Welcome to Pairings

“Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As...

When it’s ready to throw up its March bloom, the Spanish Dagger’s magnificent flower always comes out on top. The thick-leaf yucca...

Learn to handle your ideas “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” —JOHN...

A Pot of Gold in the Badlands by Jann Alexander © 2012 As if the Badlands in South Dakota aren’t breathtaking enough, a rainbow...

Are you possessed by color? For artist Paul Klee, the attraction to color and light was a turning point in his career. On his 1914 visit...

Terlingua Ghosts by Jann Alexander © 2012 The small town of Terlingua, Texas, near the Mexico border, is a former cinnabar-mining...

Mayan Messenger by Jann Alexander © 2012  You can climb to the top of a distant civilization in Tecoh, a tiny Yucatán town whose...

Color Riot by Jann Alexander © 2014 The day may be dreary and distinctly unAustin-like, but my local Sprouts did its best to incite a...

Awakening by Jann Alexander © 2014 “May our heart’s garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.” —Thich Nhat Hanh Captured on...

Choices by Jann Alexander © 2014 With apologies to Robert Frost: Two canals diverged in a field, and I – I focused on the most alluring...

It’s all about you. Who you are is what you make, and what you make of it. — Jann Alexander on Influences .  .  .  .  . HERE’S WHERE I...

Ideas by Jann Alexander ©2014.jpg Brenda Ueland had a lot to say about creativity ; in fact, she herself was an inexhaustible fountain...

Pistachio Dream by Jann Alexander ©2013 If you dream in green and ice cream, you may want to dive inside a pistachio-colored booth at...

Overtowering Sandy’s by Jann Alexander © 2013 In Austin, Texas, we take our local landmarks seriously , and our city ordinances decree...

Those Halcyon Days by Jann Alexander © 2014 Some of Austin’s towers are getting pretty overtowering, but locally-owned Halcyon is...

Three Boys and a Polaroid  first appeared as the post, When a Polaroid Was Instant Gratification , at Pairings :: Art + What Goes With It...

So Long, 2013 by Jann Alexander © 2013 As the year ends, an unexpected prize is awarded to What’s Vanishing Next? and an opportunity...

What a city of contradictions is Austin. Old butts up against the new, old is lamented when exchanged for new. The town’s a shiny magnet...

Grunge on Avenue G by Jann Alexander © 2013 For photographers, the grungier, the rustier, the more lonely a subject is—the better. We...

The Pattern of Change by Jann Alexander © 2013 It takes a whole lotta cranes to hoist up a new Marriott in downtown Austin, where...