kangaroo

Gone before 
I could get my camera,
The kangaroo.

attention!: Little brother is watching

Pinokio from Pinokio on Vimeo.

John Singer Sargent

At the Tate Britain is this lovely Sargent. It would be a beautiful portrait but for the strange treatment of the the right arm on the young woman in the white silk dress. How unfortunate! Here is a detail

His obsession with a kind of anatomical perfection destroys the sense of reality by calling attention to the awkward handling of the poise. It makes her seem spastic. A shame, as the rest of the painting is so beautifully done. He is too fine painter to have allowed this to happen.

sea blue eyes!

Jens Risom's Block Island Retreat by Gary Nadeau for Dwell from gary nadeau on Vimeo.

Van Gogh

In London recently, I visited the Courtauld Institute at Somerset House. Everywhere, one's attention is split into small bits by so many wonderful things. But it was this self-portrait which hung by itself in a large wood-paneled room which so surprised me. I spent a long time with it and I think because it was alone I was able to completely plug into it. Often paintings hanging side by side in rooms can be a distracting affair. This amazing portrait must have been painted just days after Vincent cut off his ear. I know there is another version with a red background, also with a bandage, but its this one which I find mesmerizing. Firstly, I find it so beautifully done with its cool and disjunctive color harmonies prancing around lime yellow. Its a complex painting despite its apparent simplicity at first view. Its so flat, and distinctly drawn from an obsessive love for Japanese portraiture. The prussian blue hat (which also figures in the other portrait) with its almost black fringe acts like a kind of black hole around which everything seems to gravitate. Well,.. for me it is extraordinary, beautiful, and yes; perfect. Its a truthful portrait and one can only imagine what the ordinary, uninspired folk of the 19th century  must have seen: Ugliness! It was Baudelaire who once said that often, new and original works of Art can look ugly on first viewing. How vigilant this forces us to be in our contemporary times.

Ultimately what trapped me in front of it for an hour was its Humanity, the deep rich humility of the person which Vincent so apparently possessed. There isn't a hint of sentimentality anywhere, just a plea perhaps to God, that he might be understood. 

childbirth

The moon
Rising from the sea...
Childbirth!

Kookaburra

A prayer
From the kookaburra-
Dawn.

colors oh oh!

Rough&Laugh kz remix short-version from TYMOTE on Vimeo.

jasmine

New flowers
After haircut-
The jasmine bush

the GREAT Theo Jansen!

Theo Jansen from Salazar on Vimeo.

jacaranda

Jacaranda 
Whose tears in the garden
Make puddles.

gentle

HINODE from niiyama on Vimeo.

swatch

Without telling me
My swatch
Slipped off my wrist

poet

Yes, a great poet,
But does he change his kid's
Diapers?

Happy Thanksgiving!

something different

Motoi Yamamoto - Saltscapes from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo.

Ash

Autumn breeze-
The last leaves on the Ash
Wave goodbye.

in honor of Romney!

Incredible Pumpkin Stop Motion from Auke de Vries on Vimeo.

Seagulls

A tractor leaves behind 

A trail of

Seagulls.

corn

In the mirror
A field of cut corn-
The morning stubble.

bee happy!

Honey Harvest from Kinfolk on Vimeo.

poplar

Lucky Poplar!
Throwing your leaves 
To the wind!

polo bears

Elephant Polo The King’s Cup from stefan heinrichs on Vimeo.

twilight

Twilight field
I see the small blue light
On the tractor. 

bag

Beautiful morning! 

A plastic bag

Perched in a tree.

Autumn

Of myself
A refection,
Autumn morning.

burning man

THE FIRE & THE ASH / BURNING MAN 2012 from Aaron Freeder on Vimeo.

up!

Human-Powered Helicopters: Straight Up Difficult from NPR on Vimeo.

candy

"Thank you!"
Said the small boy to
The candy machine. 

feet

Each morning
My father's feet
Wave to me.

too... too... too!

too ..too .. something!

USAWALTZ from Asami Ike on Vimeo.

fire

Chimney talk
Around first fire
Of Autumn.

route 66

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Edwin H Land!

Book trailer for INSTANT: THE STORY OF POLAROID by Christopher Bonanos from Princeton Architectural Press on Vimeo.

Mr Kite!

Lennon's Poster from Make Productions on Vimeo.

crocus

The crocus huddle
Under the fig tree-
Autumn rain.

ouch!

Things You'd Better Not Mix Up from Jiek Weishut on Vimeo.

smoke

Twilight valley-
The chimney smoke 
Of childhood.

Away

Unlike the cat

The frog jumps 

Away.

policeman

So excited today
I waved at
The policeman!

another day...

Gloam from We Are The Forest on Vimeo.

Poop Art!

A Brief History of John Baldessari from Supermarché: Henry & Rel on Vimeo.

kissing

All morning spent
Kissing dandelions-
The white butterfly.

deer

As surprised as I
The deer
In the field.

too much or too little?

I Miss Drugs-Episode 1-"Almost There" from I MISS DRUGS on Vimeo.

impaled

Impaled
By pine tree,
A new moon.

deconstruction!

Origami Rhino Unfolding from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

oak

Applauding 
The south wind-
Platane leaves.

write

Watching clouds today,
Thinking about a haiku
To write tonight.

Assassin!

Mysteries of Vernacular: Assassin from Myriapod Productions on Vimeo.

Bloody hell.., its war!

Plot-oon from Chris Butcher on Vimeo.

gotta love this guy #8 (graphic designer Jon Contino)

Jon Contino from Kevin Steen on Vimeo.

relief

What a relief
A whole day 
Without internet

cat

From window sill
Its all the same to cat
If leaves twirl or drop.

regret

Autumn regret
Is switching from short pants 
To long.

pantaloon!

Mysteries of Vernacular: Pants from Myriapod Productions on Vimeo.

swingtime!

21 Balançoires (21 Swings) from Daily Tous Les Jours on Vimeo.

breath of fresh air

Samare from Troshinsky on Vimeo.

fog

It takes 
All morning
For the fog to lift.

for camera lovers

hangover

Church bells,
Thank God I don't have 
A hangover.

beard

Winter isn't far
Says my beard
In the mirror.

tale of a tail

LEROUX - Metamorphosis from helene leroux on Vimeo.

sex

I fell in love with sex
A woman said
At the park.

mist

Why be sad
In front of 
Morning mist?

counting up... counting down....

'100' (from 0 to 100 years in 150 seconds) from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

sink

Some days all I can do 
Is save spiders
From kitchen sink.

Mistral

Scattering clouds
The Mistral
Blows its horn.

peaking!

Oil Wars from Alexander Perry on Vimeo.

finger tips

A horse in the field

Comes over to eat 

My finger tips.

leaves

Last dance
For some.
The Autumn leaves.

guests

After the meal
The guests leave
One by one.

Help!

Fugu from Arthur Philippe on Vimeo.

tomato

By moonlight
How lovely 
The tomato plants.

crows

Ride the crows,
Smell the rain, 
Approaching storm.

horse

He peed
Just as I was petting him.
The horse.

Gotta love this gal # 7 (jesus restored to life!)

Botched Restoration of Jesus Fresco Shocks Spain

Naturally, I would love this version 

better than the original! 

(see the article in the New York Times 

about the 80 year old parishioner who 

did the job on her own initiative) 

Arles: #2 Rwanda

Arles, again.

Here an exhibition by South African based photo-journalist Jonathan Torgovnik which chronicles the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, specifically, the Tutsi women who bore children after being raped by Hutu militiamen. These are portraits of women,(with their children), whose bodies were brutalized, often over and over again during those few months of barbary. They are moving portraits which reduced the exhibition space to the sound of whispered murmurs and shuffling shoes. It's a tale of extreme poverty and of survivors who bore and raised children not wished for. Its also about how they are still coming to terms with what happened, and how many of them have learned to love these children eventually.

A text accompanies each photo describing how it happened for each woman. 

Curiously, in America, at this very moment we have politicians who actually use the term 'legitimate rape', whether by accident or slip.