Anne Marie

has sat at our dinner table for nearly twenty years, and I’ve always been struck by her innate beauty and sense of style. She reminds me of the women in Modigliani’s paintings, elongated features, striking angles, effortless elegance and a sense of mystery. I’ve witnessed her morph and evolve into herself as time goes by.

She’s an expert Gardner, a plant-whisperer, and her garden is bursting with a variety of plant life. A symphony of colorful leaves and movement all written and conducted by her peasant's hands. (her description, not mine) to experience her garden is to walk into a bustling cafe that's alive with interesting people and conversation. Inspiration. There's a dialogue happening within her creation and somehow, being in it expands the possibilities here on earth.

Wow.

She finds old items and re-casts them into new life forms, she was doing that long before it was even a thing. Her organizational skills are Nobel Prize-worthy. I say that as a Virgo, a solid one; there’s no part of my astrological makeup that isn’t Virgo. Anne Marie is a cusp, but I don’t believe her, the birth records in England in the 60s weren’t that buttoned up, you should see my wife’s.

Like any good friend, I can’t get enough of her, there’s an endless stream of topics, and her keen insights never fail to illuminate and enlarge whatever perspective I have. The most recent glue to bind us is David Whyte, a poet we both love. David’s work has primarily inspired and informed this project and a few of his thought have guided me; of course, Anne Marie found one that I hadn’t seen “to become human is to become visible.”

I will add, “ Boredom is the second great killer of friendship,” and with AM that will never happen. Like the Modigliani characters, there's a guarded part of her, silence, her private reserve, and I will always want to pry and ask and find out what's beneath that frontier. I can't wait for our next meal. She's a #portraitofinspiration and a #portraitofafriend