Phenomenal Women

Dr. Maya Angelou's 80th birthday is today. When I was 16, I lucked into two tickets to attend a reading with Maya Angelou. I wrote to her and invited her to come to our home for dinner after the reading. Can you imagine? I just put it out there. I was thinking, I love her. Of course she would like to be invited to dinner. Why not.

16 is great in that way.

She didn't respond to my letter, but I didn't care. I just liked sending her good words. She continues to send so many to me through her work.

I took my favorite English teacher with me to the lecture. She has since retired, but I still send her holiday cards and still love her to bits. English is not her first language and perhaps that is why she loves it and how she is able to inspire others to see it for new beauties that go unnoticed by the accustomed ear.

I used to dream of attending Wake Forest and being one of Dr. Angelou's students. But as I sat in the audience and listened to her speak, it was not all that different from reading her work or listen to her spoken word. In that moment, I felt this great comfort about books and the written word: that you can be a student of anyone who puts it down on the page from anywhere in the world.

Thank you to Mrs. B, and thank you Dr. Angelou for being such great women, teachers, friends.

So much fun photographing

...the sweetest family.

Home Fires

Just as I was closing the laptop lid around 3 am after blogging about taking time to watch my daughter grow, I heard her cry out. When I lifted her out of her bed, I could tell right away that she had a fever. Poor baby. It's been a quiet day and strange to see her so subdued. Thank God for motrin and DJ Lance.

When I was in kindergarten, Mom would buy cheeseburgers on the way home from school at this restaurant in the shape of a giant barn and we would eat on the fireplace while she watched - while we - John Dixon and James Stenbeck fight over women on As The World Turns. I wonder what my daughter will remember about our time at home together.

I just put her down for a nap and turned on the tv while I ate lunch and I'll be damned, Angie and Jesse are back on All My Kids? It's like I never left. They look fabulous and though I am sure a lot has happened since 1982, it's nice to know there are a few constants in the world.

The Skype's the Limit

My computer is maxed out -- at capacity with photos and music and Tolle/Chopra/Dyer downloads to listen to when I am traveling for work. I've been trying to make room by deleting duplicates and moving things over to an external hard drive. I've taken 18,000 photographs in the past year, many of them delete-worthy. I hope I was focusing on the right things.

This computer spring cleaning has given me a few gifts. First, I've made enough room for Skype which allows you to chat for free via webcam with family and friends.**

The second gift has been taking stock by looking at the past few years of photos just before my daughter celebrates her 3rd year and I try to figure out my 31st. Cleaning out folders, I found goofy stuff,



and sweet images I hadn't seen in a while.



If any of you have blogs that you would like to convert into a coffee table book, I can recommend Blurb.com. I must warn you, however, that the site has a feature that quickly copies all of the images in your entire blog history. The warning has nothing to do with the technology....it's for your heart.

When Blurb takes in the photos and SLURP! appears at the top of the screen, a thumbnail-sized window appears where each image flashes as it is copying.

Boom, boom, boom. The images fire one after another in the order that you posted them over the course of some years at the fastest speed.

For me, it was like watching a flip book of my daughter's life, my life with my husband, our lives as a family. My stomach grew in seconds on the screen and then hospital, home, and bam, bam, bam, before you know it, the website is caught up with today, and there she stands with her bob haircut and doing somersaults on the couch over objections in her Easter dress.



I am, I know, odd. I don't long for my daughter to be tiny. I don't miss the itty bitty stage of her life. I look at those sweet tiny feet pictures and I loved that time for what it was and who she was at the time, but I'm relieved that she can talk to me about her needs now. What gets to me is nostalgia about the inevitability of missing IT somehow, despite all of the photos. It being whatever IT is for her too.

All of this reminds me of that movie The Story of Us. Actually, it's more like the trailer for The Story of Us and what the film could have been.

In truth, the film itself falls flat and ends with Michelle Pfeifer screaming something about Chow Funs. But I thought the preview was so poignant about the passage of time and family and the beauty of unconditional love, it made me burst into tears when I saw it, way before I was ever married or a parent.



I'm working on being present. But it's all so fleeting. It's just -all of it- life, traffic, email - something I wish that I could slow down. How can I witness her life, and my husband's life, when it's all moving so fast.



***Note to all family & friends: download Skype and, in the words of Linda Richmond, "Call. We'll talk. No big whoop."

Unlikely Inspiration

I found these post-it style vocabulary cards on the bargain table of a local bookstore in both French and Italian.


The graphics, fonts and color combinations are really great.


I've had these awkwardly shaped frames from Target without anything to go in them..until now.


It's a fresh summer day just passing them in the hall.

Tiny Living

This site looks like an endless source of creative ideas for living in small spaces.

Story Time

My little girl loves Lola at the Library by Anna Mcquinn and Rosalind Beardshaw.



Because of Lola, my not yet 3 year old campaigned for and received her first purple library card tonight.
It's a proud day.



For the first swipe of the library card, she checked out Minfong Ho's Peek, Jez Alborough's Yes,
Laura Numeroff's If You Give A Pig A Party and Taro Gomi's My Friends. They are all very sweet.

Heaven=art+books+music+the beach

Painter Faye Christian Phillips told me about Karin Jurick's work featured in this slideshow below.

The music, I believe, is by Stan Getz who is played so often in our house, I feel like he lives with us. The work is great, but the presentation is even better. It feels like a rainy Sunday afternoon.
ps- my favorites are The Sari and Refresher Course...and Boston Books too!
**per request, the song featured is "Tonight I Shall Sleep with a Smile on My Face" which can be found on this record, Getz/Gilberto #2 Recorded Live at Carnegie Hall.

Photo Logo

Thanks to the creative genius at Pixel By Pixel, my little photography business has a new logo.

I'm so excited. The graphic artist came up with several delightful designs. I wanted something very simple and clean though because I'm still defining the scope of the business. I wanted something reflective of newspaper print because I prefer photojournalism. They did a beautiful job. If you are starting your own business, I would highly recommend one of their small business packages.

Shiny Sparkly Treasures

I bought this Cold Toes, Warm Heart print from Emily Martin's Store, The Black Apple, on Etsy a while back and have since followed the creative blog kept by the artist.

(The quilt reminds me of one my husband's great-grandmother made. The girl reminds me of my sisters and my favorite Little House books from my childhood. Remember that story in Little House in the Big Woods -I think- about the outdoor bath tub under the stars over warm coals with a quilt hanging just over the top of the bath to keep that warm water in? Just me? Okay, nevermind...)

Things are really starting to take off for this artist with an upcoming March 11, 2008 appearance on Martha. Her post today about a collection of buttons is absolutely lovely and reminds me of an interview I once read with Minnie Driver where she said that she is like a magpie filling her home with shiny things. I love that treasures can come in many forms.

This morning, my daughter sat on my dresser going through my big chunky beaded necklaces (most of them Target and flea market purchases over the years). She is at an age where rocks and marbles, and large beads are precious gems. It's all about texture and color for her. She pitched an expensive item on the floor to get to cheap stuff that feels better in your hands. I want to get back to that. I think I need to take her jewelry shopping. Or maybe go for some buttons.

Taking The Time

I discovered that someone I have long admired for her many talents writes in a thoughtful blog. In looking through her past posts, I wanted to share this inspiring eulogy. I can only hope to live my life with such grace.

And, when you finish the box of Kleenex, her post here is so clever and funny.

If you missed it,

The Henri Cartier-Bresson documentary The Impassioned Eye will run again on Sundance at the following times:

Wednesday March 5 at Midnight

Monday March 10 at 6PM

Friday March 28 at 12:15PM

The photos are striking, but watching his thoughts slowly float down about photography is the real value of watching. Plus, he speaks so slowly, you'll feel like a French speaking genius. He's elderly, and his steps are deliberate now, but he is not fragile in spirit. He is almost boyish at times, still excited about art, the city, humanity and music.

He leafs through the pages of a book that kept him company in a prison camp and shows a water color, reading from the back, "a watercolor done to keep me calm while waiting for my papers in Lyon."

Watching is like visiting with a family member as they go through a box of family photos. You get the sense that we're all in his family.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the documentary.

"I've always had a passion for painting. When I was a child, I painted Thursdays and Saturdays. The rest of the time I dreamt about it."

"To question by looking and a sense of form. People think, think, think. In all directions, but they think."

"What counts is geometry and structure. Everything where it should be. To me geometry is the foundation. Everybody has feelings."

"My God, how I miss Mexico. The intensity of passion."

"Portraits are the most difficult. Everything is so fleeting."

"Africa made a great impression on me and against colonialism. It's atrocious."

"Basically, you just have to make people forget the camera. It's no different for you."

"So many memories on these pieces of paper. An accumulation of things. "

"A photo is like the stab of a knife. Painting is meditation."

Queen For A Day

I discovered the greatest loves of my life in England. It's where I met my husband, and cadbury chocolate. It's where I found healing in afternoon tea, and trips to the Tate. A quick stop into Marks & Spencer for new black pants and to Boots for sparkly Rimmel eyeshadow and it's time to head out. Ooooh, and to pop into Waterstones to pick up a new Tatler, stationary and Helen Fielding's latest or anything new from Faber & Faber before getting on the train with a scone. I adore England. Rain and all.

The below video reminds me why I love both photography and England, both women in the arts and women in politics.

Last week, I was honored to photograph a longtime mentor of mine. The photos are being used for a stately portrait. I'm comforted to see a pro like Annie struggle with the same questions I had about how to portray a woman of great power and beauty in a world that is intimidated by both.

Fashion Mittens

Something amazing from The Sartorialist.