Where is Emilie?

Here.

(Here is Northern Utah. Logan Canyon to be precise).

Urban Gazes.

I've always been lured by the urban gaze. In a city, you are always watched. You are on a stage - everyone is. This is great for people like me who relish the spotlight. Audiences span from cafe sitters, to tourists, to neighbors, to mobs of people moving through a crowded street, to French women (who love to size others up with their pouty mouths and eyes), to bums, to tourists, to myself - because I am always on the gaze for great things, people, and performances (evidently).

Well, lately I've been paying attention to a different sort of gaze. The one from inanimate objects in Paris, which hover above so many doorways and adorn so many building facades and courtyards. I've always felt this gaze; Paris is a departure from any place I've known in this sense alone. All of these faces are watching you all the time. The surrealists had a theory about inanimate objects and their mystical qualities. To them, inanimate objects held a force - a presence - that affected people. The surrealists accorded real power to these objects.



Well, me too, all over the place in Paris. For the first time, I feel like the objects, the buildings, the remnants of past lives - affect how I live and perform. If you think I'm a little loony, just look at all these faces and imagine them staring down at you all the time.

The tree I love most in Paris.