ate/slept/loved






































“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”
Hemingway / A Moveable Feast

(prints available on society6)

peace is every step



This is a quote by a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and poet who wrote a book called Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, a really beautiful guide to fully loving yourself, fully loving others, fully loving where you are. If I could paste the entire book into this post, I would, as some of my most favorite snippets of wisdom were written by this little Vietnamese man.

“Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word "art". If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don't have to talk about it at all.”

From time to time, sit close to the one you love, hold his or her hand, and ask, 'Darling, do I understand you enough? Or am I making you suffer? Please tell me so that I can learn to love you properly. I don't want to make you suffer, and if I do so because of my ignorance, please tell me so that I can love you better, so that you can be happy." 
“Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.”

on the road

I've spent a considerable portion of my life on the road. If I were to sort out my most favorite memories, I'm convinced most of them came to be while on some roadtrip or another (perks of having parents with a penchant for adventures and going-places.) There's something about being piled in the backseat of a truck in a heap of sweaty siblings and pillows for leg-cramping hours at a time / waking up to a groggy sunrise / my mom making passing back sandwiches on quarter-baguettes from the front seat. Stevie Wonder 5-part family sing-alongs / bathroom stops in dingy little gas stations / stretches of non-city views for miles miles miles.

Laying back in my little sister's lap at 3am and looking up through the windows so that all I can see are fly-by stars and no road, as if we weren't anywhere close to an earth at all / when everyone but my driving father is asleep, their hot sleeping cheeks pressed against the cold glass of the window. Waking up warm on one side with the heat of another body, cold on the other with the foggy highway dawn. Finally finally reaching A Place, stumbling out of the car barefooted and bed-headed and grateful and antsy, blessed to finally be ocean-windwhipped and ankle deep in burning sand.

Lately, however, and more often than not, I find myself sitting in canned AC, drinking bottled water, drowsy between underlining a textbook or replying to an email - and achy-breaky for the familiar discomfort of my snoring siblings' bony warm bodies in the middle of a dark countryside at 3am.


BAM!

So here we go.

In an attempt to document what feels like a more formal advent and dedication to my art and not just sporadic updates to Instagram, I've started a blog. A diary of sorts.

I'm wary of saying I'm going to start a 365 project because I'm always wary of saying I'm going to be daily dedicated to something when I'm rarely even dedicated to getting my ass out of bed. But a 365 project is in the works and I'd love to get it off the ground before the end of the school year. It will more or less consist of hand-lettering because that's what I've been drawn to (heh, puns), but it may stray into more of a daily sketch project. We shall see.

Until then, here's this. Feel free to sign up for email updates below and share with your friendlies!

xo, j