High Thought is an intimate infusion of (high) thoughts that are a mixture of frivolous and (sometimes) profound if I’m lucky. Written with consideration for those interested in the creative process, art in general, or personal peek behind the curtain into a particularly chaotic brain room.
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🌸 Good morning/afternoon/evening, depending on where you are in the world. : )
Framer John
I have a friend who frames things for me. His name is John. I call him Framer John.
He must be in is late 70s and this is my first time really becoming friends with an older person who isn’t my grandparent at least as an adult. At least where I’m aware of life and what it means to get older and to get to his age.
He had a hip replacement around Thanksgiving and I sent him Get Well texts and checked in with him again around the holidays in December. He said he wasn’t moving as quickly as he’d like in order to get back in his studio but he’d text me in the new year. He sometimes signs off with “John” at the end of a text.
He and I have spent hours at this point during various visits in the studio he built above his garage. I grab frame samples from his special Velcro cabinet he made to display them. It’s a museum of other peoples’ art they’ve made themselves or art they’ve bought, posters, etc. He politely challenges my instincts as well as “yes and”s my bolder choices. We always have a nice time.
Sometimes we talk about the mussels he loves to get when he and his wife vacationed in Capri and where his father’s family is from in Sicily. His father was never able to go to Italy in his lifetime and John has told me he feels badly about this. We talk about Italy a lot. I asked him to frame this vintage postcard from Bellagio on Lake Como, where I fled to after a breakup a year and a half ago to make pictures and be alone:
The final piece:
Now it hangs next to my thermostat in my apartment and it brings me joy to think of Bellagio and also my friend John.
Speaking of Bellagio and my time in Lake Como, I have another trinket from my time in that place. One night during my stay, I was having dinner alone and really feeling at peace. A few tables over was a small little freak of a dog who loved to misbehave and run around the restaurant. She even ran into the kitchen, prompting the chef to shoo her out, joking to her owners (regulars) that he was going to serve her for dinner. Her name was Grappa.
She ran around to each table and it was just one of those moments when I felt really present, really content, happy to see a little dog causing problems and being cute. A few months later on a shoot in CDMX, I got a little Grappa tattoo. It also reminds me of Italy and that nice evening and the little freak.
Back to John and his creations.
Here he is looking at how to frame my water-warped and tattered Bruce Nauman “Body Pressure” (1974) poster that I love so much. It used to be hanging in my bathroom when I was a sophomore at Pratt.
It’s been with me, traveling around from apartment to apartment for at least 14 years.
I like talking with John. He frames things for people all over the Hudson Valley and he does it because he enjoys it and charges a price that’s more than fair. He also saves the lengths of frame I’ve bought so that we can keep using it to the scraps. He doesn’t want me to spend a penny more than I should.
He told me recently that a local restaurant owner in the area brought something in and rather than asking for payment, he asked to be fed when he dropped by. Bartering is so cool. John is great.
I just dropped a huge piece for him to frame and I’m so so excited. Stay tuned for the thiccum!
Suggestion box for High Thinkers
As many of you who have been readers of High Thought for a while know, it’s a little bit of everything. That is great sometimes and chaotic other times. As with my own work, I enjoy a prompt because it gives me purpose. I love shooting assignments because my brain just likes those kinds of puzzles. I also usually find my way to some of my most interesting experiences because someone told me to go somewhere to learn about or describe something to others with visuals, however possible. The same kind of goes for words, which is why I have some questions in order to keep this thing going in the right direction.
I’ve gotten some really positive responses in email reply and DMs over the past year about High Thought, but it feels amorphous to me still. In the same way I prompt myself with assignments when I’m visually stuck, I’m tempted to gather a little info.
If you’d be so kind, it should take you less than 120 seconds and not only will I be grateful, but High Thought will be better. Each question is optional except the last one:
I really, really appreciate it.
Have a good weekend, freaks! 😈
Cait 🌸
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What is High Thought?
📑 General idea behind High Thought here.
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📚 Past editions in the (small) archive.
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