If you didn’t read this week’s post “Making Mountains Out of Soul Hills” I will read it to you now, below, in dramatic fashion. 👇
Reading commences as soon as you hit play. Enjoy! 🫡
Notes from the Captain
I love mountains. I love being in them and on them. The summits are great—who doesn’t love a good view?—but I also love the slopes and rocky outcrops, the trees and barren cliffs. The mystery, the secrets. I like to say I “come from mountains”, even though I have no recollection of any mountains where I was born. Just the flat nothing of the outback. But then, before I turned five, we moved to an area that was somewhat mountainous. I know of no beach life in Australia. Waves scare me. But mountains—they’re magic. I belong with mountains.
The hill behind our house where I grew up—which we called “The Hill” and the paddock it was in “The hill paddock”—but thinking about it now, from my POV it was always a mountain. When you are small, everything taller than you is a mountain. What is the difference anyway?
I looked it up. At one time, a hill was anything less than 1,000 ft, but the geological boffins abandoned that distinction some time back. I guess it’s up to the viewer now. A hill, they say, is more rounded. A mountain has steeper slopes with a well-defined summit. I just read that. I don’t think it matters much.
They stand in front of us, we are faced with their stoic natures, and we choose how we will respond to their message.
Perspective. It’s all perspective. Hill, mountain, rise. It’s the going up and the coming down that most people focus on. The being on—that’s what I like.
I love mountains. Molehills? Can’t say I’ve ever seen one.
Soul hills? I see them all the time.
I couldn’t find the TikTok I mentioned in today’s episode—the Georgia O’Keeffe one, talking about the cliffs of New Mexico, which had inspired the Mountains out of Soul Hills post in the first place—and for a while, it made me disproportionately angry. It tied the whole room together, dammit!
Molehill. I made it into a mountain. The film that the footage in that TikTok is from (I swear I saw it on TikTok first! I am hip! But here is that clip on Instagram) is incredible. Shot in the 70s I think. If you have a spare hour, you should watch it at the YouTube link below.
One thing I’m really enjoying about making these videos is learning more about artists I have only, up until now, had a passing knowledge of. Yes, I’ve seen her paintings in person, and yes, I had some cursory knowledge of her life which was incomplete and learned long ago.
But confession: I had forgotten about Georgia O’Keeffe.
I rejoice in having found her again. Whether it’s your first time sitting with her or whether I’ve just reminded you of her supreme magnificence, let’s all marvel at one of the head CEOs at the Corporation of Making Stuff and Showing it to People, Georgia O’Keeffe.
Artists are mountains. They speak to us through their canvas and their words and how their bodies move in the world. I want to climb them all—up and around and over and through.
Let us celebrate all mountains, especially the ones we speak our own voices to and through. Your capacity for exploration and understanding is astounding, whether you realize it or not, and as we stand on the deck of this ship of ours and look toward the mountains on the shore, I urge you to praise yourself for this moment of realization.
Salutes all around, and as always watch your step on slippery boards. That’s a metaphor—probably should be tweaked to be mountains and scree fields this week—but also just sound advice.
Remember, my glorious mountain-loving rabble of a crew who are always and forever scaling and expressing things: Love what you love and I’ll see you out there, making stuff.
Your Captain, Janeen 🫡
Thangs from this episode…
👩✈️ Georgia O’Keeffe
After watching today’s episode, you’re probably all hot under the collar about Georgia O’Keeffe. Understandable. This should be the first thing you watch: “Georgia O’Keeffe: Portrait of an Artist”. It’s the film/documentary that I took many of the clips in the video from (including the one that had been in the TikTok I’d seen). It’s quite old but very good if you want to hear words straight from her mouth and see how sassy she was. Unfortunately, I can’t embed it, so here is a screenshot and a link. You can watch it on YouTube in its entirety, here.
This next video is also very good and gives an overview of her life and work which I will also recommend watching. It’s a lot shorter if you want a quicker read on Georgia.
And here is a profile from a 1974 issue of The New Yorker “Georgia O’Keeffe’s Vision”1
“Top 10 Most Famous Paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe”
Here’s a video that just shows a selection of her paintings set to music. It’s, ah, 21 minutes long. That’s allota paintings.
And this is a great piece from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum showing many of the landscapes and features of New Mexico that inspired her. Side note: I want to go to this museum in Santa Fe.
👩✈️ “Mountains of Try” Spotify Playlist
Yeah, I made a playlist. I mean, I already had it from when I was sourcing some music for the episode, some of which I used, some not, and I figured you might to have a random listen as well. Mountains, hills, and trying themes. That is all. What would you add?
👩✈️ “Make a mountain out of a molehill”
I couldn’t find anything really exciting about the origin of the saying, so here is a super basic thing, which I chose because it was a cartoon and that’s how I roll.
👩✈️ Three Mountains are Not One Mountain
One mountain
Two mountain
Three mountain
It’s a range of a whole mountain range, I tells ye!
Thanks for listening/watching and sharing. If I missed anything you were curious about from the post—or just in general—feel free to leave a comment for the Captain.
On that note, do something great this weekend. Do something great for your whole life if you can.
Do. Make. Be.
🫡
Shameless Podcast Plug
Listen to audio versions of early issues of The Stream on my podcast, Field of Streams, available on 👉 all major podcasting platforms 👈
Here’s Apple
If you’ve already used up your 3 free views of The New Yorker for the month, remember 12.ft ladder usually works
Behind the Streams, Ep 25: "Mountain"