On The Road Again

September 24, 2020 in Travel

I am headed out on The Road.

I don’t know yet how long I’ll be gone but I’m connecting some dots between some photo jobs, vintage picking and most of all—

Answering the pull to be out amidst new and natural wonders of the country I call home in the simple, free and easy way I miss so much.

Although, I’m not sure how free and easy it will be.

I don’t know what I’ll encounter out there as the world has changed quite a bit since I was last out in it ten months ago.

Granted, The Road for me usually encompasses large periods of time alone, away from people, out in nature.

But I always enjoy meeting others wherever I happen to be. Hearing their story, exchanging some communal goodness and good will between passing kindred spirits.

But now, I won’t be able to interact with people and make friends quite in the same way.

The Road has been built up and elusively out of reach in my mind this last almost-a-year.
I have felt grounded and content at home and enjoyed my sweet Virginia more than I have in a good long while.
Made new friends and loves and discovered new corners of home that were before unknown.

All of which I am so grateful for.

So I’ll come back.
(I always come back.)

But I am a woman with a two sided nature—I love to be here and I love to also be there.
Here and away—both are home.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to have both in quite this way, or if this will be the end of my wanting it even— but I need to go out and see if The Road, this ever persistent promise, is what I remember it to be.

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I am opening my books for @agirlnamedleneyphotography for the next little while, so if you’re somewhere out there and have a photography or documentation proposition for me
(or some of your grandparents clothes/quilts you want me to buy for @folkling)
— shoot me a message.

xo
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Thank You

April 13, 2020 in Business, Folkling

Last weeks Folkling vintage sale went better than I could have ever anticipated and holy smokes am I beyond grateful.

I wish I could find words that expressed the amount of gratitude I am feeling this Monday.
I am speechless in regards to the amount of orders that came in.

I even shed tears once in the wake of someone’s immense kindness at sending money just because they wanted to support but didn’t need anything.

Several of you sent a few extra dollars with your purchases just because and that too means a hell of a lot.

But you know what means more?
The messages of kind words and encouragement and support and love.

SO MANY of you have been with me since the very beginning of Folkling in 2017 and even before that through the various ventures under A Girl Named Leney since 2010.

The fact that you appreciate and celebrate the art that I put out into the world, whether it’s through my photo journalism projects, my writing, my knitwear designs, or this venture in vintage—THAT is what means the most to me.

I am so fortunate to get to do what I love for a living.
But it is a LOT of hard work to keep my head up and keep believing that what I create and do in the world means something and matters.
Especially in times like these.
I never have a guaranteed paycheck, and never know what my income is going to be in a month.
Somehow though, ever since quitting my formal job ten years ago, I have always had enough.
Sometimes just barely.
Sometimes I’ve needed to get a part time job to make ends meet, but I have always been able to get back to who I am as an artist and keep creating.

And that’s largely because of you.

So thank you.
Thank you for keeping my dreams alive, for helping me live an alternative and more sustainable lifestyle, for resonating with some form of who I am as a person and an artist.

You are the stuff dreams are made of and I am so humbled by the message of community and togetherness in that.

We’re all in this together.

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Life On The Road

July 12, 2019 in Travel

It’s been a little over six months since I hit the road in my Subaru, Blue Moon, and headed West.
I thought I would make more time for posts here on the journal, have a proper road log if you will, but clearly the last post having a time stamp of ‘March’ proves otherwise. I’m even silent on Instagram most days.

While I do make time to write at least a little almost every day, I am too engaged with the real world it seems to enter into the virtual one to share with you all as much as I would like.
The validation of life lived outside of screens and not shared with others, aside from whoever you’re presently with, is a thing I admit I wrestle with on occasion. Especially in my profession as a photographer. For what are images to be made for if not to share and tell stories with?

I have a pretty solid line when it comes to my personal life in this way, but I am finding the line moving closer and closer the longer I choose to travel and live in the way that I do. Whether that’s a specific feeling that comes with age or with a learned focus in the value of intimacy— I am still in the process of understanding. Perhaps it is a little of both.

It’s been a very busy year though, and I have been working on a myriad of projects that I hope to share more about soon. Most of what I’ve been working on is still in the process and creation and becoming stages, which is a space I’m not sure I’ve ever spent quite this much time in before.
My turnaround time for projects and ideas is usually a bit quicker, or there’s at least some measure of sharing about the journey of it all along the way, but I am finding that the richer and more rewarding projects deserve more space and time to become what they deserve to be. I am learning to sit with things longer than I am used to being comfortable with and not rushing creation for the sake of producing and proving productivity.