"The front door to my heart is a windswept coastline park, wild around the edges. A rocky shore strewn with slippery kelp, boulders, piles of driftwood. Framed by backward leaning trees. Gusts so fierce at times, you can barely stand upright."

Fair Winds at Clover Point

"The server takes my order with pen and paper. One more breakfast from now, she will recognize me with a smile, ask how my story is coming along. Two more, she'll want to know how my mother is doing, bring a small orange juice without asking. But..."

Almost Amsterdam

"My eyes were still adjusting to that first foggy morning when dawn was breaking over the Galician hills. There were dark shadows and unfamiliar forms, the occasional cry of a rooster, a dog barking on some distant farm."

A Kindness of Spanish Oranges

"In one of the photos, you are reading a book on the terrace. I can't see the cover. You are smiling. There's nothing on the table — no cup of coffee, no glass of wine. It must be midday...I have no recollection of this."

Santorini Blue

"I had to acknowledge there was life here — a rich plant and animal biodiversity. And within this place, a stillness, a calm peace. But I didn't come here to appreciate the desert. I came to seek solace, for an undetermined length of time..."

Shadow of a Tall Saguaro

"We had one private session together before she hired me for a side hustle...I was a capable Jill-of-all-trades. Irene was a clairvoyant medium."

One Side of This World

"The sun shimmering down, a paradise. Now, a jagged ridgeline in the distance — the first glimpse of snowy peaks. A meandering river below in the plains. What is said of such slow rivers? They are old."

Tropospheric

"I thought of you today, in another time and place, where we sat tucked on a balcony behind Flemish buildings, watching..."

Brussels

Waymarker Near Briallos

"First things first. Even though I’ve been lithographed: “TEELEAF® The Fortune Telling Game” I am not, in fact, a mere parlor game. I am a fortune teller’s assistant."

Divination with Marbles

"If not for the pup and the ritual of our morning walk, I might not have banked so much joy, watching her endearing hobby-horse bounce as she runs across the field. I would never have seen that barred owl swish overhead in a silent, majestic flight."

Fog Season at the Salish Sea

If not for the pup and the ritual of our morning walk, I might not have banked so much joy, watching her endearing hobby-horse bounce as she runs across the field. I would never have seen that barred owl swish overhead in a silent, majestic flight. 

A Long Portage

Patchwork Moonlight

"Sometimes at the kitchen sink, my hands submerged in sudsy water, I experience a slip in perception. Watching morning's light transform the garden into a painting, I begin to float."

Ten Year Reflection: July 15, 2012

"I’m more accustomed to seeing birds in familiar prairie tones: dust, old twigs, dirt roads. These birds in the lush forest are the tropical colors of blossoms, fruits, sunsets. Of ancestral stories and dreams."

Ghost Birds

"The cabbie drops us off near a medical center. ­­­­Our first impression: not very artsy. The buildings are blocky, institutional, lacking soul. We don’t know it isn’t the museum district."

Something Still Here

My experience as the estranged daughter of a computer science professor, travelling together for the first time, in a short journey to Cairo, Egypt.

Karin Hedetniemi

Selected work