Posted in Coffee, Photography, tagged Coffee, morning rituals, whole foods on August 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »
At the local Whole Foods. Couldn't resist.
Sensory overload for the coffee fiend at Whole Foods.
Can I take you all home with me?
A short, sweet poem for you today, like the piece of dark chocolate my friend Susan at Chi Chocolat used to place at the end of her black, strong espressos. A small indulgence, a titillating surprise.
Enjoy with coffee.
by marandah
Sweet aroma; your skin
Your breath upon my chin
I offer my resolve
to drink you in
)
(
L__I
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Books, Cures for the Nothing, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Drawing, Experiments, F R A G M E N T S, NaBloPoMo, Quotes, Writing, tagged breaking and entering, idra, Marguerite Yourcenar, sei un rettile, St. Loup's Secrets and Lies, Words are Swords on August 28, 2010| 1 Comment »
Ink on paper, trace, digital collage. August 27,2010.
Ink on trace. August 27, 2010.
The spoils of Archangel Michael (the Archangel of Justice). Ink on paper. August 27,2010
…manier les mots, les soupeser, en explorer le sens, es une manière de faire l’amour, surtout lorsque ce qu’on écrit est inspiré par quelqu’un, ou promis à quelqu’un.
Marguerite Yourcenar
Quoi? L’Éternité, Paris, Gallimard, 1988, p. 147
[“…manipular las palabras, sopesarlas, explorar su sentido, es una manera de hacer el amor, sobre todo cuando lo que se escribe está inspirado en alguien, o está prometido a alguien.”]
[ “…to manipulate words, weigh them, to explore their meaning, is a way of making love, especially when what is written is inspired by someone, or promised to someone”]
I am so tired of this language, English, where you can ‘love’ McDonalds, ‘love’ tennis, ‘love’ a dog and ‘love’ your soulmate.
We need a new word, like Ti Amo.
In the same [unfortunate] series:
Words…Words…Words…..Swords May 9, 2010
Jealousy Ouvertures May 19, 2010
Sections of the Brokenhearted [Find another Sun] June 7, 2010
Mango (della gelosia) June 9, 2010
Fading to Cheshire: An Art Exorcise July 30, 2010
Here’s to hydra-free days.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Featured Artists, Photography, Thought in the Alley, tagged artist blog, Brandon Lee, Color, Drawing Class, Drawing portraits, Eric Draven, graphite pencil portraits, Grayscale, Photography, Photography Portraits, Portrait tutorial, Portraits, the art of portrait photography, The Crow, video tutorials on August 27, 2010| 3 Comments »
Let Me In. Graphite on paper. Image via Darrel Tank of the Five Pencil Methd
I ran into Darrel Tank’s Five Pencil Method few weeks ago. His work is breathtaking.
The site full of wonderful video tutorials, and in his blog, Darrel offers videos with step by step advice on submitted portraits. All I can say is I’m Jealous WOW.
I really just drew one portrait, my first — if we don’t count some self-portraits done as homework for drawing classes in college. And I don’t think we want to see that type of work here, or maybe yes, for giggles. Just so you know in one I was made-up like The Crow. Oh yes there is also that whole other side of me…
Just Go Grayscale And Call It ‘Art’
But all of this is just to shamelessly plug in this portrait that the photographer Dianna Ippolito took of yours truly last week. It will go on the Faculty wall of my school. And if a photo could ever make someone happy this is it, and I wanted to share it here, hoping you will overlook the fact that it is my photo: it is the art of photography and catching a soul with a lens as well.
Moreover, I am losing my innocence and naivete’ as we speak, so good thing they were preserved here;)
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Desk Crit, San Diego, school, School Work, tagged california, Caliph, Color, desk crits, Drawing, drawing and coloring plen air, Escondido, experiments, history of California, Kit Carson Park, Markers, Mythos, Niki St. Phalle, Queen Califia, Queen Califia's Magical Garden, rendering and Delineation, san diego, sketchbooks, The origins or California, watercolor techniques, Where California got its name on August 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
From yesterday’s Rendering and Delineation Class. So proud of my color-wary students.
Queen Califia Session
Quen Califia Session II
Queen Califia III
Read the story of the mythical Queen Califia.
California is named after her!
See Niki St. Phalle Sculptural Garden ‘ Queen Califia’s Magical Garden’ in Kit Carson Park, Escondido, California.
Previous posts on the subject:
California and Califia
Listening to Baroque Music in San Francisco
Working with Color
Queen Califia’s Magical Garden {Continued}
Posted in art,poetry,writing on August 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Found in an old book:
‘ Spend time sketching everyday
the outcome is not important
the time you spend sketching
is time you spend solving yourself. ‘
I’ve been organizing my school folders, and always find that decluttering frees up the space of the mind first of all, and readies it for new projects and enterprises (cool folders and Italian stationery also helps :)).
Speaking of stationery, I would be remiss if I didn’t share this delicious site, Galison New York.
As usual, I have been pondering about the amount of projects I have, which are invariably inversely proportionate to the time available at a given moment (activity begets activity).
My wise mother told me ‘Don’t you know writers take a month to write a book, but years to gestate it’?
Posted in Experiments on August 19, 2010| 3 Comments »
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Drawing, Featured Artists, Graphic Design, Lectures, NaBloPoMo, San Diego, school, School Work, Tutorial, Watercolor, tagged An open sketchbook, Architecture, Botanical Garden, Color Drawing by Doyle, Color rendering, Drawing, Escondido, fabric, Furniture, hand rendering, illustration, ink, Interior rendering, Kit Carson Park, Markers, Niki St. Phalle, Prismacolor Pencil, Queen Califia's Magical Garden, san diego, Suzanne Cabrera, Texture, Tutorial, Urban Sketchers, Watercolor on August 18, 2010| 1 Comment »
Loose Rendering. Ink, watercolor, prismacolor pencils. August 2010.
Lately, I’ve favored the watercolor and pencil technique, but want to get back to working with markers.
I found these two great tutorials on marker renderings from my blog friend and Urban Sketcher extraordinaire Suzanne Cabrera at An [Open] Sketchbook: can’t wait to share them with my students!
{ Tutorial 1: Furniture/Fabric }
{ Tutorial 2: Interior Rendering }
As usual, the wonderful Color Drawing book by Doyle will provide a lifetime’s worth of lessons.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Design, Drawing, Experiments, Graphic Design, NaBloPoMo, San Diego, school, School Work, Tutorial, Watercolor, tagged Architecture, Botanical Garden, Color Drawing by Doyle, Color rendering, Drawing, Escondido, fabric, Furniture, hand rendering, illustration, ink, ink drawing, Kit Carson Park, loose rendering, loose sketch, marker rag paper, Markers, Niki St. Phalle, Prismacolor Pencil, Queen Califia's Magical Garden, san diego, Texture, trace paper, tracing, transfering, Tutorial, Urban Sketchers, Watercolor on August 16, 2010| 3 Comments »
Marker Test @ Queen Califia's Magical Garden
Initial Sketch. Felt tip on heavy bond (sketchbook) paper.
Felt Tip on Marker (Rag) Paper.
Applying Watercolor 1.
Applying Watercolor 2.
End of ession at site. 20 Minutes. Wanted to have a loose base of color.
Adding Pencils (Albrecht Durer- Made in Germany), texture, few days after.
Do you remember Niki St. Phalle’s ‘Queen Califia’s Magical Garden’?
Well, I went back with my students for some loose watercolor and pencil renderings.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Books, Writing, tagged Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Inspiration, Ted Talks, transcendence on August 15, 2010| 3 Comments »
There are ‘doing’ days and there are ‘absorbing/thinking’ days. Today was the latter.
{ Here } is a wonderful Ted talk from the author of ‘Eat, Pray,Love’ on inspiration and its transcendence (thankyou to my friend Momen for sharing this). I must admit I was wary of the book, and of ‘jumping on the band wagon’, but through this talk I could see Elizabeth Gilbert, sans-hype: a brilliant thinker, enlighting, humorous, with not an ounce of self-importance. She reminded me of an academic, and I wonder if she ever taught: her caring and accessibility would make her a formidable teacher. I like to think, in another life, I would have met her, and we’d be fast friends.
It’s been couple of days filled with love, music, colors, soulful food, words, friendship. Eyes exposed to new sights, hands holding crafts and design objects, papers, manufactured desires. I have basked in the scent of hand-picked books, curated lives, and held manuscripts I know I will never have the time or chance to read.
May all your days be full of enchantment, wonder, and the humble realization that we are, all of us, forever perched on the edge of knowledge. We can only gaze at this sea, be open to it- arms wide.
Trust that all that is meant for you to see, read, discover,and, yes, love will no doubt alight your path.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Design, Drawing, Music, tagged 100 Beats Arabica, Amoeba Records, Andalusia, Arab design, Arab lamp, Arab Music, Arabesque, Arabic, Cheb Khaled, Haight Ashbury, Islamic Architecture, Kan Zaman, lucernaire, Maghreb Musiqa, moorish, North African Music, Radio Tarifa, san francisco, Spirit of Rai, World Music on August 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Lamp. Kan Zaman Restaurant, San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury. Charcoal, Graphite and Ink. August 2010.
Click to Andalucia
Click to teleport
Bought from Amoeba Records. Freshly imported for your pleasure.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Design, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Lectures, Link Love, NaBloPoMo, Painting, tagged 39GeorgeV, A rare Renée Magritte. La Poitrine. 1961, Apple Macbook, Architecture, Artists revisit the modern house, Belgium, BLDGBLOG, blue building, Daily Mail, Daniel Arsham, Delfshaven, Frankfurt's Bockenheimer Warte Subway Station, Iphone painting, London, Magritte Museum, Magritte-inspired art vinyl, P&O Building demolition, Painting the Glass House, Paris, Renée Magritte. Irene., Renée Magritte. Le Tombeur des lutteurs. 1960, Renée Magritte. Personal Values. 1952, Renee Magritte. Eulogy of the Dialectic., Rotterdam, Royal Museum of fine Arts, Scaffolding, Schildersbedrijf N&F Hijnen, Steve John, Surrealism, Surrealist Cover, The Curated Object, The M-House, Yale School of Architecture on August 13, 2010| 2 Comments »
A rare Renée Magritte. La Poitrine. 1961
Renée Magritte. Irene.
Renée Magritte. Le tombeur des lutteurs. 1960
Renee Magritte. Eulogy of the Dialectic.
Renée Magritte. Personal Values. 1952
In my search, I stumbled upon Myriam Mahiques, who shares some thoughts on Magritte, and Immateriality in Painting and Architecture.
Instances of Surrealist Architecture and Urban Design:
Click on the images for more details and to see source.
"39GeorgeV" is an urban surrealism manifesto. It sheltered the renovation of an Hausmannian building in Paris, during year 2007. It's a life-size photographic work based on the original building, printed on canvas, enhanced with bas-relief.
The Manifesto of the 39GeorgeV project.
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Installation of the new Magritte Museum 2008/09
Frankfurt's Bockenheimer Warte Subway Station. From '10 Of The World’s Most Impressive Subway Stations'
Iphone painting by Steve John.
Son Of Mac. Magritte-inspired Apple Macbook art vinyl decal.
Magritte-ispired art vinyl decal for Apple Macbook.
Book : Surrealism and Architecture edited by Thomas Mical
Posted in Design, Graphic Design, Link Love, NaBloPoMo, Paper Goods, Writing, tagged adhesive tape from Tombow, Brush Pens, calligraphy pens, Chai, Ciao, Design, Fabric notebooks, industrial design, Japanese Stationery, Jetpens, jetpens.com, Kodomo no Kao Ouchi Miniature House Rubber Stamps, Kokuyo Systemic Special Cover Refillable Notebook, KUM pencut, Lamy Mechanical pencil, Lamy Safari fountain pen, Manga Pens, Midori Animal Shape D-Clips, Miti Aiello, Office Supplies, Paper Goods, Pencil cases, PlePle Choco Wrap Pencil Case, Round index tabs by Metaphis, Sun-Star 7-Blade Shredder Scissors, Sun-Star Pictome Woman Clip on August 12, 2010| 4 Comments »
So you already know I heart Japanese Stationery stores.
Here are more lovely pens and things from Jetpens.
Some of these, like rubber stamps – or writing letters sealed with rubber stamps- don’t exactly fit my life right now, but isn’t it fun to imagine such settings?
Thanks go to my (enabling) friend Andy who shared Jetpens with me.
Click on the images for more details.
Brush Pens
Lamy Mechanical Pencil
Midori Animal Shape D-Clips
Woman-shaped clips by Sun-Star
Rubber Stamp by Kodomo no Kao Ouchi Mininature House : A Chair and Ciao!
The beautiful packages of Kodomo no Kao Ouchi Miniature House Rubber Stamps.
Round index tabs by Metaphis
Sun-Star 7-Blade Shredder Scissors
Acid-free, refillable adhesive tape from Tombow- for the gluing perfectionist (wow).
Kokuyo Systemic Special Cover Refillable Notebook
PlePle Choco Wrap Pencil Case
Lamy fountain pen, extra fine nib, aluminum body.
My favorite: Pen-Style Scissors.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Artuesdays, Coffee, Design, Digital Collage, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Experiments, Link Love, School Work, Watercolor, tagged Architectural review, Architecture, Arles, Cafe' A La Carte, Coffee, Domus, Firenze, Futo Coffee, Harvard Design Guide, Inverno, la pioggia, loose watercolor techniques, Miti Aiello, Place Lamartine, Rene Magritte, Starry Sky over the Rhone, Surrealist house, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Vijay Raghavendiran, Vincent Van Gogh, Watercolor techniques. George S. Loli, Winter in Florence on August 10, 2010| 3 Comments »
After some meetings today I stopped by the library, Futo coffee in hand, and indulged in my favorite Architecture periodicals: Domus, Architectural Review and Harvard Design Magazine. An article on Surrealist Houses launched an expansive search on the Architecture of René Magritte; will share some of the findings here.
I've had Magritte (and collages) on my mind. Digital Manipulation on a photograph by Vijay Raghavendiran.
I am also thinking about watercolor these days: in both Freehand Drawing and Rendering and Delineation classes we are working with loose techniques. Here are some images that stopped me in my track during my quest.
Winter in Florence-La Pioggia- Watercolor and Ink. Professor George S. Loli, Dept. of Architecture, University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Starry Night over the Rhone. Vincent Van Gogh. 1888.
Posted in Cures for the Nothing, NaBloPoMo, Photography, tagged Babylon, Blu 70, Calabria, Calalunga, Caminia, Carnevale, Catanzaro, Homesickness, Ionian sea, Italian Bread, Italian Sea, Mar Ionio, Milano, Olive Bread, Pietragrande, Venezia., venice, Wanderlust on August 9, 2010| 3 Comments »
We interrupt this broadcast due to a bout of homesickness and wanderlust.
The Pacific is, to paraphrase Coleridge, ‘ Water, water everywhere (and not a drop to swim in)’.
I miss my home.
Exhibit A: My home in Milano.
Exhibit B: Calabria, small harbor with 'historical' outdoor nightclub attached, Blu '70.
Exhibit B1: As if it weren't enough, there is an(other) outdoor club in front this rock (Pietragrande), considered one of the most scenic in Europe.
Exhibit B2, Calabria, the coastline near my house. Tomorrow morning, this is how it will look, and August is the hardest month to be away.
Sit down, let's have an iced, sweet espresso. Hear the music.
Let's take the train next week, go to Firenze, we can stop by Venezia, certainly. Do you remember that olive bread?
Posted in Cures for the Nothing, Experiments, F R A G M E N T S, Film, NaBloPoMo, Photography, tagged Abstract, film noir, Hitchcock, Photography, Quotes, Rear Facing Window on August 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Acrylic, art,poetry,writing, Books, Link Love, NaBloPoMo, Painting, Quotes, tagged Acrylin Painting, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Becoming Minimalist, Chairs, collage, Frederick Franck, Hui Hai, John Ruskin, Le petit Prince, Te Power of Intention, wayne dyer, Zen Seeing Zen Drawing on August 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A beginning of something. Acrylic and marker on canvas. July 2010
Here are some quotes that are inspiring me these days:
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince
From Becoming Minimalist { thankyou Andy}
So Powerful. I believe in ‘As a (w)oman thinketh so is (s)he’, and in the power of intention, but sometimes us thinking types need a call to be spurred into action. This is it. { thankyou Student}
From Zen Seing, Zen Drawing { thankyou Frederick Franck}
Ps. I added something new to my previous Chairs post.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Design, Desk Crit, Digital Collage, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Drawing, Experiments, F R A G M E N T S, Featured Artists, Graphic Design, Lectures, NaBloPoMo, Paper Goods, Pastel, Photography, school, tagged Albert Frey, Alberto Kalach, Alfredo Melly, Andrea Benavides, Archigram, Architectural Collage, Architecture, california, Case Study Homes, Charles and Ray Eames, Charles Santamaria, Christine & Russell Forester, collage, Coop Himmelblau, Craig Ellwood, Culver City, Daly Genik Architects, Del Mar, Don Wexler, Ed Killingsworth, Eric Owen Moss, Estudio Teddy Cruz, Frank Gehry, Gehry Technologies, Greene and Greene, Hector Perez, Henry Palomino, Kathy McCormick & Ted Smith, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Luce Et Studio, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Morphosis, Nancy Tariga, newschool of architecture and design, Palm Springs, pasadena, Residential Design, Richard NeutraRudolph Schindler, san diego, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Monica, Sebastian Mariscal, Sebastian Mariscal Studio, Smith and Others, SoCal Exploratory Design Workshop, Southern California Design and Architecture, Superstudio, Ted Smith, venice on August 6, 2010| 1 Comment »
Something eye-opening occurred at my school yesterday.
I attended the exhibit for SoCal -Ex : Exploratory Design Workshop, completed by Professor Hector Perez and his students.
Here are the specific of the Workshop:
6 Explorers
Andrea Benavides/Alfredo Melly/Henry Palomino/Charles Santamaria/Nancy Tariga
25 Days
July 12-August 5
10 Field Trips
San Diego/La Jolla/Del Mar/San Juan Capistrano/Los Angeles/Santa Monica/Culver City/Venice/Pasadena/Palm Springs
9 Progressive Practices
Daly Genik Architects/Eric Owen Moss/Estudio Teddy Cruz/Gehry Technologies/Luce Et Studio/Michael Maltzan Architecture/Morphosis/Sebastian Mariscal Studio/Smith and Others
15 Extraordinary Residences
Charles and Ray Eames/Craig Ellwood/Christine & Russell Forester/Albert Frey/Frank Gehry/Greene and Greene/Coop Himmelblau/Alberto Kalach/Ed Killingsworth/Sebastian Mariscal/Kathy McCormick & Ted Smith/Richard NeutraRudolph Schindler/Don Wexler
I spoke with Professor Perez and he told me that the analysis of the case study residences and projects were concentrated on the ‘crown’, ‘body’ and ‘feet’ of the aedifices.
Through collages, reminiscent of Superstudio and Archigram, the field trips become a venue for envisioning alternative architectural and urban scenarios (Design Workshops). I hope you’ll enjoy these images just as much as I did; each collage read like a miniature work of art, and the juxtaposition of architectural drawings and bold hand-drawn colors created fantastic, detailed, abstract constructs. What a wonderful way to illustrate architectural drawings, and bring to life photographs. The collages, done by hand, using cutouts, colored pencils and paint had a physical presence, a texture that a purely digital (photoshopped) images invariably lack.
I am inspired to create some more collages of my own and…can’t wait for the book 😉
Click on an image to enlarge.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Books, Design, Desk Crit, Drawing, Graphic Design, Lectures, NaBloPoMo, Painting, school, School Work, Watercolor, tagged Betty Edwards, Chairs, Class Experiment, Coffee, Figure Ground, How to Draw on the right Side of the Brain, Miti Aiello, Picasso, Stravinsky, Talent, Upside Down Drawing on August 5, 2010| 1 Comment »
Freehand Drawing- In Class exercise. After rendering with Espresso, we use the leftover coffee to draw chair combinations, or rather, the void around the chairs, in a figure-ground setting.
Another exercise with ‘Drawing on the Righ Side of the Brain’. By drawing the space, not the chair, the proportions were incredibly accurate in all drawings. The drawings can be read as Nolli Maps of imaginary cities, we can see piazzas, palazzi…we can see perspective, spatial configurations/plans, abstract paintings… I love the ambivalent water medium, the subtle, duplicitous, always multilayered sepia tone.
From 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' by Betty Edwards
From Page 54:
Look at the drawings on the right-hand side of Figure 4-11. Studens 1 and 2 copied Picasso’s drawing right side up. As you can see, their drawings did not improve, and they use the same stereotypic, symbolic forms in their copies of the Picasso Stravinsky as they used in their Draw-a-Person drawings. In the drawings done by Student 2, you can see the confusion caused by the foreshortened chair and Stravinsky crossed legs.
In contrast, the second two students, starting out at about the same level of skill, copied the Picasso upside down, just as you did. The Student 3 and the Student 4 drawings show the results. Surprisingly, the drawings done upside down reflect much greater accuracy of perception and appear to be much more skillfully drawn.
How can we explain this?
The results run counter to common sense. You simply would not expect that a figure observed and drawn upside down could possibly be easier to draw, with superior results, than one viewed and drawn in the normal right-side-up way. The lines, after all, are the same lines. Turning the Picasso drawing upside down doesn’t in any way rearrange the lines or make them easier to draw. And the students did not suddenly acquire “talent”.
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Experiments, F R A G M E N T S, NaBloPoMo, Poetry, school, tagged AMerican School of Milan, Bic Pen, Clay, Il Sole, Kindergarden, Markers, Mary Oliver, Miti Aiello, Sculpture, The Sun, The Sun Poem on August 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Il Sole (The Sun). Clay, Markers and pen. Milano, April 12, 1981, 5 yrs. old
Il Sole (back). God bless my mom for putting dates on *everything*.
By Mary Oliver
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Artuesdays, Drawing, Link Love, NaBloPoMo, Paper Goods, Poetry, School Work, tagged Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Exercise, Ghadah Alkandary, Jonathan Wells, Miti Aiello, Nablopomo, Ode to Pens, Office Supplies, pens, pilot pen, Pilot Precise, Poetry, Pretty Green Bullet, sketch daily, The Man with Many Pens, The New Yorker, V7 on August 3, 2010| 6 Comments »
Drawn with Pilot Pen V5 (aka Pilot Precise Extra Fine) on office pad. August 3, 2010.
With one he wrote a number so beautiful
it lasted forever in the legends of numbers. With another
he described the martyrs’ feet as they marched
past the weeping stones and cypresses, watched
by their fathers. He used one as a silver wand to lift
a trout from its spawning bed to more fruitful waters
and set it back down, its mouth facing upstream.
He wrote Time has no other river but this one in us,
no other use but this turn in us from mountain lakes
of late desires to confusions passed through
with every gate open. Let’s not say he didn’t take us
with him in the long current of his letters, his calligraphy
and craft, moving from port to port, his hand stopping
near his heart, the hand that smudged and graced the page,
asking, asking, his fingers a beggar’s lucent black,
for the word that gave each of us away.
More poetry from the New Yorker
I confess: I am weak for love pens and other writing instruments.
I have had a fascination with pens (and office supplies) since I was 4, when I would help organize my mother’s supply center at work. I was very scrupolous 🙂 In college, buying pens at the Varsity Store on Campus, or better yet, at Mathison’s, was therapy. Above you see my sine qua non pen.
And, one more thing for today: my blogsister Ghadah at PrettyGreenBullet gets an A.
Ghadah Alkandari. Isograph and Marker. Hand Exercise from 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' (Aug.2,2010)
Posted in art,poetry,writing, Books, Cures for the Nothing, Drawing, Experiments, Film, Link Love, Music, NaBloPoMo, San Diego, school, School Work, tagged david grann, Drawing on the right side of the brain, film noir, gilda, ink drawing, le corbusier, movies balboa park, movies under the stars, new yorker, pacific beach, peter paul biro, san diego, San Diego Reader, screen in the green 2010, sketchbook, teleportation, the mark of a masterpiece on August 2, 2010| 2 Comments »
I hope everyone’s having a fabulous beginning of August.
I am really trying.
How are you doing, fabulous?
I plan to go to some movie under the stars, or at the park, or on a roof, like Cinema Paradiso. A good black and white movie, preferably a noir Hitchcock, would be the cat’s meow.
I am officially suffering from wanderlust. If I could be in five places at once I would be home in Calabria (Southern Italy), in Cuba, Ibiza and Greece and of course right where I am, having a Summer of Art with my students. They really need to get this teleportation thing going, so I could just zip away for the weekend, or we could just do three days of plein air sketching in Florence!
Le Corbusier said that we need to see with new eyes. How true; in Architecture, drawing, and, most of all, in life. Looking is not seeing. SO part of the renewal is to give your eyes something different to contemplate (i.e. do something new!). I pledge to pick up my local weekly and get out of my comfort zone (even my beloved neighborhood! I know, hard to believe). Yesterday, to start the month right, I trekked couple of hours to the beach (with my sketchbook, of course!)
Pacific Beach. August1,2010. Ink on paper.
To develop new eyes, and to stretch different parts of the brain, we have been working in class from “Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain.” One of its famous exercises is to draw an object without looking at the paper, preferably without lifting your pen or pencil. I tried it out with my hand.
The fingerprint/pattern was inspired by a) this fascinating article on The NewYorker on fingerprints, art and forensic science and b) paying attention to things we don’t even see anymore, or take for granted. Here is our uniqueness. We are all snowflakes, and just as fragile.
Felt Tip on paper. August 2, 2010.
Draw your hand without looking at the paper, take a photo and send it to me (sketchbloom at gmail dot com) or linkback.
I am curious.
Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Design, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Graphic Design, Link Love, Los Angeles Diaries, NaBloPoMo, Photography, tagged Costa Mesa, glocal, local artists, local business, Los Angeles, Nablopomo, Public space, the LAB Anti-Mall on August 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Happy August!
Ever the optimist, here is the first post of the month. I’m giving a shot at posting daily (again), we’ll see how it goes.
Here is the happy Nablopomo August Badge. The theme of this month is ‘Green’. For me, it will mean renewal more than sustainability (a sort of spa for the mind), but I might find some interesting green homes to feature. Of course green is the color of envy, but we shan’t talk about that 😉 Here are couple of badges for good measure.
So as promised, here is my surprising discovery in the environs of Newport Beach (Costa Mesa): The LAB Anti-Mall.
I loved it! Local public art, local businesses and public spaces.
The Gipsy Den, which I covered in a previous post (it’s updated with photos now, yay), lies therein.
Enjoy, and I hope you get the chance to visit.
By the way thank you for all the views (dear readers :)), I am striving to post more often and it’s great to know this thing I do is being followed and shared.
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