My girlfriend Catherine came over this weekend. I love this girl so much. She always brings gifts. Which is not why I love her but it certainly is delightful nonetheless. This time it is was a Trader Joe’s swiss chocolate bar and oatmeal/aniseed hand made soap. (my bathroom smells so wonderful!) We went for a walk on Crescent beach and chatted nonstop until we realized it was 1:30 in the morning and the wine was all gone. (and the chocolate too come to think about it)

My entire weekend was filled with exquisite moments and lots of laughter, little bees and sonnets.

Yesterday morning for example I got up very very (very!) early, slipped on sandals, a skirt, a pale pink sleeveless top and wandered down to the local coffee shop. It was a pretty ‘wander’…the lane was scattered with poppy petals and the fading scent of lilacs and even strawberries for some odd reason. One cottage had green shutters.

I ordered a double caffè macchiato and chocolate croissant and sat on the wooden steps out front in the sunshine scoping all the seapeople arriving with picnic baskets and yellow pails and paisley blankets. Little bees bumped against my bare knees and everyone said ‘good morning’ (still sleepy) as the deck filled up with newspapers and small dogs and beautiful exclamations for the perfect summer day (and all the while the sky kept opening up above, golden)

Oh, I must have been there for almost two hours! My skin has a soft caramel glow and the first constellation of freckles are appearing.

I love coffee shops.

They sing to my bones.

Later I sat out on the little balcony off of my studio penning hand written letters to friends….moving my chili pepper lights around and listening to this album and thinking. A lot of distance was covered in my heart and I practiced the guitar…tidal ebbs undulating through my voice as I sang like a passion flower unfurling.

I cannot remember ever being happier.

What are you up to this week dear hearts?

xoxo

Maddie

polaroid taken with my sx70 of the smaller desk in my studio ~ I am particularly fond of the vintage paper japanese lantern (oh and the print of the polaroid with hand and apple is now available in my etsy shop just in case you find yourself tempted!)


why yes I do love so love you, my beautiful studio
wearing a beret I found at the thrift shop
oh, and lime green tights
a french press of good strong coffee
oatmeal (almonds, maple syrup, cranberries)
pen and ink and polaroids
playing records on my portable record player
I like to do my work singing (just like Henry Miller)
incense breezing by the window near the glass chimes
especially moved to descend into the limitless landscape of my imagination
I can tell because my eyelids are prickling!

Yesterday I filled jam glass jars with small gatherings of moss scooped up on our walk last week and they make me so happy. It feels so good for my soul to delve into the quietude of the presence of my creative living with nature all around. Green is …well, glorious and oh so true.

I think I would love to find my very own Lumwinkle to place tenderly on a little expanse of moss ~ if you know where i might find one please do let me know.

every now and then…i play a little tune on my harmonica ~ this beauty was a gift from my son Noah. I quite love it.

aaaaand my friend Juli sent me the prettiest trio of zinnia pins in the mail this week ~ I am completely besotted with her jewel toned felted bags as well~ which colors do you love best?

Sending you sunlight and a soft wool beret for an extra dash of panache

~ Maddie ~

‘When I go from here
let this be my parting word:
That what I have seen
is unsurpassable’.

~ Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore ~

This afternoon I set up a corner of my studio to work, read, and write, basking in nude waterfalls of sunlight, a fresh cup of mexican coffee by my side and platter of rye toast smothered generously with blackberry blossom raw honey. There is the most incredulously infectious cacophony of singing birds outside my window in the cherry tree which makes me smile and lends a wonderfully staccato rhythm to my penned words. I have a small porch off my studio and the door is open to the welcoming autumn air beckoning my wanderlust soul who knows where….’be still, be still’ I say aloud to no~one in particular.

I am humbled, surprised and so incredulous with the tumbling of emails that I have received in the past two days in response to this post on my need to earn back the title of ‘artist’ in my creative life. The sweetest and most warmly responsive assurances of kind compliments towards my photography and writing. Which I am so deeply and profoundly moved by and yet, at the same time I realized that perhaps I could elaborate if just a little on my thoughts in this area. So I picked up my sketchbook and penned my thoughts and wish to share them here with you….

~ Sketchbook Journaling entry ~ Saturday, October 16, 2010 ~

You see, I want my art to be an offering in this world, an offering of my silvery subconscious ~ a pure impulse to all that I am passionate, engaged and moved by in my life. It is so easy for me to shoot a lovely image, write some beautiful words, pen a delightful poem and swim in the rivers of all the beauty that veneers our world.

And yet. Somewhere along the way I remembered something. I remembered that a few of my most potent pieces came from a wellspring of deep and delicate emotions, something candid and uncommonly unique and my very own. Something before words, even, as if my very breath and thrum of my heart somehow imprinted in the unspoken roots of my creation, ‘divine~like.’

Pure, raw, intimate, untethered.

Here is where I need to return to in order to honor this word ‘artist’ which for me is akin to ‘truth.’ A return to being more inventive, ‘beat’, fertile, prolific, poetical and uncommon. Uncommon. That is what I ache for, that is what my soul desires to express as only I can express, as there is only one of me, feeling and seeing and experiencing this world in the way that only I can. A ‘GASP’ if you will ~ evidence of my life, glittering pools shimmering with granules of salt left behind by tides of seawater. I KNOW when I have written/created something ‘uncommon’ and true ~ because i can hear my heart thundering in applause, audible and fiercely proud, demanding that I roll on the floor in joy with the sheer ecstatic birthing of it all.

This path is gorgeously traversed by a tribe of songful beauties and it is so very easy to fall into step with these rhythms and easeful footsteps around me in the contented ‘matinee’ of day ~ but it is to the night I wish to fly exposing my underwing, peering into the dark and returning home with my ‘kill’ to share as I testify that I have lived, so you will know, yes, that what i have is seen …is unsurpassable.

Thank you, thank you so much for comments, and emails and generous ear with my laments ~ for showing up and taking time to share with me your thoughts ~ I could talk all day about art and creativity with you and love to hear all you feel in this area.

Art is infectious….it should be shining...and this week I raise a glass of champagne (well, not really but i wish I had some!) to clearing new fields of self expression.

xoxo

maddie

yesterday after dropping the boys off for snowboarding in the mountains I stumbled upon a wonderful park of coastal reverie ~ it had the sweetest little cafe that was alas closed for the season but I snapped a few shots as I snooped about peering in the windows

All those delicate feelings that were a small swirl of seasonal blues, creative lulls and missingtudes have evaporated into thin air ~ or his vast presence now rather as we relish the slowness of our days in the bright and beautiful edge of a magical new year about to burst upon us. Really, I am so filled with such a ridiculous and cheerful joy I wish you could pop over for breakfast and share a cup of coffee with me by the roaring woodsy fire crackling away in my seaside home. Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL!!!

Following whims and ignoring clocks we stumbled upon a stunning and wild expanse of beach and rock, climbing to the topmost lookouts. On a clear day you see forever:)

I have so much to say, so much to share with you ~ but I don’t want to miss anything, so I will take my time and can only promise to write after a little more of this present ‘living’. Dwelling in the present of everything that is before me now in all it’s beauty, aliveness and wonder. Responding with complete wakefulness with all of the joy of my senses. Wintertime of year is truly magical on the West coast and my heart is fairly filled to bursting as I explore a contented heart, a house bustling with merry teenagers and the comfort of peace and serenity and an abundance of delight.

I love this photo of me ~ looking forward with such joy to 2011 ~ spellbound with the melodic and romantic beauty right before my very eyes.

Oh! I am reading such a philosophical and poetic manifesto to a life beautifully embraced ~ I IMPLORE you to run out and scoop up Daniel Lanois lilting and soaring new biography “Soul Mining” which is so graceful in it’s beauty ~ this man has such a soul pulsing with the poetry of the everyday I am completely mesmerized, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and yet it is a quiet, subtle, and elusive ‘wearing’ he shares with you ~ glimmering like a mirage which suddenly evaporates when you try to reach out and touch it.

Here is a little taste to tantalize you….

‘Keeping track of arrangements and ideas on paper has always been part of my work process. Remembering is just another word for choosing. The world turns the same way for everybody but different people choose to see different things. I decided to remember the little pieces that matter to me. This is the same way that I see God, as little pieces flying by. Some people see them , some people don’t. A godly moment may be sparkling in only a tiny way ~ too small to make a difference in its singular form ~ but stacked up with others the sparkle begins to build shapes. The shapes are the instigators of sound, soul, and dreams. Dreams allow you to then see more possibilities, and in my case, my dreams become realities. Not quickly, maybe only one piece at a time over, say, three years, before it all falls together.’

I suppose all this is to say…I am happy, oh so peaceful and wishing you an abundance of love and joy for your new year ~ as well, a deep and grateful thank you for all the people that signed up for my next class of ‘the art of living cheerfully’ beginning next week. I am so moved as truly I thought January would be a slow time ~ clearly many of us are calling in an abundance of joy for 2011.

wishing you so much sacred love, peace and everlasting joy this year.
oh and one more thing!!! did i tell you? I am going to make my own beer this year
with my son Noah ~ yes I am:)

maddie

It is a blue sky winters day bathed in limoncello yellow sunlight and I have been a prism of many moods this week. Musical, quirky, delicate, clear and emotive then suddenly distracted…and then again I find myself smiling a lot to myself (counting the days until I meet him at the airport, flinging myself up into his strong enveloping arms and probably bursting into tears of sheer joy in front of everyone and why not?))

This week my best friend Cath came over for an afternoon ~ we lit a fire, filled an antique silver teapot with jasmine pearls tea, a platter with fresh baked gingerbread cake and chatted fervently the hours away, about, oh…just everything. (truth, simplicity, divine creativity and the beauty of all things in our world… but mostly of love.) I poured my heart out to her releasing the weight of carrying so many things all by myself lately …a little bit feeling sorry with a side of spiritual surrender. As the hours murmured alongside …I felt a balance and hopefulness return to my spirit in the way that only a best friend can coax back into a kindred heart and I felt a familiar fervor flow back into my soul as sure as the sparkling ebb of morning. I know, I know!!!! Best friends are a love supreme indeed.

My home is so pretty these days ~ a little bit messy yes, but mostly creative and bright and filled with beautiful moments (for instance, the joy of a kitchen of teenaged girls making gingerbread houses and eating more candy than actually ended up on the houses ~ festivity abounds this season.

My record collection is in complete disarray as I have been playing all sorts of music and working happily on a playlist for a mix cd I am gifting to friends over the holidays.

It is almost done and the playlist looks a bit like this and may have a few songs added so if you think of anything wonderful please feel free to chime in (think ‘upbeat love songs’ as the vibe I am going for)

the indian chest of drawers (daniel lanois)
my baby just cares for me (nina simone ~ gosh!!! I just LOVE her so!)
crazy love (bob dylan and van morrison)
life begins when you’re in love (billie holiday)
walk the line (oh yes, yes, yes Johnny Cash)
what can I do (donnie ebert)
if not for you (bob dylan and george harrison who by the way is my favorite Beatle)
when did you leave heaven (little jimmy scott)
such great heights (Iron and wine)
I wouldn’t change a thing (coke escovedo)
time’s a wastin’ (Reese witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix from the ‘Walk the Line’ soundtrack)
harvest moon (neil young)
I believe in you (black dub ~ my new favorite band)
ribbons in the sky (because you just have to have a stevie wonder song)
at last (etta james)
what a little moonlight can do (billie holiday)

I’d love to hear what you think, and if I have missed some blazing comet of a love song please let me know in the comments.

aaaaaaaand finally…it certainly is a fortune of many surprises to have good taste in color. A few weeks ago Daniel complimented the jade green polish I was wearing on my fingernails and suddenly said ‘you know, you would look lovely in a teal nail polish.’ Well! And so! I went on a quest to find the perfectly perfect shade of teal nailpolish and am delighted to report I LOVE it! Happiness, happiness!!!!! (can be so small and unexpected and that’s what I truly, deeply delight in)

One very last stunning, funny, inspiring, delightful and imaginative Ted talk to share with you that Cath sent to me ~ please, oh please promise me you will watch it to the very end ~ it really is that fabulous. (I loved LOVED the clown skull and the rocking podium)

wishing you

oh…

l
o
v
e

this Christmas and unexpected joy around the corner …and and and…abundance (whatever that might mean to you)

xoxo

~ maddie ~

oh oh oh! one more thing! FESTIVITY people is abundant over at words to shoot by this week:)

~***photo’s of me by my very supremely talented daughter Tess Herzog ~