still in my PJs and I feel all cozy and warm as I look out my window at the gusting winds and snow. Days like this make me like winter just a little bit.

And here is a bit of mid-winter clothing inspiration, which I always seem to need come February when I've tried every new combination possible within the limits of my closet collection . . . and when there is still two more months of winter. All from Steven Alan.

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thinking of paris and london

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I am a little bit in love with these illustrated maps of Paris and London from Famille Summerbelle. So beautiful . . . someday I am going to fill my house with all sorts of maps.
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