Biro Portraits on Antique envelopes by Mark Powell. See interview here
MY GRANDMOTHER'S LOVE LETTERS by Hart Crane
There are no stars tonight
But those of memory.
Yet how much room for memory there is
In the loose girdle of soft rain.
There is even room enough
For the letters of my mother's mother,
Elizabeth,
That have been pressed so long
Into a corner of the roof
That they are brown and soft,
And liable to melt as snow.
Over the greatness of such space
Steps must be gentle.
It is all hung by an invisible white hair.
It trembles as birch limbs webbing the air.
And I ask myself:
"Are your fingers long enough to play
Old keys that are but echoes:
Is the silence strong enough
To carry back the music to its source
And back to you again
As though to her?"
Yet I would lead my grandmother by the hand
Through much of what she would not understand;
And so I stumble. And the rain continues on the roof
With such a sound of gently pitying laughter.
See more portraits on Mark Powell's Flickr photo stream here.
"I was given an envelope that was sent from the front line in World War 1. It captivated me that this may have been the last thing ever written by this soldier. I find the envelopes with stamp collectors and the cost depends on the stamp which of course doesn't interest me. I like the history and scars of travel with the envelope." - Mark Powell
Michael Douglas Jones
Variation on a theme of letters from Poland by Beata Wehr
"In her series Field Notes, photographs blend the domesticity of home with the joy of wilderness, the natural world. The paper houses are built from letters, postcards and envelopes saved through the decades in old shoeboxes by her grandparents and discovered in their attic a few years ago. The images are printed on old envelopes collected from around the world; artifacts from the last centuries." - Penopticon Gallery
Rachel Phillips unique wet transfer pigment prints on vintage envelopes.
Joanne Teasdale (images fused on glass, steel wire, steel plate). See website here
Joanne Teasdale
Letter from Eugene Delacroix to his paint dealer.
....and the piece de resistance
the illustrated love letters of Henry Moore to his mistress
Love letters from Henry Moore to his mistress.
"I also delight in the way a shy restrained
letter can reveal the writer's feelings thanks
to one word he or she couldn't hold back,
flying off like a reckless butterfly, landing --
it knows the exact spot -- in the corner of
the reader's mouth, as a quivering smile,
trembling at the premonition of a secret
love that has in fact been avowed."
-- Agnes Desarthe, from Chez Moi
The Gorgeous Nothings is an art book as much as a poetry book, featuring full-color facsimiles of 52 of Emily Dickinson's envelope poems.
In this short life
that only lasts an hour
merely
How much -- How
little -- is
within our
power.
- Emily Dickinson
Beautiful photography by Stephen Strom. Website here
There is something enchanting about walking near water and I've realized that I'm happiest near the sea or a mountain stream.... or at any waters edge, for that matter. My husband loves to tell the story (and it's becoming a bit tiresome) about how whenever I'm walking in the mountains and hear a stream burbling nearby I disappear into the bracken in search of it and he knows he will find me kneeling at the waters edge to taste the water.
Marsh (Reduction woodcut) by Jean Gumpper. See more of Jean's work here
AT BLACKWATER POND by Mary Oliver
At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have
settled
after a night of rain.
I dip my cupped hands. I drink
a long time. It tastes
like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold
into my body, waking the bones. I hear them
deep inside me, whispering
oh what is that beautiful thing
that just happened?
Maureen Shaughnessy
While searching for an image to go with Mary Oliver's poem I stumbled across Maureen Shaughnessy's blog. Maureen is an artist/photographer/poet who illustrated Mary's poem, In Blackwater Woods with the artwork (above). I think Maureens's images are perfect for Mary Oliver's poetry. Read her blog post here.
Moon Rising in Grasses by Maureen Shaughnessy.
"In our spiritual tradition, we give away whatever is holding us back -- whatever is troubling us -- by sitting beside running water and letting the negative feelings, thoughts, or obstacles go. We imagine the obstacles flowing away with the current, like a leaf or a twig". Maureen Shaughnessy
I love this idea. Go here to read more.
Ripples by Paul Mitchell. See more of Paul's photos on Flickr, here.
Olli Kekalainen. See Olli's blog here
"Here is the fringey edge where elements meet and realms mingle, where time and eternity spatter each other with foam. The salt sea and the islands, molding and molding, row upon rolling row, don't quit, nor do winds end nor skies cease from spreading in curves". - Annie Dillard from Holy The Firm
Stephen Strom. See more here
Stephen Strom
Suburban sand castles by Chad Wright. Photography by Lynn Kloythanomsup. See more photos of Chad's installation, Masterplan, here and Lynn's photo stream at Flickr here.
Masterplan by Chad Wright. Photography by Lynn Kloythanomsup. See Chad's website here
Arc by Sam Lock. See website here
Meltwater by Sam Lock
