Closer Look w/ Margot Guralnick

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How Dog Walks Inspired An Artistic Outlet

Photo by Ted Conover

About The Episode

While Margot Guralnick had a family dog growing up, she didn’t form any special kind of connection with their black lab at that time. Her parents were also both into gardening and plants at the time, but she did not take to that strongly either. Margot was instead more interested in antiques and vintage objects. She loved to always share with others what she had found, and would arrange all her different items in a way to display her finds.

However, after she had her two children and her daughter developed an interest in dogs from a young age – even despite having fur allergies. Eventually, they rescued a hypoallergenic small dog, Enrique. While her daughter was thrilled, Margot was still not immediately won over.

For the first few years, Margot would take Enrique on at least one of his walks each day. While it started as just being good to get her up and outdoors, it slowly over time evolved into another type of practice. Forced to slow down her stride due to an unhurried dog, Margot had more time to pay closer attention to the nature-filled neighborhood in The Bronx that they were walking in. She started to notice new details, and she would pickup some interesting nature elements she saw – from fallen flowers to branches. After coming home from the dog walks, Margot began to experiment with laying out the assorted outdoor objects and make them into an artistic collage of sorts. The more she did it, the more she enjoyed the routine.

Enrique would be there by her side, at first surprised that she would also stop for so long, and then getting used to it and enjoying taking those breaks together, sitting happily and companionably by her side as Margot started to create some work outdoors as well.

It became a daily experiment, carrying on the tradition from her childhood – as well as incorporating her family lineage of love for plants and nature. This ongoing series became Dog Walk Diary, a project where Margot could share all these collages on Instagram with the world.

The dog walks enabled her to shift gears into a calmer, blissful, more attentive state. It was only through her time spent with Enrique that her perspective had opened, slowing down from her usual fast pace and instead following his lead to really investigate all the little details around you.

While Enrique unfortunately passed away recently, Margot still keeps the practice going. She plans to do so no matter what, with and without a dog – though she is already thinking about rescuing another with her husband. While Enrique unlocked this artistic outlet Margot didn’t realize was in her, as well as opening her mind to a new way of seeing the world, he also finally converted her into a lover of dogs after all these years.

About The Guest - Margot Guralnick

Margot Guralnick is the Architecture and Interiors Editor at Remodelista, specializing in home design. Her book through Remodelista, The Low-Impact Home: A Sourcebook for Stylish, Eco-Conscious Living, offers sustainable approaches for styling your home. Margot is also the creator of Dog Walk Diary, an artistic outlet that is daily meditation and collaboration with the plant life of her neighborhood in The Bronx that grew out of walks with Enrique, her dog. Through searching for patterns and ways to showcase the beauty of nature, Margot has developed her own style with “collages that celebrate urban botanical life, so crucial to our own well-being but so often completely unnoticed.”

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