The Assignment

I had one of those bursts of creative energy this weekend that makes you feel like the world not only somehow works, but is a beautiful place.

Graham and I did small creative acts together, like make a bird feeder out of a milk carton and hang it in the tree outside our fire escape. We also made the video below together. I am usually such a solitary creator that something about us doing stuff together really WOKE me up. It was a new way to play together. We have plans to make other stuff and I can’t wait for more creative adventures with him.

I took the train to my friend Adrienne’s family home, and we made home made pizza in her father’s outside pizza oven. Her uncle made mozzarella and we cut it up and when the steaming pizza was delivered, I couldn’t believe how FRESH it all tasted. So DELICIOUS.

I also went on a field trip to one of my favorite spots in New York—Murray’s cheese counter at the Grand Central Market. I got to sample many cheeses and grill the guys behind the counter about their knowledge of all things cheese. It turns out they take classes to learn all this stuff and they are thinking of developing a farm cheese tour, where they offer tours at the local farms the create some of their cheeses. So cool and fun.

I went and saw the movie Be Kind Rewind and it BLEW MY MIND. I was reluctant to see this movie because I’m mixed on Michel Gondry’s other movies. While I LOVED Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I HATED Science of Sleep. I went into this film with low expectations and came out completely REELING with inspiration and joy. Not only is it HILARIOUS, but in its own quiet way, I found it deeply profound. It seems to me a movie of not only creating and making things, but about community, and a sense of play. Like most movies that I love, it isn’t for everyone, but it hit me in just the right way at the right moment. It spoke to things I was already thinking about and I felt totally inspired and encouraged by it. More and more I am drawn to ways to create in the “real world”—outside of my studio (or outside of my own mind). Every time I make things real and let them go out into the real world, I feel like I am free to do anything and everything I want. This movie was like that too. I was reminded immediately of the quote by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher:

The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things.

Be Kind Rewind felt like an assignment to me and I walked out of the theater ready to act.