amerikanischeromanze.

[it's fall in the High Country with mountain cider, German-chocolate fudge, and ice cream chillier than the crisp outdoors air. --in downtown Blowing Rock, lying on a quilt in the warm sunshine and looking up through breezy branches and oranging leaves to the blue sky; remembering and dreaming, and living right then in the beautiful moment; and suddenly in a windy rush, whirling down the mountain talking sunnily about America.]

lac.louise.panorama

These panoramas were taken in early June along the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada. Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and Peyto Lake were heaven on earth places of green and blue beauty. These photos are only partial memories. The photos were taken with a lomo Diana+ camera on Agfa Portrait 120 film, and the panoramic effect was created by being adventurous and advancing the film some random amount between shots, like half-way to the next frame or something wild!--just try your craziest smiling!--then by turning your body in an arc to fully take in the whipping glacial breeze energy from every possible angle, sending the film in, anticipating the best and the worst, and finally getting these cut 4X4 prints from the lab, scanning them, and sewing them back together digitally. Oh, Canada!

one chai latte, and one mountain spring jasmine, for here.

[chai tea tastes like holding warm hands on chilly autumn nights and rolling around in the purple grass of the mind, grinning.]

daily practice: sketch 2

The following sketches were studies I did to explore the nature and aesthetic of two works recently featured in the "Dancing with the Dragon" exhibition, a gallery of contemporary art out of Beijing at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.


The above study was of a piece called "Blackboard" by Hu Sheng Ping. The piece was created by burning hand-made paper and stretching and gluing it onto large pieces of hardboard. It consisted of ten individual panels, each probably about eight feet tall and two feet wide, and then hung on the wall and spaced two to three inches apart. These sketches are my pencil-on-paper renderings of the different panels, done in an effort to explore the curious textures created by the artist. [think enormity, texture, black, whole, and parts]



This study was of a piece called "East-Mountain" by Zheng Xuewu. Zheng Xuewu was also the curator of the Beijing art exhibit, a meditative artist, and a cool guy. This piece was a modern interpretation of traditional Chinese landscape painting, a beautiful natural image created using traditional techniques and a uniquely grey-scale color palette. These trees were only the foreground. [think solitary monks]

daily practice: sketch 1

for Creativity & the Arts class, we are exploring a "daily practice" for at least 15 minutes every day for the month of October. i'm going to sketch. this was the first one.

pey.to.ra.ma

gaialogy

i want to study the earth, somehow.