Plate Project.

I couldn't let more than a couple of weeks go by without posting something about beautiful plates. Today, here's a selection of images from "The Plate Project" by Food & Wine. Editors at the magazine asked a dynamic assemblage of personalities - from the food world and otherwise - to imagine what we'll be eating in 35 years. As Food & Wine puts it, the finished products were "beautiful, inspiring and provocative."

From top to bottom: Gardens vs. Factories by Jono Pandolfi; Three Possible 2048s: Abundance, Adaptation, Apocalypse by Justin Marx of MarxFoods; Wild Herbs and Berries 2048 by Blaine Wetzel; Dirty Dishes by Gail Simmons; Pharm to Table by AvroKo; Butterfat and Bitter Greens by Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams; Duchamp Eats by Fred Morin and David McMillan.

See more at Food & Wine, here. (The "Thinkers" slideshow is my favorite.)

Polar Bear Lovers & Private Tears.

London-based artist Laura Gee's work makes me smile. Cranky animals; strange yellow monsters in red underwear; cheerful, reckless lions - I love it all.

See more at Laura Gee's website, here, and Etsy shop, here. (Don't miss "Beardy Men" Fred, Angus, Dennis, and Malcolm while you're at it.)

Tall As Trees.

Trees take center stage in two striking sets of images by photographer Dillon Marsh: the first, Invasive Species, spotlights cell phone towers masquerading as greenery in Cape Town, South Africa.

The second, Limbo, shows the skeletons of dead trees that have yet to collapse. Strange and beautiful.

See more on Dillon Marsh's website, here - you may recognize these amazing telephone pole bird nests as you scroll through. Found via Laughing Squid.

Error, Risking, Giving, Losing.

Beautiful - and very wise - words to start the week, courtesy of Anais Nin. (The second one has a special place on my bedroom wall - it's one of my all-time favorites.)

I hope you're all enjoying this beautiful Monday - it's short-sleeve weather here in Brooklyn! And thank you again for your incredibly kind words on Friday - I'm so happy to be sharing personal writing here on the blog at long last!

Image sources unknown. Please share if you know the artists - I'd love to be able to give proper credit!

POV: An Introduction.

POV ("point of view") is a new series I hope to begin featuring regularly on Sho & Tell. I’ll be writing about many of the same themes I addressed in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph (most likely an Instagram, as I’m learning to embrace that, too), and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. The idea is a work in progress, so I hope you’ll bear with me as I sort out the kinks. 

Looking Up.

I was walking to meet a friend for pie. It was mid-morning, two weeks ago, and the sky, freckled with snowflakes, was a silvery gray, the color of tin. I stomped, as I like to do in the snow, and listened to a bird somewhere in the air above me. I tried to think if this was a sign of spring.

It was cold, though. And wet. I remember that clearly.

I remember two other things very clearly about that morning: the first was that someone I loved told me he thought the way I lived my life was more “eighteen than twenty-eight.” And hours later, I found out that my roommates would be moving out of our apartment in two months’ time, and I’d have to find a new place to live.