{Action. and. Creation} Minneapolis, MN Lifestyle Photography

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
— Albert Einstein

{blend} Minneapolis, MN Photography

"The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong."
— Carl Gustav Jung

i am
becoming
now
exciting
new...

{creation}

"Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things."
— Pablo Picasso

{Charge} Bloomington, MN Fine Art Photography

"The Gate is Straight, Deep and Wide; Break On Through to the other side."
— Jim Morrison

Taken at the Mall of America. These type of artists amaze me...

(and I will add one more picture that fits this above quote so perfectly and which I need so so badly...)



(It is possible that if I do not get a bit of flare and sunburst soon I might become like one of those horrible characters in those teen vampire books everyone is obsessed with (this was intended to incredibly dramatic)

{Wild Ride} Minneapolis, MN Lifestyle Photographer

“As long as these pants are square and this sponge is bob, I will not let you down!
-Spongebob Square Pants

Next year both of my kids will be in school.
Life goes fast.
They are both going to new school.
Today I took my eldest to look around, since she is moving to a new school.
She amazed me at how brave she was and how she took it in.
Thanks to the School Social Work (small plug for a profession that is essential to kids. FYI)...
soooo....
After, we went had fun and a special day together just us,
which seem few and far between these days
Sigh. Weep. Smiles. Tears...:)
Next week is Kindergarten Orientation for my youngest.
Sigh.Weep.Smiles. Tears...
But I can only handle so much Spongebob and MOA...
Maybe a ds game..:)
Because we all know boys are "tough" and the second child can take much more than the first one can;)

(after sponge bob, patrick, american girl...the bookstore...more my speed ahhhh...and hers...)

{Lazy Days} Twin Cities Lifestyle Photographer

"Can't you see that it's just raining?
There ain't no need to go outside."
— Jack Johnson

{the color of our planet} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Photography

The pictures in his mind arose

And began to breathe
And no one saw and no one heard
They just followed the lead
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And no one saw
And no one heard they just followed the lead
The pictures in his mind awoke
And began to breed

-Regina Spektor

{Ray of Light} Shakopee, MN Fine Art Photography

"Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on"
— Langston Hughes

{Hippity Hoppity} MN, Child Photography

{yellow brick trail}

"Can't you give me brains?" asked the Scarecrow.
"You don't need them. You are learning something every day. A baby has brains, but it doesn't know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth the more experience you are sure to get."
— L. Frank Baum (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

{promise, faith.good friday} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art

"I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything - other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world's otherness is antidote to confusion - that standing within this otherness - the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books - can re-dignify the worst-stung heart."
— Mary Oliver

{last supper}

"May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in."
— Mother Teresa

{Friday..(cause..it snowed..and it feels like it should b) Fun} Twin Cities Lifestyle Photography

"Lesson learned? When people say, "You really, really must" do something, it means you don't really have to.

No one ever says, "You really, really must deliver the baby during labor."

When it's true, it doesn't need to be said."
— Tina Fey

{Holy Week. Passover. Reflection}

"Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith."
— W.H. Auden

{E} Minneapolis, MN Mom

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."
— Mary Oliver

She is my muse and reminds me of all the parts I am and then the half the parts I gave her.
She has spirit...
Spunk
Rage
Tears
Laughter
Energy
Anger
Art
Anxiety
Realness
Creativity...
Resiliency...
I can go on..but I want to freeze this one precious moment...
and to ASK...

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
— Mary Oliver

AND WHAT IS YOUR PLAN...

"

{Calling} Prior Lake, MN Child Photographer

"The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others."
— Fred Rogers

I met this family even before I worked with the mother, who is a great teacher, and as calm, patient and beautiful as her daughter. Dad is pretty great, laid back and wonderful too. I hope you enjoy these shots of such a sweet girl growing so magically.

It is always exciting and a great honor to be invited back to a family and record another journey in the life of a family...to see the changes, from the new toys, words, teeth, love, hugs, tears...I could go on...so that means I should stop:)

{reinvention} Minnesota Fine Art Photography

"Sometimes you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right"
— Grateful Dead

{around a certain time}

"I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."
— Anne Lamott (Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith)

{clutches} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Photography

"As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know."
— Carl Gustav Jung

{Offerings} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Child Photography

It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do
with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere:
Self is only an idea, a mortal idea.
That which passes into everything is one thing.
It's a dream already ended.
There's nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about.
I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression,
they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away?
Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence
of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because
it was never born."
Selected Letters 1957-1969 and is a letter he wrote to his first wife, Edie in 1957."
— Jack Kerouac (The Portable Jack Kerouac)

I am been devouring books of late about how to become an authentic artist. The biggest theme is make art, make mistakes and make a lot of both.

And the easiest part...accept uncertainty...Ok. I am fine with that one {insert super dramatic jersey shore type eye roll}

I did not like this. So I am going to do it. Here is my first. I madly used filters, super duper dodged/burned, blew highlights, just grabbed random tools in photoshop I never used and played... cropped odd and it is below.

It is the start...

{postcards.from.the edge) Minneapolis, MN fine art photography

Look,' he said, 'I don't think we should continue this discussion. I don't like this side of you."
' 'I'm not a box,' she said 'I don't have sides. This is it. One side fits all. This is it."
— Carrie Fisher (Postcards from the Edge)

{soft} Minneaplis, MN Lifestyle Photography

"I think I've discovered the secret of life -- you just hang around until you get used to it."
— Charles M. Schulz

{Race} Gilbert, AZ Child Photographer

"Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?"
— Shel Silverstein (Where the Sidewalk Ends)

five

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
— Mohandas K. Gandhi

{scrabble) Phoenix, AZ Fine Art Photography

Calvin: Ha! I've got a great word and it's on a "Double word score" box!
Hobbes: "ZQFMGB" isn't a word! It doesn't even have a vowel!
Calvin: It is so a word! It's a worm found in New Guinea! Everyone knows that!
Hobbes: I'm looking it up.
Calvin: You do, and I'll look up that 12-letter word you played with all the Xs and Js!
Hobbes: What's your score for ZQFMGB?
Calvin: 957."
— Bill Watterson (Scientific Progress Goes Boink)