Another sunny day spent in my friend’s garden, south of Amsterdam, doing some serious Spring Cleaning. The three storm lights in the picture are from a series of 9 unique withered pieces, collected by my friend, used in and around her cabin, scattered around the green shelter for many years. Witnessing. Last party they lit was a pizza fest last summer.
And this one fits too – Something’s Coming
An April afternoon in Amsterdam in 2007 – nothing special then.
In a glimpse I saw this image, when royalty watchers on television tonight where discussing the break-away from Buckingham Palace of Meghan and Harry. It illustrated an article on the opinion pages of the New York Times back in November, written by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in which she spoke of her miscarriage of the baby succeeding their firstborn Archie. She broke the silence on a delicate subject doing so, and this was briefly mentioned today.
It struck me as a beautiful image, so I looked it up.
It is an art photo by Dutch photographer Paul Cupido, used to illustrate the article. Cupido has a great Instagram account, showing a small but poignant portfolio, images expressing mystery and longing.
You can read the full article here, but one powerful insight Meghan shares is:
You don’t see on the outside what’s going on on the inside most of the time, and if you want to reach out to somebody and maybe don’t know how, just start with asking the simple question: are you OK?
It did her a world of good.
I just came across the headline HOW PERFECTIONISM FAILS US on LinkedIn and clicked. An announcement for 4 TED talks on the subject of our growing concern with doing it not just right, but perfect. Four experts in their field share their learnings, and the bottomline is (spoiler alert) DON’T.
Don’t think about the results too much, just do it – hey, that sounds familiar doesn’t it?
Not all the works on show in top notch museums are top notch most of the time – lesser attempts can be interesting and add to the grandeur of the whole. The main reward you could get from your work is… THE FUEL it will deliver, to do another, to do something else, it keeps you going. Do it, make something.
The drawings are from a series published in Vincent van Gogh – The Lost Sketchbook From Arles, by Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov. They were found, after he had become who he is to us, but they were just scribbles, studies, working on his skills. They now add to his mastery.
Through a newsletter of Young In Prison I found Elten Kiene, a Dutch speaking spoken word artist who just blew my cap off with his work I Don’t Know.
Boom!
I looked for the lyrics online – so I could share them with you in English maybe, show what a wordsmith he is! – but they’re not there yet, it’s a new piece he did for CaDance 2021, the biennial festival for contemporary dance, held online early February.
Basically it’s a poetic essay about the importance of moving and seeking connection. Fiercely expressed by the dancers Juna Leocaria, Zino Ainsley and Rutkay Ozpinar, moving smoothly to the mellow tune by Oby Vision.
On his website I read that I am not in Kiene’s focus age group, still, I hear him 🙂 (…) as a workshop teacher, Elten prefers to teach young people, either in secondary schools or young writers who have stage ambitions and want to work on their writing skills in their spare time. (…) Since 2018 he has been a coach at Young In Prison and teaches in juvenile detention.
I admire the work of Tracey Emin and am totally impressed with her guts. And although she’s high up there to me, I do like to use her work in daily life – as in living with art 😉
@TraceyEmin: r – e – s – p – e – c – t
A few gift ideas to celebrate the Chinese New Year (this Friday) or Valentine’s Day (this Sunday) or both 😉
Silly Games by Janet Kay is a great tune I picked up while watching Lover’s Rock, one of the five short films on the life and trials of members of the West Indian community in London back in the sixties and seventies.
The anthology is called Small Axe – after the African proverb put to music by Bob Marley: If you are the big tree, we are the small axe – directed by – Oscar winning – Steve McQueen and co-written by Courttia Newland.
All stories are closely zooming in on the lives of individuals, showing us – letting us feel is better – what it was like to be of an immigrant background in Britain back then. Some stories are infuriating but Lovers Rock is taking us to a house party – the set of a slow love story of sorts – where home made food is served and the dj makes the building go boom! with great tracks for the grooving seventies fashionistas 🙂
It was impossible not to get off the chair and dance, grab Shazam and track the songs. Now I want Janet Kay back in the charts!
Hello,
and thank you for stopping by, taking an interest in my blog. I am the 'relentless hunter and gatherer of soothing beauty, great and small' behind these pages, which for now means: here you find the stuff that makes me think, that inspires me, that I envy and am passionate about. I would love to see or read your views too, so feel free to comment!
love,
Wilson
Think Creative Commons
