We’ve been simplifying a lot lately, and updated the main site. (Bluewindowcreative.com for all your updated portfolio desires.) This blog that you’re reading right now, probably won’t have much new material, and all future essays/sharings will probably be made on the new site. Or for more frequent posts of what we’re up to, follow along on instagram. (@maryandthejoel)
This has been a PSA announcement from the tinkerers of the internet.
Love and div tags,
Mary & The Joel
After many weeks of travel, we had a chance to look at folders with fresh eyes, and realized we hadn’t shared these film scans. These are some experimental images from Annie + Nick’s day up in Seattle. Mmmm…filmy, delightful, happy accidents. Hope you enjoy a snippet of their day, as seen on 35mm (mostly plastic) cameras. Always keep playing.
Just wanted to let you know we’re headed out on a last-minute-trip to help with a film in Fairbanks, Alaska this week! We’ll still be getting emails and messages, but will be shooting long hours every day; may take us a bit to get back with you. We’ll be home around the 26th.
It’s been -40° there, lately. I’m not sure we have enough puffy coats, pants, and sasquatch-sized shoes, but we’ll find out. We’ll be sharing a few pics via the instagrams while we’re there.
“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” -War of Art (Please read it!)
A collection of experiments (and failures) in small and/or adventurous living. We’ve lived in an airstream, a 150 sq ft apartment for the summer, are clearing land on the coast with hopes of tree houses and firepit conversations, and fixing up a ’62 “Canned Ham” trailer. We are experts at none of this, and most days it shows, but are trying anyway. We hope you are out there failing, stumbling, and striving towards something you don’t know how to do, or are afraid is the wrong thing. It’s probably the thing you should do most but just don’t know it yet.
Overheard Images is an ongoing collection of images and overheard conversation from strangers. We use snippets we hear and mash them up with an image from the same day. Looking forward to continuing this personal project; for us, it’s a practice of being present, taking delight in the art that randomness creates, and connecting with people that we don’t know.
One trailer is interesting, but two might be the start of an obsession; like that third cat, that just pushes you slightly over the line. Suddenly people refer to you as “the trailer people.” And then, you don’t entirely mind that nickname and start referring to yourselves as that.
Plans are loose right now, but generally fixing it up so it doesn’t leak, cleaning out the old/moldy wood and paneling. We hope for it to be a cozy little work space/escape haven to the nearest forest, river, ocean, or neighborhood coffeeshop. (Just imagined us parked outside a coffeeshop to work, inviting strangers to stop in, and it was a good day in my head.) We’ll be posting updates of the restore process with this over on our personal blog: Live a Good Story in a Garway. Yes, we got a “.in” just so we could make sentences out of the web addresses. 
We might post some photos over here when it’s done, but will try and keep the trailer process madness to a minimum. (You can only be so intrigued by the fact that it was a 3/32″ and not a 3/16″ clutch bit that we needed to take the roof off.) But did want to share it with you for any daydreaming material needed for your own trailer or adventure fantasies.
Happy New Year, friends!
“Ryan is hopeless when it comes to ordering dinner at a restaurant, and is terrible at karaoke. He loves to eat cookie dough, and is our household’s reigning Connect Four champion. When I’m with Ryan the sun shines brighter, and life is that much more sweet.
Megan prides herself on never being able to be fooled/surprised. She loves dachshunds and Prince, sings along to the radio when she’s happy, curses like a sailor, is always up for a new adventure and can bring a smile to my face in any circumstance.” (Their first words to us when they wrote.)
Eloped in Palm Springs, CA in an abandoned lot they scouted out that morning.
Ryan wanted something, “Small and loud,” from the swimsuit shop.
During the entire ceremony, Ryan didn’t know what to do with his hands.
Mary signed the marriage certificate as there were that many guests in attendance; all three guys were in towels.
At the end of the night, Megan said,”Finding the words to describe your love is hard,” in regards to the vows they wrote earlier that day.
A sampling from their day, focusing on:
not entirely-focused images, them, and strangers passing by – including their photo-bombing dog, Lucy.
Featuring hot wax, ballerina legs, tears, and too many McDonald’s cheeseburgers.
Tears and burgers were not related, and neither are the legs and hot wax.
Burgers and hot wax are definitely related, though.
“We break into song and dance at any given time.
Dated for 2 years in our early 20′s, broke up, never spoke or saw each other after that,
until 6 years later we ran into each other on the street in Gastown.” -Jen & Brandon
Spending the day finishing up Alex + John’s wedding, and thought it fitting we share images for others to check-out, as well. A quest that started completely in the moment that day, we gathered quotes overheard from guests. At the end of a long work day-into-night, we paired some of them with other images from the day. When we found ourselves squealing in delight, and smiling so much our cheeks hurt, we figured it shouldn’t just stay on our screens. Looking forward to continuing this practice.
