Sunday, May 28, 2023

The art of repairing

In Japan, there is a traditional repair method known as kintsugi, where broken pieces of pottery are stuck back together with a Japanese lacquer (urushi), the joints are painted and decorated with gold or silver powder, and the pottery continues to be used.

Or you can buy this one at Neiman's for $775.00 LOL

Kintsugi: the Japanese Art of Mending Broken Pottery with Gold 

Saturday, May 27, 2023

A house full of friends

So my Winthrop trip did not happen. 30 minutes before I was set to leave, I was violently ill. Not sure if it was something I ate or if I have a bug, either way didn't want to sit in a moving RV for 4 hours AND my friend did not want to be exposed to a possible stomach bug. So I slept all day yesterday instead. Watched some pretty stupid stuff on television.

The house is quiet again. I hear the birds, the humming refrigerator, the sloshing dish washer, the whirling of the computer engine and Pixie occasionally snuffling in her sleep. Being in my home is soothing, looking around at the collection of objects, feeling like I am in a cocoon. I was watching a design video where the woman was talking about living with all of her "stuff" ... cherished objects given to her throughout her life by friends and family. Feeling like all of those people are there with her as she lives with them. I certainly agree with that. I know we all look at each little thing in our homes, no matter how small or inexpensive and feel the moment you received it, placed it, how long you have lived with it. It becomes an extension of you. 

I spent the morning judicially looking over expiration dates on stuff like hummus, etc in refrigerator. Not wanting to relive yesterday morning. I cut up all kinds of veggies for the trip, now will be eating it for days. 

My neighborhood is so quiet, unusually quiet yesterday as well. I keep forgetting it is a holiday weekend. Such things do not make much difference to an introverted, unemployed widow? I hope YOU are having a fun Memorial Day weekend! The weather here is amazing.

Speaking of unemployed (or retired LOL), I just want to thank f*cking Kevin for all the money that is draining out of my retirement account. I swear the asshole republicans want to see Biden fail so badly, they will put the US economy AT RISK. I hope when everyone's SS money is late arriving, they will think lovingly of KEVIN and the GOP!

I am probably drawn to the Anglo-Japanese style because the apartment we lived when I was 10  had that vibe to it. We had an undulating Asian turquoise sofa, lots of Japanese type art. Never asked mom where that influence came from for her. I wish I had now. I am trying to remember more details about that now.

The Anglo-Japanese style developed in the period from approximately 1851 to 1900, when a new appreciation for Japanese design and culture affected the art, especially the decorative art, and architecture of England. The first use of the term “Anglo-Japanese” occurs in 1851. The wider interest in Eastern or Oriental design and culture is regarded as a characteristic of the Aesthetic Movement during the same period. 

History 

The Museum of Ornamental Art, later the Victoria and Albert Museum, bought Japanese lacquer and porcelain in 1852, and again in 1854 with the purchase of 37 items from the exhibition at the Old Water-Colour Society, London. Japanese art was exhibited at London in 1851, Dublin in 1853; Edinburgh 1856 and 1857; Manchester in 1857, and Bristol in 1861. The 1862 International Exhibition in London had a Japanese display which has been considered ‘one of the most influential events in the history of Japanese art in the West.’ 



























 

A waste of money

Imagine a world where we worried about feeding starving kids the same we we worry about feeding first class passengers. 

 

I have an obsession

Yes, I have a dish obsession

In 1765 Joseph Zächenberger, a skillful painter, created the lush Cumberland pattern for Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufacturers. Zächenberger's pattern was meant to replace fresh flowers at table. At the time, fresh flowers were frowned upon as table decorations as they could wilt during the event.

Alberto Pinto Belles Saisons Dinnerware - $710.00
Seen on FB marketplace: Lot of Georgian Davenport Ironstone China. the lot $800

Friday, May 26, 2023

"What are you doin'?"

I have been running across these amazing videos of captive Starlings talking and mimicking noises they hear. Maybe I should have one to carry on a conversation with LOL

  

  

  

  

 

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Truth

Whale songs

Okay, Okay iPhone reminder, I understand it is Thursday and I have to take the trash out today.

I had a morbid thought about 20 years ago, that popped into my brain the other day. I remember when the peonies were blooming in the hundreds in my yard, I thought, please let me be here/alive to see this one more year. I was admiring the Snowball in full bloom and the Meadow Rue exploding in the sun and thought, please let me have one more year to admire these beautiful things. I usually bring bouquets of Snowballs in the house but I have this weird notion that only a clean house deserves flowers in a vase, so I have left these to enjoy outside.



 

Yesterday I watched a video of a woman I once worked at the Dallas Times Herald  in the Editorial Art Department talking about swimming with/and talking to Whales and Dolphins. It was very interesting. I wish/hope it is true. although she was a little "out there" back then. Michael Franks was one of my favorites back then. Especially Popscicle Toes album. There was one specific song I loved that always reminded me of whales singing. It made me happy and sad at the same time every time I listened to it. Still today. Maybe it is suppose to be a tiger purring, I still think it sounds like whales. Even the violins slide down sounds like whales singing.

 

Soundcloud has many beautiful meditative tracks of Whale Songs

 

  

 

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Patterns

I am helping a friend of mine putting her book together for her 4 friends of many years. They have spent a lifetime of meeting, making art together for one week a year and they have documented it. It is such a wonderful idea. 

Anyway, she left yesterday for Africa. I think she will be there two weeks. She is taking her new camera. I said if I was going to would focus on shooting PATTERNS that I observed.  

African patterns 





 





 

 

  

Patterns in nature are visible regularities of form found in the natural world. These patterns recur in different contexts and can sometimes be modelled mathematically. Natural patterns include: 

Symmetry 

Trees fractals 

Spirals 

Chaos, flow, meanders 

Waves, dunes 

Bubbles, foam 

Tessellations 

Cracks 

Coats, stipes 

Pattern formation