on skies + colours

Journal:

"Reading Daybook: The Journal of an Artist by Anne Truitt & thinking about all the skies I have seen, all the different types of air. 

Thinking about how the air looked in different places & how you might lay that out. 

The warm wet yellows of New Orleans.
The steeliness of Paris, grey almost like iron.
The cold blue/grey of London
The brownishness of Brooklyn. 

& Los Angeles is bright--like primary colours, with a kind of occasional yellowish twinge. 

Why I think I never went much into visual art is because I could never get the translation right between my head & the execution of it by my hand. I can think of the yellows, but I cannot make them."

letter on running

journal

"fall starts in two days.
another fall, more time passes. & me in exactly the same place.
I'm tired of standing still.

but it's as if my arms & legs have atrophied. they can't move. maybe they never could.

I'm starting to think that the only movement I've ever done has been running away.

I ran away from Oregon. I ran away from New York. I ran away from every place & responsibility in between. I've only run.
now I'm getting that feeling again. that tingling under my skin. I want to run. to abandon everything.
staying still feels like staying stuck & that feels like dying.

but maybe you can never really get anywhere if you keep running. maybe that feeling I've had--that my life doesn't add up to anything--is because nothing can build if you're always starting over." 

summer poem

the last day of august

& the sun curls
around my bones
like wet paper

but hotter than
the soup I
microwave
for dinner

I've waited
a thousand
years
for the sight
of these burns

making it

Excited to be working in pre-production again on a short film project I've written & am slated to direct & star in!

For a while I've been thinking about making videos for poems in the way we have music videos for songs. After a lot of pacing & deliberation I wrote a script based on a poem from my graduate thesis & am in the thick of pre-production! Storyboards done! I'm meeting with my talented friend, & the DP of 4B, Freddy Tang to talk logistics. We're gearing up to shoot mid-October! It's going to be quite the little adventure, a road trip out to location, & a hot summer day, but I think we can make something really rad.

studying again

A little over a month ago I found out I'd won one of the inaugural scholarships for 12 weeks of study at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, & I've been embroiled in scene study there ever since. Super excited to spend my summer working on my craft & hanging out with one of the best, most supportive communities of artists I've had the pleasure to know. I put up my first scene last night & had a great time, learned a lot, & have ideas on what to work on for my future scenes. It's exciting to be in a space where everyone is learning, & making mistakes, & figuring things out, & thriving. A nice way to transition to life after graduate school!

There are several other things a-brewin' for me this summer, so stay tuned! :)

everybody loves a blooper

4B Bloopers from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.
Enjoy some tasty antics & outtakes from my directorial debut short film, 4B!

more info about the film: natalieraymond.com/4bfilm

post graduate life:

reading books, writing poems, working, watching netflix, journaling, going on long walks, meeting up with friends, laughing, making new friends, texting,  making plans.

here's a poem I wrote:

cocooned as I was
in delicate orange sheets
I barely remembered
the heat of the stars