MARFA Jan 2024

From Autoliterate 

Over the last sixteen years, Basha Burwell, a Maine native–see her A House in Maine, (Vendôme, 2021)–has developed a very strong attachment to Far-West Texas people, skies, roads, light and shadows. 

The Maine House

 Thrilled to announce that our book , The Maine House is almost here - out June 22nd.

Explore the soul of Maine in some three dozen of its most original, authentic, and evocative houses

For several years, acclaimed photographer Maura McEvoy and art director Basha Burwell traveled the length and breadth of Maine in search of houses that capture the state’s singular character. These are not designer houses; they are homes created by the people who live in them, from artists to writers to fishermen, distinctive for their ingenuity, originality, and fierce individuality. Many are unchanged, inhabited by generations of the same family; some are ingenious conversions. These are homes that have a kind of visual wealth that money can’t buy, homes that define the very spirit of Maine.

 https://www.vendomepress.com/book/the-maine-house/

 Maura Mcevoy , Kathleen Hackett  Basha Burwell 

Pink happened. Garnet Hill Cover

When you let the creative vibes flow + and you + your team make inspired gorgeous photos that end up as covers of the Garnet Hill Catalog


we were working on a shoe spread and decided to take the extra few minutes and run with it...images below - showing you all the variations - so you can get a glimpse of the process.

photo: Jarrod Mccabe
art Director: Basha 
stylist:cecelia
client: Garnet Hill

a few of our other GH images from the Spring Book

photo: Addie Juell
stylist: Tamara Savage
client: Garnet Hill
art Director : Basha Burwell 

Garnet Hill // Threads

Every once in a  blue Moon the stars align and I am asked to work on a project where I am given the opportunity to freely create beautiful images with a small photo team - its extremely satisfying and feeds the creative spirit. Working on this project for Garnet Hill this was just one of those types of magical projects . We created images for their  website and Threads Blog, all imagery based around Fibers they use in their Home and Women's  lines.

B E A U T Y

         Feeling the BEAUTY this spring.
         Images from a shoot I just did with Photographer Francine Zsalow.
         ( make up provided by SARRA)

My recently published essay on sailing Bettlecat boats in Maine

Link to my recently published  essay on sailing Beetlecats : in Maine Home Boats & Harbors https://maineboats.com/print/issue-150/coming-home-saltyhttps://maineboats.com/print/issue-150/coming-home-salty

me + summer 2017

Garnet Hill + L'Hiver { winter }

Winter is coming to a END.

Spring has shown signs of its arrival.

These images are from a Garnet Hill Lookbook Cover project that I was
fortunate enough to Art Direct + style these covers

with Jarrod Mccabe as the photographer.

It was fun foraging for the assorted greenery (Juniper, Cedar, Boxwood, Pine, Holly....) amazingly enough - almost non of it needed to be purchased  

Now I am playing around with type and layout and enjoying just seeing the work again after a bit of time has passed. Sometimes as a creative, one has to step back in order to be appreciative

and throwing in a little French..just back from a jaunt to Montreal and missing opportunities to speak Le Franciaise

F O G

 

fog. broiullard. the confusion, discomfort. haze. beauty. 

like seeing in black + white

New York

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Above photo collage from a not -too long ago visit. I stayed in the west Village and took many of these photos near by. Notable - the High Line ( with zebra billboard) and how quickly its evolved.

 

“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.
...Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. ” 

E.B. White, Here Is New York  

  Feeling nostalgic as Fall arrives and unpleasant things happen around the world and in NYC ( chelsea & NJ bombings) that makes one pause and take stake. My heart goes out to NYC residents who are handling uncertainty with composure and calm.

i n t e r i o r s

going thru images this week, trying to revitalize , rejuvinate my website www.bashabcreative and came across images from this shoot i did a while back. 
i " borrowed" rugs from angela adams and a beautiful home and did this photoshoot with photographer jarrod mccabe ( outdoorgiants) . 
the homeowner built the cabinets + built in's and they are amazing..gorgeous....
 i did creative direction + location scouted + propped + arranged everything from blankets & pillows to rugs and tabletop wares..it was a memorable day or two - and we have many great images to show for it.

Camus + Finding Light In Winter Nights

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. 

Albert Camus

      How timely I find this quote - as I write this blogpost on the heels of my last, about summer + sailing + maine.

      For this post, I found that I needed to give myself a homework assignment, to take a photo of winter;  the cold, the white, the darkness, the landscape, compelling myself to embrace it, enjoy it, find beauty in this season. As its turns out - it was not at all difficult to do so.

    The top left image I took last night ( fulfilling my self challenge) as I walked home across the Harvard Yard from an exceptional talk + reading that Colm Toibin gave at the Harvard Art Museum. He was engrossing, incredibly intelligent, comical, such a gifted reader - performer- orator....

    The snow falling across a streetlamp, with Memorial Hall 's Victorian Gothic tower behind.

    The next image I took while biking home across a Charles River bridge from Back Bay to Cambridge. I was star struck by the lights.

     Then of course - Marfa. The courthouse during the holiday season - it always gets me. Local businesses + individuals pitch in to help pay for the extra cost to the town. Strong community spirit - and so worth it, so Marfa....

Next to that - my son evoking the snow imagery- at the immersive-interactive show : What A Loving and Beautiful World. Teamlab at Radcliffe  We visited (and interacted!) with that show many, many times....

     Below, on left,  the Latent Escapes a permanent landscape installation also at Radcliffe. Then again Marfa - Eugene Binder Gallery on Christmas eve. So welcoming,  how the illuminated interior welcomes us thru the open garage door.

    As it turns out, this creative Leo's inspiration was right there, even in the depths of winter.

My Boat, My Harbor

We are deep into January so I realize this is an unusual time to be writing a blog post about sailing - but my first published piece Sometimes the Mooring Comes First in Maine Boats Home & Harbors Magazine just came out this month. 
It thrills me to see these photos and get excited about summer as we round the corner of official winter, toward spring. I was encouraged to contribute to the magazine by Polly Saltonstall, the magazine's editor in chief and old acquaintance. She and I agreed we wanted to hear more women's voices in the world of Maine sailing and boating. One of the themes in my essay is the pleasure of sailing with women friends, many of whom have not had much experience on the water. It's great fun to get good friends on a boat without children, mates or devices-- and see where the wind takes us...

 

 

Coincidentally the week my essay appeared we saw Leap Before You Look, an exhibition on legendary Black Mountain College, at ICA Boston. Leaping before looking was very much the spirit of art-making at Black Mountain--and very much the spirit in which my husband PB and I began our boat-owning partnership. 

photo credits:

Ryan Goodrich
Jenny Mayher
Justin Smith
Peter Behrens
Molly Blake

Cambridge Bikes ( Fiets in dutch)

AMSTERDAM

Biking Biking Biking
A few years ago we moved to The Netherlands for a fellowship that my  writer-husband procured. We find ourselves in the same position ( Radcliffe Fellow) again this fall but in another city, Cambridge, Ma., not quite as far from home. While I am not quite as visually inspired here, (hence the biking images above from Amsterdam) , I do find that biking as our primary means of transportation is quite a game-changer. All three of us delight in and have remarked on the morning jolt of energy, the excitement and clarity of mind that comes with a morning bicycle commute. The experiences, sights and even more - the human interactions ( we say hello to our neighborhood barber sitting on a bench every morning as we roll on by..) one has when on a bike, not in a car, are reason enough.

Cambridge's Bowtie Bike Ride  | Memorial Drive

Boston is really making a huge effort to promote itself as a worldclass bicycling city.  We participated in a walk/bike to work day last friday organized by gogreenstreets.org whose mission is to promote alternative ways of commuting. We certainly intend to help spread the word and encourage other families and bikers to do so as well. I think helping people get over the fear is the first hurdle.
While biking through an urban setting with your child in tow can be daunting, the Dutch and other Europeans can serve as our inspiration, they have been doing this for decades. Bikers have prescendence and the "right of way" over pedestrians and car drivers.
On Sunday we serendipitously joined in the Cambridge Bowtie Ride organized by Cambridge Bikes. We rode 13+ miles thru all of Cambridge, east to west accompanied by police & volunteers stopping traffic at every intersection. If you enjoy architecture, biking and exploring - this is a ride not to be missed. There will be another in May 2016.
If nothing else, I hope this blog post gets one or two more folks out there on their bikes. You will certainly not regret it. Just wear a helmet, stay alert and smile as you whiz past all those possibly - frustrated Boston drivers....

m a i n e c o a s t

suffice it to say, i am in the midst of a transition back to urban life and reveling in a look back at summer.
whether it be fall + school + work + apartment living or a move to a new city , i find myself in need of a connection back to the maine coast and my "other life " - often barefoot, frequently on boats, a dock or the shore.
these photos are just a few i took with my iphone ( many posted on IG  ) and capture the variety of weather and winds, color , texture and amazing maine summer light

* some of the boats seen here: sailboats racing in the err , pink beetlecat ( name: Inconcievable) , a harbor full of herreshoff 12 1/2's, optimists,  being sailed out of blue hill bay

B L U E

last winter i was determined to do a kids shoot inspired by my experience of living in the netherlands with my husband & son. the story, in my mind, was titled BLAU. this is dutch for BLUE. I had been begun this blog in Holland and all the original posts were based around a color; orange yellow, pink ect so it seemed to make sense. i keep coming back to these photographs, wishing i had done something more with them at the time, but too busy. c'est la vie. so here i am back sharing them again. in this post are some of my favorite images form the shoot, here you can see the printed story in Baby & me now called Smallish Magazine

G A R Z A M A R F A

jamie & constance = garza marfa. she creates the textiles, he makes the furniture. 

the photos speak for themselves. colorful. modern meets vintage, texas- trans pecos-mexico-meets dwell. 

i encountered their work 6 years ago, during our first season in Marfa  . exploring the town I happened upon their studio/compound. it's been thrilling to watch them develop their space/work/ business. 

as their website notes, they "debuted these designs at Health Ceramics Los Angeles location in 2012 and haven't looked back since."

their business really began when they created custom designs for austin's san jose hotel, then for the marfa thunderbird. they continue to outfit chic hotels, including the Ace and create custom work for clients' homes. they have had their share of press coverage. ( martha stewart feature, remodelista, texas monthly  ) What I most admire: they keep a relaxed, welcoming vibe in their marfa showroom and it's always a treat to stop by. the space is open and bright, rich with color and textures and fabulous things.

i own a few of constance's pieces , you can see them here in a ny times story on my novelist -husband. next purchase - a piece of their  sadle leather furniture - a must have.

M A R F A 1. 2. 2015

more marfa. more west texas.
photos:
livingstons ranch supply - we went in for some obscure tool but its mainly a ranch supply business so we ended up buying some great bison leather work gloves.
our friends goats & dog roaming the open landscape
barbed fence wire, my continued obsession
and out little pink adobe with the ever present strong west texas shadows