Nostalgia

1. (I was introduced to this following clip by my best friend, Precious.)  Mary Boone is such an interesting and strong woman with incredible taste.  Her gallery is currently showing the work of the emerging photographer, Patricia Coffie.  

2. When I watched this movie for the first time I was quite young and enjoyed it in a much different way than I do now.  But it is still beautiful and romantic and I love it.  

3. I met Heikki a few years ago in New York City, introduced by a mutual friend who was enamored with him upon their first meeting in Paris.  Heikki is a nomad and travels the world with his boyfriend Marc, making a new corner of the globe their home multiple times a year.  His love for music, exploring, and his aunties (whom he has an incredibly close relationship with) captivates everyone who gets close with him.  He is warm, stylish, intelligent and fun, and his work in international relations has fostered his great concern with how people around the world relate to each other:

4. Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2009 Campaign: Old Paris

5. Gustavo Dudamel: There are no words

6. Boys/My Youth:

I miss the night Boyfriend #1, Craften Layer, and I drove to this dark and remote area of Poolesville in my green CR-V (which may not seem like an important detail, but the car was an extension of me).  There weren't any street lights and we were pretty far from any civilization.  I don't know how or why we were passing through that area but it was so creepy and we had to get out of the car to look around.  The sky was a dark purple and filled with stars and all we could hear were cicadas and each other breathing.  I miss those nights where we had nothing to do so we would drive to Baltimore or the border of Pennsylvania or just around town.  I miss going to Craften Layers recording sessions and shows and going crazy, screaming, kicking and dancing and flailing about and being proud of being straightedge.  We would play stupid pranks and do stupid things and it was actually really romantic because we didn't care about anything and were genuinely enjoying life.

Then I moved to college and everything started getting serious because I had a future to think of.  I wasn't ready for it.  The pressure caused too much stress on every aspect of my life and my relationship ended after my first year, as did any expectation that I was going to be a rich doctor/pharmacist/lawyer.  I transfered to an art school in New York City with/because of my friend Andrew Kenney who helped me realize where I could go and what I could be.

After the first year in New York, I went to Italy for a summer, where I met Boyfriend #2 and where he grew terribly fond of me and I grew terribly fond of the idea that someone could want me so much.  He would follow me around and buy me anything I wanted and in return I fooled both of us into believing that I had feelings for him. It is not such a nice idea, but it happened and in my defense, it happened years ago and I was a lot more naive and insensitive.

At the end of the summer I ran off to Elba and then to Warsaw with a manic artist to have a silly affair and then I came back to New York to be with Boyfriend #2 for two years.

Nine months after the relationship ended I fell for Boyfriend #3, a career obsessed Creative Director.  Almost a year later, things started to fall apart.

A year later, I am single and realizing that I learned a lot of my life lessons through boys.  And I guess as a woman of the new millenium, I shouldn't really be saying that.  But without these boys I know that I wouldn't be who I am.  Through all of them, I have learned something: compassion, confidence, understanding, reverence, love, even a stronger business sense.  Their presence in my work is undeniable. Our realities and past romances influence my work as I borrow stories from our time together and apply them in my photographs.  

I owe these boys so much and I am really grateful that they shared all of this with me.