collective souls

OUR LIVES are touched most profoundly when we connect with other souls. Valentine's Day is a good day to remember that. It's not about couples, it's not about people who are alone. It's not about an ephemeral display of flowers and chocolate. It's about the collective of souls we connect with at the level of love.

FRAGILE HEART | This beautiful hand-blown glass ornament was a Christmas gift from my friends Eric and Tim, who now live in Germany. They bought it at one of the many Christmas markets 
there I've always wanted to visit. 

AS FRAGILE as life can be, we live most of our lives as if we are impervious to any harm or disease that might come our way. That's the only way to live life fully. When, in fact, the older we get, our physical selves decline, but our souls get stronger.

BLEEDING HEART | These shiny glittered glass heart ornaments were produced in antique molds in the Coburg area of Germany.

WITNESS the recent passing of my Bengal cat Abella. She lived a long and full life, but her body finally gave way. Up until that point, she commanded a matriarchal respect from both Frida, our Ragdoll cat and Tallulah Barkhead, our newest addition to the family.

A BEAUTY | Abella is Italian for "a beauty", and that she was. Rest in peace sweet Abella! This beautiful photo was taken by my great friend Claudia Lopez when Abella was probably 3 or 4 years old.

HER STRENGTH and presence was truly commanding. In dying, she left all of us an amazing gift. Because we were lucky enough not to have to make that terrible decision of an injected death, this family was brought closer together in her last moments. Juan and I laid on the bed with Abella on my chest and Juan with his hand on Abella's head. We knew the time was near. She passed so peacefully and beautifully with my hands cupped around her body. We both felt that magical last soul vibration just before her heart stopped. That locked us all together forever. No words can really describe this kind of peaceful beauty. It is an experience that, at once expands and calms at the same time. That was January 24th, just 3 weeks ago today.

TOOLS OF LOVE | These tools are made to be eaten because they are made of chocolate by Scholokomell in Germany. The heart-shaped chocolates are from Cacao in Atlanta. The flavors are sweet and spicy: gold is Aztec Aphrodisiac, white is Cayenne Passionfruit and pink is Antica Strawberry.

VALENTINE'S DAY isn't only for lovers, it's for friends also. Not only the glass ornament above was in a Christmas package from my friends Eric and Tim in Germany, they also included these wonderful chocolates in the shapes of a wrench, a bolt, a paintbrush and a tube of paint. Broad brushstrokes for collective souls indeed.

BUTCH ROMANCE | Chocolate tools by Scholokomell of Germany. The heart-shaped chocolates are from Cacao in Atlanta.

WE'RE ALL STRONGER for the collective souls that touch our lives. And as Juan always corrects me, when I tell him I am lucky to have him, saying "we are lucky", so I correct him now by saying I love "us". Together, all we have is us, and that is more than enough.

©2016 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland

hearts and arrows

CUPID CAN BE quite a trickster. One need look no further than his choice of weapon to know that something is amiss. Arrows? Aimed at the heart? Sounds like a dangerous proposition. 

LOVE IS most certainly the finely-drawn target that we are all after, but unless the correct balance of grace, light, and levity are found in just the right proportions, it's easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we've found the love worthy of our noblest aims.

IF WE DARE open our hearts again after having them shattered, we had better be sure this time around that our little buddy cupid hasn't been off flying in the clouds for far too long. Being a romantic fool, I'm often right there with him, flitting around looking for suspects without planting my feet firmly on the ground.

LOVE IS quite a heady affair, but only becomes substantive once our arrows are sharpened and our aim is sure. It's not an easy sport at all. And it's certainly not for the faint of heart.

BUT WE KEEP getting up, brushing ourselves off and finding a way, lessons learned, to move in that direction again. A sure-fire direction of love. Because nothing else compares, and nothing else will do. After all—true love, if you've ever had it . . . well, you know the drill. And our hearts know the way.

©2014 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland.

heart strings

LOVE is connection. A deep connection that pulls at your heart strings. Whether you love, have loved or lost—these connections always feel achingly similar. Valentine's day has never been one of my favorite holidays, because when you're not able to be with those you hold dearest to your heart for any reason, then it seems insignificant at best and heartbreaking at its worst.

FRAGILE HEARTS | A red-gridded heart was tied to a special Christmas gift my mother received from me years ago and is from Neiman Marcus. The small bumpy ornament (left) is an antique reproduction by Bethany Lowe Designs, which I purchased last year from Bayberry Cove and part of a varied set of three seen on the tree. A ceramic faux bois vase makes the perfect container to give the tree height.

MY MOTHER, who would have celebrated her 89th birthday on February 10th of this year originally inspired this collection of heart ornaments. Part of this collection was started many years ago—as they were individually tied to Christmas gifts I gave to her—one-by-one. They were never meant for Valentine's Day until four years after she had passed. I first photographed  them for a blog post on her birthday in 2009 entitled Hearts of Glass. As I hold these ornaments touched by her and tied by heartstrings, I'm firmly connected somehow to worlds unknown.

HEART BLING | These two hearts may seem like the odd men out on the tree, but they are significant to me for many reasons. The metal rhinestone-studded wings folded into a heart shape is one of two such ornaments I randomly happened upon at Homegoods a few years back, where this past season I also found this glittered Oberfrankishe Glas heart. You have to have a keen eye to find such treasures nestled within all the market outcasts in such stores.

THIS YARN-WRAPPED wire tree has been a meditation of both love and loss for me. The tedious task of upcycling an existing paper-wrapped tree by over-wrapping all of its branches in thin pale pink cotton yarn was time well-spent in reflection. Valentine-themed ornaments are tied to this tree with the same yarn wrapping its branches—branches which were used originally in my blog post entitled White Christmas. 

CARDINAL RED | This hand-blown glass bird ornament could represent one of the showiest of winter birds, the cardinal. Interestingly enough, this brightly-colored bird is always the male of the species. The glass birds were gift from a friend and part of a multi-colored set (the smoke grey glass bird is also on the tree) and are distributed by Roost Home Furnishings.

I DROPPED Devin at the airport with his one-way ticket to New York City on February 2nd. He left his job and most of his belongings here in Atlanta and headed to the Big Apple—as dreamers do—with big plans and a heart full of hope. My heart follows him there. The direction from here is still undetermined, and the tugging will continue until we both have both tested the tension and find the point at which the tightropes into our futures might coincide in tandem again.

EARLY LIGHT | This photo of Devin (left) and I was taken just before we left for the airport on February 2nd, 2013, when he left for New York City.

LIFE IS at once, exciting and heartbreaking—up in the air, as they say. Going out onto a limb is the only way to find yourself in the life you have imagined. I wish Devin all the luck in the world on this journey he must take. It has spurred me to gain the momentum again to live my dreams and find a place where my work is rewarding—by doing what I do best. The sun is shining in both of our faces. But, the physical distance between us casts a long shadow for now. It isn't ever an easy journey to set off into the unknown.

SWEETS FOR THE SWEET | A metal pedestal from Star Provisions is topped with a paper doily and decadently piled high with delicately-flavored Turkish delight in rose and lemon, a 17th century recipe manufactured by Hacizade.

IT WAS ONLY seven years ago that Valentine's Day ushered great sorrow, when my then 33-year-old nephew, Alan died on February 14, 2006. So Valentine's Day—as it will continually be for the rest of my life—is a day of love and sadness combined together and mixed into an emotional stew. It's certainly not easy to swallow, but gives great sustenance, nevertheless.

GERMAN BEAUTY | The most finely-crafted old world ornaments are still made in their German birthplace. A fine example is the company Oberfrankishe Glas which made this beautiful hand-glittered heart ornament in Germany.

TRUER WORDS have been never been written than those that poets write. The following phrase from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27, 1850 applies more than ever with with the pull and tug of the present, the gentle nudges of my memory and a tenuous tightrope directed toward the future. Connections of the heart are all firmly tied to those we love dearly. Only for lack of words, do we call them heart strings. But they are more than that.

I hold it true, whate'er befall; 

I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

A VALENTINE card is the most personal and poetic way to express your love for someone. It might be the most important component of a Valentine gift. Valentine's Day is certainly one of the most card-centered holidays of all. If your not crafty or designer-ly enough to make your own, buying a handmade card crafted in the capable hands of a graphic designer/crafts-person, is in order. Your love is certainly not mass-produced and impersonal, so why should the big card companies get all the love? Here are two examples—one custom-designed and another handmade. I designed this valentine (inset, above) at my computer, printed it and gave to Devin the night before he left for NYC. The beautiful stitched card (below) is handmade by another designer friend, Maya Metz Logue.

FOR LOVE | (Inset photo, above right) I designed this card to give to Devin for his send off to New York, as homage to the famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana. HEART STRING VALENTINE | (Above) Maya Metz Logue makes handmade cards that are hand-cut and tied with embroidery thread. She is an art director, graphic designer and illustrator living in Birmingham, Alabama. Her individually handmade cards like this Valentine card, can be bought on her Etsy site by clicking on this link.

©2013 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland
handmade card by MAYA METZ LOGUE

hearts on fire

WHEN YOU'RE in love, Valentine's Day is a sacred event. Saints, sinners and symbolism unite under the umbrella of unconditional love. If you're thinking rationally, love is bound by the heartstrings that give life ritual meaning at least, and a fullness of purpose at most. You could metaphorically call it the difference between a kiss and a rose—a kiss being just a kiss and a rose being imbued with a full cycle of meaning and symbolism.

SAINT VALENTINE, who the holiday is named after, is recognized by the Catholic Church, but through three different entities. One legend has it that Valentine was a priest in third-century Rome who performed secret weddings even after the emperor had outlawed marriage for young men, reasoning that single men made better soldiers (an interesting piece of history in light of  today's "don't ask, don't tell" political climate).

ANOTHER LEGEND has it that St. Valentine was martyred for helping Christians escape Roman prisons. The most common legend holds that St. Valentine is in the reverse role (in prison), where he falls in love with his jailor's daughter, writing her a letter on the eve of his execution which signed with the now famous phrase "From Your Valentine."

SOME SUGGEST the holiday can be traced back to Chaucer in the 14th century (old English) writing about the season that birds choose their mates. These lines were part of a poem written by Chaucer to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia:  

For this was on seynt Volantynys day

When every byrd cometh there to chese his make.

THIS SANTOS cage doll (above) is dressed for the occasion of unconditional love and holds a small sacred heart Ex-Voto locket. An altar to any saint of your choosing, the empty conical shape of her skirt (or cage), becomes personally meaningful with the addition of your own artifacts and anything else deemed symbolic. An anthropological treasure trove abounds within the world of saints. I've chosen antique heart ornaments and sacred heart Ex-Voto locket ornaments to celebrate Saint Valentine's Day, along with berried cedar branches and a trailing rose branch which last summer, circled in on itself in the top of a planter forming a crown of thorns in my container garden. Could that naturally-formed crown of thorns be a firm reminder that love is as much about the warm fuzzy feelings you get inside as it is the prickly affair of forgiveness?

I DON'T MEAN forgiveness in the conditional/traditional sense. If you were to choose the jailed Roman martyr, St. Valentine mentioned above, his story goes that he was personally interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II. Claudius tried to get St. Valentine to convert to Roman paganism in 0rder to save his life. But Valentine conversely tried to convert the Emperor to Christianity to which Claudius threw him in a Roman prison to wait his fate. Valentine's jailor had a blind daughter to which he wrote the famed "From Your Valentine" letter. Legend has it that her sight was restored through St. Valentine's loving intercessionary prayer.

LOST IN THE STORY, St. Valentine chose a far more loving and compelling path of compassion and unconditional forgiveness for his jailor's daughter. This stands in stark contrast to the premise that forgiveness is conditional as it is in the Catholic practice of confession. Other protestant traditions carry the same precept without the benefit of an intermediary priest. In most protestant religious traditions, the granting of forgiveness is conditional on the offender's remorse and pleas for pardon.

ST. VALENTINE'S  lesson is clear when you are presented with this: Divine love and forgiveness are unconditional. That's the lesson exemplified in all the lives of the saints. This Valentine's day, I invite you to take your own spiritual journey to that place within your own hearts. It is rarely achieved by mere mortals, but going down this liberating road to unconditional love and forgiveness is something to celebrate. Even so, all most of us can muster in achieving this most noble goal is to begin the journey in the right direction.

SACRED HEARTS | (Top) This collection of metal sacred heart ornaments are from several sources. The three flat embossed metal ornaments are from the 2011 winter season's Wisteria catalog. The rhinestone-studded sacred heart ornament at the bottom left of the photo is from Pottery Barn. The large copper-finished Flaming Heart Ex-Voto Cachette ornament is from Eleanor Brown Boutique. The small golden Ex-Voto ornaments are from SantosCageDoll.com. 

SACRED CAGE | (Above photos) This reproduction Santos Cage Doll was found at Tuesday Morning. It sits atop a crepe paper rose wreath. Ex-Voto ornaments are listed above and from Eleanor Brown Boutique and SantosCageDoll.com. Her crown was purchased through eBay. Two unusually-colored antique mercury glass hobnail heart ornaments are from my personal collection.

NEO GOTHIC | (Above) "Arcadian Gothic" artist Mark Ryden's paintings are layered with references ranging from Renaissance landscape and Neoclassical portraiture to pop-culture kitsch. For tree lovers like me, Ryden's "The Tree Show" series of art (of which the above example is not a part of) is reproduced alongside his meticulous research on the tree as myth. This book is available on Amazon.com here and a Special Edition Exhibition Book is available at Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, Inc. See the links to the book in the left-hand column of this blog also. His paintings are fascinating modern cultural mash up which are painted with classical methods.

©2012 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland

a labor of love

The Decorated Tree in book form available here.

MY FIRST BOOK, the collected best from what you've seen in this blog is available NOW here!

IN THE SPIRIT of Indie publishers and bloggers everywhere, I decided to self publish my book exactly the way I wanted it to be. This blog served as the catalyst. I wish I could have stacks of them to give away and sign for those that have requested that already, but if you order it, I will sign it for you. If you're not in Atlanta, we can figure out the details of how I can do that by contacting me through The Decorated Tree Facebook page or here. Being the perfectionist I am, this book is as professionally-produced as any you might see at a bookstore. Using my huge collection of ornaments and decorations, having an art director's eye for photography and developing a knack for writing has led me to realizing my dream of publishing a book. I'm hoping this book will be the tipping point for something big! Although this coffee table-worthy book is no small feat—it is a large 12" x 12" in size and 144 pages, with 186 sumptuous full-color photos. The finished product is a high-end digital hardbound book with a dust jacket (preview it below)

The Decorated Tree by Darryl Moland

SINCE THE BOOK is printed within a publish-on-demand scenario, the price is a higher than a mass-produced book. But that is how publishers afford to bring books to the general market. I'm only profiting nine dollars for each book sold with the rest going for print and production costs. Blurb.com, who is publishing it makes high quality books, so I don't think you'll be disappointed. I even surprised myself with what I have created! Within the book, there are some new photos shot especially for the book that aren't in this blog. So if you like what you've seen in this blog, the book has a more complete feel. I'm an old-fashioned print guy, and I worked to design it within the realm of my expertise for a printed product. There are only a few more days left to order to get this extra-special, from-the-heart first-edition in time for Christmas. Even if you don't order now, order it for after Christmas. The book carries you on a trip through a whole year's-worth of every major holiday and more.

DIVIDED INTO four sections—one for each season, the book takes you on a journey through the most celebrated holidays of the year. Starting with Valentine's Day, the book ends with a toast and a New Year's tree. Old and new acquaintances I've made through this blog won't soon be forgotten. So here's a toast to all those who have encouraged and supported me throughout this effort—from my blog followers, my Facebook friends (both my personal page and The Decorated Tree page)—to friends in my daily life who have embraced my ideas. "Here's a toast to many more friends, creative ideas and decorated trees to come." Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement in helping me make a dream into a reality. It's has truly been a labor of love!

 

©2011 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Decorated Tree book by Darryl Moland,
book cover photo by Harold Daniels
 

valentine tree of hearts

A FAR CRY from making lackluster cakes in my childhood neighbor's Easy-Bake Oven, the chemistry of seeing flour and sugar and other ingredients morph into a baked confection was our first exercise in creating for ourselves what our mothers and grandmothers so deftly concocted with expert confidence. There is nothing else like cookies, cakes and pies. Sometimes, I wonder if we shouldn't just have dessert first, instead of saving room for it as an afterthought. It's no wonder Valentine's day has become a day to give sweets to loved ones.

MY MOTHER,  a consummate homemaker, was seemingly always in the kitchen cooking, canning something from the garden, or washing dishes. She always preferred to make cakes and pies over cookies. A good Southerner wasn't worth their salt if they couldn't bake a decent cake or lighter-than-air biscuits. It's not that way anymore. I think she liked to bake cakes best because of their scene-stealing grandiosity. Biscuits with butter and homemade preserves or with peppery milk gravy are another story altogether. Maybe growing up surrounded by cakes is the reason I obsessively collect cake plates, just as sweet memories of the holidays drive collecting the ornaments which are the raw material for this blog. Growing up in the American South, there were always cake walks, birthday cakes, fruitcakes, and even pancakes and potato cakes. This would sometimes coalesce across the community with fundraiser bake sales full of homemade goodness. Who could resist contributing to a cause that way?

EVERY YEAR  at Christmastime, I remember going out to the back porch to drive nails into the eyes of a fresh coconut, drain the milk into a glass, and crack the shell with a hammer. I would bring it to mother in the kitchen and we would peel off the thin outer layer of the slightly sweet meat. She would grate the coconut, toss it with confectioners sugar and press it into the the icing of the tallest layered cake she could make that would stand upright, even if it was held together inside with toothpicks. It was always quite a sweet spectacle and was the first thing everyone in the family would devour from a counter laden with other treats like pecan pies, a wine-soaked fruitcake, date-nut rolls, and even a competing German-chocolate cake. Nothing else seemed to compare to that stately white beauty layered and dressed in fresh coconut. It was mouth-watering deliciousness.

A VALENTINE TREE  (above) began with the idea for a tree full of hearts of one sort or another. An Easy-Bake light bulb went off and cookies came to mind. Immediately, I thought of my friends Brandon and John and their venture in becoming professional bakers. They agreed to collaborate with me by baking the cookies along with my initiation to the art of decorating them. We decorated the cookies they baked with colored icing, nonpareils and several types of brightly-colored sugars. The result of our combined creative efforts hang on the tree created from a tree branch painted white and glued at the tips with vintage paper leaves — all directing their attention with curve of the branch. I wanted the tree to match the ethereal and magical fairy-dust quality of Bear Maker Bakery cookies, along with the absolute exuberance and passion Brandon and John show in their baking efforts.

THEY TOO discovered baking in their respective childhood Easy-Bake Ovens, and they never forgot the power of a homemade confection. After they found each other, they ventured out on a limb together with a dream and a goal of making the most delicious cookies possible. While growing their passion for baking into a full-time creative endeavor, they jointly set out (even with separate childhood memories of providing treats for their families and friends) to create cookies "too beautiful to eat," but at the same time delicious enough to make resistance futile! It's not often that decorated cookies taste as good as they look. Labored over in their spare hours with love and care, their attention to flavor and texture along with a keen sense of visual detail has begun paying off. Like a fairy sighting, if you blink, their cookies might disappear. Even in reminding yourself of a growing waistline, if you are to truly enjoy any treat for what it is, both Brandon and John understand that sweetness and goodness in baking always shoot straight for the heart.

CHILDHOOD experimentation with Easy-Bake Ovens may have served as a starting point, but my friends at Bear Maker Bakery have gone way beyond those formative days to perfect their craft by coming up with unexpected ways to combine the right ingredients in making something that is beyond the ordinary. They haven't reached the point of quitting their day jobs either, so it is truly a labor of love [like The Decorated Tree (of life)]. All it takes is a loving tenacity of spirit to begin to realize the sweetest dreams.

TREE OF HEARTS | This Valentine cookie tree (above), made from a painted branch with handmade vintage paper leaves is decorated with cookies (above, right) made in collaboration with Bear Maker Bakery. The Valentine candy boxes by Johanna Parker and "Be Mine Cat Boy" original design spun cotton figure by Crystal Hanehan (left) are from Bayberry Cove (he was hand spun using techniques similar to those of the early German artisans who created cotton ornaments for Christmas). The German glass glitter lovebird ornaments perched in the branch are from Pottery Barn. The ceramic urn holding the branch is from Smith and Hawken. The cake plate from my collection is the Martha Stewart Limited Edition 2009 Cake Plate from Macy's. A cardboard heart box from Michaels is painted chartreuse and sits behind a silver-beaded pocket holding a heart love token (from Bombay Duck London) at the base of the tree. 

COOKIE COLLABORATION | (Right) Brandon Tidwell (top, left and middle) and John Price (top left, top right, and bottom left) from Bear Maker Bakery were gracious (and elfin) enough to put their hearts into cookies for the tree, along with giving me lessons on decorating them (that's me, bottom right, grinning with childlike glee).
 
©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, collecting and styling by Darryl Moland, tree photographed by Harold Daniels Studio / assisted by Shawn May, cookie making collage photos by Darryl Moland and Brandon Tidwell

hearts of glass

YES! This was the exasperated and emphatic last word I heard from my mother. To this day, which would have been her 86th birthday, I remember not only the singularity of that word, but how it can have more than one meaning. “Yes” can only be definitive when the circumstances allow it. The word “no” unquestionably has more finality.

MY MOTHER'S last word answered to something that is not quantifiable: “Mother, you do know how much I love you, don’t you?” I asked. The impatient way she answered let me know she was ready to move beyond this life. She had not spoken a word to anyone for several days. No one even knew if she could, but because I was hovering around her deathbed keeping vigil while she was probably moving in and out of this life, she mustered up the strength to speak. That single word in that moment expressed there was something incredible beyond our physical lives and she wanted to get on with it.

YES! PERIOD. That word will never be the same to me. I see it as endless possibility instead of limited admittance. No one is in physical control of the circumstances that allow it in the first place. The control lies within one's spirit and the unseen forces of the universe.

FOR A COUPLE of years before my mother died, I found glass hearts to tie on her Christmas gifts. I never thought then they would be the beginning of a posthumous collection by which to remember her. The two hearts in the upper left of this photo are the ones from gifts she received. The rest I’ve collected since her death. The pink-and-silver brooch in the photo was bought after I had a dream about her finding my Christmas gift for her. It is how I pictured it in the dream, which in turn, inspired how a tree was decorated for an earlier post. Maybe this blog has become a continual gift to her, even in spirit. I'm realizing how much soulful inspiration she still gives me by how often she appears here in what I write and create in photography.

ALL THE THINGS associated with Valentine's day have become resonant in holding these good memories. They are the lessons of the spirit. From the flowers that burst suddenly into bloom on important days (mother's day, her birthday and my birthday), the fragile heart made of glass, to the chocolates I always received on Christmas Eve from my parents when I was too old to believe in Santa. I emphatically  believe in the philosophy behind the line from the editorial so famously written (by Francis Pharcellus Church), which ran in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun: "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus."

HER NAME, Lois Virginia Moland is engraved in everything I do and say. Today, the credit for giving me life, even in death remains the driving force of my creative spirit. The gift of life, the gift of caretaking and a spirit in touch with something larger; I can only repay by living this life in her honor. And I'll keep creating something from her continued inspiration, wherever it springs forth, whether it be a flower, a beautiful heart, or a piece of chocolate pie. Her love lives within me. Happy birthday mother!

FRAGILE HEARTS | (Top, right - clockwise from top, left): A red-gridded heart was tied on a special Christmas gift my mother received and is from Neiman Marcus, a pink antiqued mercury glass ornament is from Dillards, a red antiqued mercury glass ornament and a large silver gridded heart are from Macy's. The small silver heart is the oldest and was made by Inge Glas of Germany (denoted by the star-shaped hanger top). The velvet Valentine candy box is a current item from Lindt Chocolates. A painted box and brown box with red ribbon are both from past seasons at Target.

BLOOMING LOVE | (Above, left) This "clown" (red with white) amaryllis was a Christmas gift (as a bulb) that miraculously bloomed just in time for my mother's birthday (the photograph was taken this morning). The planter is from my collection of milk glass. Ivy has long been a symbol of friendship and is rooting in a glass lab container. The glass heart and white love ornament (a representation of the pop artist Robert Indiana's love sculpture) are both from Urban Outfitters. The unfinished white heart candy box is part of a Valentine kit from Martha Stewart Crafts, beautiful here without embellishment.

RESTING PLACE | (Right) The most permanent graphic design project I've ever assumed was designing the typographic layout for my parent's gravestone. I doubt if there are many gravestones using the font Mrs. Eaves. It is one of my favorite fonts and I've used it in a permanent way here and in the Man and Cat symbol tattoed on my arm. They are buried in East Gadsden, Alabama at Crestwood Memorial Cemetery.

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
photography and styling by Darryl Moland