Spring 22 Edition
Welcome to the latest issue of Warm Hughes - Spring 22 Edition
As promised, this newsletter offers something to be warmed by - so here I am dropping some photographs of flowers (and other natural things) from the past year, also just happens to be Earth Day.
I somehow currently amassed a half dozen arrangements gathered from neighborhood trees and friend’s gardens in the past week and now I’m learning how to propagate magnolia branches to hopefully have my own magnolia tree ten years from now.
If you’ve been following along, I had a lot to share in my last newsletter. Assuming by the frantic busyness of most of my friends, not many will have the time to read everything, so I’ll keep the word count low and image count high on this one.
A thank you to everyone who has subscribed recently and to anyone who didn’t unsubscribe since the last one ☺️ This has been a fun new place to explore.
Spring & “mono no aware”
As a kid, there was a Burning Bush outside the front of my parent’s house that I remember sitting under in the fall watching as the red leaves would drift away in the breeze. This kind of memory to me recalls a feeling that I can only describe with the Japanese idiom “mono no aware”.
When you look it up you’ll find the saying has a few interpretations, but mainly it’s stated as “the pathos of things.” The sentiment is based in an awareness for impermanence in nature invokes a deeper, softer sadness that is simultaneously celebratory. For example, I’ve never felt so happy and sad watching my children grow. It is such a specific and beautiful way to describe something in the abstract.
Flowers (and furthermore mushrooms!) are the fruit of nature’s cyclicality; they are fleeting symbols of achievement by nature that, despite their short life-cycle, are a confirmation that joy is found in life as it continue on, little by little. For this reason, Spring for me is a great time to take more time to notice how quickly and almost effortlessly the natural world disassembles and creates.
If you look carefully in the above photograph, you’ll notice there are ants dismantling the flower. I watched this process happen in its entirety, consuming about 15min of my day. There was something so enchanting about the piece by piece dissolution of a flower, a reverse emergence that brought this now-complete thing back to some its more basic elements.
If you’re in a similar state of dismantling for the purpose of growing, I hope this newsletter is a salient gift of knowing that you’re not alone in it. There can still be profound beauty in your experience, making room for more opportunities to see yourself unfold into existence.
COMMISSIONED WORK
A brief and relevant plug of commissioned work from the past couple months. The first quarter of the year has been relatively slow. I know I’m not alone!
Whatever The Weather - Ghostly Int
Molly over at Ghostly Int. came through again with another fun collaboration around the newest release from North London producer Loraine James. With Justin Sloane again behind layouts, I’m so hyped to see my images of landscapes worked into this venue again.
Take a moment to hear out some of the tracks on all streaming platforms, especially Loraine’s Bandcamp. Very fun to have friends around the world recognizing my image from Antarctica on the cover.
I spent an entire morning jumping between stills and super8 with Jenna Lyons and the 1stDibs team. Thank you to Stephanie Slater for bringing me on!
Kevin Edusei for the cover of Royal Opera Magazine
In February I met up with German Conductor Kevin Edusei in Upper West Side for a cover in Royal Opera Magazine Thankfully on that cold day we had a warm sunlight that helped guide our flowing conversation around interpreting music, Bach, and me brushing up on my rusty German language skill.
It was a pleasure seeing the emotion that can be communicated through fingers, hands, and face. Kevin was an amazing subject to work with, and I only wish I could have attended his performance with the Julliard Orchestra that evening.
Excited to see this in print next week - Thank You to Elizabeth, Claire, and Rachel at Cultureshock Media for the call.
OF INTEREST
Fifth World on NTS with Ian Kim Judd & Purelink
I’ve mentioned IKJ here before, but he happens to run a great bi-monthly show on NTS titled Fifth World. This months installment with Purelink is lovely and blissed out - perfect for that quiet solo walk in the middle of the day you’ve been meaning to take.
“A riff on Jon Hassell's Fourth World series. Where Hassell focused on creating ritual music of potential societies that didn't exist; Ian Kim Judd seeks to evoke the notion of potential utopian societies that could exist. In these times of global instability and uncertainty, Fifth World seeks to posit an alternative, with scenes from an optimistic future.”
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