New Blog, New Painting, New Inspirations

I've been inspired by the debut post over at The Siberian Gamer. The author talks about how specific sound and voice can bring you the same feelings when you hear them again and again, even if years have passed and your life has changed. For him, it was the Barenaked Ladies and a recent concert where the lead singer had been replaced, shifting the sound and with that change, removing the feeling he had associated with their music. That instant ability to experience the joy and comfort he felt many years ago disappeared along with the singer. 

It makes sense with music, but I wonder if something visual can also evoke feelings from long ago as opposed to memories. It sounds lame, but the way a certain late-afternoon light hits the leaves of certain trees instantly transports me to that lazy, comfortable, relaxed, and youthful feeling of summers growing up. 

I also wonder if photographs can do this. On vacations, I obsessively take photos, desperate to preserve our time away. My memory stinks, so I use photographs to remember what happened, where we went, what it looked like. But those photos don't necessarily capture the feeling of being there.

When we went to Costa Rica I snapped shot after shot of the cloud forest, the beach, the creatures. It's helpful to look back and remember "oh yes, this day we took this hike and the next day we met that tarantula, etc." I came home with documentation of what happened. We also came home with this painting, which actually manages to capture the feeling of the place. It's not a representation of an activity we did and it's not a snapshot of a view we experienced. But it feels like Monteverde. It illustrates its essence in a way that I don't feel when I scroll through the photos of the adventure. The blue, green, copper, and their combination evoke the feeling of the forest...the coolness under the rich canopy, the mist in the air, the smell of the damp earth, the energy of the place. I can't describe it with words.

I think that's the point.

USA! USA!

My "little" brother (I initially typed "bother" HAHA) and his wife, Sille, lived in Copenhagen up until Thursday when they boarded a plane for their big move to America. With green card and visa arrangements, it has obviously been in the making for awhile, but to have them on this side of the pond is super exciting. They're not sure where they will end up but this weekend they belonged to New Hampshire!

I grabbed them from Logan Thursday night and we crashed in Portsmouth before driving up to the lake Friday morning. Simon and my mom joined us later in the day along with bright sunshine and delightful temps in the 80s for the entire weekend. It was the perfect combination of projects around the house and jet lag recovery. We refurbished the floating raft and secured it to its anchor (then gave it a thorough workout with "Raft Ball"), painted part of the house's exterior, weeded a bunch of the little gardens around the property, cleaned out old insulation from the dirty, dank and gross pump room, and played many games of Qwixx. Enormous thanks to all three of our guests who were forced to work hard for their stay! And extra thanks to Sille for doing away with the biggest, hairiest, most disgusting lake spider we have ever seen. I did not photograph that.

A Poem For A Wednesday

I first read this poem by Donald Hall many years ago. If I recall correctly (fat chance), the image of the light in the kitchen inspired a poem of my own. It has been eons since I attempted to compose any type of writing piece that wasn't a grant proposal, so let's agree to keep that little gem tucked away. Anyway, I just love this short poem. Simple, perfect, and a poetic reminder that seemingly everyday moments are some of the most beautiful.

Summer Kitchen

Donald Hall

In June's high light she stood at the sink

         With a glass of wine,

And listened for the bobolink,

And crushed garlic in late sunshine.

I watched her cooking, from my chair.

          She pressed her lips

Together, reached for kitchenware,

And tasted sauce from her fingertips.

"It's ready now. Come on," she said.

          "You light the candle."

We ate, and talked, and went to bed,

And slept. It was a miracle.

Flower Power

Enormous thanks for my green thumb father and my delivery CRV driver mother for making all my flower dreams come true. My mom drove over from 'Cuse this past weekend to enjoy the Dance for World Community Festival and brought along a seemingly infinite supply of beautifully grown flowers for the lake house deck. We drove up Sunday morning to check in on the house and re-home the blooms into pots we imported from Martha's Vineyard (these particular marigolds are called the "Janies" so I like to think all of our parents played a role in the flower project). The wind was mad crazy so we weren't able to situate the plants in their cozy little homes on the deck but we gave them a strong watering and tucked them out of the gusts. Here's hoping we do everyone proud by not killing them over the summer!

Dance For World Community

I rarely write about work but am pretty excited about last week's events. Every year we host the Dance for World Community Festival, a week-long event bringing together local dance groups, teachers, and social service agencies to perform, teach, and talk about their work. All free and open to the public. Our Founder's vision is that dance can play a much larger role in improving our communities than is traditionally felt possible. The organization has been partnering with other members of the local dance community for years, creating a strong coalition of dancers and folks related to dance that, much like any network brought together by a common goal, has the power to create change. 

I believe in what he's doing. I really do. But it wasn't until we hosted an event last week around climate change that I really understood the project. We're good at assembling people who we contact through our network, whether they are audience members, local community members, dancers, etc. Why not gather these people on behalf of an important issue? And arguably, climate change is one of the MOST important. So we recruited Dr. Cameron Wake from UNH (you might remember that I was inspired at a conversation with him a few months back) to give a presentation about his latest research and talk about how the arts can play a role. About 25 people joined us. It's a start.

I'm just blown away by the fact that I work in a place that bothers to do things like this. Being able to connect my passion for equity and climate change to my job is really neat. And being able to use my job to increase my own awareness of the ways we can address them is just mind blowing when you think this is ballet we're talking about. Ballet! I'll try to remember this sentiment the next time I want to pull my hair out at my desk. :)