little baby swedish angels.

i currently watch this video at least 5 times a day...
enjoy.

where there is love, there is art. 

trick or treat.

tell me this isn't the cutest little halloween munchkin ever? {not possible}.

not happy about that kitty on her head.

i do love my jewel girl. and i do love halloween. hope you had a good one!

where there is love, there is art.

happy halloween.

happiest of halloween{s} to you. 

was i actually dressed for halloween here?

...and happy birthday to my lovely friend, emily joy.

she's a halloween bebe. a pretty one at that. 

where there is love, there is art.

i'm a pretty lucky girl.

while working in the magazine business in birmingham i had constantly heard of this magnificent designer, CLAIRE CORMANY. in fact, at one point she was working as the art director for a magazine that i was with. everyone was totally enthralled by her. month by month i would look at the blues {the first set of pages from the printer} hanging from a wire on our back wall of the office and think "who is this mystery woman who does this amazing work? every time. she never fails." her layouts and designs were all her own. but to me she was phantom because she worked from her own space. years later i met this mystery woman and found out why she worked in her own space. probably because claire actually resembles the hindu goddess, kali. she must have four arms- one that holds a paint brush as she paints a beautiful abstract, another holding a bass guitar for her former band kiss me at the gate or electroliner, a third stretched towards her computer creating a masterpiece in the form of layout, and a fourth showing love to one of her many friends. she is unlike any other. and so i must share her with you now:

photo taken on a recent trip to spain.

q: what inspires you most?
a:Water inspires me most. I know it sounds cheesy {no way!}. I have finally come to this conclusion. I feel like I can actually breathe when I'm near the ocean, or swimming across a lake's surface. The expansiveness opens my mind and the ideas start to flow. I love the way light sparkles on the surface like glinting diamonds and how no wave is ever the same twice. And ELO {that's Electric Light Orchestra, for those of you who are confused right now}. The complexities and layers in their music excites my imagination and makes me want to create stuff.

q: fill in the blank i like to design _______. i like to paint _____. 
I love to design magazines. A lot. Probably because I find such a self-indulgent pleasure in reading them as well. I love trying to tell the story the best way I can through images and text. I love video and the web as well for relating a story, but there's something very tangible and present about print. I also love to design packaging and branding materials. So much fun to create a brand.
I like to paint whatever I see. Really. Landscapes, streetscapes, people, animals—Growing up, I was hellbent on perfecting likeness in the portrait, drawing all of my classmates during Algebra and History because they had to sit still for an hour anyway. But now I favor more open forms, loose interpretations, letting the paint do what it does. Maybe I've mellowed. I doubt it.

 this is claire with a bass in her hands. yah.

q: fill in the blank. i love _________. {it can be ANYTHING}. 
I love it right before a thunderstorm when the wind whips through the trees and makes their leaves shake like tambourines. I love cheeseburgers with all my heart. And doughnuts. I love shoes more than I can relate. I love to play music with folks. It's like you're suspended from reality for a little while, traveling to this other dimension where—for a brief moment—everything makes sense. You forget where you are and what time it is—kind of like being in a casino.

q: what is your dream/goal for what is to come {professionally} with design and/or painting? 
I don't know if I have a dream goal per se- I'm a very "live for today" kind of girl. But I absolutely love to design, paint and write music, and if I can keep doing that, I will consider myself a pretty lucky girl.

where there is love, there is art. 

plug.

i'm not really one for plugging products {or maybe i am?}. but if everyone could enjoy eating the way i did last night the world would probably be a better place. a more PEACEful place. last night i ate pasta in the shape of peace signs. that's right.

photo thanks to flickr.

so you're saying: "oh, hayden, you totally would." yah, you are right. i would. and i did. and i loved it. i found this packaged pasta at whole foods last week. in true child-like form i had to buy it simply because, yes, it is in the shape of peace signs. thank you, annie's homegrown.

where there is love, there is art.

austin.

i know, i know. i've posted a great deal on austin. overkill, huh?  this, however, is a different kind of austin. this is my family, my cousin and his wife, the austin family. this family of two includes my eldest cousin, russell {whom i am forever indebted to for buying me by first "cool" CD when i was in third grade- Blues Traveler's "Four" no less}, and his lovely wife, ashley.

russ and ashley.

these two met while in design school in atlanta. they now live in brooklyn. ashley has launched her own line of fine paper goods, Fine Day Press. she is constantly inspiring me on her blog Lovely Pieces, to boot! do yourself a favor and check out her work. it's truly extraordinary.

i am very proud of these two folks and their creative work. looking forward to a visit with them in the near future {fingers crossed!}. 

where there is love, there is art. 

you know this child. this child is me.

"But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career." 
— Madeleine L'Engle 

where there is love, there is art.

waiting for superman.

so who's with me? who's going to go see this highly controversial documentary with me this week? it's in town. it's happening.

love + marriage.

love and marriage. it's easy to make a connection between the two {kind of like love and art, ya know?) so easy, in fact, that i believe we take it for granted. it's also easy to grow cynical of the union of the two when today's reality is as it is. however, the love i saw yesterday at a wedding in nashville was nothing short of inspiring. it was the wedding of my dear friend, jessi, and the love of her life, jonathan. so maybe love and marriage do go together like a horse and carriage afterall?

the walker family begins.

where there is love {and a really cool union called marriage}, 

there is art.

if i didn't know better.

i'm really working on being healthy and balanced. this is something i have to reassess about every other week. i wouldn't consider myself the most balanced individual. BUT i am trying. so yesterday i gave myself a "day off" of sorts. i caught up with some friends and took some time for myself {i really have a hard time with that...}. for example, yesterday evening i went to the civil wars show at my alma mater with two of my loveliest friends-katie and sarah. oh! and how can i forget the little munchkin, ernie mo, that joined us? after the show katie and i went to bottega cafe where we were entertained in the most unexpected way. following bottega we decided some late night baking was in order {chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, duh}. here are a few photos from the evening:

ernie was very well behaved. clearly.

it's whatever. i'm 5. 

puttin' that batter on that cookie sheet, girl.

the best cookies ever. no lie.

have a great weekend!

where there is love {and an attempt at balance},

there is art. 

something to look forward to.

"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.'
You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing."
— E.B. White (Charlotte's Web)

i have something to look forward to. i actually have something(s). so i count myself lucky today. tomorrow my darling dear, trisha marie, will make a voyage past the mason-dixon. indiana to alabama. i can't even believe it really. i don't know why because she has done it several times. but, i think it's mostly because i have such a hard time traveling "up" to see her. if i just get one second to squeeze her neck i will be satisfied. she's the type of friend that doesn't require maintenance past what i can give. love is enough. i appreciate that about her. she was my very first friend from college, and i am confident that we will always remain.

where there is love {of a friend}, 

there is art.

obsession.

i'm comfortable with that word. it applies to several of my "interests" because i never stop at mere interest. i like to take things into a pretty intense level. so maybe this is my greatest weakness? but maybe it's also my greatest strength? for some time now i have been borderline obsessed with the PS22 chorus. i think after this video i took it to a whole new level.

i mean, are you serious? take all of my greatest loves and combine them- there you have it. oh! and i might have a major crush on gregg breinberg, the school's music teacher. i haven't started writing his name all over my binders yet. which means i'm keeping it safe and managing my obsession. it's fine.

where there is love, there is art.

yes, that really is his last name.

he really doesn't require an introduction. he is plenty capable of speaking for himself {you will see that this is true...}. in fact, it seems as though every word he uses {musically or otherwise} is methodical and artful. this, my friends, is preston lovinggood. 

q: so how did the music begin for you?
Music began for me... I would listen to my sisters practice piano in the den and I would take Clinique advertisements out of my mom's magazines and put them up on my wall and sing to them.

q: what's the update on WSO (projects of the future, etc.)? 
Wild Sweet Orange broke up. Terribly sad... Matt, Garret, Taylor, and Chip are all huge creative forces. It's amazing that we all got a chance to do it as long as we did. Every one is still being creative and adding so much to Birmingham and beyond...

and there they were... on David Letterman.

q: what inspires you most? 
What inspires me the most is trying to read people's minds, to some extent. It can be a dangerous thing, But I like to think I know people without ever talking to them. That is what writing songs is about to me- to imagine Richard Scrushy awake in the middle of the night drinking a glass of water in his kitchen. When people come into my mind I write songs for them, prayers for them, hoping they are doing well. It all starts with a scene in my head, that's why movies are always so close to my creative process. When I can put words or music to images in my head, thats what I'm going for- CONNECTION! swoosh....

preston sent me this image of scrushy. thanks, presty.

q: what is it about music that you love?
I love to perform the music. It's rare that when I am working on a song that I don't picture myself live in a venue. You are on stage... and what you are really saying by walking on stage and performing is... I MATTER... MY EXPERIENCE MATTERS... I'm hitting these strings and banging on drums... MATTER MATTERS, YOU MATTER, WE ALL MATTER .... and I want you to know what I believe to be true. Music is magic... it makes people happy. I always think about that clip on MTV of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis tells everybody to take their shirts off and everybody does it. I always loved that, hopefully music can always be that kind of experience...

another visual gift from presty.

q: what is it that you look most forward to in this journey {professionally or otherwise}?
I look forward to making music because I want to find myself. I want to hear a beautiful chorus. I want to watch my friends play music. I want to get my hands dirty. And I want to be more like my best bud, Taylor Hollingsworth.

be sure to check out preston at the red cat on november 5. 

where there is love, there is art. 

the colors of fall.

despite the fact that my weekend was dominated by writing lesson plans on Macbeth, i can honestly say it was lovely. how can it not be when {as you are sitting at your computer for hours at the time thinking of every way to convince children that this play is actually relatable} you look outside your window to find the beautiful colors of fall. it's magic, really. everyday i tried to take at least one break to enjoy the seemingly perfect weather- friday night with friends at rojo, saturday on a walk to dinner in my neighborhood, and sunday at the pumpkin patch. this weekend i also celebrated an "international" birthday of sorts. and i shared a meal with a celebrity {in the education world at least}, jim burke. here are a few photos to show off my weekend:

{i mean, you know} where there is love,

there is art. 

picking favorites.

we all pick favorites. do we not? as a teacher i am forced not to do so. however, as a blogger i can indulge myself in this practice. one of my favorite blogs is Here's looking at me kid. vintage fashion and fabulous papers and beautiful photographs. what's not to love?

the adorable amanda johnson of Here's looking at me kid.

recently i was added to the sweet, little left side of this sweet, little blog. all that to say- check out this lovely and wildly popular blog {as if you haven't already...} and then check me out {oh! wait... you're ahead of the game there too?}!

where there is love, there is art. 

happy birthday, darling.

from across the ocean blue... 
happy birthday, mister murnane. 
i miss you. 

p.s.- think about it... john murnane... 40 years from now... age 64.

p.p.s.- back when you lived in america my hair was shorter than yours. now that you live in europe it's longer. think about it...  

where there is love, there is art {and stuff}. 

you can thank me later.

where there is love, there is art. 

p.s. if this is austin...

 i still love you... 

{man, who doesn't love good country lyrics? you know i do? and i love jokes.}

where there is love, there is art.

while away.

while i was in austin i spent more than one hour {so maybe it was three?} sitting indian style on the floor of Book People, a well known, independent bookstore. i get caught up in independent bookstores. every experience in one is like a first date {one in which you are actually giddy... and i have lived enough to know those are few and far between}. one of the special things that this "bookstore date" shared with me were these fabulous cards. i am a sucker for a good personal note card. and on days like the ones i've had as of late, i could use a card like this one. i am sure some days you could too.

where there is love, there is art. 

a good find.

i've told the story of how i have a cute, little {but not that little} brother. he is a bit more than i give him credit for. unless you know him well it would be hard to know what this onion of a fella is all about. he's one of those kind of folks that you have to peel the layers back one at a time. his label reads "golfer" which might make you assume he lacks creativity. this isn't the case with williamhunter. he can throw clay and encaustic paint without a furrowed brow. he also appreciates hanging the art of others on the walls of his condo. in fact, it was nearly a year ago that i received a message from him to check out a local artist- chase langefield. months and many conversations later, he had a painting commissioned by this impressive young artist. he had a vision of exactly what he wanted and chase langefield saw it to completion.

langefield with my brother's commissioned painting.

after seeing my brother's painting my curiosity peaked concerning langefield- a university of alabama student and native of illinois. per usual, i asked her a few questions on the topic {you know, love and art...}:
q: what inspires you most? 
a: i am inspired by the everyday- a random object or situation sparks an idea.

q: fill in the blank. i love to paint __________.
a: faces. they are interesting.

q: fill in the blank, again please. i love __________.
a: i love to paint. i love to paint and i love my dog, stewie. 

q: what is your vision/dream/goal for what is to come {as far as art is concerned}?
a: i hope to get my art out to as many people as possible. i want it to be everywhere for people to see.

for more information on chase langefield's art follow her here.

{it is no surprise} where there is love,

there is art. 

all so beautiful.

back from austin. forever i had heard the wonder of this city. now i know what was said is true. everything is just cooler in austin. everything is a little stranger. a little more creative. but it all has purpose. it's not strange for the sake of being strange. it's just a new thought. doing something different because it doesn't have to be done one particular way. i love it.

the building of buildings in tejas. 

i just so happened to visit austin during the famed festival austin city limits. this festival is held in a beautiful park in austin. if it's not on your "bucket list" yet, it should be. i honestly did not go to austin on this weekend purposefully. i am sure you aren't believing me when i say this. but, i can't afford festivals the way i once could. however, thanks to my rockstar friends {the kicks} was able to attend on friday. i saw: beach house, vampire weekend, the strokes, and phish. i know, right?

thanks to this sweet friend and her rockstar huzzah i attended ACL.

the rest of my time in austin was spent in a city school {that was the purpose of my trip. not the music. do you believe me yet?} and wandering. i love to wander and get lost in the unfamiliar. there are beautiful things to find. like the moment i had sitting in a grassy knoll in the center of the city, watching the sunset from a red picnic table with a eyelet lace table cloth and a lamp post on every corner. just me. sitting. eating my cupcake. it was one of those deep sigh out moments.

the perfect moment.

thank you, austin. i like that you keep weird. after all, i like to keep weird myself.

what i saw from the grassy knoll.

acl 2010. 

stayin weird?

s. congress

"fashion rocks the belmont" event. 

where there is love {of a city... another one}, 

there is art.