Aurora Image, Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon — National Geographic Photo of the Day

Aurora Image, Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon — National Geographic Photo of the Day.

The Glacier lagoon in Iceland is close to highway number one, about 370 km (230 miles) east from Reykjavík and it is told to be one of the greatest wonders of nature in Iceland. This lagoon is a recent one, the result of a warming climate. The surface is at sea level and sea water flows into the lagoon at high tide.

Huge blocks of ice constantly break off the glacier, Breiðamerkurjökull, and large icebergs float on the lagoon. The lagoon is not very wide but it is up to 250 meters deep which makes it the deepest lake in Iceland. Breiðamerkurjökull is an outlet of the Vatnajökull glacier.

Credits: Glacier Lagoon and National Geographic

Henry Darger Had a Posse

I recently have been appraising an estate’s art collection, and came across a few pieces that I couldn’t identify.  They resembled Henry Darger, but after close investigation, I do not think that these pieces are his.  There are children in them,

however, they do not look like the Vivian Girls exactly.  The title of this piece is “The Best Band Ever”.  I am still trying to verify the artist, but have enjoyed learning about Henry Darger, who Natalie Merchant wrote a song about. I have been fascinated with this artist since I started the research and have reblogged the following post, which I stumbled upon in my research. The title is from the post which I reblogged.

The writings, collages, drawings and paintings of Henry Darger have amazed viewers all over the world. His artwork explodes with color, patterns, landscapes, fantastic creatures, epic battles, evil Glandalinian soldiers and the brave Vivian Girl Princesses. Darger captured his world through a lifetime of art making and writing. He called his world the Realms of the Unreal. He produced a novel of over 15,000 typed pages and approximately 300 illustrations. Writing and art-making allowed Darger the freedom to express his views on issues such as: injustices against children, his relationship with God and the importance of protecting childhood innocence.
Darger’s novel focused on a team of heroines who fought against child slavery in the Realms, they were called the Vivian Girls. Darger collected countless photo clippings of children from newspapers, and used them as drawing references. Darger constructed beautiful landscapes for the girls to frolic in and created creatures to…

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Speaking…or Not

Blanka Mateno

In a normal day we hear many sounds…radio, smart phones dinging, news of unnecessary shootings, international unrest, life’s hustle bustle….

It is important to find solace amidst the chaos.

DO NOT SPEAK —– UNLESS IT IMPROVES ON SILENCE.

                                                                                                             – BUDDHIST SAYING

Padma

Lotus pond, China
Author: Hedda Morrison (German, 1908-1991)
Date: ca. 1933-46

Hedda Morrison studied photography in her native Germany, and from 1933 to 1938 managed Hartung’s Photo Shop in Beijing. From 1938 until she and her husband left China in 1946, Morrison worked as a freelance photographer, selling individual prints or thematic albums of her work and creating photographs for other people’s books on China.

Above is a photo of a man sitting idly with two children in the winter sun. It reveals more information than it seems:

“The empty wicker basket suggests that this old man and children are probably from a village outside Peking and have come into the city to trade. On the wall behind the children is a graffiti scrawl written in chalk which represents a play upon the opening words of the Thousand Character Classic (Qianziwen), which refers to the creation of the universe.”

The children in the baskets resemble the growth of the lotus flower,  it’s roots in the earth rising through the water and nourished by the air…beautiful  PADMA! – j. quigley

PADMAPANI

Flowers in the sky.

Flowers on Earth.

Lotuses bloom as Buddha’s eyelids.

Lotuses bloom in man’s heart.

Holding gracefully a lotus in his hand,

the bodhisattva brings forth a universe of art.

In the meadows of the sky, stars have sprung up.

The smiling, fresh moon is already up.

The jade-colored trunk of a coconut tree

reaches across the late-night sky.

My mind, traveling in utmost emptiness,

catches suchness on its way home.

1976

by Thich Nhat Hanh (1929 –

…from Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh by Thich Nhat Hanh

Time to Create

Mary Oliver

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

– Mary Oliver

To write to your heart’s content….paint till you drop…play music obsessively…whichever you even have the tiniest spark to do,  just start.  We can surprise ourselves and find out things about ourselves we never realized we could do, just because we started!  – JQ

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves. […]
The world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”

From “Wild Geese”;

Dream Work (1986)

Never give up…

Ichigo Ichie

Nana korobi ya oki (七転び八起き) is a Japanese proverb that means, “seven times down, eight times up.”

nana (七) = 7
korobi (転び) = fall down
ya (八) = 8
oki (起き) = get up

It is a saying about perseverance and not giving up no matter how many times you are knocked down.  I’ve seen this proverb associated with the Japanese Daruma doll, which is a hollow, round Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism.  These dolls are weighted at the bottom in a way that will always return to an upright position when tilted over.

Never Give Up.  May you always get up after a fall.

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Hiroyuki Hamada: Sculptor

Hiroyuki Hamada

I always get excited when I find an artist whose work I want to follow.  Hiroyuki is one of them.  Richard Gailbraith wrote an article: Japan:Creative – Introduction, on CEMENTUM in August 2012, in which he included a statement of Hiroyuki’s work.  I cannot say it better then him, that Hiroyuki’s work “oozed sci-fi whilst retaining an intrinsic ‘Japaneseness’ about it.  It connotes to me Zen gardens and the post apocalypse at the same time.”  Jeff Hamada, from Booooooom,  ‘randomly came across Hiroyuki Hamada’s work, following a link from Newstoday.’  He shares the same name but in terms of immediate family they are completely unrelated. After seeing his amazing work he thought it would be fun to contact Hiroyuki and see if he would allow him to interview him, I mean how could he say no to family?

Waters of Life

Utagawa Kuniyoshi スクナビコナ

“We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion…This, then, is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated philosophy, doctrine or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need. So long as we practice these in our daily lives, then no matter if we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God, or follow some other religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy.”

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama (via samsaranmusing)

Happy New Year 2013!…

Jan

Jean Michel Basquiat

“I start a picture and I finish it. I don’t think about art while I work. I try to think about life.”

– Jean Michel Basquiat

Happy Birthday Mark Rothko!

Happy Birthday Mark Rothko!
September 25, 1903

“I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.”

Bottom: No. 61 (Rust and Blue), 1953, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Source: robertwash