Annotations — Week 12
Color mixing, writer's blood, Miranda July hate, and $40,000 orchid bills.
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Mixing colors.
I initially saved this because that purple (pictured bottom left), a gorgeous warm, dusty, mauve shade, is one of my favorite colors. My favorite colors are highly specific so I rarely see their shades in the real world, but every now and then I’ll stumble across them unexpectedly and become utterly mesmerized — the soft dusty pinks of evening primrose on a walk, a Shirley Temple made perfectly bright red from its mixture of grenadine and Maraschino cherries, the rich and luminous green of emeralds in a vintage Georgian ring I’ve aspirationally saved on Etsy for some ambiguous future where I have expendable income.
When I dug into this book a little more, I discovered it’s actually quite an incredible publication very much ahead of its time. Dubbed the “pre-pantone” guidebook for watercolorists, it’s “an 800 page guidebook to mixing every colour that was known at that time,” according to Ben Strak, who writes Design Lobster. You can read more about it here.
Lamps by Analuisa Corrigan.
Discovered from this Note by Alana Fallon. I’m in the process of (slowly) redoing my office space, and I’ve been looking for lighting solutions. Defaulting to glaring overhead light is always out of the question, so a small desk lamp is the ideal solution. This pearly, beaded confection from artist and designer Analuisa Corrigan would make a stunning addition to any space.
I love the use of soft textiles commonly used in clothing or curtains, like fringe and taffeta. These materials associated with apparel and domesticity starkly contrast the more severe materials associated with buildings and structures like plaster, metal, or stone. They are beautiful, perfectly balanced utilitarian objects.
Flowers in Cinema.
Iris Diane Palma started an excellent Instagram account several years back that is now a Substack called Flowers in Cinema. Her recent post about orchids, the “diva” of the flower world, is fantastic. Bits are gathered from film, television, and culture, everything from the iconic orchid-centric film Adaptation to Halston’s legendary $40k orchid habit. I also love that her name is Iris — it’s so fitting. She really was born to write about flowers.
Conservatives hate Miranda July.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned Sarah Hoover’s episode of How Long Gone, in which she discussed her book The Motherload. Jason, one of the show’s hosts, joked about his reading experience, describing how his reactions alternated between “I can’t wait for my wife to read this book” and “my wife can never read this book.” Chris, the other host, posed the question: which book would be more dangerous for your wife to read, All Fours, or The Motherload? To which Jason responded, without missing a beat: All Fours, because it was a “step-by-step guide for how to cheat on your husband.” They both laughed. I laughed, too. The exchange was in jest, of course, but there was a shred of truth there. July’s book is dangerous, depending on who you ask.
July recently posted on Substack a response to the article, Ladies, Miranda July is Not Your Friend, an incredibly problematic piece from the Institute for Family Studies, which heavily criticizes All Fours essentially because it permits women to think for themselves. The article framed this freedom to think for yourself as a “burden,” which I would find hilarious if it weren’t so bleak. If the freedom to control my life and narrative is a burden, I will carry that weight. If a vague societal construct makes my decisions for me, that isn’t a life; it’s a sentence. Adhering to “norms” and “shoulds” is one of the most effective ways of relinquishing power. Reading the IFS article may have given me a mild case of brain rot, but it also reignited my love for All Fours — this strange, chaotic, and indispensable book that allowed so many different kinds of women to feel validated. It brought to mind one of my favorite Deborah Levy quotes from her book The Cost of Living:
It is so mysterious to want to suppress women. It is even more mysterious when women want to suppress women. I can only think we are so very powerful that we need to be suppressed all the time.
Writer’s blood.
I bought a new ink for my fountain pen called Writer’s Blood, which I’ve since learned (thanks to a kind person who responded to my note) was created in collaboration with the /fountainpens Reddit community. It’s a deep burgundy, almost brown at first glance, revealing a richer tone upon further inspection. It’s my new favorite shade to write with.
My inspiration to write with burgundy ink came from Jessica Le, who writes Ex Libris. She posted some excerpts from her calligraphy journal, and I was floored by how beautiful they were. I had to share them.
Caitlin Kotula, who writes Ruminations, also recommended Diamine’s Red Dragon, which is a slightly lighter shade of deep red and so beautiful. It seems I’ll be slowly making my way through all of Diamine’s ink offerings now.
Knausgaard’s Seasons Quartet.
I’m keen to start this series because I read Michael Rance’s interview on Petya K. Grady’s Substack A Reading Life, in which he mentions his love for Knausgaard. The interview is chock-full of wonderful recommendations, including the ideal pencils to write with, annotation methods, and reading suggestions. I highly recommend reading it if you have the time.
This quartet appealed to me particularly because it is “addressed to his unborn daughter, capturing the world she will soon enter,” a premise I found poetic and sweet. Given my own existential concerns surrounding motherhood, I felt drawn to it. I’m starting with book 1, Autumn. Send me a note or comment if you’d like to read along together.
In case you missed it:
I wrote a bit about my ideal office space, and what makes a ‘study.’
You can read the first edition of Elements of Style on Anaïs Nin here.
Resharing this essay on Marta Becket, because it’s one of my favorite essays I’ve written, maybe ever.
Week 09’s Annotations on Nan Goldin, Faulkner, Middlemarch, and Bright Eyes can be found here.
A few updates:
I’m working on a handful of offerings for free and paid subscribers, including another Elements of Style essay, which will be ready next week, and the beginnings of a makeshift cinema club. I’m still ironing out the details of the latter, but I will provide more information very soon! I hope you can join in on the fun.
omg thank you so much 🌹♥️ i can go on forever on orchids!
Thanks so much for featuring my calligraphy! I've been meaning to try writers blood and red dragon ink (I have oxblood) they're just all too delicious looking :)