Where wonder blooms

Artwork: Mural by Mantra, Là où fleurit l’émerveillement Jussieu district, Versailles, October 2020

I love butterflies, they symbolise freedom, beauty, the ephemeral and flight. So the fact artist Mantra (@mantrarea, mantrarea.com) paints mostly butterflies in mural form is pretty special. Here’s Mantra’s exquisite mural he painted in the Jussieu district of Versailles, Là où fleurit l’émerveillement (Where wonder blooms), and he wrote this about it:

“A freehand-painted mural opening a window on my mother’s garden, located in Lessy. It’s especially in this place that my curiosity for the living grew, where as a child I spent whole days observing flowers and insects. Composed from my photographs, this painting pays tribute to the work of French botanist Bernard de Jussieu (1688-1777) which this Versailles neighbourhood bears his name.”

Grogu!!!

Grogu aka Baby Yoda is back! Wasn’t expecting Mandalorian season 3, so big surprise to see Mando and the little dude back on screen. Awesome!

Millo at Al-Jib

Artwork: Mural by Millo, Al-Jib, Palestinian territories, 2022

On a water tower in Al-Jib in the Palestinian territories, artist Millo (@_millo) created this wonderful mural as part of the World Reverse Project in partnership with the Qalandiya Rural Council and Rawaq: The Centre for Popular Architecture in Palestine.

Millo said this about what inspired him to create this project:
”On all of its sides a girl is playing with the mulberry tree leaves, creating something out of nothing, achieving finally freedom.
The curators explained to me the need for girls who are over 11 years old, and living in Al-Jib, to play and go out in public spaces as boys commonly do.
This topic touched me deeply and that's why I decided to change my first sketch, in order to underline this issue.”

small stories: When words are not enough

I wrote this prose/poem short story some time ago, a meditation on grief and the intertwining of the actions of the every day with thoughts and memories and the spiralling of emotions that occurs when dealing with losing someone you love. I thought I’d share it here.

Artwork: Mural by @nean_kingdom, France

When words are not enough

 it wasn’t enough to say you’re gone

Words that fell through air, at first feather light, then sucked of all resistance to earth, a weight to spear flesh.

those very words, spoken on the phone by a stranger

His eyes drifted to the weave of muslin, muffling sight through a window. He was searching for the horizon, always. And the tree so familiar. They’d chosen the house for the tree, she’d joked. And the rise of the hills beyond the boundary fence, sinking their home into a valley.

she’s gone

From the moment he entered the house where they’d lived, he could hear it.

Nothing.

passed away (without him there to hold onto her to the very last)

The silence of a breath held.

as if to avoid, to skirt that other word

Rooms, hollow and empty, filled solid with things.

dead

And the smell. Dank from the heavy rains, soaking soil, its mineral taint seeping through the wood and carpet, the chill of plaster and stone. The scent of a home too long locked up. He hadn’t wanted to come back here. Not without her. Not after an accident he could never explain as such. It felt like a collision of worlds ending, not the crash of vehicles on an ordinary, yet stormy night.

how that one word ends…

The dust was hanging in the air, catching in his throat as he breathed.

everything

They’d chosen none of the furniture. Some came with the house, other pieces he’d inherited.

they said you felt nothing, death instant

He walked, light-headed at how easily she’d slipped from being in this life to not.

nothing

no-thing…what could that even mean? how could they know?

And then he stopped, arrested by light shafting through a pane of glass. There was a fine tracery, a web of lines, faintly etched on its surface that caught and cracked the light and set his mind wandering through to the place beyond it, threaded and shaped.

how to leave—let go

His hand fisted to hold the muslin to cocoon himself with it. A taut sheet of mesh like skin. An echo of being held. And then he ran, out through the back door into the evening air, the sky opening to him. Descending shades of blue so intense he wondered if he was dreaming. Wanted to run towards it and let it seep into him, so that he disappeared.

how to move away from here—you

As if words could somehow release her from his life.

how to say…

Standing still, shrouded in the coming twilight, the words were falling.

Heavy.

Too blunt to capture the passing of a life.

you felt nothing, and to me, you are everything

As if words ever could.

 

© Angela Jooste

be a little vampire

Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, Sleepless Night, painting, 1999 (Image choice mine, not Nick’s from his original post!)

This is just awesome! Nick Cave’s recent The Red Hand Files question and answer (February 2023):

I’m 13. In a world ridden with so much hate, and disconnect; How do I live life to its absolute fullest, and not waste my potential? Especially as a creative. Also, what is a great way to spiritually enrich myself? in general, and in my creative work.

Ruben, Melbourne, Australia

Dear Ruben,

When I read this question, my initial thought was that the kid who wrote this has nothing to worry about, they’re going to be all right. Ruben, you are very smart, you are engaged with the world and I’m not sure what your creative interests are, but you can certainly already write. Not only that, you are also reaching out for answers. At thirteen, this is all brilliant! Luckily for you, Ruben, I have some! So here goes!

Read. Read as much as possible. Read the big stuff, the challenging stuff, the confronting stuff, and read the fun stuff too. Visit galleries and look at paintings, watch movies, listen to music, go to concerts –  be a little vampire running around the place sucking up all the art and ideas you can. Fill yourself with the beautiful stuff of the world. Have fun. Get amazed. Get astonished. Get awed on a regular basis, so that getting awed is habitual and becomes a state of being. Fully understand your enormous value in the scheme of things because the planet needs people like you, smart young creatives full of awe, who can minister to the world with positive, mischievous energy, young people who seek spiritual enrichment and who see hatred and disconnection as the corrosive forces they are. These are manifest indicators of a human being with immense potential.

Absorb into yourself the world’s full richness and goodness and fun and genius, so that when someone tells you it’s not worth fighting for, you will stick up for it, protect it, run to its defence, because it is your world theyre talking about, then watch that world continue to pour itself into you in gratitude. A little smart vampire full of raging love, amazed by the world – that will be you, my young friend, the earth shaking at your feet.

Love, Nick

blep

Artwork: Paste-up, Flinders Lane, 2023

Blep! Every day is cat day! Found this paste-up in a side alley off Flinders Lane, artist unknown.

Aziz the Bookseller

Photograph: By Hamza Nouasria

This story is both uplifting and heartbreaking. It’s about one man’s determination to raise the literacy levels in his home of Rabat, Morocco.

Aziz was orphaned at the age of six and attempted to afford his dream of graduating high school by fishing. At fifteen, Aziz realised he wouldn’t be able to finish his education because the textbooks were too expensive. Aziz’s anger at his situation fuelled his passion to begin a career as a bookseller. Aziz has been selling books for fifty-five years in Rabat’s medina (old city), and in that time Morocco’s literacy rate has improved, yet Aziz believes the country’s literacy rate is still impacted by the number of students, like him, who aren’t able to finish school, having to leave to make a living. 

Aziz’s shop is a literary meeting point for people from all over Morocco and the world. Many of these people, such as summer-bound students, leave their used books at the shop. By engaging with the donors in long conversations and reading their donations, Aziz taught himself standard Arabic, French, and Spanish. By providing books in all of Morocco’s languages Aziz hopes to one day fulfil his dream of bringing literature and a love of reading to his home of Rabat.

“My life revolves around reading,” Aziz said. "I’ll be here till everyone can read. I’ve read more than 4,000 books, so I’ve lived more than 4,000 lives. Everyone should have that chance.”

A love of books and reading has been one of the greatest gifts in my life, so Aziz’s story resonates completely.

WRDSMTH

Great short documentary about WRDSMTH and his collaboration with The Artemizia Foundation in Bisbee, US. Check it out!

Al Ula

Artist eL Seed recently completed a project at Al Ula in Saudi Arabia and spoke of his experience in a place he’s been visiting since 2019, and how it relates to his art process:

“As an artist, it is important for me to bridge my artwork to the place where I paint. In this particular series, I wanted to pay tribute to the people of Al Ula.

I have been visiting the city since 2019. The beauty of its landscape, with its towering mountains and palm trees, gives you an immediate and striking impression. But what truly sets the city apart for me is the hospitality of its people.

Artwork: eL Seed mural at Al Ula, Saudi Arabia, 2023

Their warmth and generosity is unique and humbling, and it inspired me to create works that celebrate and honour their kindness.

I spent 2 weeks there working on 2 murals with my team. I invited the community to help me filling up the colours, involving them, to make sure they feel the artworks belong to them. At the end of the project, I wanted to give back to the community by inviting them to have a tea/coffee around a fire in front of one of the murals. Friends and members of the community came, passers-by and random tourists stopped and joined us. I loved it.

As an artist, I wanted at the beginning of my journey to leave something behind. To leave a trace. So I travel around the world, meeting people, discovering cultures. I wanted to leave a trace in people’s life. Soon enough, I realised that people were leaving something in my life. It wasn’t about me anymore. It was about the people. I carry their story with me, the moments we shared.

Thank you Al Ula for leaving a trace in my life.”

Today a Poem Disappears into the Universe

Belgian artist Marco Godhino has been performing an ongoing project titled Today a Poem Disappears into the Universe since 2018. This particular iteration featured here was performed on February 5, 2023.

The project was first activated In Taipei at The Cube Project Space, and this was written to outline Godhino’s intentions:

Artwork: Marco Godhino, Today a Poem Disappears into the Universe, The Infinite House, Sinspelt, Germany, 2023

“In 2018, Every Day a Poem Disappears into the Universe […] was inspired by a ritual observed in the city’s streets, where shopkeepers burn imitation banknotes as offerings in front of their stores. The artist asked the gallery managers to burn a poem exhibited during the day each evening in front of the gallery. In exploring poetry writing and thresholds of language in fleeting, temporal form in solo and group exhibitions, the artist developed a series of actions that use writing as a daily link to the indoor or outdoor space where they are performed. The length of each poem is defined by the length of the exhibition: the text, equal in lines to the number of days, is disclosed in fragments. The action is repeated each day but is never the same; it becomes a ritual and invites new ways of celebrating the quotidian. This simple gesture, which materialises differently in each setting, is a measure of the passing of time that reveals, through the appearance and disappearance of words, a sense of poetic rebellion against the instability of the present.”



the water carrier

Artwork: Seth, the water carrier, Qalandiya, Occupied Palestinian Territories, 2022

Seth’s (@seth_globepainter) latest mural, the water carrier, was painted in Qalandiya, Occupied Palestinian Territories. Seth wrote this about the project:

“Several months ago, I made a series of paintings in the ruins of ancient villages in Palestine, at the invitation of the Jordanian association @baladk and @riwaq_palestine.

I painted this woman in Qalandiya, a village located between Ramallah and Jerusalem, a few kilometres from a sensitive checkpoint between Israel and the occupied territories. Bordered by fir forests and olive groves, the hamlet is home to magnificent historic buildings maintained and restored by @riwaq_palestine association. I have made it a rule not to touch the old stones which sometimes date from the Roman Empire. Inspired by old photos, I tried to pay homage to the lifestyle of this region in peace for centuries.”

Alfred the llama

Artwork: David Zinn, Alfred enjoys a strict regimen of exactly one thought per day, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2022

I adore llamas and their furry relative, the alpaca, so this brought a smile to my face this morning, David Zinn’s (@davidzinn) llama, Alfred: “Alfred enjoys a strict regimen of exactly one thought per day.” Alfred is obviously very Zen.

How do you live?

I’m a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films and can’t wait for the release of Miyazaki’s next film to be released in 2023, How Do You Live? The film is based on a 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino and is about 15-year-old Junichi Honda and his life after the death of his father.

Miyazaki “retired” in 2013 after making the film The Wind Rises, and chose to create How Do You Live? simply because he wanted to. These words from Miyazaki speak to the heart of his perspective on creating and obvious love of what he does: “Whenever someone creates something with all their heart, then that creation is given soul.”

A Yoshitomo Nara Day

Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara’s current painting in progress in his studio, 2023

Starting something new. Here’s Yoshitomo Nara’s current work in progress. A new work for the new year.

Salt Surf 2022

Image: Creator/founder of Salt Surf Nabil out surfing, California, 2022

I love the Californian-based clothing company Salt Surf, especially their ethos: “Nice and Cool” and anyone can surf. Their T-shirts and sweaters are awesome as well! The founder/creator, Nabil, posted his 2022 end-of-year review today and it resonated big time. The feeling of “stillness’ or “stuckness” he experienced made sense to me, and then these bursts of creativity leading to something being produced. The highs and lows, losses and gains, and a strange sense of waiting, while also trying to feel grateful for the smallest things. Last year was a challenge, so here’s what Nabil had to say:

“My end of year reflections usually happen a little late. This past year was full of a lot of things. There was a lot of stillness. Calling it stillness might actually be giving it too much credit. It was actually more like stuckness. A lot of the year felt almost like waiting for something. There were some moments of movement. Creativity. Sometimes creativity paired up with productivity and there was a creation. Sometimes creativity looked like presence and stillness. It was a humbling year. I cried a lot (happy and sad tears…weddings, deaths, joys, heartbreaks…) I said the phrase STFU a few too many times (mostly in my head). I tried to get buff. Some new relationships came. Some went. A lot of wonderful friends helped make this year a lot more beautiful. I wish I could list all of you. Gratitude was present a lot. I think the prior years taught me to be thankful for everything because everything can be lost. So, in the past year it felt easier to be grateful, even when it sucked. Truthfully, and this isn’t a marketing thing, surfing got me through a lot in this past year. It was a consistent place to turn to. Beauty was always present in surfing.

There isn’t a pretty bow to put on this past year. It’s not wrapped up nicely. It was complex. Multifaceted. But, grateful for it nonetheless. ❤️ u all.”

chasing light

Artwork: Photograph by Tom Pearsall of surfer Jack Robinson, 2022

I love surf photography, so seeing this incredible image by Tom Pearsall today brought to mind what inspired my novel Chasing Light: surfing, the sea, light, photography, journeys, life, creativity and love. All the good stuff shadowed with loss, heartbreak, history and despair. The incredible light and shadow of this image encapsulates perfectly what shaped my story.

Love Letter

Artwork: Mural by Dominga Zapata, Love Letter, New York (Thompson St/Houston St), photo by @johndomine

Joyous wall mural in New York by artist Dominga Zapata. And the last line: “I love you this way because I don’t know any other way to love”. ❤️

from vivienne

The amazing creator Vivienne Westwood passed away yesterday. I just wanted to share some of her words and her guiding belief in Taoism as a spiritual compass which formed the foundation for her own life.

“Tao spiritual system. There was never more need for the Tao today. Tao gives you a feeling that you belong to the cosmos and gives purpose to your life; it gives you such a sense of identity and strength to know you’re living the life you can live and therefore ought to be living: make full use of your character and full use of your life on earth.”

And this:

“You’ve got to invest in the world, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries, you’ve got to find out the names of plants. You’ve got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We’re amazing people.”

Such a beautiful spirit that touched so many people in this world.

more art=more joy

Artwork: David Zinn (@davidzinn) This message is brought to you by the Underfoot Arts Council and the philanthropic hole in the ground, Berkley, Michigan, 2021

Wishing for everyone this Christmas, the holidays and the coming new year: more art, more joy and definitely more love!

the soul does exist

Image: Krzysztof Kieslowski directing actor Irene Jacob on the film The Double Life of Véronique

I read this today and it was so wonderfully affirming of the importance of art to life. Film maker Krzysztof Kieslowski (I highly recommend his Three Colours series of movies—sublime) speaks about a beautiful encounter with a viewer of his film The Double Life of Véronique:

“At a meeting just outside Paris, a fifteen-year-old girl came up to me and said that she’d been to see my movie. She’d gone once, twice, three times and only wanted to say on thing really…that she realized that there is such a thing as a soul. She hadn’t known before, but now she knew that the soul does exist. There’s something very beautiful in that. It was worth making Véronique for that girl. It was worth working for a year, sacrificing all that money, energy, time, patience, torturing yourself, killing yourself, making thousands of decisions, so that one young girl in Paris should realise that there is such a thing as a soul. It’s worth it.”

(source: @_nitch)