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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Pursuit

of hapiness
ranks with freedom

right to happiness
right to define
happiness

Intersection

is where we meet
where we depart

is where we stop
where we

check the pulse
declare the patient
dead or alive

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Metropolitan seminars in art

Portfolio 4. Abstraction
John Canaday

I didnt know that Picasso excelled at traditional ways of painting too. that Cezanne did abstract painting. Pines and rocks (Fontainebleu)

Monday, August 2, 2010

Pricing

1. regulates addiction

Words

Will we ever be free of them?
I dont will so.

Gloria Naylor, in the essay The Meanings of a word writes about subtle things of how sometimes we mishear words,how we misinterpret and misunderstand them.

The art of seeing

Helen Keller asks, "How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note?" in her essay Three days to see
I wonder how I missed the tower on the end of a corner building. I have even wished to dine on the rooftop of that building. I could bet 100$ that this conical roof wasnt on the building.
Having walked for years, I have still missed glaring details of buildings.
This time I did notice that US Airways center building has brick wall frame around glass on the west side while a building to its south has it reverse on the south face. I mention this to remember the play of material with bricks and glass. I saw a brick building recently and thought it could not be done well in any other thing. That being said, there are some people who get bored of those things and ask architects anything but that. And thats how Frank Gehry gave metal buildings.
When I sketch, I do see more details.
A View from the Bridge

Diversity

In the evening, all of us, kids in the hostel sat in a line by the wall. Sisters, the nuns at the convent school distribute the snacks. We have no idea of what is going to be the catch of the day. This wont last long. The snacks have been collected (forced to give away) from the kids who brought them from home after vacation. This was necessary. There were other kids- Chenchus who probably didnt bring any and many others who brought less. Imagine the cauldron with all sweets and savory snacks from different households.

The corner store



In this short excerpt from an essay by Eudora Welty, few lines that sum up a store's fascination.

"It was up to you to remember what you came for, while your eye traveled from cans of sardines to tin whistles to ice-cream salt to harmonicas to fly-paper(over your head, batting around on a thread beneath the blades of the ceiling fan, stuck with its testimonial catch)."

As a kid, the store that I frequented had a lady who was very tall like a Greek sculpture. Later she had a baby too. Statue of Liberty.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Between ends and beginnings

The carrots in 'Chicken cashew salad' at Cheesecake factory. A big fan of Broccoli. Even I dont understand this. But I wasnt always like this. There was a time when I had to give up on rice. Is that possible? And before that I had to eat all raw vegetables. Siddha Samadhi Yoga. And that wasnt the only change. I had to move for college.
When I joined this program my parentd would have thought that it will do me good. A healthy student can face college better. The ending of the program just about coincided with the beginning of college. Such being the schedule, feeling weak from the lack of comfort food, I was not up to battling the anxiety of coping in a college where there would 424 students who have proved themselves to be better than me.

All in a day



Pittsburgh Steelers ABC: My First Alphabet Book (My First Alphabet Books (Michaelson Entertainment)) 


Last Monday I was upto many things.
Least of which was dropping a car key into the recycle dumpster before a license extension task.
Once there my eyes scanned at 'when driving at 65 miles per hour, to halt it takes a distance longer than a football field'.
This line is from Saturday Evening Post, January/February , 1975 included in Patterns Plus

Saturday, July 31, 2010

A walk by a dried lake

It is a weekend of clouds. A relief in many months. A week ago, the dam burst. I should have expected the loss of water. There is water in some spots just a surface of it. There are small fish, dried and slaked in mud. A bicycle. Many crate skeletons and tires.
When I started the walk, I was torn between two choices - one of taking the routine walk which would bring back the routine of months ago and the other of going east. In the east direction, there has been some development- a mall. Long time ago, I couldnt take that path as there was no path. On the northern side too, new condominiums have come up, the lake and park have been built on that side too. I wasnt sure if the northern and southern side were connected. Between these two banks there is a disconnected bank. So we need two connections. To find out I have to walk ahead. I havent done that in a while. Exploring by walk.
First section SE. There are about 10 turkey vultures in air and on land. One seems to be bothering another. I can see their necks red. When they soar, the white of their wings. I wished to sit on the bank steps, in their line of sight but police cordons prevented it. As I kept walking I saw a great blue heron still with its right foot lifted at an angle and that can only mean one thing, it has found a prey. Sure enough, its bill sticks out of a water with a fish in it. I go as far as the path leads me to a 'no trespassing' sign. I trace the steps back and cross the bridge.
Second section NE. I have never been this side. As I walk ahead, there is a small dog with bark. The owner, dog and I are in a triangle. I freeze to let the distance between them reduce. There are a set of high chairs around a table. I could sit here another time with a book. I pass another bridge. Then come viewing areas of ponds with yellow water lilies and a strict instruction to stay on the path. I almost reach curry road. Time to turn around. kill deers. Sandpipers. Snowy egrets. Doves. Grackles. House Finches.
Once I reach the main bridge, I am in a familiar terrain. While crossing by the marina, I find a small silver fish partly hanging from a railing. In the front part only the eye ring remains like a snail. Its strange that the wind did not lodge it down. I think of Tisdale's essay of ' The sutra of maggits and blowflies' and find a sticky looking secretion by the side which would have been the adhesive. What led the bird leave its food in haste?
Next week I want to head west.
A kid looks at the countdown number of the traffic and says ' Run, we have only 3 min' to his parents.
Yesterday two kids walking on each side of a parent are running with their little feet, hands held, to make the light. A girl and a kid who just fell are jumping that they are close to mojo yogurt and that they can have icecream.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Rain

This year I waited for the rain
for three and a half weeks
The first two weekends there
were clouds with a faint smell of
shower
This weekend there were 3 drops.

Monday 10 drops.
Yesterday earth sent
a phantom wet smell.
Clouds and odors carry the
trust away

I drifted into the daily chores
Loud patter
In the balcony I reach my hands
out into the air
hands dripping, I wonder if
I should go for the drench

Today the medium rain
is a state where
I stay in it for a while
like I would in the sun

Forests

The trees in the canopy determine the trees in the understory and sometimes the trees in the understory can replace the predominant species.

The Life of The Forest.Jack McCormick.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Painting Light with its concept of shadow having a colour.

The green in Gustave Caillebotte's Boats and Shed on the Bank of the Seine reminded of the painting in yupha's Thai kitchen.


Jean Baptiste Camille Corot's Forest of Fontainebleau with the cow, made me wonder if it is possible to draw it as in the shades. Then I moved onto the rock fissure, then the trees. Smaller trees around merge into a huge one.

My new interest in trees has me reading Trees of North America and The Life of the forest

To date, I have identified Sycamore and fig trees from the guide. I felt the need for a guide after spotting a shrub in the South mountains on Holberts trail with its pod that I wanted to know more about.

Sometimes when I leaf through the book, one leaf does look very different from the other, even the pine cones. Just like how the kind of birds increase as we keep paying attention to them.

When I see the picture of a bird in a picture with text identifying an animal, I want to know of the bird too.

Laundry Drying of Gustave Caillebotte looks like smoke from a factory or the top of a factory.

Infrared reflectography shows all the underdrawings on a canvas.

Talk of the building

Conversations with Frank Gehry

I came across Frank Gehry as an architect in a movie on Louis Kahn.

Each building brings with it the chance of using a new material.In this book, looking at models of Weisman Art Museum in brown (may be wood), white and metal, I could see how each material lends a different look to the building. The wooden seeming one recalled adobe houses.

Lewis Library and its Finnish influence?

pg.94 Gehry left models(metal)outside for an entire year to see how different seasons affect the building.

About
Tempe Centre of Arts architecture and more.