life | Words + Images

Posts Tagged ‘life’

4 works in progress for the spring

Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, tagged architecture, art, churches, colors, culture, Farm Security Administration, food photography, Frederic Crowninshield, history, Inspiration, Joseph A. Horne, life, light, love of learning, Photography, research, storytelling on February 19, 2015| 1 Comment »

Spring will come! Meanwhile, here are a few projects that I’m working on.

1. New postcards coming to the Trinity Church Bookshop. Most of my previous images have focused on details of the stained glass windows. These new images highlight the wall paintings, murals and the interesting play of winter light across the unique architectural features of the building.

2. Moving forward with the Interludes. Interludes is a collection of historical vignettes composed of words and images relating in someway to the life journey of Joseph A. Horne (1911-1987). My research into his life began, in part, out of curiosity sparked by stories that he’d told his son and his son would later share with me.

Researching his life became a walk through history as I learned about orphan trains, immigration, the Depression, the Farm Security Administration, photography used at home and in war, and then there was the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives program. What a delight to share with his son, “Hey, did you know your dad was one of the Monuments Men?”

In addition to my main chapters, there are “interlude extras.” Please check out previous posts here: interludes TOC. Coming soon Mr. Horne’s correspondence in the 1940s and 1950s with photographic historian and collector, Dr. Erich Stenger, and the complexities of operating the Offenbach Archival Depot.

3. Collecting and Sharing “Lost” Stories. It’s not so much that most of the stories are lost. I just think that some portions of these stories could be more widely known.

For instance, it’s not so much sharing the technical story of this stained glass window designed by Frederic Crowninshield in the 1880s (which was sadly dismantled in the 1950s). What I’m looking forward to sharing is the story of the remarkable Bostonian for whom the window was created and whose legacy is still being felt today.

I’m also looking forward to sharing even a small portion of the story of an African American architect who started out designing stained glass in the late 1800s before moving on to design buildings, and even starting an architecture department, before his death in the late 1920s. Researching this man’s life has opened my eyes to the role of African Americans in architecture. It has also given me a new perspective on the complexities of life, within and across ethnicities, as America forever dances (and fences) with the idea of becoming a “melting pot.” Stay tuned.

4. More Food Photography. Well, when you’re stuck in a “snow globe” after many successive snowstorms, and your favorite place to work at home is the warm kitchen, you can start to have a lot of fun photographing food. We’ll see what the rest of this wintry culinary season has to hold for me and my camera.

chive sprouts

Moro

That’s the scoop. Stay warm!

Read Full Post »

and on a corner of a small table …

Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, tagged food, growing, indoor gardening, Inspiration, life, Photography, seeds, snow, sprouts, winter on January 25, 2015| 2 Comments »

in a recycled carry out container grows pea sprouts that are quite tasty with tomatoes and hummus. In the gold goblet, upland cress is hopefully germinating. Their sprouts from a previous harvest were quite fine on smoked salmon. And I think in the clay pots I planted some combination of sunflowers and a spicy mesclun mix. The sun shines on them bright so we’ll see what happens next. And, meanwhile, outside and down below, that same sun shines intense on a landscape covered in ice and snow.

Read Full Post »

and there’s birth …

Posted in Inspiration, tagged African American experience, ancestry, birthdays, brothers, family, family history, Inspiration, life, nostalgia, parenting, Photography, storytelling on December 9, 2014| 17 Comments »

Oh, yeah, that’s me. During this merry month I was born. While I do not tend to shout that information about, it does give me a unique opportunity to share images of the people who brought me into this complicated, beautiful world. I still have this dress. It’s a soft pink, many layered affair, with a pink silk ribbon at the neck. Of all the outfits I must have worn as a baby, it is the only one my mother kept. As it hung in her closet until the day she died, it now hangs in my closet on its small white hanger. I keep contemplating getting it framed.

In this image, my mother sits with one of her sisters. When this image was taken, I do not know. Probably early 1950s, well before I was born. And this is her in the 1960s, I think.

She never dressed this way around me. I think raising four children can wear a person down. Thank goodness, she was persistent.

Here’s my dad as a little boy during the 1930s, and then twenty years later serving in the Korean War.

I heard he could have quite the temper as a young man but I only knew of him as a gentle soul and the person who would eat anything I put into his hands, even a Milky Way candy bar where I had licked away all of the chocolate.

Pop

When I was little I asked my parents questions about the stars in the sky and never really asked about how they met. I’ve heard rumors that my mother set sights on him before he set sights on her. He was interested in one of her sisters but somehow my mom managed to be around whenever he came visiting. Lucky for me.

By the time I came along there were two big brothers who were kind enough to keep an eye on me and the little fellow who followed not quite two years later.

What more is there to share? Well, as an adult I am notorious for finding the bright side, and I think it is in part because I had such a bright childhood with so many good people around me helping me laugh.

I’m grateful to have these photos to share and to help me hold onto the memories.

Read Full Post »

I was mad …

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, art, beauty, colors, drawing, family, fish, fun, Inspiration, life, musings, nature, personal, Photography, still life, storytelling on December 2, 2014| 6 Comments »

… mad at some things that had happened around me. Things that were kind of like bits of straw raining down upon a camel’s back. What I felt was certainly legit but I also felt myself getting angrier than I needed to be. I wanted to redirect that anger. A long walk, my method of choice, was out of the option because of the cold. Yet I was determined not to do what I remember my mom having penchant for doing which was to sit in a literal and figurative dark place. I was not ready to talk about what was bothering me. There were no words quite formed for me to write. What do do, what to do. I decided to follow the advice I sometimes give to others when they tell me that they are tired of talking or that they cannot write (“I don’t know how to write. You’re the writer!”). What do I suggest? Draw. So, I sat down to draw. Now I almost stopped myself. Why? Because I can’t draw. Yes, I’ve dabbled in this that and the other thing but really even with the help of a ruler, I can’t make a straight line! Then I took a deep breath and decided not to worry about straight lines. Curves can be cool.

As for what to draw … now I’ve been having this ongoing conversation with one of my little postcard penpals. He’s my four-year old nephew living down in Virginia. I’ve been sending him pictures of birds and squirrels and such. He’s tasked with drawing me a fish. Or a school of fish. Maybe a shark. As I sat at my desk in the bright sunlight, I drew fish for him and for myself, bright colored, imperfect, smiling fish. My anger did not disappear but it came into perspective. I have not sent the fishy bookmarks to the little guy. I want to give him time to draw his fish for me and for himself in whatever colors of the rainbow he decides.

Read Full Post »

let go and go with the flow

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged animals, Charles River, colors, ducks, Inspiration, life, nature, Photography, reflection, water on October 10, 2014| 5 Comments »

Two of my favorite phrases that help me get through some days. 😉

Read Full Post »

scarves, inspired by a poetic exchange

Posted in Inspiration, tagged colors, Contributing Writer, culture, Edwidge Danticat, family, fashion, Haiti, Inspiration, Katia Ulysse, life, Photography, poetry, scarves, storytelling on August 19, 2014| 4 Comments »

My mother had a drawer full of scarves, of every size and color imaginable. The textures tended toward silky or the fine sandy grain of those materials that were sheer. My scarves are more dispersed throughout my environment, possibly because, in a way, I have more personal space than my mother ever had.

She would have been a teen and partying young woman in the 1950s and 1960s when scarves were a fashionable part of the ensemble. By the time I came along in the 1970s, my mother wasn’t partying so much but she still had that drawer full of scarves, and I remember my father still buying her scarves throughout much of my childhood.

Whether for elementary school or high school, when I left the house in the morning for my journey, if the wind was blowing fiercely, if she’d done my hair the night before, if there was even a chance of sprinkles … she’d wrap one of her colorful scarves around my head and tie it beneath my chin. In elementary school, I may have looked cute. In high school, when scarves were not fashionable … well, I once passed by a group of girls and one of them said, “What is she wearing?!” But, even as I felt bad, I heard another girl say, “Leave her alone.” What I remember from that moment, this day, is the care of my mother and the care of that stranger.

My small scarves I keep in a little gold box on a book shelf. I rarely use them or even look at them but I’m not ready to part with them. Long, narrow scarves I keep in a basket, and when I am too lazy to track down my leather belt, I’ll pull out one of those scarves to hold up my pants. Large, square scarves I learned to wrap around my head using techniques my mother did not know. Those I’ve tucked away in a drawer. I mostly wear long, oblong scarves, especially the ones given in recent years by friends and family. I wear them to freshen up an outfit. And, of course, I photograph them as they are or use them to serve as background for a leaf. And, in this house, with so many windows, I sometimes hold them up to see what happens when the light shines through.

These musing of the morning were inspired by a link recently shared by a friend, a Salon interview by Edwidge Danticat of Katia D. Ulysse. As my friend described to me, it is a thought-provoking, poetic exchange between two writers of Haitian heritage. An excellent read. At some point there is reference to scarves, and that was all the inspiration needed for me to crack open a box. Have a good day.

Read Full Post »

imperfect beauty

Posted in Inspiration, tagged compassion, hands, Inspiration, joy, life, Photography on August 3, 2014| 6 Comments »

a helping hand across cold waters

An imperfect image yet one I could not make myself delete. An older man was helping a very young child cross big stones at the ocean’s edge. She was having a grand time dancing above the waves and perceived no danger in the rising tide. The man was more wary, and getting quite wet, but given the smile on his face at the child’s unconstrained joy, a bit of wetness was all worth it.

Read Full Post »

in light and shadow, beauty

Posted in Inspiration, tagged abstract, beauty, family, Inspiration, kindness, life, light, Photography, shadow, storytelling on June 9, 2014| 7 Comments »

One day, one of my brothers called and it was clear that he was in need of immediate assistance. Not for physical trauma. He needed someone to lean against, as we all do at some time. I was thousands of miles away. I could not get to him so I called a person that my brother had mentioned in recent years, an older gentleman who’d been an important figure in high school but I had not seen or spoken with him in over two decades. That day I used the online white pages to track down his home number. With barely a greeting, I told him I was sending my brother to him. He simply said, in a lovely warm voice, “Okay, Cynthia. I’ll be waiting.” And then I called my brother and I told him that he needed to get to that gentleman’s house and when he did he was to call me. He said, “Okay, Cynthia. I’m going.” Time did pass but then the phone did ring. My brother said, “It’s me. Hold on.” Then he passed the phone to the gentleman who said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got him under my wing.”

Why does that story come to mind today? Years have passed. My brother is fine. He and the gentleman remain close friends. I think the story surfaces because over this past week I have been witness to other acts of kindness, and reminded of people like this gentleman, willing to spread their wings over those in need, without question and without expectation. They are bits of brightness in the sometime dark, men and women who are often not recognized by others or even by themselves for the beauty they add to the world. By the way, I have not seen the gentleman in this story, or spoken to him, since that day. I did send him a postcard saying thank you. And, he sent me a card back saying you’re welcome.

Read Full Post »

while walking in the back bay, I paused and looked up …

Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, Boston Back Bay, Branches, colors, Inspiration, leaves, life, nature, neighborhoods, Photography, trees, urban landscape on June 7, 2014| 8 Comments »

and this is what I saw as I stood beneath one tree.

Read Full Post »

update: interlude TOC

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, art history, artwork, culture, interlude, interludes, Joseph A. Horne, life, military history, storytelling, war on June 3, 2014| 13 Comments »

Following is an updated table of contents (TOC) for the series of interludes, a collection of historical vignettes, threaded together by following in the footsteps of one gentleman, Joseph A. Horne (1911-1987). It’s a glimpse into history that continues to shape this world. It’s been a wonderful, sometimes surprising, experience for me. The interludes will conclude over the next few months including a few more “interlude extras.” I hope you enjoy this journey of words and images.

I. interludes TOC

i. foreward to the interludes

ii. interlude: genesis

iii. interlude: exodus, part 1

iv. interlude: exodus, part 2

v. interlude: dust in the wind

vi. interlude: lamentations

vii. interlude: to protect, preserve, and return … if possible

viii. interlude: offenbach archival depot

ix. interlude: amerika haus

II. interlude extras

interlude extra: arnold genthe