When I go to Madelyn's, it's like an inspiration  buffet.

I mean, even her doorknobs are awesome:

I was walking around her place (taking a million pictures like I usually do) and I kept saying, "Maddie, you are so cool. You are the coolest person ever!"

She said, "No, you are."

I said, "Well, I'm okay, but you are the coolest."

We were standing in the hallway, she was asking me something- I don't remember what because I interrupted her with a stream of swears when I saw this :

Can you believe the awesomeness and perfection? No, you can't.

I love those trees and the daisy-headed lion.

I don't know the name of this plant, but I was taken with it's silhouette:

Detail of one of Maddie's sculptures:

I took a ton of pictures of her newest series of sculptures, which I will share soon. They are incredible.

Remember scratchboard? It's a cardstock with a black ink coating and when you scrape away the black it reveals a colorful base layer? Years ago, Maddie gave me a little scratchboard notebook and the first thing I did with it was make this as a thank you:

She is, too. Did I tell you how we met? I was sixteen and she was my Sculpture teacher in high school! She was 23, fresh out of college. The same age as my boyfriend at the time! Yes, really.

We connected right away and I was crushed when she decided not to continue teaching after that year. She returned to Providence and we stayed in touch through letters and occasional visits for the first couple of years and then more and more visits and phonecalls (and letters!) as the years went on. It has been...eighteen years? Holy shit, can that be right?

Sometimes when we are goofing around, laughing like hyenas, I look at her and say "You were my teacher in high school!" and we bust out laughing even harder. But Maddie isn't just fun. She is one of the most inspiring, honest, generous and kind-hearted people you could ever hope to meet.

I have so many pictures to share with you. I'll have to step up the posting to cover it all before I forget.

Detail of a painting in Maddie's kitchen by her friend Monica Shinn:

From the same painting:

I love that!

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Oh, hey, I am writing to you this morning from my new laptop!

xo, m