Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloweenish Humor





Frankenangel
vintage book cover, vintage book pages, image transfer, magazine cut outs, old window screen fragment, vintage watch part, brads, map fragments, graph paper, graphite drawing, water soluble crayon, mica, vintage watch part, brads


Well, you may think this piece is a bit weird and creepy, but I prefer to think of it as Halloweenish humor!







 Have a hilariously happy Halloween!



Sunday, October 14, 2012

Playing Favorites

A big hunk (is that the right unit of measure? should it be pounds? or maybe liters? ) of gratitude goes out to Seth Apter, collaborator extraordinaire, for including my response in today's installment of


In this part of The Pulse, artists were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...

So head on over to The Altered Page to find out which piece I chose, and treat yourself to artwork by talented people such as Miz Katie, Pam Carriker, and many more.  I've immensely enjoyed each and every installment of Playing Favorites so far; I have no doubt that you will, too.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Wabi + Sabi = Perfect Imperfection

As time goes by, I find myself coming to appreciate the beauty of imperfection- a concept the Japanese call "wabi sabi."  The aesthetic of wabi sabi encompasses so much more than this; I can't explain it in words, but I think that maybe I'm learning to see it.

Words exist because of meaning.  Once you've got the meaning, you can forget the words. ~Chuang Tse


 Wabi sabi acknowledges three things: "nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished."  ~Richard R. Powell 




 Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace. ― Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers 




wabi ... simple and quiet, austere refinement




  Nothing to do with grandeur or symmetry.  ~ Wabi Sabi:The Japanese Art of Impermanence by Andrew Juniper




 The moon’s setting, a crow caws, the sky is filled with frost
Maples by the river, fishermen’s lights, the traveler faces a sad sleep
Outside the City of Suchow, from the Cold Mountain Temple
The sound of the midnight bell reaches the traveler’s boat               ~Cheung Chi






 Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all.  ~Noble Harbor.com




wabi is ...tranquil simplicity;
austere elegance;
unpolished, imperfect, or irregular beauty...


...rusticity;
 things in their simplest, most austere, and natural state;
a serene, transcendental state of mind...             

 


sabi is... the beauty that treasures the passage of time, and with it the lonely sense of impermanence it evokes;
the patina that age bestows...
which is true to the natural cycle of birth and death...   

 ~from Wabi Sabi: The Art of Everyday Life by Diane Durston




"Wabi sabi" was a phrase conceptualized by the Japanese poet Basho, who was also known for writing haiku.
if I took it in hand,
it would melt in my hot tears—
heavy autumn frost




Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.    ~Lao Tse






Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.   ~ Hans Margolius




On a completely different topic, I was excited and honored to be asked by artist/blogger Nanci Hersh to do a guest post as part of her "The Artist as Collector" series. Please check it out and see which piece from my own collection I chose to feature.  Nanci's blog, On and Off the Walls, is well worth reading any time, as she is an accomplished writer and artist with lots of inspiring ideas.Thanks, Nanci!