stinking rose
This sometimes affectionate nickname for garlic probably didn’t refer to its subtle beauty but these images do, don’t you think? Joining onion skin and cabbage leaves, it seems that there may be a series emerging… kitchen art?
by Marja-Leena
by Marja-Leena spring and birthdays
‘Tis the first day of spring and I’m longing for the weather to match! A very cold winter not easing up for spring means this year the garden is unusually late for normally balmy Vancouver. Blame the depressing weather if you like, I’ve been wandering through several years of digital photos. Curiously I then got it into my head to search for images taken on March 20th since year 2000. The equinox as we know is sometimes on the 21st, which is also son-in-law’s birthday. Thus many of the photos were of family get-togethers to celebrate his day, for sometimes we celebrated the day before or the day after. As you can see not every year on March 20th did we take a photo.
2004 – birthday cheesecake made by eldest daughter
2005 – the rainbow that appeared after the birthday party
2006 – that’s me at another birthday feast I prepared
2007 – tulips from my garden. They are a long way off from blooming this year!
Wishing you, dear readers, happy spring (or fall) equinox, may it be a warm and creative one!
And happy birthday, J! I think in a few hours it is the 21st in the UK.
by Marja-Leena from the inside
looking out…
by Marja-Leena crocus, croci
These are now getting flattened by heavy rains, so I’m glad I picked a few of these on Friday to scan.
by Marja-Leena hellebore
Another early harbinger of spring here in Vancouver….
Later, at 1:00 pm – did I say spring? Big fat snowflakes are falling fast, as has the temperature, and we have a snowfall warning! Last weekend all over again, sigh.
by Marja-Leena snowdrops
It is amazing that the snowdrops are still in bloom. They had a late start and are lasting unusually long with this very cold winter and delayed spring. It’s been sunny and very cold this week but it’s now turning towards rainy days ahead, so I went out to pick some flowers. More scans to come of the others…
by Marja-Leena a Wm. Kentridge video
This was sent to me by artist friend Dorothy:
In “Taking a Line for a Walk” (2007) William Kentridge performs what looks like pantomime until, as it repeats, bare bones animation gives his moves meaning.
Delightful! And I see that William Kentridge is showing at SFMOMA March 14th to May 31st of this year. Dorothy says she’s going to San Francisco and will see the exhibition, lucky lady!
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Added March 13th:
(Poet Joe Hyam sent me this astonishing response. I feel this deserves a place up front with Kentridge’s video rather than buried in the comments.)
Some years ago I wrote this poem beneath the Paul Klee quotation:
The original movement, the agent, is a point that sets itself in motion. A line comes into being. It goes for a walk, so to speak, for the sake of the walk.
From the black seed of the first explosion
Grew a line, sinuous, filament-thin,
Walked out through matter, aeon after aeon,
Till it paused to rest at the place we’re in.
Do you want to see what drawing or text
Is described in particles of light? What next?
With straining eyes you crane your neck
To see if anything familiar is left
Amid the spongey darkness of the wreck
Of its ventures all clogged up and cleft.
What will happen to it in the end
Turns into a game of let’s pretend.
You watch the screen and click the mouse
But nothing shows. Is there an actor in the house?
The only change I would make now as I look at it again is the last sentence. “Is there an artist in the house?” might be more appropriate.
I was so pleased to see this video about taking a line for a walk that I felt I had to respond immedately. I had long nurtured and taken pleasure in Klee’s idea, which says so much about a particular attitude to drawing. I wrote the poem when I first encountered the quotation at an exhibition at the Tate Modern, but I can’t remember precisely when.
(Thank you, Joe! If you don’t know Joe Hyam’s work, please get acquainted with his thoughtful and beautiful daily observations at Now’s the Time and the amazing Compasses, Handbook for Explorers, a poetry and photo collaboration with Lucy Kempton.)
by Marja-Leena Women’s Month interviews
this morning
Writer and blogger-friend Kate A. Laity of Wombat’s World is doing an inspiring series of interviews of women:
I’ve decided to use this month — Women’s History Month, of course — to do a simple yet wonderful thing: celebrate the fabulous women I know. I hope this makes us all aware of the web of amazing women we have around us. Women don’t tend to be good about tooting their own horns, but one thing I’ve learned from history is that small efforts by individuals can change the course of the world even when they don’t intend to do so.
Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, Kate posted an interview of me – what an honour to be included amongst so many talented and strong women including Kate herself! Please do read at least some of the other interviews so far, found under the label: ‘women’.
In the interview I mentioned that I could not remember exactly how Kate and I first met, other than our Finnish roots that drew us together. This morning in preparing this post, I looked up in my archives an article about Wombat’s World and Kate’s fabulous trip to a rock art site in Finland. There was the answer… please go read it and visit the link to her photos. Her new book Unikirja, inspired by the Kalevala, Kanteletar, and other Finnish myths and legends, is coming out soon and I want it!
Kiitos paljon, Kate!
by Marja-Leena English Bay: sky
This is the fourth and last of the series of photos that I took about a month ago in English Bay. The feeling of the immense sky overhead struck me powerfully. It made me realize again how closed in we are where we live, surrounded by tall trees and mountains, though still quite expansive to the east. We don’t see the sunrise until it comes over the mountains and the sunset falls behind the hill and trees behind us. Prairie people comment on missing the wide open sky here. I don’t really mind but I do love getting next to the open ocean especially when the sky looks as magical as this. It makes me think of our favourite retreat on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
(By the way, these photos are totally unmodified, merely resized and compressed for the blog. Colours may appear different on different computers, such as even on my husband’s MacBook Pro compared to my iMac. Also, as I mentioned in a comment at ‘reflections’, the scenes appear darker than real life because I was shooting against the sun. Maybe there’s a special term photographers use for this.)
The others in the series:
English Bay: trees
English Bay: beach
English Bay: reflections
by Marja-Leena touring Teotihuacán
Pyramid of the Sun, photo by Tjeerd Wiersma for Wikipedia
It’s been ages since I’ve blogged about anything to do with one of my interests and inspirations, archaeology. Just now I’ve been traveling, virtually that is, through the Teotihuacán in Mexico
.
Archaeologist Richard A. Diehl, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, worked at the massive ruins of Teotihuacán when he was a student at Pennsylvania State University working with William T. Sanders. Recently, he assembled a walking tour of the site, sharing his accumulated knowledge and admiration for the site with us.
It’s like a personal guided tour by an expert using 42 gorgeous photos by several photographers. Plus more links and photos to keep one enraptured for a while. I’ve not had the pleasure, yet, to visit any of the many archaeological sites in Mexico in real life but this gives me a good idea what it might be like, though my poor knees would not manage all those steps!
Thanks to Kris Hurst for this!