Seeking Sanctuary

Hello, dear readers, and happy Monday. I hope that Saint Valentine visited each of you this weekend and left you with a bit of chocolate, poetry, or perhaps a flirty text from the cute guy at the office. Michael and I decided to jet off to Jamaica for a long weekend, and I’ve returned to work feeling inspired (if not a bit sunburned). We stayed at a hotel property built around the former home of author Ian Fleming, famous for his hugely successful James Bond series. There was a newspaper article framed in the lobby — a story titled “How to Write A Best Seller” — where Fleming famously quipped, “Luckily, I had an island hideaway.” Michael and I sipped rum punch and imagined Ian overlooking the ocean, dreaming up Bond’s next adventure. We talked about the necessity of a studio — an isolated and sacred place for the creative process to happen. When Hemingway was young and living in Paris, he liked to go to cafes to write, but only the ones where he didn’t know anybody. I’ve always dreamed of a backyard studio — just a sort of sanctuary where one could paint, write, play music, or take photos. It would be messy, and always changing. But how wonderful! Where do you go when you’re seeking sanctuary for your creative process?

image sources: alicia vikander in the danish girl, goldeneye resort, abstraction blue by hilda, pablo picasso in his studio, carolina herrera baez’s home photographed for architectural digest spain, volto di donna by henri matisse, georgia o’keefe’s studio, writings by cy twombly, portrait of ernest hemingway, la fiancée de el nuit, the natural home by hans blomquist