research day

Lubna Chowdhary // Artist Profile from Jamie Isbell on Vimeo.

this

all of this.


Alan Watts & David Lindberg - Why Your Life Is Not A Journey from David Lindberg on Vimeo.

sim but different

pure feeling

2:00 to 2:12 is what i'm alive for.  seriously.  honestly.
it's why i'm still here to write words into the darkness of the internet.
that absolute raw emotion that knows no words, no images,
it is just feeling.
it is raw and real and it can be painful or joyful or more often
it can be beyond emotional categorization.
that
is
being
alive.

that is being human.
that is what we're here to experience.
that
right
there.

oh ellen & lewis (hah!)

m-i-l...

love!

please read & share her article if you love it...i think it's pretty fantastic 

http://www.glassheel.com/single-post/2016/08/31/Buried-Treasure---The-Admiration-Of-Inspiration

I met Janna working as a summer intern...to me then, at 16ish years old, she was this fantastic, creative, professional, caring, giving lady who I thought man, if I could be like her, maybe even have a gig like hers, and get some of those sweet colored markers she has up in her office,
I think life might be pretty good.  she laughed a lot, mentored me in the sweetest way, and now she's off doing something new and amazing :)





<3

do it. find the time to watch this,

you won't be sorry you did.

really.

a meanness

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-Rumi

didn't they say that

only love
will win
in the end

grow baby, grow!

to do and see

La Fontaine Stravinsky

Centre Georges Pompidou

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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.