#13: Quiet

There's a storm outside

This is the one place on the internet where I feel I can be 100% true to myself. And today that means not talking a lot, just whispering some things here and there. I took a lot of photos this past month, so I’ll let them take center stage.

Bright red morning light. I thought it was a good idea to start waking up earlier.

Not by a lot, just enough to make me feel like a zombie for a few days.

One of these mornings the sky was more intensely white than usual. I looked out the window to see everything covered in snow. Here pictured the hawthorn bush in our backyard.

Hawthorn branch from that same bush a few days prior to the first snow. How things change.

I picked it and a few surviving dandelions for this shoot for Mejuri.

This feeling of wonder never gets old.

Even if I do. I took a birthday self-portrait that is more of a selfie. Last time I made one was in 2016. I’m trying not to hide from the world anymore.

The day before my birthday I was really depressed. I felt that my year-long progress in therapy didn’t amount to anything.

Until I dragged myself out to the nearest park.

Why does walking and photographing make me feel instantly better?

I believe it’s one of the few moments where I stop being so self-conscious.

And get to connect with the outside world.

Winter Flowers

Winter Flowers is an ongoing project about finding comfort in flowers during the cold months. I wrote about it in my first newsletter!

I’m really excited when we get snow now because it gives me purpose. It’s my mission to go out and search for hidden iced flowers until I can’t feel my fingers anymore. It makes me happy.

Winter hasn’t even officially begun yet (which makes no sense) and I already took plenty of photos, more than last year. They are my best ones, don’t let me tell me otherwise.

The big news is that I decided to release Winter Flowers as a collection on Foundation! I uploaded the first four photographs and will update it as we go.

We can talk about NFTs and what it means for me some other time. For now let me just say that I’m taking a chance on my art. In the same vein of not hiding from the world and all that.

You’ll still be the first to see the new photos from this year.

A bunch of cute people

• Luiza Holub is an artist from Sheffield. She loves flowers and colours as much as I do. My friends will receive holiday greeting cards that I got from Luiza’s Etsy shop.

• Another great artist from Sheffield, photographer India Hobson. Get one of her prints or cards.

• Theresa and her husband Ryan from Pistol and Peach make the most beautiful colourful jewellery (also from Sheffield).

• Minding Design by Anja Jamrozik Otto

  Monthly newsletter about research on cognitive & behavioural science applied to the design of spaces, products, and experiences.

• Swiss Miss by Tina Roth Eisenberg

  My dealer of cool looking design products. Plenty of gift guides if you need them. Tina is a kind, spiritual person. I watched The Shift by Dr. Wayne (on Youtube) because of her. I don’t want to say too much about the film. Consider this a sign if you need one.

• Notes on Walking & Photography by Bryan Formhals

  Reading about Bryan’s methodical approach to walking, while totally different from mine, is inspiring. His photographs are great too.

• Maybe Baby by Haley Nahman

  A newsletter about hard-to-describe feelings. What a great tagline. Start with In defense of burdens or Always watching. Haley is probably my favourite writer.

• I’m a fan of everything Noah Kalina does. But I also don’t want to be too cheesy (Noah reads this) so I will only state this fact. If you’re in the US, you can get his newsletter postcard set.

• During my Instagram break, I missed Sara Hagale’s drawings the most. I love them so much. Don’t you just want to steal her genius? I don’t have any tattoos, but if I did, it would be one of her drawings.

  

Signing off,

Alina