Thursday



Welcome, and...a little about this blog.

This is a bit of an experiment - a journey to a dusty room in my mind, an attic room shot with sun motes and smelling of old maps. It's a room I haven't visited much in recent times, but with good reason. These have been times of great tectonic shifts in my life, times of arduous transition. I have become a wife (something I never hoped to be) and a mother (something I never planned to be). Each of these things has been a brilliant shard of happiness, something quite other than I ever suspected it of being. Now, feeling at ease in my new life, adrift on its surface like a small boat - tethered and dreaming, I feel it's time to return, and roam the corridors of my imagination once again.

Here I am, ready to open the swollen, creaky door, dust out the corners, clear out a few of the cobwebs that have collected (though not too many...since they create a nice effect) and set to work.

It's exciting...my fingertips are tingling with anticipation. What to make? What to collect? What to tack up on the walls of this room of mine? My hand is inches from the doorknob...I can just see a sliver of light from an attic window, and hear a flutter of wings in the eves.

But first, a preface. I have tagged this blog une envie...which, in French, means something between a craving and a desire, as you would crave a cup of coffee, or a particularly light pastry, frosted and dewy, set behind reflective glass. I like the word, because I often crave imagery that way - so intensely that it makes my mouth water. This "room" is where I will keep the imagery that makes me crave, like truffles in a pastry case, like sugared almonds in a paper cone, like the smell of roasting chestnuts on a city street.

The blog itself, as you see, is called "Une Envie de Sel", or a craving for salt. I happened upon it as the title of a food piece in a French magazine, and liked the ring of it, like the rap of a butterknife on crystal. I like it on multiple levels, which is what makes it right. I like it because it is more or less the opposite of "a craving for sugar", which would, of course, be too obvious. I like it because salt is a spice, perhaps the purest spice, and our life is all about food - my husband being a reformed chef, and our world centering around our cluttered and well-used kitchen. We are sybarites in this way - sybarites of meager means. What money we have, we often spend on indulging our love for food - both frivolous and essential. Then there are the more random and mystic elements - for instance, a doctor once diagnosed me as needing more salt in my diet. Who, I ask you, needs more salt? Most people are told they need less salt. This remains a mystery even to me. And then there's the fact that my great uncle Josef, the man who married my great aunt Madeleine (who was previously a nun...but that's another story) was a "salt farmer" in the south of France. I wrote an essay about him in grade school. So you see, it was just....right.

In any case, welcome, welcome, welcome. Welcome to my secret room...

9 comments:

Yoli said...

Oh what an introduction! Can I sit by this pretty chair in the corner of the room? I love observing. I am happy to be the first in this your salt sanctuary. This is going to be a magical place. I just know it. My heart is already skipping beats, as I know that being allowed in the mind of an artist is like discovering Atlantis. Ok, I am sitting here quietly...

Elizabeth said...

Bravo on your grand opening my friend. I love it. Already it drips with beauty and speaks to me.

paris parfait said...

I'm intrigued and want to read more!

Laurie said...

Cool, cool, Maia...

Your writing makes me want to pull up a chair and a hot cider and admire your new room! :-)

Stacie said...

Oh this is lovely. Thank you for inviting me. It is what i have been needing myself. Do you know i am from a place called Hutchinson, Kansas- home to the salt mines- and vaults that house so many antiquties and priceless documents, old film reels. Really, it is the only interesting fact about that small town. My high school mascot was the "Salt Hawk", the pep club the "Briny Birds" and the drill team the "Salt Shakers". Not quite the poetry of Une envie de Sel but a Kansasans ode to salt ;-)!

Jeanne-ming Brantingham said...

Maia, I love the way you write. Late at night when I am too tired to paint myself I creep away here to this keyhole and peer into your room. I have come way way way back to this early corner, wanting to make sure I get it all. You are so beautiful.

Christiane Dumont said...

Bonjour, merci pour ce beau voyage que j'ai fait en découvrant votre "blog" (vous avez laissé un commentaire sur le blog "tous les jours dimanche" que je visite régulièrement) vous êtes magnifique, mystérieuse,pleine de vie! Je viendrai vous voir souvent, vos images m'inspirent, et votre petite Q est superbe, bravo, bravo pour toute cette lumière.
Amicalement, Christiane

*Terre indienne* said...

Bonjour, merci pour ce beau voyage que j'ai fait en découvrant votre "blog" (vous avez laissé un commentaire sur le blog "tous les jours dimanche" que je visite régulièrement) vous êtes magnifique, mystérieuse,pleine de vie! Je viendrai vous voir souvent, vos images m'inspirent, et votre petite Q est superbe, bravo, bravo pour toute cette lumière.
Amicalement, Christiane

Maia said...

Merci, Christiane! (C'est le nom de ma grandmere, aussi!)