So I came across this:
And it seduced me into doing this:
What seduces you?
So. What’s Your Art?
{If you’re reading this via email, click the title to watch the video.}
Here’s what I know:
What you do, every day, becomes part of who you are. Scraping pennies or rolling naked in your dough, you’re trading your brain power, your creativity and your most valuable asset – your time – for your daily experience.
Are you filling your heart or are you just filling your days?
When I’m working with clients, I have a front-row seat to some pretty amazing stuff. A half-finished painting. Music sheets scattered at the piano. Poems gathered in dusty notebooks. Hand-made quilts folded up in the closet. Cookbooks hiding in the back of the cupboard. A carpenter’s bench shoved at the back of a dimly-lit garage…
This stuff may not be bringing home the bacon, but these are the things that tell the world WHO YOU ARE. And whether you’re sharing your art with the outside world or not, you sure as hell shouldn’t be hiding it at home.
This is the experience you choose. This is your inside brought outside. This is you.
So. What’s your art?
And how can I help you tell your story?
Just Break
Your insides are twisted
coming outside
fraying at the seams.
And pushing ahead
pulls you under.
Hungry, and needing to be filled,
you give yourself over – listen for the voice that does not come
yet you remain
a stranger – suspended
but sometimes we break.
And you resist
hold
while what you need recedes.
So I say,
just BREAK
Unravel. Get naked in your ache.
Draw the line. And break.
“Here we are buck naked but where should we begin? When it’s not the flesh we’re after but the howling ghost within.”
So when you reach and what you need
is you
I will help you draw the line.
Hold the mirror
and show you
all the things you need but do not see
a home created
to unravel. Get naked in your ache.
So just break.
I See Music – Angel
Fear calls; pushes, pulls, sets me adrift and leaves me…
I cannot anchor. The shore fades. There is nothing now but riding the waves. No way in, no way out. I just need to ride the waves. Sink deep. Let fear overcome.
Be consumed. Tasted. Swallowed.
And in the moments of my darkest fear; when the sun fades and the boat rocks
I know this;
I will return to shore when I give in.
I need to sink. Be overcome. Let go.
Descend to the depths,
find rest with Gilgamesh.
Then, and only then
will I be delivered home.
But I must remember this; the shore is not the same.
I am not the same.
For once I taste the fear and it lingers, dancing on my tongue
and I remember being cast adrift, remember the depths
there will always, always,
be a piece of me to miss.
Photography by Marc Lagrange
Framing by Erica Swanson Design
2010 SocialLuxe Awards
Sounds sexy, doesn’t it?
So does a party held here.
Held immediately proceeding the NYC BlogHer 2010 conference, SocialLuxe is holding a party at Arena to celebrate women bloggers in a variety of categories. I’ve just had the distinct honour of being nominated for a BlogLuxe award in the category of “Most Provacative” along with a number of stellar writers.
So if you’re digging what I’m doing, I would love a vote. It’s super-easy and will only take a second of your time (k… six). And if you’re feeling super ambitious, you can vote once a day, every day, until July 12th. Head to category 5 and you’ll find me in the middle row. *Cough, cough* hint, hint.
Seriously, how cool is that?!
I See Music – The Whys & Wherefores
Because in our own way, we’re all looking for the same thing.
Resonance
Validation
To love and be loved.
TO BE HEARD.
And Music,
well,
Music is the soundtrack to the life we live
One breath at a time.
Music.
My seductress.
My nemesis.
The answer. The question. The breath.
She stays with me, by my side, and within me, pouring forth when there is nothing left to say.
Swimming those waves brings me pleasure, pain, heartache, desire, peace…
And an image. A melody, frozen, offered up to capture an essence. A state of being. A way of life.
In this way, design is, well, design is…
what I do. A vocation. A calling. A means of serving.
Do not let it fool you. For if you’re looking for the latest, the greatest, the next up-and-coming, you will not find it here.
What you will find, if you look, if you’re listening,
is You.
Design is my means of pulling you out; pulling out what lives within you, what is aching to be heard, the creative pulse I hear when you breathe.
For me, there is nothing else.
So… when you’re ready, I’ll be listening.
You’re a sweet melody, to be sure.
I See Music – Flow
When the time is right
you will feel the waves rush over you
flowing
like the river to the sea.
And when that time comes
Come to me
I won’t let you go.
Gravedigger
You have got to be you.
And when you are scared shitless
and the world is caving in
telling you
you are not enough
You have got to be you.
There is no one else.
And this is something
only you
Not your mother
Or your father
Or your best friend
Or anyone else
Can give you.
You have got to be you.
Because if you aren’t
You will return to your God
Or your Goddess
Or the great mother
Or the darkness from which you came
And this is all
This is all
That will be left
So promise me.
You will find
In your own unique way
A way.
Your way.
That you will
Leave your mark.
You must
Leave your mark.
How Do You Want To Feel?
I ache.
I’m getting pushed and pulled and jostled in this space I’ve claimed as my own. This space – where you’re reading – right now. It’s the tension between where I could be going and where I need to go. For me. For my work. For my creative pulse.
I will not ignore my creative pulse.
So. Let’s go there.
“Designer.”
I’m both to-the-belly-deep proud but I also, now and then, feel the face-burning cringe.
And I ain’t ashamed to say so.
I cringe at the frivolity of the industry. I cringe about the “pretty” that hides the bullshit. I cringe at the collective thought-wall of ‘designer-as-pocket-picker’ that reverberates when I drop the word in certain company.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
It’s not about paint, or furniture, or lamps, or decorative brik-a-brak. It ain’t even about shuffling walls and installing a beautiful sink. It’s about the way you want to FEEL.
How do you want to feel?
Here’s me: I want to feel the warmth of my family when they’re around my table. I want to feel the sanctity of peace when I’m alone within my walls. I want to feel the heat of sex when I need to amp the vibe. I want all of it.
All of it.
Most of all? I want to give that gift to you, whatever your story happens to be.
I want to make you see You.
You.
So who are you?
Tell me.
I want to know: how do you want to feel?
I See Music – Sugarfoot
It’s the space between the notes that make all the difference. That’s where you find the rhythm, the groove; that’s where the sound lives.
Design and music? They’re the same, really.
Photograph in frame at top: ‘Manhattan Mall’ by David Beckerman
Photograph in frame at bottom: ‘Radio City Music’ Hall by David Beckerman
How to Hire a Designer: Fangs Optional
That post.
Swirling in my mind like a god damned shark around prey.
The opening line:
“Now that I got the gig with the son’s room, it’s time to execute – and plot my moves to score more rooms in that great big under-decorated house.”
The story goes on. The husband gets pissed at the wife for spending so much money and the wife retaliates by spending more money. All the while the designer plots how to keep the money rollin’.
And we wonder why designers have a shitty reputation for spending wads o’ cash and, uh, not listening.
So, bringing a designer on board? Here’s your checklist:
- Is she diggin’ on what you need or what she thinks is in your wallet?
- Is he paying attention or is he scoping out the room across the hall?
- Is she ensuring you’re both on the same page or is she winking at one of you?
- Is he offering ideas that resonate with your vibe or is he speaking over you?
Finally,
- Check the teeth. Suspiciously pointy? Back away. Back far, far away.
Remember, as in everything, your intuition will never, ever fail you. Fangs or no fangs. Because hey, if that’s your thing…
I See Music – Green Eyed Love
The legend.
‘The Green Muse’ by Albert Maignan 1895 Courtesy Musee de Picardie, Amiens.
The nouveau connoisseur.
The gentlemen’s club.
Motion
What is a photograph?
As part of New Pictures 2, Marco Breuer’s images are being exhibited until August 1st at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
A man of mystery, Breuer prefers to let the images speak for themselves. But there are stories untold. Photographs aren’t really photographs. Perceptions are left unchallenged. Art, is all its grand emotion-evoking bravado, leaves you alone…
“What I don’t want the images to be is just kind of a checklist, where you get a handful of information and then it all resolves neatly, and you can file it away and walk away from it,” he says.
‘Motion’, courtesy Peter Cohen
Striking; pretty, even.
Breuer created the image by assembling a camera out of a 20 x 24 plywood box with a lens attached to the front and photographic paper attached to the back. With LED’s attached to his fingertips, he captured the light patterns created by the movement of his fingers in the dark.
While loading a 12-gauge shotgun.
How does that change your view?
I See Music – Worrisome Heart
When I hear her, in this way, like this:
I see this:
