subway encounters

she was wearing black and white gingham pants. i think they were taffeta, or silk. something luxurious and expensive. like chef's pants, but that check was larger and fancier. bolder. her top was red, so red it was passing through the spectrum to orange. thin, with rolled, cap sleeves, and a seam running across the top through the middle of her chest, horizontal.

carrying a tall white shopping bag, small black, block letters spelled out M-A-R-N-I but was sized for a bottle of wine as easily as anything else. her own handbag was an overgrown coin purse, powdered... sage? with an old fashioned frame and to close it: a ball clasp.

a perfect bob, too long but fine and sweeping bangs, mousy and understated. parted far, far to the side, above her left ear. it was my right side. her face could only be painted with watercolors and there would be no sketching allowed first; everything about her face was so soft that any delineating line would be too harsh.

two thick black bands to strap in her wiry, narrow foot. another, thinner one to hook around the back of her heel with a buckle. the heel: clunky, chunky but slightly rounded, stacked and wooden? and her toenail polish is powdery as well, but bluer.

a bangle dangles from her slight wrist. smoky plastic, all rounded edges and the 1960's.

a dash of crimson lipstick, a swipe of blush in the hollows of her cheek and not a hint, not an ounce, and not a moment of mascara.

...

i lost my camera and if i had not, i can't say if i would have asked for the opportunity to photography her calculated, balanced outfit. but it had to be documented somewhere.

i've never been much of a writer, so i don't know how i feel about these amibitions...

bubbling up inside of me.

eartha & james

from awesome people hanging out together

Stripe, Check, Wide Leg, Crease

the patterns, the shapes, the wide legs, the EVERYTHING about this photo.

from portals

hey hiroko are you loco?

And thus began my early interest in Japan.

When I was young, I read a lot: picture books, zoo magazines, chapter books, graphic novels, historical fiction, trashy novels, mainstream science ficion, fantasy, blah blah blah. Warning: Having no television can do this to you. To this day, I can (and do) spend hours in the picture book section of the book store.


Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman is a book that, apparently, made a huge impact on me. I think I related to it at first because it was about not practicing piano, but now I'm thinking maybe it was the beginning of me thinking about the "East" and places far away. (See the art classes, history classes, and entire thesis that I would fit into other categories and requirements, while avoiding any "East Asian Studies" requirements).

It was also when I fell in Love with Maira Kalman.

If I could grow up, and be her, I would.

Read anything she writes. Look at anything she paints/draws/makes. Listen to what she says/composes.



from here

This is a TO BE CONTINUED post, obvs. Next season.