A scenic second day after the summer solstice
melts like a marshmallow in heat.
Cozy like a orange glowing fire,
the content afternoon rolls by.
Excitement looms like a hot storm,
gathering clusters of cotton ball clouds,
highlighted in sunset colors,
huddle along the rim of the earth,
waiting for something to happen.
So much to do, just to be undone. So much effort to prepare, so much effort to undo. You form a team to construct an imaginative project based whimsical ideas, and after a weekend of realization of your particular vision, you slowly take it all apart, appreciating the journey that created such a concrete experience.
On the return to the normal life, although busy, is worth the long and drawn out build up. So much energy is put into a project, and the outcomes goes so quickly that you blink and it’s gone. It’s an experience, it’s a mood, it does not last except for the feeling that is imprinted.
Temporary beauty, not many things last in this reality. You get out what you put in, but you can never be sure that the reward will match the intentions in the form you wish.
Last year it was all about magic. The trip down the rabbit’s hole, as I like to describe it, has been anticipated every day since I discovered the burner community. Last year was without a doubt magical. The lesson learned was finding belief in myself, in the powers that lies within and all around. I felt that magic comes from a special feeling, but its has to be brought out. Magic exists intrinsically, but it has to be manifested, it has to be sought out and forced out into a constructed being.
Last year was a very exquisite introduction to an alternative lifestyle, one that puts moral values over monetary ones, one that puts imagination before practicality, that puts friendships before convenience.
This year, it was all about love. You go into it having some set of expectations, but also knowing that you have no idea what to expect. It’s never the same, something (actually everything) always changes. This burner concept is a very fluid environment, so preparation only takes you so far.
I thought that this year would reestablish that magical feeling of rediscovering imagination, but it that was not lesson that I learned this merry-go-around time. This year, I felt the love of the temporary community and spaces that we made. I soaked up every second of the town, of the merriment, of the place and space that we created. I felt special to bond with people through a shared effort, through tribulation, struggle, problems, shared adventures, true connection.
This year helped me reestablished that I absolutely love feeding people, and when it comes down to it, that is really the one thing that gives me the greatest joy, sharing food. Eating is the backbone of everything we do. Nothing can be created or enjoyed without the energy to do it.
It made me realize how important it is to have special connection with a person, how much you can learn from a community, how everyone adds values to your life, how relying on people around you is not a weakness, it makes you stronger.
This year, it was all about love. My heart feels shiny, in fact I think it’s glowing
Farewell, my friends, for a week of fortune hunting, for a week of golden dreams, for a week of sun saturation. Farewell from instagram, from facebook, from pinterest, from restaurant blogs, from the icy hug of cool computer screens.
I will try to blink in the stars, to chase dragons in a landlocked lake, to breathe in inspiration from the wind, the face the wrath of fire.
See you in a week, and save up some stories to tell.
I am looking forward to a break in the action, to geting away from this crazy life for a few glorious, stolen days- but mostly I am looking forward to a new wave of inspiration and gaining a different angle of perception.
I am looking forward to escaping the alarm clock- but mostly I am looking forward to perceiving time as a feeling instead of as a rigid measurement.
I am looking forward to summer dresses- but mostly I am looking forward to wearing clothes for the purpose of fun over the purpose of business casual.
Inside a full Chicago Red Line Train, Early Summer, Morning Rush Hour Commute
Cut Scene:
On a packed early morning train ride, a man is uncomfortably coughing into his sleeve. He tries in vain to snuff the cough, but it will not relent. The passenger next to him fiddles with his bag, producing that familiar plastic water bottle crunching sounds as he rifles through his possessions. Thinking that this man is going to help out the poor sufferer, the passengers visibly relax and get comfortable in their seats. The man pulls out an almost full water bottle, so cold that the plastic is no longer clear, it has developed an icy opaque hue dripping with condensation. He unscrews the cap, lets the open bottle hang in the air with no determined direction for a long pause, then brings it to his own lips to take a very petty swallow before he re-screws the lid and stuffs it back in his own bag. The heart of the coughing man breaks as he swallows dry saliva in an unsuccessful attempt to suppress the coughing fit.
End Scene.
Is art ever finished? I just recently started focusing on finishing my pieces (within the last year), instead of them being left undone in notebooks, scattered across some undefined time frame, lost to the world. Mostly done in pencil, mostly just outlines, I would start and vow to finish, you know, some time. But after much work undone, I made a personal commitment to follow through on my vision just sometimes.
Hesitantly I added ink, and I liked it. Hesitantly I added color, and I liked it. I composed, and I liked it. So finally, after finding a sense of completion in my work, I boldly tear it out it out the notebook and deem it finished. Then, after this effort, I take this nice sheet of paper that I work so hard on, and I shove it in a drawer.
Next step was someday I will frame this, hang it on my wall, then it will be finished.
After another prolonged time meditating in a desk drawer in an used room, I framed some art today. With frames that don’t quite fit from my local thrift store, and I filled in the gaps with black construction paper, and created a thing that can hang on the wall and interact with the viewer as art.
It looks good almost, except that the black is not quite deep enough. Although this is the closest to being completed I have ever managed to do, there is still work left.
On the cusp of summer, on the cusp of something amazing, this June is starting out to be something magical. Dreams and vision are starting to congeal, ideas are solidifying into function. Those imaginations that have been running wild for countless shut in winter months are taking a rudimentary form, the sketch is becoming a 3D model. Excitement is brewing, inspiration is blossoming, curiosity is peaking. The time of incubation is over, the time for action is upon us.
Street Art, Cape Town, South Africa
It all started with meringue. I had a test batch of honey meringue and I did not want to simply throw it away after I assessed its success (or not). So here I am, left with a the smallest batch possible of meringue (which is 1 quart- no less can be made while using a kitchen aid, trust me), not wanting to simply wash it away as it was still perfectly delicious. The only answer was use it to make a dessert for staff lunch. Contemplating the deli of fluffy pale yellow foam, I thought to myself, what goes great with honey meringue?
My first thought was cream pie, and my mind went right to coconut. So coconut cream pie and honey meringue it is. Pie is typically made with pie dough ( you have to make it, let it rest, roll it out, let it rest, bake it- all of which was too much work) or a graham cracker push crust (super easy and fast, my method of choice for this extra credit project). We do not have graham crackers or the store-bought crumb lying around the kitchen, so I decided to improvise: we have some extra streusel, why not grind it up and add butter just like the graham cracker crust concept? So I ground it up, added butter, and made a push crust.
Next was the coconut cream- a standard pastry cream made with half milk and half coconut milk, with toasted coconut flake added it. Pour this into the crust, and set in the refrigerator for 3 hours, top with that infamous meringue, and then, of course, torch the meringue with a flame gun (because of course, because of brulee).
Coconut Cream Pie with Oatmeal Streusel Crust and Honey Meringue
marigolds forever 