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Carbon Neutral Paris

June 8, 2023

Net Zero Paris from Caroline Lord on Vimeo.

 

A short video I made about Paris becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

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Trampled By Turtles

August 14, 2021

I sit down next to a woman on the plane. She’s on the phone, and I hear distress in her voice. She’s telling someone that she’s hurrying to Alaska. She’d thrown clothes in a bag and gotten a ticket that morning. She ends the call, stows her phone in her purse while I stay quiet and keep reading a novel for an upcoming course.

Toward the end of the flight, we begin chatting. She tells me her son-in-law has been stranded in a remote part of Alaska, and he can’t safely get a flight to his wife (the woman’s daughter) who has been alone with their toddler with no support system for two weeks.

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Taking Off the Hood

May 22, 2020

December. You meet with the plastic surgeon in Charleston. He seems amiable and knowledgeable. You ask if you can have the surgery but keep your hooded eyelids.

He says he can be conservative. Not take out too much. But when he shows you his before and after photos, you don’t see one person with hooded eyelids.

The Doctor says, “You might as well do under the eye as well. Otherwise, it will look aged once you do the uppers.”

He has a point you think, looking at your under-eye puffiness and wrinkles magnified on the computer screen on his desk.

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Road Trippin’ Movies

April 10, 2020

It’s April, 2020. Lots of us are at home to protect ourselves and others from Covid-19, but we’re probably itching to go an adventure, like say, India to sip chai tea or Big Sur in a convertible. We’ll for sure be roaming again, but for now, while we hang out in our sweats, here are a few road trip movies to keep our traveling dreams satisfied.

Five Easy Pieces. 98 minutes. Jack Nicholson plays the leading role. He’s an oil rigger (and former piano prodigy) who takes a trip back to his childhood home with his girlfriend to see his dying father.

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Vision

February 10, 2020


A week ago, I was staying at our family beach house, and I found lots of old magazines from around 2010 and 2011—House Beautiful, Bon Appetit, Porter… (thank you to the cousin with great taste!) While flipping through the pages, I decided to make a vision board.

I’d once created a mood board at a workshop at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston. But recently, I’d read about vision boards. They’re basically the same thing as a mood board, but switching the word “mood” to “vision” changes everything. A mood is just a mood. It changes hourly.

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Bolero

January 18, 2020

I took this photo at MoMA. I liked the art in the background but I was more focused on the women and their clothing. I feel like I dress similarly to the woman on the far left. I wear black and navy blue to which I’ll sometimes add a pop of color. But I’d like to be more like the other two, because I admire women who dare to dress in their own signature style.

I once went to speak with a spiritual healer and she asked me to close my eyes and imagine myself in another time and place.

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The Visual Hit

December 7, 2019

I went to a museum in Charleston, SC. I started off with the historic paintings in gilt frames protected under low lighting and I felt somewhat neutral. In my twenties, I’d studied at the Louvre in Paris for a year. I’d stood in front of a Courbet and Caravaggio and Delacroix while a French teacher lectured about each painting and I took notes. It was amazing to have studied those old masters. But as I’ve aged, I don’t have as much patience for 17 – 19th century art.

Had I seen too many of them over the years?

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The Compass

November 18, 2019

At a women’s outdoor adventure weekend, I held a compass in my palm. I stared down at the arrow ready to make things right.

When I was seventeen, I went on a twenty-one day Outward Bound course in the North Carolina mountains, because my father thought it would be good preparation for college. At the time, I wasn’t so sure.

Looking back, I’m glad I did it. The experience prepared me well for college and beyond. After staying in a tent in the woods for three days by myself, a single dorm room turned out to be a cinch.

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Empty-Nest

August 26, 2019

August 2018 was our official initiation into empty-nesthood. But two months after our youngest child went to college, our oldest son moved back in. We both admitted we were relieved. We weren’t yet ready to be set free, our identities still attached to parenthood. Plus, it was just nice to have him home. Our son moved out last June. Our youngest arrived home for the summer. We loved (most) every minute of her being with us. And then a few days ago, she left again for college, and finally, it seemed we were ready. We came to the beach. We read.

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Post Office

July 27, 2019

For years, I complained about my local post office. The lines! The long wait. But as I started putting together a business selling my art prints, I needed mailing advice. I had no idea about package weights, labels and First Class or Priority, so I kept going in to my post office and asking questions. The same woman was always behind the counter. Her name is Judith. She happily looked up weights. She pointed out when I put the wrong zip code. She basically seemed amused at my bumbling along in a new business. I’ve now changed my tune on the Post Office.

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France

July 24, 2019

I attended a photography retreat in Burgundy. I took lots of notes but I noticed compared to others, I didn’t take a ton of photos. I was thinking ahead to me back home scrolling through hundreds of photos. It felt complicated. So I kept it simple. Just enough to practice my new skills in letting in or keeping out the light. An idea that could be transferred to one’s life. Be the light, we hear. And the reverse, connect with your shadow. That taut line between darkness and light on which we balance. It can be confusing at times. The camera lens has a shutter inside.

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The Beach

July 15, 2019

I went to the beach in June to make a decision. The question, Should I start a business selling my art prints? was simple. But it felt overwhelming because I’d never run a business. Packaging, shipping, staying organized, these thoughts floated like UPS trucks through my brain. I sat on the porch and rocked and contemplated. The rhythmic waves soothed. The breeze calmed my mind. I did research online. I went for a swim. I sat in a beach chair, my tongue tasting the salt on my lips. I wrote down my thoughts. Then one night, I came across a quote.

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Pay Attention

October 6, 2018

 

Pay attention—two simple words essential to creative writing.

One definition of “pay” is to “give or bestow.”

The word “attention” derives from the Middle English word “attend” or to apply one’s mind—one’s energies to someone or something.

To me, paying attention means being present with a purpose. It’s active and focused. By paying attention, we engage our five senses and absorb our surroundings. We take from life to create fiction.

As you go through your day, zoom in on small details then write them down (as you in your own individual and unique way) see them.

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Dialogue and Shot Reverse Shot in Raising Arizona

September 9, 2018

My favorite Coen brothers’ film is Raising Arizona. It’s the story of a soft-hearted, ex-con husband H.I. McDunnough and his infertile wife, Ed, who decide to kidnap a quintuplet in Tempe, Arizona because his real parents already “have more than they can handle.”

It’s full of frantic fun and makes me laugh out loud and the dialogue is the best.

The Coens’ use of eccentric “high hick” diction first starts in Raising Arizona and later becomes a staple in consequent films. It’s an oddball dialect—simple direct language mixed with old fashioned and articulate phrasing.

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Georgia O’Keeffe: The Ultimate Minimalist

August 12, 2018

The way Georgia O’Keeffe lived her life inspires me—from her art to her clothing to her home design.

O’Keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887. Her family then moved to Virginia. She went on to study art at various schools, but it happened to be one particular art professor at Columbia University in New York who greatly influenced her.

Arthur Wesley Dow had a system of art education, based on frequent themes in Japanese art. He advocated simplifying forms as a means of capturing their essence and developing a personal style.

For creating art,

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Caroline Lord Picture Of The Author

About Caroline

My name is Caroline Lord. I'm a writer who loves nature, and I make portraits from twigs, petals and leaves.

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