Playing with Words and Images

It started with a birthday gift. My boyfriend at the time was turning fifty, and although according to him, this was no big deal, we were in the early and heady days of falling in love and I was looking for the perfect gift. I had finally settled on a type— his apartment was decorated with framed prints of various sayings that he found inspirational so I focused my search on prints, posters, and photos with quotes.

I was growing frustrated with what I was finding on Etsy when all of a sudden I realized that my own photos were far better than the ones I was seeing online, and ever since I started college, I’ve squirreled away all of my favorite quotes first in a small bound book, then in various hard drive folders, and more recently on Evernote. I still have the hard copy of the page that I xeroxed from “Cry, the Beloved Country” the summer after my junior year in college. 

Below is what I created and gave to him. I took the photo at sunrise over the temples in Bagan, Myanmar. The quote is Rumi. I think the final font I chose was different, and I ditched the fussy fadeout and black frame. 

I still remember the moment I gave it to him. He said, “So if I’m seeking you, does that mean you’re seeking me?” 

“Yes.”

People and moments have inspired my subsequent creations. The next one I sent to a friend who was going through a difficult time. The photo I took during a winter snow camping trip to Crocket Point in Yosemite National Park.

This following one was for myself, after that same boyfriend and I broke up some eight months later. The photo I took in a temple in Mrauk U, Myanmar.  I printed it and hung it behind the door of my office as I tried to navigate the roller coaster of anger, hurt, regret, sadness, disappointment, missing, and love that I felt as I tried to reconcile myself to the end of that relationship.

My next one was for my nephew’s high school yearbook. Each graduate’s family got a quarter of a page for a photo and message to honor their graduating senior. My sister-in-law seemed overwhelmed by the thought of preparing something, so I volunteered and came up with three versions from them to choose from. I can’t seem to locate the ones I created, but my favorite version, other than being spatially too type heavy, had the following Neil Gaimin quote that seemed so appropriate for my watchful and cautious eldest nephew: 

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

 

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

 

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

 

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

 

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”

And the most recent one is for myself as I set off on this trip. I saw this quote in the Summit Ranger Sation in Pincrest, California of all places as we were registering for a backcountry permit. I took the photo while rock climbing in South Lake Tahoe just a month earlier.  Perhaps more than anything it’s a reminder to myself of the important things in life. 

I joke to myself that I should turn this into an Etsy business, but I think I enjoy it most when inspiration strikes.