Debra McClinton Remembered

Last night, Matt the boys and I went to a gallery show. It was the work of one of Matt's friends from years past. Debra McClinton. I met her a couple of times and she was sweet, attractive and extremely talented. Her photography has always moved me. She has a quirky yet classic style and I compare the feeling I have when viewing her photographs to that of Diane Arbus.

Unfortunately things in her life must not have been manageable or I don't know what, but she took her life last year. She left behind a daughter, Frankie Ray, friends and family.

When we walked into the gallery last night, it was all I could do to hold back the tears. It was an interesting space energetically for both Matt and I. It wasn't somber and it had that feeling that openings have, excitement and chatter, food, networking. But, for us, it was a time to be remembering Debra. We had a hard time seeing familiar faces and socializing when all around us were images reminding us that she was no longer here.

I'm so glad that her friends gathered her work and took such time and care to display it for people to enjoy. They even offered the prints for sale. A short window, for friends and family only, to purchase her work. Matt and I are deciding between our two favorites.




One other element to the room was a table with postcard size images of Debra. Photographs of her, living her life. The intention was to allow people to write a message on the back of a card and place it in the box so that years from now, when her daughter is older, she'll be given the cards to read and remember her mother. I was compelled to write a card and share my thoughts with Frankie. How her mother's work inspires me to take photographs. How real and honest her work was and how sad I am that she is no longer here but that her spirit lives within her photographs and within her daughter.




Debra, you are missed. Your work is an inspiration to me and I will think of you with gratitude for your contribution to this earth each time I see your photograph on our wall.

Being Led and Following

Matt and I went to church this past Sunday. It's kind of a new thing for us. I feel like we've been searching for a church for years, and in fact we have. When we lived in Oakland we found one in walking distance but it didn't feel like the right fit. I loved that we could walk there and that it was in the cute neighborhood of Rockridge but that wasn't all that we needed or wanted from a church.

When we moved to San Rafael, it came as the result of prayer. Prayers to God asking if we should stay in Oakland or if we should leave. Prayers about what was best for our family, for our children, for our marriage. It was a difficult decision. Much like attending the church that was in walking distance, there were reasons we wanted to stay but had to ask ourselves if they were the right reasons.

We were looking at selling our house during a time that wasn't great to sell, (This was at the end of last year) and buying at a time that wasn't great to buy, but, we grounded ourselves in our faith. It's funny, to think about it and to write about it gives me a different perspective. I didn't necessarily see us being grounded in anything. It felt so topsy turvy. But we were. We were grounded in the knowledge that God knew where we should be and that he would guide us to that place. We just had to be open and listen.

In searching for a house, I was literally driving to Marin 2-3 times a week to meet up with a wonderful realtor that Garrett put us in touch with, Jeff Birkenseer. It was nothing short of insane. We would meet, he would hop in my car and off we went to see the 4, 6, 8 houses for that day. I would put in a movie for the boys on the dvd player and run in and out of the houses like a mad woman. We even found a house that we liked, really liked. It was about as far north in Novato as you could get and I can't believe we even considered it, but we did. We were feeling desperate. It had been sitting on the market for months with no offers. Perfect. We put in our offer and prayed. Serious prayer that if we were meant to have this house we would, and if we weren't, to please make the signs clear. I don't know if we could have received a sign that was any more crystal clear than the one we received. The very day that we put in our offer, which they countered and we countered back and in the moment of time before our counter was faxed back, they received another offer. Higher than ours and they accepted it.

When we really looked at our financial situation and my preparing to leave my job at Gap, we realized that it would have been a huge mistake for us to have bought that house. We decided at that moment to change our game plan and rent. We made our list of exactly what we wanted in a home and after more trips to Marin to see rental homes, I found the one we're living in. I revisited my list not too long ago and I was amazed that almost everything on the list was before me. We absolutely LOVE where we're living and thank God time and time again for leading us to this place.

We live in a beautiful suburban spot. The streets are wide and flat so the boys can ride bikes around the neighborhood, the elementary school that is one of the highest ranked in the area, is a half a block from our front door and there is a church, 5 minutes drive from our home that we are beginning to feel connected to. We've attended this church a few times and each time we feel stronger that it's the right place for us to be. Marin Covenant Church is a non-denominational Christian church with a wonderful nursery and Sunday School program. The people that we've met are warm and friendly and most importantly for Matt and I, not pushy. Our children like being there and I enjoy the casual environment. I can bring my tea with me in the morning and drink it while hearing the Word.

As if to confirm our move was the right path and to drive the point home in our minds, our house in Oakland sold in just three short months. We had amazing help with the process and followed what we felt in our hearts to be the right things to do. Our realtor and friend, Ericka Jennings scheduled our open houses and because she lives across the street from our old home, was there to care for the house in our absence. We can't thank her enough for all of the hard work she devoted to us. (Thanks Ericka - we love you!) If you need a realtor in the East Bay, she's your woman! We also called the services of our friend Gloria Marth. She is an amazing interior designer who helped us pick the colors to repaint and to gave us pointers about staging the house. She also graciously helped to pick colors for the new place so that we could paint before moving in. Her help made a huge difference both with the sale of the Oakland house and our feeling settled and our new home in Marin. (Gloria, you're the best and when we move to our next house, the really great modern one that is just waiting for us, we won't do a thing to decorate without you!)

Now that we've settled in and have had time to enjoy the view so to speak, we felt it was the right time to open our hearts and minds to the church. It was a long search and difficult at times. Matt didn't want to go somewhere he didn't like, just for the sake of going, and I had a hard time motivating myself to take the boys to service without him. Sitting in church on Sunday, with my husband at my side and my boys in nursery content, was awesome. After the service we came home and had an opportunity to sit outside and talk. We talked about how we felt led to this place, to this home, to this church. I think for the both of us the feeling of ease was what stood out. We didn't feel like we were struggling with this issue that had been so huge for so long and are looking forward to deepening our roots into this community in the future.

We give our thanks to God for holding us in his hands and for leading us to this place that we now call home and all of our friends and family that supported us through the process.

Branding Your Business

Since opening the doors of Forget Me Not Design, I've been doing my best to focus my energy and attention on album design. I felt in the past that I've been the "Jack of All Trades, Master of None". I'll try something...say knitting. I'll make a few hats and scarves and then stop. I can see the possibility of making tons of hats. Hats that are different shapes and colors, for women, men, babies. I start designing the label that I would sew into the inside back and the dangling tags that would be on recycled craft paper, long and skinny and eye catching. Fastened with a tiny safety pin, the kind that you love to have because you never know when it might come in handy.

I could spin and create a dozen businesses, and have, in my head. I wanted this time to be different. I wanted to focus with FMN. I believe that a person reaches a certain level of mastery over an art or a trade after 10 years of dedication. That it takes that long to become truly established at something. Not that everything falls into that category, and even now as I write that I don't know if I believe it really. There's that part of my brain that knows that anything is possible, so why can't someone become great at something in say 2 years? But just think what they could be doing in 10 years!

Since focusing my energy and attention to album design I've been loving what I'm doing, what I'm creating. I love working with photographers and even more so with brides. I love providing a service that gives someone a tangible, beautiful book filled with memories of possibly the happiest day of their lives. I love taking my 15 years of graphic design experience and photographic eye to create books that will become heirlooms for families across generations.

Not too long ago, a friend and photographer, Brooke Buchanan, came to me to design her sample albums. She has been a photographer for quite some time and does beautiful work, but hadn't taken the committed leap of owning her own business. When she came to me, she knew the importance of building her brand so that she was a whole package, but had no idea where to go to find someone who could translate who she was onto paper. Through our conversation, she shared that she loved my graphic design work and asked about the possibility of my designing her identity.

I realized through that conversation, that even though I wanted to focus my attention solely on album design, there was a large part of me that was a graphic designer and loved creating identities for people. In fact, years ago I had a business in Mill Valley, CA and that's what I did. I branded a number of companies, created a label line for a set of skin products, and even created hand made wedding invitations for two members of the Grateful Dead. (I never even shared with them that I had been to 40 of their concerts! I kick myself now at the thought of that.)

Once the process began, I spoke in depth with Brooke about what she was wanting in terms of design. It became clear that she had no idea. That was kind of cool for me and I told her that through the process we were about to embark on, we would discover, together, who she was on paper. I asked her to tear out anything from magazines that she was attracted to. To create a color palette that I could work with. To visit websites and find one's she liked and to figure out why she liked them. To collect business cards she loved.

What she did was amazing. She emailed me two boards that she created and they were awesome. Take a look!




From these boards and some conversations, we created her logo. She had wanted to possibly use the double "B's" from her name in the logo but wasn't attached to that. I found a way to integrate those "B's" in an organic way which was an important part of Brooke. I created a business card and thank you card (that doesn't say thank you ;-) that were letterpressed. A friend and old business partner from Gap Inc. started a letterpress business, Olive-Route, in Berkeley a few years back and does BEAUTIFUL work. If you've seen my business cards, she did those. Via, I love you! She has amazing attention to detail and I wouldn't trust anyone else with my designs. The letterhead, labels and envelopes were printed at W.I.G.T. in Mill Valley. Again, amazing printers. They are who I did all of my jobs with when I was designing years ago and it's really a pleasure to be working with Barry and Eva again. We also did dvd's that she had printed through Diskmakers. I haven't seen them yet but Brooke says they're awesome.

Matt and I were attending a seminar two nights ago, the Free To Succeed tour, (which was awesome) with David Jay and Jasmine Star and I found out that day that Brooke was going as well. The timing was kismet. I picked up all of the printed material that day and was able to deliver it to her that night at the seminar. It was a validating moment for us both when Jasmine Star was speaking about the importance of branding your company. Brooke felt like she was taking the right steps for her business and was thrilled with her identity, confident to step out into the world and hand her card to potential clients. And me, I felt amazing. I loved that I had given her something. Something tangible that visibly boosted her confidence. It was a great moment for us both.

* Thanks Brooke for the opportunity to work with you and to design something so personal and significant to your business.

So, from all of that, I have broadened my focus a bit. I've realized that I can choose to design jobs that I want to design. I don't need to take them all. I can be a bit picky and design something other than an album when I'm called to it.

I like that feeling.

Salma

Rediscovering my love for photography has opened new doors. One of which is actually shooting professionally. Through photographing at Mason's school, some of the mom's became interested in my photography. One even asked if I would photograph her daughter.

After some nail biting and biting of my lip I agree to the shoot. I'm so glad I did. The shoot began at their home in the front yard. Their house is a great color and with the green of the bushes and grass it was a perfect setting to get comfortable. I asked them to do a few things but I tried to just let the personality of the three of them shine through. Once I felt that I had taken enough in that spot, we took a short drive to a different location. What fun it was to take Salma and her parents to St. Vincent's School for Boys, which is right across the freeway from our neighborhood, and photograph them there.

It was Salma's 5th birthday party the very next day so I definitely had to shoot her holding up her 5 fingers. While walking on the grounds of the school, she found a feather. This was one of those moments that thrill me as a photographer. It was amazing to watch her with the feather. Her mom told me that she is drawn to them and when we made our way to the fountain, she began dipping the end of the feather in the water and drawing with it. I had to capture these moments.

After the shoot, I went home and picked through the hundreds of shots for my 30 top images. I put them together in a slideshow and uploaded for the family. They were able to play this slideshow at her birthday party the next day. It was so much fun to be there at the party and see my images received by the family and friends. One of the guests gave me such a wonderful compliment, they said that I had truly captured Salma in these photographs.

That made my heart sing.

Thank you Mattie and Scott and Salma. Thank you for trusting me and for being a support to the growth of my business! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!