Saturday, November 30, 2024

Discarded people

Jesse Krimes is a multimedia artist whose work explores societal mechanisms of power and control with a focus on criminal and racial justice. While serving a six-year prison sentence he produced and smuggled out numerous bodies of work, established art programs, and co-created artist collectives. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for Art & Advocacy, the first national organization dedicated to supporting justice-impacted creatives. Krimes also successfully led a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for charging formerly incarcerated people predatory fees after their release from prison. His Instagram.

Friday, November 29, 2024

Giving Thanks for ... uh, something ... everything ...

Thanksgiving was good here. It is just hard to get our heads around that David is not here, standing behind anyone cooking saying: Well, if I were doing it, I would do it like this ... LOL. We missed him all day. And Bri and I reminisced about how mom cooked all day while her bracelets jangled. We missed her too. But we (meaning mainly Bri and Matt) cooked up a great meal that we enjoyed.

Well, I have to share this!!! I guess AI isn't all bad? 

 

You know how I get fascinated by some YouTube channels ... well, this one has caught my attention. Honestly, watching how weird, selfish, rude and misbehaved some Chinese can be makes sense now. You think about their past and political repression. I am watching lots of videos about other cultures' behavior, trying to get a sense of what in the F has happened to ours? The more ridiculous TikTok videos I run across, the less hope I have for us. The Chinese fake food, makes me a little sick to my stomach!

 

 

I am ordering small perfume samples to go in our stockings. Thinking about getting Bri a Jo Malone sample kit. Small, fun stuff like sequined freckles for the girls. I am trying to keep it very small, fun and not very expensive. Stuff for fun!

If I were spending lots of money, I would buy myself this 54-Aroma Kit - Set in a sophisticated red case, 54 superb quality aromas come to life in your scent memory for you to recognize in fine wines: Fruity notes: 1 lemon, 2 grapefruit, 3 orange, 4 pineapple, 5 banana, 6 lychee, 7 melon, 8 muscat, 9 apple, 10 pear, 11 quince, 12 strawberry, 13 raspberry, 14 redcurrant, 15 blackcurrant, 16 bilberry, 17 blackberry , 18 cherry, 19 apricot, 20 peach, 21 marzipan, 22 prune, 23 walnut. Floral notes: 24 hawthorn, 25 acacia, 26 linden, 27 honey, 28 rose, 29 violet. Vegetal and spicy notes: 30 bell pepper / capsicum, 31 mushroom, 32 truffle, 33 wine lees, 34 cedar, 35 pine, 36 liquorice, 37 boxwood (or blackcurrant bud), 38 cut hay, 39 thyme, 40 vanilla, 41 cinnamon, 42 clove, 43 pepper, 44 saffron. Animal notes: 45 leather, 46 musk, 47 butter. Roasted notes: 48 toast, 49 roasted almond, 50 roasted hazelnut, 51 caramel, 52 coffee, 53 chocolate, 54 smoky note.


 
 

I would love to get myself, well, maybe I will ... this - REPLICA Memory Box Exploration Set - 10 Replica perfume samplers that transport you to treasured moments of the past. This perfume sampler set is a great way to get familiar with some of the best Maison Margiela fragrances. In this Replica Memory Box Exploration set you’ll find Lazy Sunday Morning, Jazz Club, Beach Walk, Sailing Day, Autumn Vibes, By the Fireplace, Bubble Bath, Under the Lemon Trees, Springtime in a Park and When the Rain Stops all sized 2 ml. Or maybe a perfume making kit

Can't leave before sharing this great video from Dark Brandon!

Sunday, November 24, 2024

I love fashion (althought I don't dress like it)

Sometimes I think I am losing my mind. Maybe I had this entire conversation with myself in my head? Or I thought I had this conversation with someone! Whatever happened, I am going to formally write it here so I don't forget the details of this thought I had again! 

I was watching some video about fashion the last couple of weeks and thought about how I grew up with my gorgeous mom and her even more gorgeous best friend, Anne, who lived downstairs from us. They could have been fashion icons. Mom always looked like she stepped out of Vogue. Which is what I was thinking about. How I grew up looking at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue for most of my life ... not just looking at ... but falling into each image. I never thought I could be a model, but I really wanted to be an fashion designer or fashion illustrator when I was 10 or 11. I mean, those magazines were really my touchstone to art, photography, fashion, travel ... well, and I am pretty sure we also had National Geographic. 

I was thinking about this and considered maybe I should get a subscription to those two magazines now. The girls are so into beauty and fashion maybe they would get something out of them like I did. 

 

  

 

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Pastel wings

Michael McGrath is an American artist living in the village of Rhinebeck in New York's Hudson Valley. And his Instagram.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Just another Tuesday

 This!

I am trying to keep this my happy zone and NOT the politics that keep me riled up all day. I mean ... Dr Oz! What cabinet position is Phil getting for kissing-his-ass-interview? But really can not ignore this Oklahoma/trump bible story (video below) ... it's just too good. We are about to enter a very interesting period in our history!

Just as a side note: Following Hitler's appointment as German chancellor on January 30, 1933, Mein Kampf's popularity soared and made the author a multi-millionaire. That year alone more than 850,000 copies were sold. Through aggressive marketing the publisher pressured the public, German institutions, and Nazi organizations to purchase copies. The Nazi propaganda machine's transformation of Adolf Hitler from a common German soldier and politician into an infallible, god-like leader greatly boosted sales as well. By the end of 1944, more than 12 million copies had been printed; most of them after 1939. 

To increase sales, the Nazi publishing house created special or commemorative editions, including ones in braille, for newlyweds, and for Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939. In addition, it authorized translations of the book into various languages, including English. 

We have battled fruit flies for months and months. The fruit flies have never left my kitchen but have morphed into this little walking, lurking bugs, loving the dog food? It is like they are turning into a new species right in my kitchen. 

 

Never did get my arm examined (Joanne -- ;). It has not gotten worse, but not better. I am not wearing the splint anymore but if I twist it just so, it really hurts. Yes, yes, I need to go to the doctor, I just don't know what they are going to do about it. 

When the Pando clone was discovered, scientists named it with a Latin word that means “I spread.” Pando is an aspen clone that originated from a single seed and spreads by sending up new shoots from the expanding root system. Pando is believed to be the largest, most dense organism ever found at nearly 13 million pounds. 

The clone spreads over 106 acres, consisting of over 40,000 individual trees. The exact age of the clone and its root system is difficult to calculate, but it is estimated to have started at the end of the last ice age. Some of the trees are over 130 years old. It was first recognized by researchers in the 1970s and more recently proven by geneticists. Its massive size, weight, and prehistoric age have caused worldwide fame. 

Image with aspen trees in yellow Located in central Utah on the Fishlake National Forest, Pando is approximately 1 mile southwest of Fish Lake on State Highway 25. In the summer the green, fluttering leaves symbolize the relief from summer’s heat that you get coming to the basin. In autumn the oranges and yellows of the leaves as they change color give a hint of the fall spectacular that is the Fish Lake Basin.

Monday, November 18, 2024

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.



Sunday, November 17, 2024

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.
 

Friday, November 15, 2024

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.
 

Friday, November 08, 2024

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.