Posted in art,poetry,writing, Berkeley Diaries, Books, Paper Goods, Photography, Poetry, Quotes, San Francisco Diaries on June 30, 2010| 2 Comments »
Reading Gemini. Half-Price Bookstore, Berkeley, California. Photography, June 28, 2010.
All the following images have been taken at City Lights Booktore in North Beach (Little Italy) , San Francisco, on June 29, 2010. I dedicate this post to my dear English and Literature Professor at NDSU, Steve Ward. Long live The Beats.
McClure, Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsburg at the last Beats gathering, 1965.Outside City Lights Bookstore, North Beach, San Francisco.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Books, Coffee, Design, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Featured Artists, Painting, Paper Goods, Poetry, school, Writing, tagged Antonio Machado, artists and poets, book, Bruce Matthes, Fellow artists and humanists, Poetry, poetry and art, poetry and painting, san diego, surfing on June 27, 2010| 1 Comment »
Playing the Muse by Bruce Matthes
Perhaps if we all had, every day, time for art and for poetry, just a daily dose, perhaps our lives would feel a little less hurried, a little less hectic, and time would slow down for that cup of tea in front of a vintage art book. Perhaps we could squeeze more out of our day by letting the mind lull a bit, recharge, empty itself so that we could squeeze more info, memories, ideas. How do we download the weight of each day, how do we discharge- our mind like a sieve- retaining only lessons that could benefit us, letting go of the inconsequential? Perhaps with few moments under the sun, or with nature, few breaths and a prayer.
Today I was listening to NPR and I heard a man say that it is the job of human beings to learn to let go of large quantities, and hold on to the precious little.
Antonio Machado’s poetry, according to Antelitteram, evolved to acquire with time the personal aspects of reevaluation of time, nature and feelings, until it reachead a poetry influenced by a profound interest in philosophy.
Bruce Matthes, a fellow artist and humanist , told me over coffee (what else?) about his illustrations of Antonio Machado’s poetry. I was immediately piqued, having completed a similar project- which I hope to share here soon. Bruce was kind enough to let me showcase his beautiful, lyrical work.
Click on each image to enlarge and read the poetry.
Posted in Architecture, Drawing, Quotes, tagged Graduation, June 2010, La Jolla, newschool of architecture and design, Salk Institute, san diego on June 23, 2010| 1 Comment »
There is nothing that God hath established in a constant course of nature, and which therefore is done every day, but would seem a Miracle, and exercise our admiration, if it were done but once.
John Donne
As quoted by Dean Gil Cooke in his keynote address.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Drawing, NaBloPoMo, Poetry, Quotes, Writing, tagged Child's pose, Ephiphanies, Gratitude, Il Postino Soundtrack, ink drawing, Nablopomo, Pablo Neruda, Poetry, Quotes, Thankfulness, yoga on June 17, 2010| 2 Comments »
Child's Pose | Thank you
Yoga is moving meditation. Feel your body melt on the ground. Feel your muscles, your bones dissolving into the ground. Be thankful for this time. The gratitude you feel spreads from your heart to your entire being, and radiates towards everyone around you.
Mercedes, Yoga instructor and, apparently, Rockstar in a band- I attended her class for the first time today.
I went to yoga today to plug out: I have been spending too many hours tethered to my computer and needed a retreat. The gym worked for that today, but I am hoping to spend some times, soon, away from technology in places like Yosemite, Sequoia National Park and, perhaps, Napa Valley. It is apparent that I failed at the NaBloPoMo self-challenge, missed too many days -like this weekend- and yet realize that blogging everyday is not my style, and have come to accept the fact that pauses result in epiphanies which can push inspiration forward. Nevertheless I do like to post aoften to show up to my day, art, intellect, just as I would like to make a habit of yoga to practice the mindfulness of the body. The solitude after yoga practice makes me realize many things, for example how infinitely precious moments with loved ones are, moments we take for granted. As I walked home tonight, looking at the night sky I thought about Pablo Neruda, and his lines :
And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry void,
likeness, image of mystery,
I felt myself a pure part of the abyss.
I wheeled with the stars;
my heart broke loose on the open sky.
From ‘Poetry’
How the sky would be with no stars, because that is how life is without the love of the people we care about….
So i frightened myself, and I can hear my friend Lamees that ‘frightening’ ourselves is good, for it wakes us up. Awake means aware. I resolve every day, like most of us, I’m sure, to be a better person, yet fail and sometimes lose myself in petty feelings. A friend of mine told me that he heard from a wise, humble man to ‘just do one thing better today than you did yesterday’. So today I went to Yoga, my way to tune in, because I am not there yet as far as daily meditation. Tuning in means more sun, but, sometimes, more rain.
I chanced upon a quote I like very much (I am kind of ashamed to say where I got it)
I hear the music, do you?
Posted in Acrylic, art,poetry,writing, Design, Drawing, Graphic Design, Painting, Pastel, tagged asian-inspired floral design, butterfly, Drawing, Graphic Design, painting, wynn design on June 16, 2010| 5 Comments »
My client gave me this card and asked me to create a composition based on the flower/butterfly graphics.
I first mixed in the colors for the purple background my client wanted, then drew the graphic motifs with black grease pencil, went over with white pastels, only to realize that the black was not going to be easily cleaned at the end. So I had to wash away all the black lines, and lost most of the white drawing. I used the second drawing as a basis for the painting.
Floral Composition with Butterflies (3'x 3'). Acrylic on Canvas. June 12, 2010.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Books, Desk Crit, Drawing, Featured Artists, NaBloPoMo, Quotes, tagged Architecture, Compositions in Architecture, Design, Don Hanlon, download e-book, Drawing, Frederick Franck, Marc Auge', michael nobbs, Non-Places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity, sketch, sketch everyday. draw everyday, start to draw your life, the importance of drawing, the importance of sketching, Zen Seeing Zen Drawing on June 11, 2010| 5 Comments »
Explaining (imperfectly) the joy of sketching/vignette and perspective making to a student. Graphite on paper June 11, 2010
Drawing is thinking. Hand-eye coordination is essential not only to accurately render what you see, but to bring forth and execute what you see in your mind’s eye, i.e designing. I read once that we should use the word ‘draw’ as in ‘drawing information’, as from a well. To draw a building or space is to understand it, to make it our own –to impress it on our brain’s matrix. Photography, while wonderful and an art form in itself, leaves the lessons of buildings on the camera’s hard drive, not on ours.
Not to mention the warmth and ‘tactability’ , as my friend Luisa says, of a sketch or a vignette, the volumes it adds to a presentation, the process it unveils. Revit has the capability to render photorealistic imagery, with incredible texture and lighting. But it is in the process that a project is appreciated in all its nuances, that poetry can happen, that the design and the architect eye, mind and hand can be sipped, like fine, expensive wine. Without process architecture becomes a shot of cheap wiskey, vulgar. Design, like diamonds, has no mercy… “They will show up the wearer if they can,” says one character in The Sandcastle, an early novel by the famous British author, Iris Murdoch. (I borrowed this bit on diamonds here).
Drawing is analysis. It is a deliberate act of interpretation, and abstraction (as in capturing the essential). In the book ‘Compositions in Architecture’, Dan Hanlon says:
A drawing can be tuned to reveal and emphasize certain characteristics, and not others. It is a process of selection, of sharpening the way our brain takes notes of details. It is never alienating, never mindless, never automatic (unless as automatic art/ flow of consciousness), never repetitive, never listless as drawing on a computer can be.
In the introduction of book Non-places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity, Marc Augé mentions the many devices that, by keeping us ‘connected’ at all times, alienate and separate us from the place we physically occupy. Drawing keeps us grounded (in the here and now?), and is an exercise in fully experiencing our surroundings, of mindfulness.
And after the alarming The Shallows: This is Your Brain Online , on the ability to train our brain (and affect its physical make-up) by our daily habits, anything that can help with the collective scattered focus we are ‘learning’ from too much technology should be a worthwhile endeavor.
So yes, the Zen of Drawing, or drawing as meditation (architectural therapy not just art?). Like yoga, unplugging and plugging in at the same time. By drawing we fully inhabit this place, this body, as architect and artists.
My blogfriend Suzanne Cabrera at [An] Open Sketchbook turned me onto Michael Nobbs, a Blogger/Artist into time management,who advocates drawing everyday. Here is his free, fun and inspiring e-book.
I already started drawing loved objects before I ‘release’ them.
Here are the books mentioned:
And here, the first part on the importance of drawing.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Design, tagged Dazzle Camouflage, Military art, Norman Wilkinson, Razzle dazzle, US Navy, WWI on June 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »
These are drawings and photos of actual ships of the US Navy during WWI. To mislead German U-Boats (who shot torpedos in the direction the ship was thought to be going to), the Fleet Admiral used British Artist Norman Wilkinson’s Dazzle Camouflage or Razzle Dazzle. The war ship become huge canvases for abstract art. I love it. I found the original post here, where you can find more info and photos. All images via TwistedSifter.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Books, Drawing, Lectures, NaBloPoMo, Spontaneous Constructs, Watercolor, tagged Architect, book, diane Y. Welch, Indipendent Women in Architecture, lillian rice, mango, san diego, Sincerely Yours, sketchbook, Watercolor on June 9, 2010| 15 Comments »
Mango. Watercolor. June 6, 2010.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Coffee, Cures for the Nothing, Experiments, F R A G M E N T S, Music, NaBloPoMo, Photography, Spontaneous Constructs, tagged Architect, Architecture, coffee cups, Cornell, Espresso Cups, Gordon Matta-Clark, Illy coffee, Jeff Koons, sepia photography, tazzine collection on June 7, 2010| 1 Comment »
Apart. Photograph, Lumix Panasonic Camera. June 4, 2010
The center cannot hold. Photograph, Panasonic Lumix camera. June 4, 2010.
Soundtrack of ‘The Center cannot hold’
Spooning (one. is broken). Photograph, Panasonic Lumix camera. June 4, 2010
Soundtrack of ‘Spooning (one. is broken)’
Gordon Matta Clark (son of an artist, trained as an architect in Cornell) Splitting 32, 1975 Five gelatin silver prints, cut and collaged 40 3/4 x 30 3/4 (103.5 x 78.1) framed Collection of Jane Crawford and Bob Fiore Courtesy the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and David Zwirner, New York
Gordon Matta-Clark Conical Intersect (detail) 1975 27-29, rue Beaubourg, Paris courtesy of David Zwirner, NY and the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark
More on Gordon Matta-Clark
Posted in art,poetry,writing, tagged Berkeley, Fire Trail, Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, Woods on June 6, 2010| 2 Comments »
Posted in Architecture, Books, Film, Watercolor, tagged Afred Hitchock, and film, Architecture, art, atlas of emotion, Bartlett, cinematic urbanism, Giluiana Bruno, Gregory House, hollywood, House, Hugh Laurie, Journeys into architecture, MD, Nezar Alsayyad, set design, The wrong house on June 4, 2010| 3 Comments »
Dr. Gregory House. Watercolor on Paper. June 3, 2010
I am a huge fan of House, MD, not only because the writing is refreshing and clever (Cuddy: I have a case! House: Beer? )and the ‘hero’ is an anti-herowith serious flaws but a rugged, sarcastic way of caring — I love the show because there is a link between House and Sherlock Holmes – and you all know how much I love the British sleuth (no, not the recent ‘action’ movie…eek). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fashioned the character of Sherlock after his mentor, an eminent surgeon in Britain: with House, MD (whose name reminds us of Ho(l)mes) we come full circle.
As I watched the Season Finale last night (go Huddy :)) I caught a bit of the making of the stage of the collapsed building. MMM…models! You can never get away from architecture.
PS. If you have never seen House in your life ignore the writing and enjoy the painting of the strange man above.
The Set Design in House’s Season Finale
Image via official website of House, MD. Is that a model??
Image via official website of House, MD. Yes, that's a crane. It would be fun to recreate movie or show sets in studio.
Image via official website of House, MD. Building the set.
Image via official website of House, MD. The final disaster scene.
If you like this sort of thing, here is a fantastic book, or three, on the relationshio between architecture and TV and movie set design.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Drawing, Spontaneous Constructs, Watercolor, tagged Birthday, Camel, Dubai, mosaic camel on June 3, 2010| 3 Comments »
Watercolor on paper. June 3, 2010
The original family.
NaBloPoMo writing prompt of today:
Define ‘freedom’.
Traveling.
Posted in Architecture, Drawing, Graphic Design, Music, NaBloPoMo, Poetry, tagged Aerial Headphones, Architecture Studio, gipsy ballads, Ionian sea, Poetry, Tank headphones on June 2, 2010| 2 Comments »
My beloved 120GB ipod and a new present, Aerial TANK headphones from Urban Outfitters. Ink on stolen notebook paper. June 2, 2010
NaBloPoMo writing prompt of today:
What is your favorite poem?
You pick fresh fruit and seeds
From orchard and underwood nearby
I fetch seashells
Starshaped
For you
I build a nest of leaves–
We spend warm nights with street artists
Flame-eaters and sages
Fall asleep with fire
Yours and mine
Gipsy ballads
I wrote this in 1999.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Artuesdays, Link Love, NaBloPoMo, Photography, tagged Black and white photography, cliffs, hiking, La Jolla, Nablopomo, researcher of legends, san diego, Torrey Pines on June 1, 2010| 1 Comment »
Happy June!
I hope the long weekend was restful and re-newing for all. I was fortunate enough to enjoy the beautiful weather in San Diego, and explore the Torrey Pines coast and beaches, and hike a cliff (!) For someone like me , a city creature, who believes in the great indoors, this is no small feat. I love seeing the water, just wish I had a Vespa to do this more often.
Torrey Piney Cliff. La Jolla. Photograph, digital manipulation. June 31, 2020
Today I got some good, official news from my University, NewSchool of Architecture and Design: I have been appointed full-time lecturer. I am incredibly excited to continue teaching on a more permanent basis, and to progress in my academic career, to continue sharing and learning with my students. This summer I am slated to teach First Year Studio, a combination of advanced architectural drawing and visual communication techniques, along with Rendering and Delineation and [roll of drums] Freehand Drawing. Needless to say, incredible opportunities to continue drawing, rendering, watercolor and coffee paintings…all of which I will share here. As some of you may know, there is still some paperwork to go through in regards to my visa, the support of everyone at my school has been incredible, but , like every good movie, there is suspense at the end. Keep sending good energy.
I want to start June with NaBloPoMo, which is short for ‘National Blog Posting Month’. This is a fabolous site for bloggers, with lots of resources and networking opportunities; it is also associated with BlogHer. The official National Blog Posting Month is November (and prizes are given!), but every month members can be part of mini-nablopomo…which means I will do my best to post art and writings every day this month.
This month’s theme is ‘NOW’…a great reminder to ‘take life in one day packages’ as I recently read in a quote.
NaBloPoMo also offers interesting writing prompts for this month, Monday to Friday. Today’s prompt is:
When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Well, it may not surprise you that I used to gather my friends in the cortile of my house in Milano, a small band of four and five year-olds and set up storytelling classes…I was the ‘teacher’ of course:). I remember planning for each class and thinking of what story I would create for my ‘students’. We only met like four times (it is hard to keep a schedule when you are five and there are so many games and toys to play with). I distinctly remember looking at books in elementary school and wanting to be a ‘researcher of legends’.
PS: This is my 100th post, a year and three months after I first started SketchBloom, and exactly seven months after its official launch. Here’s to many more!
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