Wing

 

 

2016

 

Broken wings fly again

Year renewed

Air filled with promise

Mend. Fly. Soar!

 

 

Sunday In The Woods

It was an overcast day and I went out purposely to take some 'gloomy' shots, but all that changed. The sun broke through and it turned from cold to humidy warm...not what I was prepared for. Then once again, the sky filled with clouds, rain began to spit and cool temps descended. The weather didn't know what to do, much like how my spirit's been feeling these past few days.

I managed to shoot some photos regardless of the changing conditions. I was afforded a good chunk of quality time to read some Thoreau too_____outside, which is always a nice feeling.

Night set in quickly. Darkness arrived. I knew it was time to leave.

Mystique of Lapis Lazuli

Wearing my Lapis Lazuli necklace and earings, I thought it would be interesting to investigate this stone. I've never paid much attention to the mystical meaning of stones, but found it quite fascinating. On one occasion I must admit I was guilty of buying a pair of black onyx earings when told they would ward off negativity, an energy I try to remove from my space. Perhaps it's psychological, but if the ancient Egyptians believed it...hmmm.

Lapis lazuli is an ancient gem, and as such, has a storied history. Egyptian cultures made a practice of burying a lapis lazuli scarab with their dead, and believed it to offer protection. The very earliest cultures valued lapis lazuli more highly than gold. Greeks spoke of an ancient sapphire which was included with gold, and this was unmistakenly lapis. Some believed that dreaming of lapis would foretell love that would be forever faithful.
When working or meditating with Lapis Lazuli, it is thought that it can bring matters more clearly to the mind. It is one of the most powerful stones and should be used with care. Wearing Lapis can help you to become a channel. Ancient Egyptians used it as a symbol of Truth.

Lapis Lazuli is also said to heal. I desperately needed some healing after yesterdays toxic experience with fiddleheads! It is used with other stones when parts of the body need to be purified and cleansed and should be only used by a healer. Lapis supposedly has high intensity and can open many of the chakra centres. This must be done only with love in the heart and comprehension in the mind and wisdom in soul.





The colour photos show you the blue stone. I felt they were more dramatic in black and white.

Grotesque Stillness - From the SPoA archives. First pubished January, 2012

CURRENT EXHIBITION @ SPERONE WESTWATER - NEW YORK

Marble Sculpture from 350 B.C. to last week

12 January 2012 through 25 February 2012

A Grotesque Stillness Flirts With Flamboyance

IMAGES:Sperone Westwater, New York

“Marble Sculpture From 350 B.C. to Last Week” at Sperone Westwater includes, from left, “Purity” (2008-11), by Barry X Ball, and older works like the Ionian Greek grave relief, center, from the fourth century B.C., and the late-17th-century bust of a man with a wig.

The tendency of commercial galleries to mount exhibitions of historical material is pushed to rewardingly crazed extremes by the latest offerings at Sperone Westwater. This blue-chip gallery, previously located in SoHo and then Chelsea, has crammed two lavish exhibitions into the four floors of available display space in the narrow, overly hygienic building on the Bowery — commissioned from the British starchitect Norman Foster — to which it moved in 2010.

"The marble show, a wicked romp through a couple of millennia of objects, figures and portrait busts, is riddled with alternating intimations of decadence and purity, the Classical and the grotesque."

FOR MORE INFORMATION CHECK OUT SPERONE WESTWATER HERE.

RESOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES/ART

GREENING UP MARS ON EARTH!

Talking about the moon, I thought it only fair to bring a little science into the "art of moon photography. MARS is going GREEN and University of Guelph profs are going to grow ROSES in SPACE! Meet the hometown boys, Tom Graham and Mike Dixon.

In 2002, the harsh climate and powerful winds of Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island on this planet, made it an unlikely vacation destination for warm-weather, cottage-loving Canadians. But a University of Guelph-Canadian Space Agency collaborative research team was there for the summer for the first phase of a three-year research initiative for advanced life support in space.

Dr. Alain Berinstain and Keegan Boyd of the Canadian Space Agency, along with University of Guelph Prof. Mike Dixon and research assistant Tom Graham, both of the Department of Plant Agriculture, spearheaded the project. Berinstain, Graham and Keegan, were charged with the task of erecting a greenhouse on the island, and establishing the necessary sensory and monitoring systems (during the remaining 46 weeks of the year, the team monitored the greenhouse via the Internet). They were charged with the task of building the greenhouse (which was flown in unassembled and dropped by air), initiating the sensory systems and characterizing the greenhouse. All of these steps were fairly straightforward, but dealing with high winds, harsh temperatures and 24-hour sunlight posed new challenges.
Researchers hoped to identify the ways in which technology needed to be adapted to function in the even harsher conditions of Mars.

They've come full circle BIG NEWS in the city on

May 21 st, 2008

Space florist: U of G prof pilots Gardening for the Moon

Photo: Martin Schwalbe

Ms. Prada’s plans for a New Art Foundation in Milan

Original Post April 30, 2015

Who is Miuccia Prada?

Fashion Designer

Mime Artist

Communist Party Activist

Catholic

PhD (political science)

We should be packing our bags for Milan right now!

Last week Miuccia Prada, the 58-year-old designer announced plans for a new headquarters for her 15-year-old Prada Foundation, in a former spirits distillery in Milan. The project will restore most of the distillery’s original buildings as well as providing three new structures. They will house the 500-piece collection of contemporary art that has been put together by Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli over the past couple of decades.
Ms. Prada has already shown that fashion – quick-moving, dynamic, ferociously embracing globalisation – can outsmart more ponderous forms of expression. But the problem, which she recognises as surely as anyone, is this: as art learns those lessons and becomes more approachable and, arguably, more facile, will it lose its sense of gravitas?
Miuccia Prada started the foundation 15 years ago, she says, when it was hard for contemporary artists to find patrons. She was fuelled by her “obsessive” concern with thinking and ideas, “probably because I am a ’68 (person).” She uses the term to summarise a background that must be among the least orthodox ever for a fashion designer: trained as a mime artist, active in the communist party, and holding a PhD in political science.

“I thought it was important to find ways of reading the world and to understand what is happening.” She immersed herself in the contemporary art world, spending five years travelling the world, visiting artists, in search of ideas and illumination. “Artists are some of the best people I know, in terms of thinking, passion, understanding,” she says.

PRADA briefcase, perfect for the office!

I would have to agree with Ms. Prada, artists are some of the "best" people that I know as well, filled with passion and a complex understanding of what is, what was and what will be. Those who have come close to knowing an artist in a more intimate way would probably agree with me. They have an ever present vision in contrast to those who lack creative optics. Beautiful creative minds!

Read more HERE.

Photo Credit: HERE.