A few weeks ago I was sitting in a salon waiting to get my hair done, and I absentmindedly picked up a book to flip through while I waited. I was immediately captivated by the imagery in the book, which turned out to be A Year of Mornings.
The book is based on this blog, where two women who had never met in person decided to collaborate to share one image of their lives, every morning.
I am guilty sometimes of thinking that it’s only the big things in life that are worth sharing, but this book, and the images inside, immediately struck me as so beautiful and powerful, even though they were of nothing more exciting than the normal, every day struggle to get a family up, and fed, and off to meet the day. It might take a little bit more creativity and imagination, but that’s the point anyway, isn’t it?
It only took me about 15 minutes to flip through from start to finish, but I had ordered the book before I even left the salon. I had been staying with my parents in Montana the week before, and spending a lot of time with my mom, who paints in her spare time. We had talked about working on paintings together while I was there, but I couldn’t think of anything that I really wanted to paint.
The colours and composition of the images in A Year of Mornings were so inspiring that I texted my mom immediately to let her know that I had found my subject.
I’m sometimes hesitant to buy books anymore, I try to live as minimally as possible (just don’t look in my closet), and I have SO many books in Canada still that I haven’t been able to bring with me (I have my own library, basically. It’s a sickness.) but I know this book will serve as a source of inspiration for years to come.