one two three four five

monday//golden

tuesday//red

wednesday//brown

thursday//grey

friday//orange

poppytalk's fall color week= fini. but karen's nanoPHOmo is just beginning. clearly, I am a girl who needs an assignment.

in other news, I have been singing this song all. week. long. endlessly looping in my head, over and over and over. colors and the kids, you know. colors and the kids.

calling all color lovers

heeeeey how about poppytalk's fall color week? are you playing along? because I am. as it turns out, I am both physically and mentally unable to resist color week.

monday//golden
tuesday//red
wednesday//brown
thursday//grey
friday//orange

it's all happening over on the instagrams. it's all happening.

the portland flea

scenes from the portland flea, which was a couple of weeks ago (or more, I can't remember). truth: I am used to the giant, junky fleamarkets of the south and when I moved here to portland, I kept looking for something like that. a place where I could dig and get my hands dirty, a place I could really sink my junking teeth into. I'll tell you, I haven't exactly found it (not yet, anyway) but portland flea has been the next best thing. portland flea sort of scratched that itch for me and people, I am thankful.

(I've got a little more about the pdx flea over at poppytalk, hop on over if you like)

wanderlust

so I'm over at poppytalk with a little peek inside wanderlust. wanderlust= cutest little shop on wheels I ever did see. you know what else? it's parked right next to lodekka. remember lodekka? the old double decker bus-turned-vintage shop? that's right. the two of them are now parked together and people, the vintage goodness. the sweetness. the cuteness. it's too much.


scratch that, it's not too much. it's never too much. it's just the right amount.


p.s. thank you, vanessa. you are awesome.

elsewhere

I'm a couple different places today, I am anywhere but here. over at poppytalk with a look inside one of my portland faves, tender loving empire then I'm over at shutter sisters with the good words of imogen cunningham and what I love most about photography.


hop on over if, you like. and happy monday, friends.

downtown color

I'm over at poppytalk with a little downtown portland color. hop on over, if you like.

hense

six years ago, I wrote about a piece of graffiti on the walls of a car wash on dekalb avenue in atlanta. it was something I looked for everyday as I drove back and forth. the color inspired me, cracked a little something open in me. everyday, I'd race by that car wash and everyday that piece was there, singing my song. and then one day it wasn't. such is the nature of graffiti and street art, nothing is permanent, everything is fluid. work gets painted over all the time (comes with the territory) but still. I've never really forgotten it, for whatever reason. the graffiti writer behind that piece, hense, is an artist I've been following since the early nineties. billboards, overpasses, buildings, train cars, he was up all over the city. his work is as much atlanta to me as dekalb avenue and the majestic diner, as the civic yard and marta trains and MLK.

so of course we took a little drive down dekalb avenue while we were home for christmas and dang it if we didn't stumble onto spectacular new work by hense. I wrote a little bit about it today over at poppytalk, hop on over if you like. a shot in the arm, fresh new work, color for days, all these things. it's like driving by that car wash all over again.

brown friday

the most pleasing stack of bricks, maybe in all of gjilan.


the most spectacular cup of macchiato, my very first cup of macchiato. and sort of a big deal, since I don't really drink coffee.


the most awesome co-teacher, ian. artist extraordinaire and a bit of a renaissance man, if you ask me. ian, my friend.

okay so I guess kosovo is sort of coming out in bits and pieces. though I predict the dam will break soon because there's a big fat stack of polaroids I can't wait to share. the biggest fattest juiciest stack.

(the last of poppytalk's autumn color week)

grey thursday

should you find yourself in a crowd of teenagers (particularly albanian teenagers), you'd be wise to whip out a polaroid automatic 100. I found this out the first day we visited one of the schools in gjilan. I took one shot and in a matter of seconds, found myself completely surrounded. the requests came at me from every angle and I shot until I ran out of film. or until it was time to go home, whichever came first.

there's magic in the moment you peel that film apart but even more so when you let them peel that film apart. and the way they look at that photograph and then the way they look at you when you tell them they can keep that photograph. that they can take it home and keep it forever.

I don't think I kept even one for myself. I really wanted to but I just couldn't. felt too good to give them all away.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)

orange wednesday

dear colored clothes pins and paint palettes of gjilan, I love you.

on an unrelated note, I think maybe I'm finally coming down from that post-trip high. today has been rough.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)

yellow tuesday

I could have spent hours at the market in gjilan. hours and hours. the smells, the sounds. the color. my goodness, the color. I could have spent hours.


frizer për meshkuj= hairdressing for men. there were at least a hundred lovable little details around gjilan like this. ordinary everyday things seem to take on magic properties in foreign countries. what is that?


but really, the nightly workshops we held at the ringjallja center were my favorite. packed to full capacity each night and more albanian teenagers squeezing into that attic space than I thought possible. paper flying and scissors scissoring and paint screaming out color. it made me happy to be alive, I tell you.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)

red monday

in a village somewhere between prishtina and gjilan.


inside artist filloreta maliqi's studio. filloreta. fee-lah-reh-tah. is there a prettier name?


around the corner from the hotel: dollar store flowers. er, euro store flowers.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)

autumn color week

hosted by the ever delightful poppytalk and starting today. if you'd like to play along:

monday: red
tuesday: yellow
wednesday: orange
thursday: grey
friday: brown

for the record, I can't ever seem to say no to color week. not that I'd ever want to but you know what I mean. doesn't matter what I have going on, I will pretty much drop everything when it comes to color week. I am a girl who loves a little color. okay, a lot of color.

am thinking I'll pull select photographs from the kosovo trip (witness above). in hopes that words will follow.

red

last day of summer colors week and I don't know about you but I think maybe I really needed this. am now sufficiently steeped in brilliant summer color. thank you, poppytalk.

p.s. it will be a sad day when ava outgrows that red and white polka dot swimsuit. it will be a sad sad day.

rainbow

today: full on double rainbow, people. all the way across the sky.

(summer colors week, yo)

blue

today, in order of appearance: bubbles, fruit crates, banana seat bikes. oh summer colors week. you are just what I needed.

all swoony over these blues and I'll tell you, I'm really sort of trippin over this blue velvet cake.

pink

not pictured here: a pink ukelele, which I'd someday like to own.

(summer colors week, yay)