Footnotes:: February

Moving into March events...

Light returns

Blue sky greeted me this morning as I drank coffee with Hugo in my lap. Sadly, he only got a short snooze today, as I’m off to Paris in the morning for a weekend of stationery and pastry hunting, plus some research for a project I’ll share soon.

The sun now assembles the cats in bright squares on the bed into the afternoon, and I don’t need lights on until after five. The season is shifting, and I’m ready for the brighter afternoons, the breeze coming in the windows, and lighter jackets outside.

Reading shifts as seasons do, and different choices pile up on my nightstand these days — I want my characters out on adventures rather than cozied up indoors. As I write this, The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe is up next. A cover featuring a suit-wearing man with his head replaced by a massive red flame feels incredibly timely.

I’ve started keeping a super-simple reading journal this year, and it’s already changing the way I read and remember stories and details. Given our mutual love of school supplies, I suspect you’ll enjoy discussing this process in our March Member’s live.

Changing the name of this space has shifted more than the surface. Becoming the governess of my mind has opened up a new way of learning. Collecting a stack of books for the month has surfaced themes and threads to follow. Keeping a record of what I notice cements those connections for further snuffling. I’m a truffle pig now, which is no surprise given how much that bookshop smell entices.

One of my particular obsessions lately is resistance. How can one write and make art to take a stand? And how can this happen without total despair? Besides following book tunnels of ideas, discussions with friends have opened up the best kind of Pandora’s boxes.

This performance by First Amendment Dance reminded me of what art can spotlight. What our work can do. Keeley Rees and I hit on the idea of whimsy as a path to resistance, and it lit us both up. We hope you will join us live in March for a conversation on what artists can do now.

In the meantime, feed the creative part of yourself. Read books that nourish, watch stories of artists, and look at work made in turbulent times as inspiration. I’ll get to see a collection of Leonora Carrington’s paintings in Paris, and as a woman who painted through the 1930s, she has so much to teach creatives today.

Take good care of yourself; keep reading, keep learning, and keep creating.

Lots of love,
Caroline

More to discover:

These three are blissed out these days, with sunbathing lasting all afternoon.

Inspiration from February:

• If you haven’t yet watched it, Bad Bunny’s Superbowl Halftime performance is another joyous act of creative resistance.

• Short and sweet thoughts from Jami Attenberg on staying connected to your writing during a tough or distracting time.

• It’s Booker longlist season. Does anyone read the entire long or short list, or do you wait for them to announce the winner?

• Sarah Rushbrooke went to India recently, and the photos she shared of the flowers there are almost as good as a holiday. In one there is an ENTIRE heap of flowers. I cannot fathom how many are in there.

• Wakako Takagi, founder of the beautiful LA stationery shop, Baum-Kuchen, shares stories of hand-binding notebooks and making hydrosols in a contraption that looks right out of a steampunk novel. I swooned, truly.

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What’s on in March

March events for members:

• Jane Eyre continues, running until May.

• March 6: Member’s Live: The Be Your Own Governess Reading Journal (details here)

Free for all:

• March 26: Keeley Rees and I are going live to chat about creative resistance and whimsy. I can’t wait! This is a new time slot — later in the day for Europe and North America and extra super early morning for Australia (Details here)

Hope you can join in for a live soon!

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