Hello Blue Roses - "Errant Sophia". A song the colour of design. Of fine stationery, letterhead sold in packets of 8 (huit). When I was last in Paris I went to a shop that consisted of just one room - a tall, narrow room in wood and brass, with drawers and drawers and cabinets, heavy paper cut with real blades, every print an individual. Is there anything more civilized than letterhead? A name, an address, tabs and rulers, just so. An investment in future correspondence. While I was inside this regal room a Rolls-Royce purred outside. Smaller cars burbled past, businessmen strolling with umbrellas, a sun arcing over the silver skyline. Inside the shop we had all the time in the world. We listened to the tick of the handcrafted clock, the tick like a man's foot keeping time, like a drumstick on the skin of a snare drum. I thought, I wonder how many colours of ink they have? The question was interesting because the answer seemed like it would be so small. Not limitless inks, ten thousand shades: nine, or twelve, or twenty. Nine or twelve or twenty pigments, brought back from Aegean woods or Amazon rainforest, Ethiopian desert, Thai jungle. Journeymen wore pith helmets, carried knives, plucked colours from the undergrowth; and now, miles later, centuries gone, here we are in a little shop. Here we are with "Errant Sophia", quietly aging, aspiring, decomposing, tempests in each of our teacups.

I came away with a single calling card, imprinted the silhouette of a bear.

[Hello Blue Roses is a Vancouver project led by Sydney Hermant, featuring Daniel Bejar (Destroyer), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes), and others / buy]

(photo source)