"temporarily"

: during a limited time. :not permanent.

vs. that which is permanent.  lasting, and eternal.  (when oceans rise)

via moode

to see and seen

margaret meehan

not even...

how lovely

to see an old friend, eat dinner, and notice your art in use on her counter.  just lovely.

summer love

to do and see

La Fontaine Stravinsky

Centre Georges Pompidou

seriously?

parent at pickup: whoa…NASA & physics…I thought this was art camp?

r: yep, that's how we do it.  

parent: seriously?  so cool!

r: yep, thought we'd get our science in today.

parent: man, it's one stop shopping in here! awesome!

ha.  i love my job. 

"tomorrow

is a new day. we will start fresh. i am confident that it will be a better day"

i'm observing

a pattern.  a string.  whatever, it's important.
Chase,
Phil,
and another.

anger = fear, covered up.
acting out = an unmet need, often entirely unrelated to the situation.
hurting others = being hurt, either currently or an unresolved previously.

maybe not always are these things true, but there is a pattern of cases that support them.

so much

to learn. so much to share.  so much wonder.
joy
love,

(KKH, I find myself more and more teaching all about things I didn't know about.  yesterday, Trinity taught us all about Blue Morpho butterflies from a trip to Houston Science Museum with her grandmother.  all I could do was stand there and think of you telling us time and time again about constructivist education, about creating a knowledge base from everyone in the classroom & not just the teacher.  so. cool.)

and frozen of course:

via huffingtonpost, 

for frozen canvas painting, of course.

sigh.  only day one and my heart is full.

love.

i am missing you

so, so much.  there goes HansPeter, there goes G-daddy in Touchstone.
l-o-v-e love.

Timelapse: Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta from Roadtrippers on Vimeo.

i can not wait to get back up, to pilot, to share flight with others,

to win competitions?

yes, maybe.

when oceans rise

"take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
and my faith will be made stronger
in the presence of my savior

I will call upon your name
and keep my eyes above the waves
my soul will rest in your embrace
i am yours and you are mine"

i

have heard this before:

but never really got it.  until yesterday when i taught it, and it turned into:

and then this: 

and then after a sight-seeing of clouds, some constructivist teaching (that I learned from the best that Kara Kelley Hallmark), and some courage it all turned into these:

things are good. really good.

"if you want to change the world,

get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward"

"don't be afraid of the circuses"

"if you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks"

i'm usually not really big on what it means to be a longhorn, but this commencement speech for UT graduates this year is pretty great

Naval Admiral William H. McRaven

read/watch the full speech here

diving deep

by Kara Kelley Hallmark, who has been freed to dive deep again.

I long for the waters of my life to be calm.  To have a smooth surface, to be deep and comforting and glistening in the sunshine.  But lately, for the past few months, the people I love most in this world have been splashing around.  Not for fun or of their own fault, but they've really been splashing.  The kind of splashing that not only causes ripples but causes little pulses of disturbance into my life pool.  An uneven surface that isn't at all waves and isn't unsafe, 

but it is frustrating because I have this unanswerable and deep desire for calm.  A deep desire that I'm pretty sure can not be met by any actions I take.  Nothing I do, no matter how hard I try and work and kick and tread water, nothing will bring about the calm that my heart desires.  I am both frustrated and humbled that nothing I do will bring about the calm that I desire.  

bringing in the strings, we're all in the same body of water.  Never will the waters of my life be the kind of still I desire because every human on this earth is in a body of water with me, and never will earthly life be still.  there will always be struggle, there will always be splashing, and even if it is from the furthest body of water, and even if it causes a ripple so small that it could only be detected by machines, it disrupts the still I desire. I am humbled because I get to be part of a life force that connects the whole world, I am humbled because I was gifted with eyes and a heart that can detect tiny ripples.  as much as those ripples disrupt me, I have hope that one day the waters of my life will be so big, so vast, so deep that the splashing of another human can be softened when it reaches my little section of water.  maybe my sea will be big enough to absorb some of the splash, maybe it will be calm enough to calm someone else into splashing less.  

and if nothing else, i remember that the waters we all share were provided and are overseen by someone bigger.  someone so still, so vast, so deep, so calm.  unchanging.  unending.  the one who never tires, who is never disrupted by the biggest splashes we make in his sea.  the one who not only can bring the calm and the still, but promises to.  that is the safe haven i cling to.

the big ask

from an e-mail from 5.7.14 at 6:38pm: (edited, clearly)
"Hello, my name is A and i was wondering if you would be willing to donate about a cup of black glaze to my school. You see, I go to a public charter school known as ___ and due to the flooding we had our school is rather broke. We recently did a clay project in art and everyone else used up the little amount of glaze we had from last year and due to lack of money my teacher can't buy any more. So i was wondering if you would mind lending me a cup of glaze for my tea set I made. It would really mean the world to me. "

"Really! Thank you so much!!! Is it ok if my mom picks it up on her way home work tomorrow? Oh and i will be sure to stop by and show you my tea set when it is finished. :)"

hope she knows i'm looking forward to seeing something like this:

Samita Masami | "Remoteness" 1992. Porcelain with gold and silver pigments over black glaze

or these:

Hedwig Bollhagen via rawearthopensky

via rawearthopensky

I like when people go for the big ask.  many many people in my life are where they are because they weren't afraid to just ask for what they want.  seriously, it doesn't hurt anyone to ask.  it builds your own confidence, reminds you what goal you're reaching for, and builds character.  even when you receive a whole bunch of 'no's' in response to your big ask (which you will)…chances are it's an opportunity to work harder.  an opportunity to refine your shpeal, to ask in a different way, to look for a different kind of place or person to ask.

i think god appreciates the big ask, too.  not every opportunity is going to fall out of the sky into our laps, people.  some opportunities god has fully in the works and in his plan, but he's just waiting for us to figure out that we really want it.  that we'll appreciate it.  that we'll see it as the huge opportunity and blessing that it is and act on it.  it probably takes a little work to orchestrate opportunities and miracles…I wouldn't blame him for waiting until we're in the right mindset to observe the miracle and jump into action because of it.

even jesus went for the big ask.  before being killed he went and asked god 'i'll do what you say because you're the boss man and i trust you, but couldn't we do this any other way?  it would be really really great if there was another option that we could explore here…'
and god said no and the way we understand jesus has forever been enriched by that observation of the big ask and receiving a big fat no.  you've got to remember that sometimes your big ask will result in a big fat no for a big fat good reason, but it doesn't mean you should stop being awesome. or that you should ever stop asking :)

Appropriate

All I can say is it's appropriately funny that the comments about government, god's creation, population density, human ignorance, etc. etc. start at 3:47am and the article was posted at 4:10am. Nobody reads or responds, just use an overheard key word or two as a jumping point to recite an argument that isn't even theirs. Way to go, early news readers.

West Antarctic glacial collapse, etc. etc.

cobalt blue

the cyanometer: a 225 year old tool for measuring the blueness of the sky

via up like toast

sometimes

you think you're headed down one rabbit hole and then life says, nope, here's an entirely different and much deeper rabbit hole. enjoy!

Painting after Right-Hemisphere Stroke –Case Studies of Professional Artists 

A GRANDFATHER who suffered a life-changing stroke has amazed family and friends with his artistic talent.

Art Appreciation Boosts Stroke Recovery, Study Suggests

and the artists are equally intriguing:

"I'm Helping" by Tesi Sanchez-Halpert

"Leo the Lion"

"SueSally Rides Again" 

Tesi Sanchez-Halpert: a stroke survivor's story. Sanchez-Halpert of Moorpark, CA is a stroke survivor who shares her story to help others…(more here)

Pink Lilles and the Mood IV

18x24, limited edition giclee

Gary E. Bachers

Glorious Orchids #8

18x18, limited edition giclee

Gary E. Bachers: silent conversatios

Gary E. Bachers never planned to become a visual artist.  He was a popular family practice physician in northeast Texas, where he lived with his wife and three children after moving from Winnipeg, Canada, in 1977.  In 1987, at the age of 38, he suffered a debilitating stroke that forced him to retire from medicine.  The stroke robbed him of the ability to speak or produce conventional language (a condition called expressive aphasia), and he also lost the use of the right side of his body. (more here)

and it goes on and on longer than I have right now.  

floored.

yo-ga-pants

trees spiraling making music?!?!

"This is an excerpt from the record Years, created by Bartholomäus Traubeck, which features seven recordings from different Austrian trees including Oak, Maple, Walnut, and Beech. What you are hearing is an Ash tree’s year ring data. Every tree sounds vastly unique due to varying characteristics of the rings, such as strength, thickness and rate of growth.

Keep in mind that the tree rings are being translated into the language of music, rather than sounding musical in and of themselves." (more here)

spirals

 Andy Goldsworthy, scene from Rivers and Tides

 Andy Goldsworthy, Carefully broken pebbles scratched white with another stone St. Abbs, Scotland. 1 June 1985

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970

Spiral Resonance Fieldan installation by David Wood
July – November 1, 2009

The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum

Golden Mean Spiral

this could go on for a while.  let's stop here...

trees and roots and growth

Bryan Nash Gill author, Woodcut (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012).

Trees grow like this

cool.

strings and flight

Jamie did you photoshop this or was that light really happening?!

artist book/performance piece from 2012

roots

are we born with deep rooted desires, or were they given to us through repeated exposure?  it's so hard to watch the people you love, share with you something that they truly love, and keep from falling in love with it yourself.  either way, I've been missing it.  

and coming up with a way to make it work.

crowdfunding...

is popping up everywhere. to fund a honeymoon, the competition…and our future business? perhaps...

just like Bogdan said...

three women...

"Three women who have made an incredibly huge impact on where I am today! Thank you for all of your support and for preparing me to teach with both my mind and my heart."  

i couldn't have said it better myself. 

oh alma, that's funny...

Alma Thomas, Starry Night and the Astronauts (1972)

ART / NOT ART

to l-o-v-e is to

(e-v-o-l-v-e.)

img via hopeless ceramix

that was fun but back to work

observe. notate. make something that points it out and explains, visually.

then, make something that causes the viewer to change.
change thoughts, change actions, begin conversations.
go!

balloon book x 1.5 million =

again, but this time with feeling...

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which when it bites and blows upon my body
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say
’This is no flattery. These are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 
           (II.i.1–17)