plants | egg & dart

I have a post about one of our favorite museums here in Paris to share with you but the truth is I haven’t been able to get myself to take the time to finish editing the pictures. It’s not because I don’t love them but if I’m being honest, I’ve been stalled on them. And then this morning I thought that what I should really share was a celebration of the holiday to come. A holiday for when life comes surging back. And that’s exactly what my mother-in-law wanted me to document in her garden the last weekend we were there. She wanted pictures of that moment in between. The quiet right before the surge of life washes over the sleeping ground. The garden waiting.

So that’s what I knew I wanted to share this Good Friday. Admittedly, winters in this part of France look little like the winters I know in my Maine. The ground rarely gets that unforgiving hollow thump from being frozen nor does it ever stay white very long if it ever gets a layer of snow. I had forgotten what the winter ground sounds and feels like until I was home in February. So curious. And because that rarely happens in this climate, green can blanket the ground even in the darkest months. Hardy old friends like leeks, beets, cabbage, and chard march right through the cold.

But new delicate greens are popping up in every corner. Vibrant colors that have been dormant for months. The birds have so much to tell in the trees and everything seems to be humming. It’s all waking up. It’s all surging back.

A very beautiful spring to you and a very Happy Easter.

xo,

It had been a while since we had made it to a nocturne at the Louvre and since our last planned visit ended in an evening home with a sick husband, I think we were even more determined to break out and get there this past Friday after work! We decided to visit the new Arts d’Islam wing again since it is so large we didn’t even see half of the collection on the first visit. Now, a second visit down, we still have a lot more left to see.

These collections, even before the new wing was opened, have always been some of my favorites at the museum. The colors and prolific patternwork (which is often calligraphy transformed into decoration, giving it several layers of purpose) are endlessly stunning. I am fascinated by the lines of these works and love drawing inspiration from them. Their sense of scale and balance is so perfectly tuned.

Half way through this second visit, I realized that the overwhelming majority of the pieces I was drawn to that evening were depicting faces, flora, and fauna, the latter two being particularly common themes in Islam art. So, here is a second visit to the new wing for you, featuring the many faces, plants, and animals carved, painted, and smithed over centuries and across continents.