SOOC #4

After two and a half months of not blogging, I've almost forgotten how! A couple of people asked me recently if I was ever coming back, and I'm happy to say the answer is yes! I never intended to take such a long break, but once you get out of the habit of taking photos and blogging regularly, it can be difficult to start back up again. But I've missed posting here--Instagram is really just not the same, for me, anyway. I will always love reading blogs (and blogging) more. I do still post to IG regularly, and I loooove looking at other people's photos, but I don't really like reading (or typing) on my phone, so that platform will always have it's limitations for me. (I still love snapchat too, by the way; it's a whole 'nother animal, but it's sooooo fun!)

Anyway, on to some SOOC photos. I found a couple of rolls of film from last summer (I think?) in a drawer in my studio, and I just got the first roll back last week. All of this lush greenery climbing up the sides of old buildings makes me ache for summer sooooo bad. We had our first taste of warm weather this past week, and it's been heaven! I heard talk of more cold weather and snow coming for Sunday, but I'm not even letting that get me down because I know warmer days are coming, and everything will be green and gold again. :)

P.S. Hope everyone is having an excellent St. Patrick's Day and doing something fun tonight...if you're into fun, that is. I'm pretty anti-fun, so I'll most likely be staying home lol. :)

Chinatown

I took these photos at the end of the summer; I can't remember where we were coming from, but we passed through Chinatown on the way to the metro one warm evening. This area is now largely dominated by the Verizon center and teeming with the type of sports bars/chain restaurants that typically surround stadiums, but there are still a few architectural nods to the neighborhood's history, and I've always thought that the gate is pretty fantastic. I hope they never take it down.

This area has changed significantly since we moved to DC in the late 90s, and I wonder what it will be like 20 years from now. DC is an odd place in that so much of the cityscape remains unchanged, at least on the surface. Facades are largely protected by historic preservation laws, and neighborhood streets are still lined with the same rowhouses that have stood for many generations. But the character of neighborhoods is changing all the time. And there has been a push in recent years to lift the height restriction in the city (no building can be taller than 110 feet, I think, due to a law that was passed 100 years ago). When you have so many people in a town that was built to accommodate a much smaller population, you have problems with infrastructure, transportation, affordable housing (there is none) and trouble attracting companies and businesses, just to name a few.

It reminds me of a program Peter and I watched on Nova last week called "Making North America." (They've just aired the first of a three-part series.) It's all about how the continent was formed from a geological perspective, and how it's still changing all the time. It was super fascinating to see how mountains were formed and other landmarks took shape, but the overarching theme I took away from the show is that no landscape is permanent. They talked about how the coastline of California is changing due to the San Andreas fault, and joked that due to the shifting masses of land, one day Los Angeles will be right up next to San Francisco, and two cities that don't like each other very much will be neighbors. It's only moving at a rate of about 2 inches a year, so that will take some time, but still, two inches a year! That's a lot if you think about it.

Anyway, this idea of impermanence and environment is very much on my mind these days. And no, this ramble of mine is not a veiled attempt to hint that we're moving, just things I've been thinking about lately. It's all a bit unsettling and wonderful at the same time. xo, Mary

National Museum of Women in the Arts

I found a folder full of photos I'd taken at the National Museum of Women in the Arts from last summer that I never posted. I'm actually not sure if I've ever posted about NMWA on this blog, which is just nuts. This museum is the only one of it's kind in the world, and it really is a special place to me.

Did I mention that the building is beautiful? I'm a bit obsessed with the gorgeous chandeliers, the intricate trimwork and moldings, and those dreamy arched windows.
The late-afternoon light in the great hall and mezzanine is heavenly.

But the art is really what matters here, and the truth is I would visit this collection if it were housed in a garage. There's a good mix of historical and contemporary artworks from women all over the world, and I'm always discovering new work I've never seen before. I particularly like to see portraits of women by women, and self-portraits of women artists in this collection. I did a huge research project almost 20 years ago (yikes!) on women as subjects of art versus women as objects of art in paintings in particular throughout history, and that project was heavy on my mind during this most recent visit.

I sometimes wonder if I should use this space to write more intellectually about art and design rather than "ooh pretty picture!" But then I think that anyone reading this right now who is interested in the cultural significance of how we depict ourselves and how others depict us has probably already studied and researched and discussed such topics at length, as I have. And maybe that's not why people read blogs anyway? I know I often turn to blogs for entertainment or escapism or inspiration or even just pretty pictures, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I guess I've been feeling a bit torn in general with what to post in this space lately, but that's a topic for another day. (I definitely mean to start showing my own work more regularly though, not just photography.)


**The paintings (top to bottom): Lady Reading by Lamplight by Minerva J. Chapman, 1898; Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky by Frida Kahlo, 1937; and Self-Portrait When Seventeen by Jane Fortescue Seymour Coleridge, 1842.

The BEACH

A few weeks ago, we went to The BEACH, an interactive architectural installation (a.k.a. a huge ball pit) at The National Building Museum, and it was so much fun! The walls, flooring, and furniture were all stark white, and the back wall was mirrored to make it look as if the monochromatic seascape stretched on forever. As for the ocean, it was made up of nearly one million recyclable translucent plastic balls. (Those balls are now being moved to another location to be repurposed as some sort of art installation. I can't wait to see what that's going to look like.)

Some people were hesitant to get their feet wet. :)

Others just dove right in.

There were plenty of beach chairs to relax in if you didn't feel like going for a swim. Peter and I spent a good amount of time here, just listening to the squeals of laughter and hanging out.

It's hard to show the scale of it, especially with this many people inside, but it was 10,000 square feet...that's a lot of feet! You can get a better idea of the size (and see photos much better than mine) in this flickr album.

Kids obviously went mental over the whole thing, but it was a lot of fun for adults too.

You might remember that NBM put on The BIG Maze last summer, and I think they may have topped that exhibit with this one. It was just so cool and futuristic looking. I can't wait to see what they do next year!

I sketched a trapezoid on the back of an envelope. I drew a diagonal line across the trapezoid and produced two triangles. That was the beginning.

I snapped these two photos when we were passing through the east building of the National Gallery last time we were there. I looked up as we were about to go downstairs and was struck by the beauty of light, shadow, glass, and steel.

The title is a quote from I. M. Pei on his inspiration for designing the building. It's a good reminder, if you're feeling stuck, that all it takes is a shape, a line...all it takes is a start.

Bits of April

I struggled with feeling uninspired to take photos most of February and March, and I didn't spend much time on Instagram at all. I think that probably happens to everyone from time to time when there's a lot of stress and other things going on in life. But April was a little brighter. Here's a peek at the last month through my phone.

Reading lots of art books; my handmade Easter gift from Peter which deserves it's own post (coming soon); it's been so nice having vases around the house filled with flowers cut from our own yard; and colorful houses spotted on an afternoon walk.

Exploring trails and spotting creatures; and the view from one of the rooms at The Kreeger.

I've been crushing on pink tulips in particular everywhere this spring...these were at a local garden; Frank Stella at The Kreeger; pink-blossomed canopies make a perfect spot for day dreaming; and cupcakes from Sprinkles.

I'm hoping May will be super productive, and I'll have lots of finished projects to share on Instagram too. It's so hard to stay indoors making things when there's sunshine and ice cream and walks along the water beckoning, which is exactly how we spent last weekend, but you know, I'm still making up for lost time and have lots of goals to reach! So with that in mind, I'm off to make this week count! :)

As always, if you'd like to follow along, my IG name is @my_hideaway.

Pear Blossoms

White-tipped trees in the late afternoon sun gave me pause the other day as I was walking back to my car. A woman told me she thought they were pear blossoms. They were all over the place and absolutely gleaming.

We still haven't been to see the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin this year, although we have seen other cherry trees blooming around the city. I'd still like to make it to the Mall at some point this week if we can find a good time to go.

I was looking at tweets about the National Cherry Blossom Festival recently, and I came across a link to an article on Washingtonian Magazine's blog giving advice on how to take good photos of the cherry blossoms. To my complete surprise, they used one of my Instagram photos from last year as an example. How cool is that?

Looking at these photos again is making me think I might need to find an excuse to nip outside before it gets dark. :)

Hope everyone is having a good week. xo, Mary

First Pics from the Pentax

I mentioned a little while ago that I had a new-to-me camera, a Pentax K1000, and was waiting for my first roll of film to be developed. Cut to a month or so later, and here are my first snaps.

I did edit these very minimally...just adjusted the contrast slightly in a couple of photos and straightened one photo that came out crooked. But I have to say, these photos looked pretty great straight out of the camera. I shot a roll of 24 and all the photos came out nice, which has not been my experience with other vintage manual cameras, but that could just be user error. There was one photo that had a pink haze on the side of it...

...not sure what happened here. Weird, right? I've had other cameras do this a lot, but it would be on almost every photo because light was leaking in the back of the camera due to old or cracked seals. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

Anyway, I will say that the Pentax seems way easier to use than my other manual cameras. I can see why many people learn how to shoot on this camera in their first photography classes.

I'm excited to take this camera out exploring when the weather gets warmer. Come on spring! Hurry up and get here! :)

Anyone else have experience with this camera and would like to share or offer tips? Please do! xo, Mary

P.S. I shot these on Fuji Superia 400, if anyone's curious.