Occasional dispatches from an artist and writer about making things, noticing things, and following strange threads through art, story, landscape, and the creative life. Sometimes I'll leave you an image to carry away.
Haunted Lantern #1 🕯️
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Hello there, Welcome to my Wayward Cottage at the edge of the woods. Can we take a look at this tree together? It’s the bark of a tree I encountered on one of my wanderings long ago. It struck me because it looked as though the tree were bound in a corset of its own making, encountered in the process of breaking free. I’ve been back to this part of the woods many times over the years, now with my daughter. And yet, years after taking this photo, I haven’t seen this tree again. Maybe it broke its bonds. Maybe it fell in a storm. But the tree has stayed with me. It has made its way into my writing, into my art. The idea of breaking bonds runs through all of my creative practice. But there’s also something else that’s struck me. Everything is always changing. Capturing a view, a weird sighting, in the moment - even if we don’t know what to do with it - has its value. Because someday it all changes. But the weird little idea, the moment of recognition, wonder, or the question stays with you. So now I offer this to you: Here. Carry this one with you. I saw a tree wearing a corset. Haunted Lanterns are occasional dispatches from my Wayward Cottage — notes on making things, noticing things, and following strange threads through art, story, landscape, and the creative life. Subscribers sometimes receive a little something to carry away. If you’d like the next Lantern delivered to you, you can join me here.
Happy wandering, |
Jen Kiaba
Occasional dispatches from an artist and writer about making things, noticing things, and following strange threads through art, story, landscape, and the creative life. Sometimes I'll leave you an image to carry away.
Hi there Reader, Today I'm taking you up into the woods. There are no paths there that the deer haven't made. Instead there are ridges and rock formations, an abandoned house, traces of a forgotten road, and eventually, a swamp. I've spent over 15 years wandering and photographing these woods - occasionally being lucky enough to find a morel mushroom or two for dinner. The woods themselves feel full of history and stories, waiting to be discovered. One fall afternoon in 2013 I found a rickety...
Hi there Reader, Welcome back to my Wayward Cottage at the edge of the woods. Before the Wayward Cottage, I lived in an old carriage house that had once belonged to a grand estate. Think: questionable kitchen in an old horse stall, bedroom in the hayloft. And more giant spider visitors than I care to recount. The place was rather wayward as well, now that I come to think of it. 😏 The mansion itself was long gone. All that was left was an empty field. There wasn't even a foundation. But this...