The magic of light

Paul Evans is one of our most successful landscape painters at work in Britain today. His unique and original style has evolved over an artistic career of 45 years and reflects his infectious joy at recording and learning from nature. His Instagram is worth a visit!

Dream walking

Khatija Possum Nampijimpa is a standout in a proud and prominent family of leading Aboriginal artists, all of whom are descended from Clifford Possum, the founder of the Modernist Movement in Australia’s Central Desert. She learned to paint from her mother, Michelle Possum Nungurrayi, who learned from her father Clifford Possum. Ancestral influences are profound in everyday Aboriginal life.

 The Women’s Dreaming paintings by Khatija depicts Women’s ceremonial sites surrounding Tjukurla in the western desert of Central Australia – traditional homelands to the artist’s great grandmother. Ceremonial sites carry a deep spiritual meaning, and it is where the women narrate their sacred Aboriginal dreamtime stories, through song lines, dance cycles and body paint. This painting has many secret and sacred landmarks and iconography but also includes the important fire, bush tucker and waterholes that are imperative to the women as the ceremonies can last for over a week. Though primarily a landscape painting Khatija has surpassed the basic stories and landmarks and has expanded this art of body painting and ceremonial themes into a classic contemporary composition, using modern acrylic paints.

A place of worship or a place to worship?

This is stunning! Sino-french Science Park Church / Shanghai Dachuan Architects! "In the context of France and China established diplomatic relations, a Sino French agricultural science and technology park will be built in Chengdu. It concentrates southern way of life restores the southern art scene，creates a foreign cultural experience. Think of southern France, you will think of Provence, a purple lavender field, the light of Impressionism illuminates the history of art from here. Impressionism is regarded as a period of Renaissance, The breakthrough of traditional realism is characterized by freehand brushwork. Starting from Langxiang Church, the usual pattern of Catholic churches was also broken, Implicit spirit in a peculiar distorted form. It is a ideographic architecture. It has a great influence on the development of modern architecture in the West."

Thorncrown Chapel - Nestled in a woodland setting, Thorncrown Chapel rises forty-eight feet into the Ozark sky. This magnificent wooden structure contains 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass. It sits atop more than 100 tons of native stone and colored flagstone, making it blend perfectly with its setting. The chapel's simple design and majestic beauty combine to make it what critics have called "one of the finest religious spaces of modern times."

Santuário Dom Bosco, Brasília, Brazil - From the outside, the Santuário Dom Bosco is not much more than a bland concrete box. But the interior is truly spectacular, with floor-to-ceiling windows casting heavenly light throughout the entire space. These glassy facades are made up of 7,400 pieces of glass in a dozen shades of blue, giving the appearance of a starry sky.

 

I am floored!

I just texted my friend telling her how angry I am. How I felt I had PSTD from the previous 4 years of trump but I had David to level out my anger. But come one, no security background checks on these questionable nominees with vocal ties to putin? No releasing gaetz report on from the Ethics Committee while he saunters into an AG position? I mean what kind of fuckery is this? Just trump and his pack of shitheads throwing shade and giving this country the finger. 

Okay, I got that off my chest ... on the nicer things. 

A Spanish artist, Hasan Jasim, engraved the soul of a carpet (and her childhood) into a wooden floor.

 The 9,000 square foot mosaic will open this year. It was discovered nine years ago during the construction of a new hotel in Antakya, Turkey. Archaeologists believe that the mosaic once decorated the floor of a public building in the ancient city of Antioch, one of the most important cities of the Seleucid Empire. 

 

 

This popped up in my feed ... think the universe is sending me a message? Well, I will try.
 

Reimaged images from the past

Volker Hermes, and his Instagram 

Ten years in the making, Hidden Portraits reinterprets historical paintings through a modern lens. 

Using only elements from the original work, contemporary artist Volker Hermes visually manipulates famous Old Masters portraits, exploring expression when the face is obscured. 

By blocking the emotions expressed by the face, Hermes invites viewers to observe ancient codes of fashion as symbols of self-representation and social status. 

Then, with a contemporary perspective, great respect, and a dash of humor, Hermes layers the codes of our times over the codes of ancient times. 

It was late in 2019 when international hype materialized around the Hidden Portraits Hermes had been creating for over 10 years (though he had just begun to share them with the world on Instagram). Their visual content - figures disappearing behind masks - perfectly and almost clairvoyantly directly reflect the current era.

 

  

 

Beautiful botanicals

Margot Glass grew up in New York City, and studied art at The Art Students' League, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work explores the ephemeral through still life, nature and botany. She currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts.

The morning after drill

Thomas Jefferson — 'The government you elect is the government you deserve.' And we deserve exactly what we are about to get. 

Especially the Arabs who wouldn't vote for Harris. I bet jared and trump are on the phone right now finalizing the Gaza beachfront condo development scheme. It should make them a fortune. They will call it TRUMP GAZA.

And the Latinos who didn't want to vote for Harris. I hope YOU or a family member doesn't get deported in the largest deportation trump has planned. Fcuk YOU.

I didn't think Harris was a shoe-in, but I thought in the short time she had she ran a great campaign of hope and joy and progressive vision of unity. 

I turned off all news at around midnight and absolutely refuse to watch the the-big-orange-twat give a victory speech. I hear he said something about bringing the country together and making America Golden again, or some horse shit. I really missed David last night, he was always my rock, my levity, my balance. It just felt dark and alone to experience such shame in one's country without him. I did have the kids and especially Mason! She and I have had some great political discussions the last couple of days. 

She ran home the other day to announce (like it was the plague) "she had THREE Trumpers in her class". I told her that there would always be differences in politics and usually if your parents are a certain party, you will probably be too. BUT everyone has the right to vote for who they want to vote for, that is what this country is all about. Then we moved over to Women's Health Care. That was trickier. Talking about abortion and how that is not for everyone, that it should be legal, women have the right to make their own choices about their bodies and their healthcare. I explained that I was voting for her and Noah's right as women to NOT have the government tell them what to do.

Speaking of healthcare ... RFK Jr. is saying he is going to gut the FDA. 

Here was my response: "Thinking we might all die of measles, shingles, pneumonia, Covid might be the quickest way out of this mess! Thanks Jr. for that solution"

 And then there Elon Musk's (who spent election night at Mar-a-Largo) statement about how our economy (and us) will suffer for awhile, but it will all be worth it. Hope no one has pre-existing health issues, or likes their SS and Medicare. Fcuk you billionaire sack of shit. And probably say goodbye to ACA ... he has promised for over 9 years to get rid of that ... with no plan to replace it.

 

"Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has pledged over $130 million toward Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, recently stated that a Trump victory could lead to "temporary hardship" for Americans. Musk, set to head a government efficiency commission under Trump, proposes deep budget cuts to reduce federal spending by trillions, highlighting his view that America needs to "live within its means." Musk defended this plan, describing it as a pathway to long-term prosperity, despite potential short-term economic challenges. 

 

In a recent "Telephone Town Hall" on Musk’s platform, X (formerly Twitter), he suggested these cuts might not be well-received but stressed that both he and Trump see the need for broad financial reform. Musk referred to the concept of "everyone taking a haircut," indicating that all citizens might feel the impact of these fiscal adjustments. Trump’s plan, supported by Musk, envisions balancing the budget by cutting waste across departments rather than affecting popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. 

 

Economic experts have expressed concern, noting that drastic reductions could potentially spike prices and reignite inflation, particularly if paired with Trump’s mass deportation plans and tariff policies. While Musk insists that reducing government waste is crucial, economists argue that equating government budgeting to personal finance is flawed, as countries operate on principles unlike individual budgets." 

 

"Musk suggested that this budget cutting — combined with Trump’s mass deportation plan — would cause a market-crashing economic “storm.”"

 

His victory speech hardly left his lips and MSM are normalizing him again. Spare me! I have had enough of his psycho family for a lifetime. I just listened to jr. in a coke-filled rant a couple of times yesterday. So, yes, I know all about his family. The man who can't be loyal to ONE wife. So Fcuk you, MSM.

This is how I am feeling like now. 

 

 

 
A few more things to look forward to:

On a lighter note, Wolf Hall's first season, which adapted the first two novels in Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy, was released in 2015, season 2, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, arriving almost a decade later, March 2025.

Nature at its best

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not the first artist to record the sites, but he was the foremost painter of them for the remainder of the 19th century. 

Bierstadt was born in Prussia, but his family moved to the United States when he was one year old. He returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. He became part of the second generation of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along the Hudson River. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. Bierstadt was an important interpreter of the western landscape, and he is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School.