Ultramarine. Cobalt. Indigo. Lapis. Sapphire. Navy. The list of names for blue is nearly endless. Across gender and ethnicity, blue is most people’s favorite color. My heart was captured by the blue fire of arctic ice – a color so intense, so strange, it was difficult for me to believe it was real. That is …
How do you have a creative life? The good news is that there is no wrong answer. The bad news is it’s not easy. I believe that the single most important requirement to have any success in the arts, and by arts I mean anything that is a creative effort whether it’s writing or photography …
When traveling, given a choice between a multi lane highway, and a mysterious single lane road, I will take the single land road every time. This is the philosophy by which Kij and I travel. Asphalt or gravel? Gravel. Gravel or dirt? Dirt. Granted we have ended up in the middle of nowhere Iceland, having …
For November I am living in Laugarvatn, Iceland courtesy of the Gullkistan Creative Center. I’m living in a beautiful house very like a beach cabin and it’s all mine. There are three bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs as well as open-plan kitchen and living room. There’s a second floor dormer bedroom that’s really beautiful, but …
A year ago, more than that, when my host invited me to stay with her and referred to her home as being outside of London I imagined a two bedroom flat, possibly one bedroom and I would sleep on the couch, in Twickenham or Croyden or perhaps Chelmsford. There would be easy access by rail …
We have one day left in Iceland. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking while we drove the ring road about what I want the shape of my life to be. Ever since walking out from under the shadow of grief I’ve been in flux, knowing I want -something- but not knowing exactly what. Being …
My time in Longyearbyen is a little more than half over, and a month now seems way too short a time to stay here. I should have opted for two months, but I did not. In two weeks I have watched the change from 24 hours of daylight to 13 hours of daylight – 11 …
As a reward for finishing my first painting in Longyearbyen I gave myself a day off and took a tour of Pyramiden, an abandoned Soviet-era mining town. It also included a brief stop by a glacier, and a trip into a small bay. We started out from Longyearbyen, then traveled out of Advenfjorden into Isfjorden …
Today, thanks to a question from a friend, I did the research to discover that I am in fact drinking glacial meltwater when I drink from the tap. That’s… amazing. Astonishing. It means ice for drinks – 10,000 year old glacial meltwater. When I wash my face, 10,000 year old glacial meltwater. When I flush …
My life is made of impossible things. I left Seattle on Tuesday, August 28. Today is September 2. In that time, so much has happened. I’ve been in two countries, three if you count Svalbard as a separate country, and Norway does even though it owns it. I’ve been asked out on a date by …