shanna murray

into the woods

A little out take from a job I'm working on...I've been spending a lot of time at the creek, which makes me happy. It's forecasted to rain today through Sunday, which also makes me happy - a good time to get back in the studio. And maybe take a nap or two, I've been sort of running on next to empty for a few days straight now...must do something about that. Watercolors might do the trick.

I need some new tunes, what's been in heavy rotation for you this summer?

Hugs all around,

Shanna

right around the corner

From a little field trip to Palmyra last week with friends. This summer I'm not going on any major vacations, so it has been fun to see things I've never seen just down the road...

Next up, free Neko Case in Buffalo! And the Maira Kalman exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery!  I do love me some Maira Kalman! What fun things have you been exploring locally lately? 

'Till soon...                                                                                                                                            

a gift

One of my favorite parts of summer this year: my intern Courtney. She has made work 100% more manageable since entering my life. I have a pretty unwieldy to-do list this season, but because of Courtney I can go to sleep at a reasonable hour, go for peaceful walks with Ollie at the creek, and make good food. You know, have a somewhat "normal" life. I don't know what I'm going to do when fall arrives...

I've had so much to share with you all lately, but haven't been making the time to take many pictures. I guess I've just been focusing on living, not the recording of it. Part of that has to do with the fact that C and I have been having some pretty major discussions lately. And there's really no way to whip out a camera in the middle of a good talk and snap a pic of a very photo shy guy. 

But I'm back, eager to record all of summer's doings again, including that studio peek I promised!

Happy new week!

Shanna

happy kitchen

A little bit of life at my kitchen table these last handful of happy days. 

It's busy, busy around here - so I'm signing off early this week. I'll be back on Monday with a little peek at my studio re-do in progress...almost done!  

Happy wishes for the upcoming weekend to you!

Shanna

at the shore

What a gorgeous weekend! 

I'm just popping in this morning to say a quick hello after a beautiful holiday/birthday weekend. Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend too! Today's all about getting organized and back to work after a much needed couple of days off. I haven't felt this refreshed in a long time. Year 36 is off to a wonderful start - aside from eating way too much cake!

'Till tomorrow, then...

Shanna

p.s. I like the top photo larger.

summer might be here after all

Finally, sun! I hope it sticks around tomorrow, our little family is going on a picnic and a long country drive. Maybe we'll fly a kite, if there's wind. Today I'm going to bake myself Deb's beautiful raspberry buttermilk cake to take along. I think I'm going to hang the twinkle lights too! 

Happy holiday weekend, U.S. friends!

Shanna

Rain here again today...will there ever be another string of sunny summer days? I felt like revisiting this shoot with Amber today, taken on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Feels like forever ago. It's difficult to write a summer manifesto when I've been wearing a cardigan for two days straight. I have been thinking of my 36 things to do while I'm 36th, though. 

Still sifting and weeding through boxes today, feeling more able to let some things go, happy at the thought of being a somewhat lighter traveler through this world. Eight bags went out to the bin yesterday. Loving how in limiting what I keep to only the most important and sentimental of treasures, what matters most is made so plain. 

{o},

Shanna

past & present

I've been sorting through boxes of old things. Boxes I have carried with me from place, to place - only sifting through them once, if at all, in a year. I feel more than anything that the contents are more a weight than an opportunity to reflect, yet I hold on to them. 

Maybe I am ready to let most of these things go, won't I feel more free? I wonder whether I need the contents of a box to help me remember. Just one box of the most treasured bits might be enough. What does it mean to go through life with boxes and boxes filled with the past-what affect does that have on the present?

I think about the fact that every time it becomes necessary to sort through this collection of artifacts the act of doing so forces me to live in the past. I am no longer sitting on the floor of my studio, cars driving by outside, Ollie in front of me looking for a game of tug, tea kettle whistling. I am gone. Slipped back to a time I was far less of everything I am now, except young. 

I wonder if any of this reflecting is helpful, if  there is something I need to learn. Or does it hold me further from the self  I am trying to grow into? Are you a keeper of so many old things? Or do you let them go? 

Today, while I was out with Ollie I thought of this poem by W.S. Merwin:

    Far Company

At times now from some margin of the day

I can hear birds of another country

not the whole song but a brief phrase of it

out of a music that I may have heard

once in a moment I appear to have

forgotten for the most part that full day

no sight of which I can remember now

though it must have been where my eyes were then

that knew it as the present while I thought

of somewhere else without noticing that

singing when it was there and still went on

whether or not I noticed now it falls

silent when I listen and leaves the day

and flies before it to be heard again

somewhere ahead when I have forgotten

 xoxo,

 Shanna