Welcome to Courtney Mielle! Or perhaps, welcome back. Some of you might remember this space as Of Postcards & Ink – the journal whose chapters were filled with stories from my year abroad in Paris, France. Almost two years after my last post, I’ve decided to breathe new life into this space. There are parts of my heart that have been pruned and grown in the most immense ways over the last two years and amidst the beauty, brokenness and the joy, I’ve been filled with a deep conviction to create and share here once again. So, here we are. Here’s to dreaming, making, learning, living together, and to finding more wonder in the every day.
Here’s a little about me…
My name is Courtney. I’m captivated by beauty, intimacy and moments lived slowly and mindfully. I’m twenty-two, completing my final year of law school and will be marrying my wonderful fiancé this November. We call the gorgeous city of Sydney, Australia home. I also love Jesus and I believe that His steadfast and utterly radical love changes everything. His grace is the vine on which my heart and soul flourish. I feel deeply, imagine recklessly and revel in the art that’s woven through life in the home, at the hearth and on the hilltops. In words, in photography, on ink-stained canvas and in foraged florals, I yearn to usher stories of intimacy and hope out from amidst it all.
I’m drawn to the rhythms of grace found in the mundane and the messy – in the way that morning sunlight sifts through my bedroom window in those blurry moments between the ephemeral and the awake; and in the way that my watercolour paints and my pie crusts crumble at the edges in a labour of love. In the beauty of small kindnesses and the glory of self-forgetfulness found in forests, by the ocean and on mountaintops. I believe in redemption. That’s what this space is about: the honest redemption of the quiet and the quotidian of life.
A whimsical derivation of the French word ‘miel’, which means ‘honey’. The French language, in all its history and all its radiance, has altogether captivated un coin de mon cœur. I studied French for six years and lived in the heart of Paris for one of them. I owe so many threads of my storytelling to the melody and rhythm of that city, its language and its people.
And so, ‘mielle’ was born in the narrow space between memory and dreaming. Gramatically, ‘miel’ is categorised as a masculine noun and, in my eyes, ‘mielle’ is its feminine counterpart. She is sweetness. She is healing. She is bravery.
I hope my storytelling is like honey: at once light and smooth, while also thick and viscous, dripping with the translucent gold of vulnerability and seeping beyond the confines of my heart.
And you, dear wanderer? I’m so delighted that you’re here and I’d love to hear your story.
courtney mielle • photographer, writer, maker & storyteller. 