my gorgeous windchimes are from my friend Ilaria’s etsy shop... (you can hear how beautiful they sound in a little film i made here.…)

“Pablo’s worktable in Isla Negra. When visitors come to the house for the first time, I show them this table and say to them, “Pablo wrote his poems here ~ he was exceptionally fond of this table.” They look at it, sometimes with surprise, sometimes with indifference. It’s no more than a poor table. In the main, the people who visit the house don’t see the things that Pablo loved most because these are the simplest, those of least material value. He loved and always looked for stones made smooth by the action of time. Roots fascinated him ~ he had many pieces of wood that he found in the forest. He told me they were small pieces of sculpture. This house was for him a dream universe. Only he understood the true value of his objects. I, as his shadow, understood also.”

~ Matilde ~

Do you remember this excerpt from ‘Absense and Presence?’ ~ I had written about it here and it has stayed with me since so I have returned to it for this post.

I thought I would take a few (just a few mind you) photo’s of small corner’s of my home and studio and share with you the things I love most. Like Pablo, it’s the little things that bring me joy much like a springdrunk bird swooping around, high on a glimpse of hawthorne yellow. My home is filled with seashells and branches, plants and seedpods, sugar pinecones, seaglass and bleached driftwood and is a ‘curious cabinet’ of thrift shop treasures.
(a parade of waves in the background of the sea)

Most of my friend’s are artists and my house is blessed with their work ~ this is a painting by my beautiful friend Misty Mawn and sits atop an old farm sideboard I bought at an auction. I love this painting dearly.

Sometimes when I meditate, I slip into this astonishing space where I have the feeling that my meditation is listening to me and the very first time I saw this painting I had that exact same sensitivity. Somehow my eye is constantly drawn to it when I am sitting in the livingroom ~ it seems to beckon me closer to myself.

Here is the old farmer’s sideboard that Misty’s painting sits over ~ it’s an old chippy painted piece and sits just inside my front door. Very quickly it became a place where I would place various treasures ‘found’ on my beach walks and in many ways is an altar of sorts for me. Of course there are books as well ~ they are everywhere in my home ~ mostly in stacks on the floor, on the piano, and in little towering piles on various footstools.

I am pleased to say I am a finder of great things especially at thrift shops and yard sales. I found this wonderful moka pot and granny crochet pillow at a thrift shop recently when I was out with Darlene, Duke and Suvarna. Score!!!!

This tablecloth was my grandmother’s and it brings me such joy I cannot tell you ~ for some reason it evokes a wondrous sensory memory of her…brown sugar and butter sandwiches, homemade lemonade with sprigs of fresh mint and an array of colors, blood orange and turquoise, lemon yellow and poppy. She made all my clothes and all my dolls clothes as well. It didn’t matter what I wanted, all I had to do was show her a picture in a magazine and she would make my new dress ‘just so’ and even better with her own magic details in buttons and trim.

Well, it goes (almost) without saying that I wouldn’t be able to get UP in the morning without my portable record player. It is just so incredibly fabulous ~ it can accompany me on picnic’s and roadtrips and lately sits atop a vintage stool in my kitchen that my dear friend Cath gifted me on my birthday. I like to play a record every morning while making coffee. The twinkle lights are a ‘Maddie’ trademark and I have them all over my house all year round.

Well, perhaps a strange thing to take a photo of, but I am quite fond of my banister. Somehow it has become the place where i hang my scarves and satchels and camera bags as I head in and out on outings. Every now and then it gets filled with so many things and i have to take it all down ~ only to begin again the very next day.

On that sideboard above is an old tarnished silver bowl and it is filled with seaglass and shells, polaroids I have taken and even a beautiful poem by Walt Whitman called ‘Miracles’ that a lovely student in one of my e courses sent me. When friends come over they often pick something out to look at from this bowl and I love to send it home with them. You can’t really see it in this photo, but in the shell with the feather is a tiny Bodhisattva that was gifted to me from this shop ~ I find this artists work so soulful and uplifting.

My desk! Well, it is actually an old door that i use as a desk because it really is the perfect size to work on. Lately it is just scattered with polaroids and seven word poems I have been writing.

jasmine ~ on my front porch

This week I have several ‘conversations’ to bring your way and I can’t wait to press ‘publish’ on them ~ pop by in the next few days and I should have them available for your pleasure ~ here you can read the first from the beautifully taleneted and vital artist Debi Smith Kaich Jones.

Oh! and I made it finally! Happy Sunday:)

Who is Debi?

I am the designated driver. Always. I am a believer in the Universe sending signs, and when I accidentally typed river instead of driver, I believe that is the Universe talking to me, telling me to rethink that thought, that perhaps I am a river and I flow endlessly & easily toward the ocean. I am a painter becoming a writer, an artist learning to use her camera like a paintbrush. Moving forward. A water sign, a lover of animals, a Texan.

As an Artist, what are your favorite ways to express yourself?

Writing, painting, photography, building assemblages. I am also a secret room re-decorator – I redo in my mind every room I visit.

What is your creative process?

I pay attention and I remember. I own notebooks that are scattered everywhere, words & phrases jotted down, but my ideas are mostly in my head. I see a shade of blue in a movie and remember, and I notice how it made me feel. That feeling is the important thing to me, what I want to impart, a rhythm I feel inside, always my own rhythm. I never listen to music when I work. I work to silence or to movies on tv, easy to ignore; I can’t ignore music. It is oddly easier in the morning; though I am not a morning person, there are days I wake full of ideas or solved problems and must immediately set to work, breakfast can always be later, a shower can always be later.

When writing I let the words come, it is very much improvisational jazz, my writing, not thought out at all; I just begin with an idea and, if blogging, I begin with a photograph, and just start and my fingers know where to go. It is easier than I should admit, but it just comes from somewhere and flows through me. (That me-as-river idea begins to make sense.)

If I am painting, it is much the same, but it is exhausting. It is never ever relaxing and I must remind myself to breathe and I am annoyed at interruptions when in the grasp of my muse. I paint over images again and again, I write words and paint over them, sometimes leave bits and pieces visible. I don’t like to see the texture of canvas under paint, so I glue many, many, many layers of papers to the canvas before I can begin, a long, long process for which I have just hired an assistant (the real Emma), and also part of the reason I am gravitating to photography, in which I work in much the same way, treating the image as a piece of canvas. I don’t use preset actions – I let the image guide me. I want the viewer to feel what I felt when the picture was taken.

What are you moved to express in your art?

My need for silence and space and stillness, but as I always say, it is the stillness and silence surrounding movement. The energy left behind, such as that in Suttee Gate 1.

How do you handle an interruption in the flow of imagination or writer’s block?

To be honest, this is not a problem I encounter much when writing. I ignore it and just keep typing. The words will know when they are finished. I may not show those words to anyone, but the keeping on pushes me through the blocks. When painting, I walk away. You can’t force the paint to do what it refuses, and I don’t want my sense of frustration in the finished piece. I try to approach a painting with Namaste hands. And heart.

What brings you joy, contentment, happiness?

Being in a boat on a lake at midnight is way up there for me. Nothing to do but lay back and look at the stars, count satellites as they travel across the sky, perhaps getting out of the boat, floating on my back, thinking nothing. My cat, my niece, sitting under my neighbor’s blue Christmas lights that she leaves up all year long, wound around her spiral staircase. Meeting my boyfriend’s eyes and knowing what he’s thinking. Small things.

How has saying ‘yes’ changed the trajectory of your life?

I am a latecomer to saying yes and am amazed at the power it holds. I now call myself an artist without cringing. I now call myself a writer without feeling a fraud. By opening myself up to the power of ‘Yes’, I have made new friends, have had long overdue art shows, have seen my words published, with more to come.

What holds you back?

A severe anxiety disorder which keeps me from traveling, from meeting new people. Overwhelming shyness. I daily battle it and there are victories here and there. I intend one day to win the war.

Who are your creative role models? What books, art or music inspire and ignite you?

This sounds horrible, but as much as I love other people’s work, I don’t consider them role models. In fact, I will purposely avoid museums and magazines and blogs when painting, not wanting to color my painting with someone else’s ideas – much the same as not listening to music when working. I need to just be with me. That said, there are writers who just kill me with their words – Antoine de St. Exupery, Frances Mayes, Beryl Markham, Isak Dinesen, T.R. Pearson, Joanne Harris. Plot is almost secondary to me – I want words that read like paintings, that, when spoken aloud, are a prayer. Songwriters Guy Clark, Kevin Welch, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle. Singers Willy deVille, Van Morrison. Cellist Jami Sieber. Movies? Water, The Little Princess. Anything that is just as good with the sound off.

To what in life do you give yourself unconditionally?

Those I love. I am fiercely loyal.

Where has love taken you?

There and back again. And back to There.

If there were absolutely no obstacles whatsoever, what would you do tomorrow?

First I would sleep. Then sleep some more. After that? I’m unsure. What a boring answer. But it calls to mind the days after 9/11, perhaps the next year. I remember seeing articles and television pieces asking people how their lives had changed since then, and I realized mine hadn’t. I still believed the same way. It was a very eye-opening moment, knowing I was truly myself, that I truly believed in the things I said I did. But. If tomorrow my anxiety disorder disappeared, I would begin to travel; it is the only experience/thing I miss. I would start with East Africa .

What is on your wish list?

Big stuff. A small house on a lake, a white Mac, money.

What is on your inspiration board?

I have tons. My whole house is an inspiration board, so you can imagine the mess.

Where is your creative space/corner of the world?

It is really everywhere and in my head and at my fingertips, but once I begin it is on either side of these curtains. They divide my living area from my “studio” area and are pulled back when I am painting to let light in from all sides of the outdoors. When I am writing, I am squooshed up on the couch, laptop on my lap,and the curtains are down, behind me. It is very small & very small & very small.

Take a photo of a place you go to reground and root yourself when life gets a bit overwhelming, and if you like, tell us why it is so meaningful to you.

I live in Texas . I get in my Jeep and drive.

Famous last words?

“It just bees that way sometimes.”

bio ~

‘I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by objects, space, color, words, and their relationships with each other.  The shape of a word can enchant me more than its meaning, my favorite books paint pictures with words and where a chair is placed in a room tells me all I need to know about the occupant.  I am a painter, mostly a writer, learning once again to see the world through the lens of a camera.    My life has been Texas/Arizona/Texas, my growing up years spent in Arizona, where I eventually became part owner of an interior design workshop, putting off college until Texas and family called me home.  I found a job in a camera store that catered to professional photographers and at school majored in photography and art, but life, as it is wont to do, got in the way of what I had to say.  I became a photo retoucher, took a part time job in an art museum, and I stayed quiet, but continued to paint, showing my work here, there, wherever possible, and I’ve spent the last 20 years helping my ever-wonderful “significant other” operate a photography business and professional photo lab.  He will tell you that I have not stayed quiet.    I use whatever camera the photographers at work no longer want, all Canon equipment, but have my own lenses, and I am currently in love with the quirkiness and freedom of cell phone camera images.  I am also in love with words again, with writing, storytelling, and often use my images as illustrations for the tale I have to tell.    You can find me at www.emmatree.blogspot.com, where, as I say, come sit under the Emma Tree and let’s talk.’

I snapped this polaroid walking along Whyte Avenue after stopping for yam fries and fresh homemade lemondade ~ so sweet!

Oh Edmonton how I love you! I have just returned from such a perfect week visiting my friend Darlene and all I can say is it was utter ‘bliss.’ Now, what you may not know about me is I am not fond of the word ‘bliss’ (to put it mildly) Something about that word makes me cringe I have no idea why. Yes, I realize bliss suggests all that is profoundly happy, joyful, satisfied and spiritually euphoric but when I hear that word it just makes me grumpy.

And yet. This week was utter bliss and I said so out loud at least once if not more every single day much to my astonishment and amusement.

There were summer hot art garden fiesta’s in Darlene’s back yard (with delicous Sangria and Duke’s band rehearsing in the background) spring salad’s freckled with raspberries, whistle stops in tiny magical hidden cupboards, book shops and custard tarts ,river walks and ruminations, fabulous jazz shows and Aiden’s delicious wild blueberry sauce, sublime vegetarian restaurants, wandering into neighbor’s gardens and hanging out in bathrooms which always makes me happy, goodness knows why.

Oh! and I cannot say enough about this series we watched one evening which was a whole new level of astonishment all by itself.

Today I am back in my pretty home and pondering new ways to decorate which always happens when I visit homes that are beautiful and inspiring. Does this happen to you? You go away and stay somewhere that is so lovely and can’t wait to get home and bring a little of that inspiration into your own abode?

I promise to share pictures ~ next post!

aaaaaaand

there’s the zen guy!

This weekend was spilling over with bountiful things as I slip into the dance of springtime ….washing windows and hanging windchimes, baking bread and attending evening gatherings, yoga and meditation on the beach at sunrise, wearing my emerald green fisherman pants (feeling quite beautiful), singing in the car with the windows down, reading under plum trees on a sun dappled magenta blanket and chasing a very silly rabbit around the house.

Mother’s day made me cry in the best way possible with the ohsobeautiful hand hammered bracelet my son made me in his shop classs and my daughter inscribed with ‘persisting stars” which they gleefully presented to me when they took me out for curry. I bought (yet another) jade plant (I love them so much) and strung chili pepper light on my studio porch whilst sipping my first mango smoothie of the season.

Today will find me in my studio scanning photo’s, organizing my desk, sending off revised proposals and daydreaming out the window (which I have an abiding affection for doing) I am so thrilled as The Impossible Project are so incredibly and generously donating film for my ‘open to exposure’ project ~ these lucky children in my polarid project get to shoot with the new px 600 film! I am so excited with the Impossible Project’s support ~ it’s like a little magic carpet ride of enthusiasm:) The ‘open to exposure’ project starts in July and I can’t wait to dive in and see what the children come up with.

Oh! Last night I was curled up ever so happily reading my very favorite book “Absence and Presence” when I stumbled on these words by Pablo Neruda’s wife Mathilde, speaking of visitors to their home in Isla Negra…

“His worktable in Isla Negra. When visitors come to the house for the first time, I show them this table and say to them, “Pablo wrote his poems here ~ he was exceptionally fond of this table.” They look at it, sometime’s with surprise, sometimes with indifference. It’s no more than a poor table. In the main, the people who visit the house don’t see the things that Pablo loved most because these are the simplest, those of least material value. He loved and always looked for stones made smooth by the action of time. Roots fascinated him ~ he had many pieces of wood that he found in the forest. He told me they were small pieces of sculpture. This house was for him a dream universe. Only he understood the true value of his objects. I, as his shadow, understood also.”

I cannot tell you how I felt when I read this little passage, it resonated me with so deeply. I also collect wood (mostly driftwood) which I have piled up in my home and consider to be art for my soul. And let me assure you I would never have been indifferent to Pablo’s desk ~ in fact I am certain I would have made love on it right then and there with my beloved as a passionate ode to the spirit of Pablo.

This made me think however about my own home and the things in it which are so beautiful and meaningful to me. I imagine many of the contents would also be completely overlooked by visitors as there is little that is ‘astonishing’ at first glance. So I am thinking today I will shoot various flotsam and jetsam in my home that make me feel so satisfied ~ that are sacred to my soul and share them with you in my next post.

It is Monday ~ I love Monday’s as they generally find me puttering in my studio thinking up all sorts of marvelous ideas. Today will also find me packaging up this polaroid which was won in my draw by ‘Brooke’ ~ please e mail me Brooke with your address and I will send it off to you in the mail.

I seriously loved this draw and have decided with great fanfare to have another on Sunday for the image you see posted above which I shot for ‘Words to shoot by’ ~ this week I was absolutely spellbound by the sensual portraits shot by Jördis, they are incredibly alluring.

Happy Monday!

I have a little porch off of my studio upstairs that is really beautiful
if only because it is built right into the branches of an apple tree.

Until this afternoon I did not have anything on this porch with the
exception of an old indian rug, and since the porch is partially
covered with this beamed roof I love to sit outside in the morning
for quiet meditations/morning coffee/bird symphonies.

This afternoon however I got it into my head to pot some purple basil
in these clay pots I found abandoned on a walk down Sunshine alley
leading (as all alley’s eventually do in crescent beach) to the beach.

Whilst I was potting I brought my portable record player up to the porch
and played Duke Ellington’s jazz party which I cannot say enough about, it
really is that fabulous.

Of course I had to snap a polaroid and was so happy with the apple green
leave’s reflection on the record as it spun around and around and around.

Such a happy afternoon. Music. I love it so ~ what music are you listening to?

*****I took two of these d’appled jazzy polaroids ~ slightly different but beautifully similar. Simply by leaving a comment I wil enter you in a draw on Sunday and the winner shall receive one of the original polaroids as a little gift. Just because I’m in that kind of mood today:)

This fabulous girl with the sexy legs is Delilah. She is the new face on my ‘soon to be released’ e course ‘the art of living cheerfully’ because, well, she is quite cheer inducing. Delilah made her appearance today in the ‘Roid week’ pool and was welcomed with open arms which tickled her pink and made me happy because I had to get up at 5 in the morning to take her portrait.

Oh today I am in love with words such as…

grandiose
bombastic
quirky (because i can be at times)
smudge and fleck , gleaming and swooping

oh and ‘pulchritudinous‘ too but I don’t know what it means. I shall look it up this morning and let you know.

What words are you in love with?

Happy Tuesday:) and more happy tuesday