steve and i talk about tone a lot. usually it has to do with his peculiar ability to match the tone of his writing exactly to the particular audience he’s writing to, or for. i lean on him quite embarassingly often when i need to send delicate emails that could potentially be misunderstood. i call him “cyrano,”  when these occasions arise. as in, “hey, can you cyrano this email for me?” but tone can be visual as well as verbal, and i particularly like the muted way that the colors in this photo work together, threading the needle between funereally faded and pinkly precious. somewhere between those two extremes, these colors decided to hold hands, and forget their differences, and celebrate how beautiful they could be if they worked together.

ranunculus, eremurus blossoms, and a eucalyptus leaf

“what a shame,” i said to my husband, as i shot this arrangement of opium poppies and their tiny seeds late this afternoon. “what a waste that so much war, and so much treasure, and so much human potential has been wasted over something as insignificant as a a simple intoxicant.” i believe i was still feeling quite righteous about this later in the evening, as i reached, pretty thirstily actually, for my nightly glass of wine.

opium poppies

this is quite obviously a STILL composition. and yet there’s something not quite right about it, isn’t there? this is what STILL would look like if i lived in or around marfa, texas. i love that you would all recognize how this unfamiliar flora from a very specific place had been filtered through my familiar lens. like cabernet sauvignon grown in napa, versus the same grape grown in bordeaux. the final product has been manipulated, but it still depends on where it originally grew.

bits and pieces of of a high altitude desert in may

marfa, texas

this may be something you can buy someday. i’m hoping that the scale will make the woodpecker feathers look like cross stitches. that’s all i’m saying for now.

woodpecker feathers

saint paul, minnesota

i don’t theorize much, and even less so about art, but i do have a theory that interesting art can be made either by making one thing unlike anything else, or by doing the same thing over and over until the repetition itself becomes something artful. as much as i am not a theorizer, i am even less of a mystery. i think you can all guess which of those two theoretical artistic philosophies appeals to me.

twig circles

saint paul, minnesota