Quarantine Creativity

As anyone who knows me could tell you, I love to take photographs all the time. Flowers are always a favorite subject especially when they are just emerging after a dreary winter. Spring is always full of subject matter for me. This year was no exception. With our obvious difficulties facing us during quarantine, I have used this time to slow down and look more carefully. I have used this time to tackle projects that have been put aside for way too long. I have used this time to be creative. I have used this time to get more exercise than I usually do. 

On my daily walks, I started to scope out trees that had buds emerging. One morning, as a break from the laptop screen and work-at-home orders, I took my camera to play with different lenses and capture some stunning florals amidst the moody spring weather. Inspiration was literally just around the corner!

Another thing I have taken the time to do during this strange period, is to connect with longtime friends the old-fashioned way. Burned out from virtual meetings, hangouts, and happy hours, I have reached out to them with written correspondence. Everyone loves some snail mail! These images and others are available as handmade greetings HERE.

Still Remembering 9/11

Lower Manhattan as it looked in a photo collage from my graduate school days at Pratt Institute - although the balcony of my high rise dorm had a pretty good view, this was probably taken from the Empire State Building.

Another photo collage taken years later in a snowy McCarren Park when I first moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 2000- just a year before the attack on the World Trade Center. The faint ghostly outline of the Twin Towers can be seen just to the left of the Russian church. I just moved from Tribeca where the enormous buildings loomed high above my sublet in a dizzying vertical trajectory into the sky. Every time I neared the apartment, they were there; two stalwart figures. As I sat on the incredible roof deck at the top of my building, I remember always feeling a sense of unease at their scale as my thoughts trailed off, "if those things ever fell".... In my wildest dreams, I never, ever felt those musings would actually come true.

Textiles from the Caucasus - Georgian Fabrics

It was early Tuesday morning in Tbilisi; the day we had carved out to do some shopping before it got too hot. One of my fellow travelers was adamant about hitting the market for locals to source some fabric for her wedding gown business and atelier. This corner of the city was definitely not on the radar of most who come here to tour the area. Gyorgi, our trusty driver and local guide for our week in the Caucasus suggested the place. It was a dusty open lot with some ramshackle buildings where one might find authentic Georgian textiles (or just about anything). I'm pretty sure he didn't know much about lace, and the word or concept didn't really translate to this part of the world.

The place was enormous, and we made a beeline to a remote corner in the back of the expansive lot to the fabric section. The first stop wasn't exactly what we had in mind. But across the way, the bazaar-like maze of stalls selling fabric in all shades was precisely what we dreamt of finding.

The Americans were here.....we were loud and excited. A sotto voce buzz started to travel through the line of shop owners. The more we looked, the more we wanted. Was it us who was on display or was it the fabric we were hunting? Older shopkeepers wrangled up their sleepy grandsons away from their cell phones to try to help understand our foreign chatter and make the sale. The designs were colorful and unique. And it was all so inexpensive! As we walked, creative projects were multiplying in our heads just so we could walk away with shopping bags full of these incredible brocades.

Our fellow traveler disappeared with Gyorgi in order to fulfill her mission. She returned with bags of stunning lace curtain fabric that would make any bride swoon. She was inspired to cut out the patterns or use the 8+ foot fabric for lengthy and dramatic trains, veils, or other ethnic head coverings we saw in our travels through the ancient byways and depicted in the Georgian folk museums and restaurants.

In the end, we all came away with something. Some more than others. (Guilty!) And oh, the pillows we could create once we returned home, an authentic souvenir that would last and be part of daily life. Of course, our dear driver insisted on carrying everything for us, and the back of our minivan was once again loaded down with the day's treasures. Yesterday, it just happened to be cases of Georgian wine.

Tulips Galore! Celebrating Earth Day

In northern New Jersey, you won't find windmills, canals, or Delft blue pottery, but you will find more tulips than you ever imagined outside of Keukenhof Gardens or the famous tulip fields of the Netherlands (and, even some wooden shoes). If you can't make it to Holland in the springtime, there are rows of colorful tulips right in northern New Jersey that rival those found outside Amsterdam. Just a short distance from Trenton and Bordentown, Holland Ridge Farms have planted millions of tulip bulbs in newly-forged beds. In the fall, the spectacle turns into sunflowers worthy of a Van Gogh painting. For the past two years, the former dairy farm has dedicated over about 153 acres to the cheery spring flowers complete with a pollination expert (straight from Holland). Visitors can freely roam the rows and pose for the camera with multiple varieties of photogenic tulips. 

I'm looking forward to taking the country roads of the Garden State during the fall season, and enjoying equally as many sunflowers- perhaps during the exquisite lighting offered at a sunrise or a sunset visit. Either way, they're beautiful no matter what!