Thursday, January 26, 2012

THE AFRICAN AESTHETIC




I am drawn to the African aesthetic,

whether in architecture,
contemporary art and craft,
interior design,
or fashion.

I am stirred by the colours,
the organic textures, shapes and patterns,
the earthiness
and the African Make-Do perspective.


"Africa is great at improvisation, at making
something astonishing from
whatever is at hand.
It does not need expensive materials.
Africa has a genius for recycling.
It has taught me to discard nothing
as I can find a use for it later.
"African Make-Do" is the name
I have given this aesthetic." - Andrew Verster, Artist



"It's the startling use of colour that
we get so right. You see fearless
combinations because there are no rules,
even though we do have cultural traditions.
Sometimes the beauty of African colour can make
you uncomfortable - and yet stimulated."
- Karen Roos, Editor, Elle Decoration South Africa


"It inspires with its colors.
The tones may be subtle,
as if bleached
by the intense heat, or the colours
supersaturated like an explosion
of wild flowers in twilight.
The real beauty is how these colours go together...."
- Quotations from the book Africanismo

Thursday, January 12, 2012

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE



No poetry today.... just thoughts .... ideas...

I'm enjoying images
of all the creative ways
artists scratch into or onto a variety of surfaces.
Paper, leather, wax,
clay, enamel, wood, stone, metal plates,
plaster, walls, sand.




Ellen Johnson at Anderson O'Brien Fine Art

Rebecca Crowell. Scratching into wax.

"Kiley states that her art is about communication; the need to share something important and personal. For years, she has searched for imagery that conveys the thoughts, emotions, and spiritual insights that fascinate her. This search has led her to explore the imagery of the hand. She is particularly intrigued with gestures and their meaning."

Friday, January 6, 2012

A PLACE YOU CAN GO

Photograph by Michel Poisson
There is a place you can go

where you are quiet,
a place of water and the light

on the water. Trees are there,
leaves, and the light
on leaves moved by air.

Birds, singing, move
among leaves, in leaf shadow.
After many years you have come

to no thought of these,
but they are themselves
your thoughts. There seems to be

little to say, less and less.
Here they are. Here you are.
Here as though gone.

None of us stays, but in the hush
where each leaf in the speech
of leaves is sufficient syllable

the passing light finds out
surpassing freedom of its way.

- Wendell Berry
(I found this poem at this beautiful blog)






"Be secluded in your secret heart-house,
that bowl of silence... " - Rumi


I found this photo on Tumblr. Photographer unknown.


"There is a silent self within us whose presence is disturbing precisely because it is so silent: it can't be spoken. It has to remain silent. To articulate it, to verbalize it, is to tamper with it, and in some ways to destroy it ". - Thomas Merton