trawling and relaxing...

Today is the first day for going slow in ages... the first day I've not needed to pack, move, sign things, make calls or think about moving.

Its a warmish winters day, sun shining, and I've got the quietest comfy spot to sprawl and read magazines and pop online for a trawl this morning! Biggest decision today is where to go for a walk and where to have coffee if I feel so inclined!

My Homage to the Seed Facebook page has been my online communication channel of late ... figured how to use my iPhone a little better lately and also Instagram. Otherwise its been rather quiet online here. 

Below I've posted a quote from an old journal shared on FB last week ... found when just out of art school all those years ago and wondering how life might unfold. It struck me as terribly poignant... all the more so that Franz Marc was such a young painter when his life ended tragically in WW1. The seed idea.... a poignant and wonderful metaphor one can explore in multiple ways.

I snapped quite a few pages from journals in the week I packed boxes... old favourites, photos and archived papers, journal pages etc. 

Particularly loved this quote from reading Thomas Moore's 'Care of the Soul' in the 90's.

At Huffington Post I found he writes a column. 

Thomas Moore

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Thomas Moore has been a monk, a musician, a professor, a psychotherapist, an author and a lecturer. His book Care of the Soul was a number one bestseller and he's written about 20 books in all. Currently he's working hard trying to bring soul to medicine.

From article: 

Redefining Education: Cultivating the Soul

I took this excerpt below from this article which will give you a taste of his thinking:

"One way is not to treat the material we teach as things. I've used mythology in much of my writing, and frequently a reader will say to me, "I never knew that mythology had anything to do with my life." Most people could say the same about many things they have studied. I didn't know literature had anything to do with me. I didn't know that science had something to say about my life. I didn't know that I could sort out moral issues by reading poems.

The "thingification" of education has cost us an immeasurable loss of values and insight. We build great machines, but we don't know how to use them for human edification. Many have studied the natural world as a collection of things of which we are the absent landlord. We grant Ph.D.s to people without knowing if they're ready to be creative and responsible citizens of the world. As long as they know certain things...

Maybe it's time to restore subjectivity to the subjects we study and to redefine our very idea of education. We could guide people as they learn not only things of value but also how to be."

Well... 

I really liked that line:

Many have studied the natural world as a collection of things of which we are the absent landlord.

I think I am going to have to quote that line elsewhere!
Trawling the internet I found a few images which I've posted here. The first, blue marbles, reminded me of a series of drawings I was doing in 2000 from an old Marble collection. I'd picked out all the blue ones and was focusing on capturing the light and colour. Late that night I could smell something burning but dismissed it as someone reheating the risotto I'd cooked. A bang on my door to say the house was on fire soon got me moving though!

That was the last night I lived there! Blue marbles consequently came to represent something far more profound than one generally associates withe the subject. That fire was, in part, somewhat traumatic... being suddenly dislocated is tough and I feel for those who deal with dislocation around the world whenever all manner of circumstances intervene. The graphic images mean something when one can recall the reality of ending up homeless out of the blue. Not all are as fortunate as I was that night!

But there was a uneasiness for some time to come, the smell of smoke brought concern till I knew where it was coming from... and the weeks following that event I would not wish on anyone. One could say I didn't lose my marbles, literally or metaphorically... that fire became of symbol for me of making a big change that I was ready for and had resisted making... leaving Melbourne and moving back closer to where I had grown up... to where I had family connections and a strong sense of history. I was 42 and somehow it was THE change that I needed to make at that point. 

The fire was like the friend who said... "hey... its time!"

Found at kutukutuhaite : from muffett 68

Blue for me often offers a sense of calm and contemplation. This work by Robert Mangold caught my eye. Such a pared back work yet at the same time quietly but powerfully expressive!

Robert Mangold from here

These tiles with their muliplicity of patterning always speak to me as well. Arabic decorative forms strike me as both very clever and also spell-binding when installed and revealing that sense of endlessness .... the infinite ... a potent spiritual metaphor all cultures have some affinity with.

Islamic Tiles: Via here.

So many interpretations and mediums and cultural variations for these patterns!

from Here

Then I came to this humble city street scene from Paris below. Reminds me of being in Greece where olive tins were always recycled in the gardens, balconies or alleyways for pots. When I moved to Melbourne in 1989 I collected these kinds of tins from the Victoria markets from Greek deli friends I made there and grew my plants in such tins.

Sandra Juto: Finding colour in the city

See more of Sandra Juto's images at Flickr and see some Paris shots from this Swedish designer living in Paris here.

And then I saw this Keith Haring work. From here an unfinished work form Keith Haring in 1989.

When packing recently I found something I'd bought from his pop Shop in New York in 1986 when I spent 10 days there in route to live in London.

Well.. that walk is calling me... so I will say goodbye for now,
Enjoy your days,
S